Diglossia and too many letters

[KE Hoffman]

Alex,
Re. written Koryak and reindeer herders' familiarity with the "shapes" of
Russian words and complaints about excess / paucity of "letters": another
aspect of this topic we're discussing is speakers' expectations of which
sounds get graphically represented and which sounds are implied.  This
relates, I think, to the issue of diacritical marks and vowels more
generally in languages such as Arabic (and other lang varieties using the
Arabic script): those who standardize orthography have certain expectations
about whether all sounds must be represented in graphic form or only
certain sounds / "letters."  How are people socialized into these
particular orientations to print?  Since it is often intellectuals
spearheading codification efforts, can we hypothesize these orientations to
text are due to schooling in Western languages, or some other influence?
This is another angle of our thread we might probe.

Katherine Hoffman
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
UCLA



I had many people tell me that they "can't read" official Koryak.
>"There are too many letters" or "there are letters missing" were statements
>I heard a lot. Official Koryak is also rejected as "not my language."
>
>Complaints about written Koryak seem to be similar to other examples posted
>on this list of people expending a lot of effort decoding the written form.
>Koryaks  are used to the shapes of Russian words.
>
>Official Koryak supposedly covers a population of 7000-7500 speakers, but
>the largest speech community of one dialect is probably no more than 1000
>people. Koryak is a dying language and education attempts to teach it
>children aren't working because the version taught in schools is not
>similar enough to what local grandparents speak. Most importantly, Koryak
>is not the primary language used at home among people under 30.
>
>All Koryaks under 60 are fluent in Russian. Younger people are native
>speakers of Russian. All Koryak speakers use Russian for writing (notes,
>letters, documents), even if they are more fluent in Koryak. Here we seem
>to have a situation opposite that of Tamil. The official version of Koryak
>is rejected or devalued as "artificial" or "foreign." People are not
>willing to use multiple registers, say official Koryak for reading or
>writing or radio, and local ways of speaking Koryak for daily
>communication. Some Koryaks lament the switch of children from learning
>Koryak to learning Russian, while many see Koryak as a disadvantage in
>contemporary life and want their children to learn English as a second
>language for better job and education opportunities.
>
>
>Alex King
>University of Virginia
>
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>         Koryak Language and Culture
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