27.3404, Review: Historical Ling; Socioling: Jones (2015)

Fri Aug 26 17:24:12 UTC 2016

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-3404. Fri Aug 26 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.3404, Review: Historical Ling; Socioling: Jones (2015)

Moderators: linguist at linguistlist.org (Damir Cavar, Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Anthony Aristar, Helen Aristar-Dry,
                                   Robert Coté, Michael Czerniakowski)
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
                       Fund Drive 2016
                   25 years of LINGUIST List!
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Michael Czerniakowski <mike at linguistlist.org>
================================================================

Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2016 13:23:57
From: Heinrich Ramisch [heinrich.ramisch at uni-bamberg.de]
Subject: Variation and Change in Mainland and Insular Norman

Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36194697

Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-374.html

AUTHOR: Mari C. Jones
TITLE: Variation and Change in Mainland and Insular Norman
SUBTITLE: A Study of Superstrate Influence
SERIES TITLE: Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory
PUBLISHER: Brill
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Heinrich Ramisch, Otto-Friedrich Universität Bamberg

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

_Variation and Change in Mainland and Insular Norman. A Study of Superstrate
Influence_ by Mari C. Jones presents a linguistic analysis of varieties of
Norman French as they are used in two markedly different sociolinguistic
environments. On the one hand, there are the varieties of Norman French on the
mainland (Normandy, France) that have co-existed with Standard French for a
long time; and on the other hand, there are the varieties of Norman French in
the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey and Sark), where English has become the
dominant language over the last 200 years and functions as the standard
language. As a result, Norman French has come into contact with two
typologically different superstrate languages – one of them Romance (French)
and the other Germanic (English). Such a special sociolinguistic background
lends itself to a comparative study of 'dialect contact' (in Normandy) vs.
'language contact' (in the Channel Islands).

SUMMARY

In Chapter 1 of the book (pp. 1-15) the reader is first introduced to the two
types of Norman territory, and the author discusses major theoretical and
methodological aspects of the study. Its primary objective is clearly
formulated as ''to examine the way in which contact with its two typologically
different superstrates has influenced the development of Norman within its
mainland and insular territories'' (p. 7). The data for the study is based on
94 face-to-face interviews with native speakers of Norman French. On the
mainland, 37 speakers from two different areas were interviewed, namely from
the canton of Bricquebec in the Cotentin peninsula (Lower Normandy) and the
canton of Yvetot in the Pays de Caux (Upper Normandy). In the Channel Islands,
29 informants were interviewed in Guernsey, 21 in Jersey and 7 in Sark. Three
types of questionnaire (one sociolinguistic, one phonological and one lexical)
were used to elicit the data. Subsequently, the data were fully transcribed
using the IPA system and compared to the ALF data (Gilléron and Edmont,
1902-1910) and the ALEN (Brasseur, 1980-2010).

To understand the present-day sociolinguistic situation of Norman French in
the Norman mainland and the Channel Islands, it is mandatory to include a
historical perspective. Accordingly, Chapter 2 (pp. 16-33) gives a detailed
account of the history of Normandy over the last 1200 years, starting with the
Viking invasions during the 9th century and the far-reaching consequences of
the Battle of Hastings in 1066, after which Duke William II of Normandy
(William the Conqueror) ascended to the English throne, thus first uniting the
Duchy of Normandy and England under one ruler. Another key date for Normandy
and Norman French is the year 1204 when King John (Lackland) lost the Norman
mainland to King Philippe II of France. The Channel Islands, however, were not
conquered by the French, but remained under English influence and the English
monarch continued to reign in the islands in his/her function as Duke of
Normandy. This political division of the Duchy of Normandy has existed ever
since. The Norman mainland became allied to France (except for a short period
between 1417 and 1450 during the Hundred Years' War), whereas the Channel
Islands remained allied to England and the English Crown, which granted them
certain privileges for their loyalty and recognized their special political
status.

Chapter 3 (pp. 34-64) takes a closer look at the linguistic features of Norman
French and discusses the geolinguistic relationship between its different
varieties. It equally gives a survey of the most prominent differences between
Norman and Standard French. Moreover, it describes the internal regional
variation of Norman French both in Mainland Normandy and in the islands.
Chapter 4 (pp. 65-82) examines the current sociolinguistic situation of Norman
French in both areas on the basis of various statistics and by discussing the
factors that have an influence on language use. The overall prospect is more
than bleak. Norman French has been in decline for quite some time, but its
current position is such that it is rather unlikely that it will survive as a
living language. All native speakers of Norman French nowadays belong to the
older generation.

The next four chapters of the study treat linguistic features from different
levels of the language system in order to analyse and to compare the effects
of the superstrate languages on Mainland and Insular Norman French. Chapter 5
(pp. 83-99) looks at phonetic and phonological aspects. In particular, it
examines the use of five phonological variables that were described by the
French dialectologist Charles Joret (1883) as the most defining
characteristics of Norman French at the end of the 19th century. The results
indicate that in spite of the general decline of Norman French all the five
variables are still present in the mainland and insular varieties. At the same
time, one can observe various features of divergence. In the mainland
varieties, the traditional Norman apical trill [r] is frequently replaced by a
uvular fricative [ʁ] under the influence of Standard French. Conversely, [t]
and [d], which are traditionally dental and unaspirated sounds in insular
varieties may be realised as alveolar and aspirated, following the English
sound pattern. Moreover, there is divergence in the sphere of liaison,
analysed in Chapter 6 (pp. 100-116). Here again, it becomes evident that the
mainland varieties are much closer to Standard French usage, for example that
a higher degree of formality favours a higher rate of (optional) liaison.

Morphosyntactic variables form the subject-matter of Chapter 7 (pp. 117-142).
There is substantial evidence that certain morphosyntactic aspects of Standard
French have become integrated into the structure of the mainland varieties
because of their general typological similarity to French. Morphosyntactic
features in the insular varieties may also disappear when there is no parallel
structure in English. Yet, the overall typological distance with English makes
it harder for features to be transferred into the Norman French system. As a
direct influence from Standard French is absent, certain structural features
are indeed better protected and it appears that the whole morphosyntactic
system is structurally more intact. As far as the lexicon is concerned,
contact phenomena frequently occur in both the mainland and the insular
varieties (cf. Chapter 8, pp. 143-165). They may take the form of direct
borrowings, calques or loan shifts. Evidently, there is a high level of
divergence on the lexical level as the donor language in Mainland Normandy is
Standard French, whereas it is English in the Channel Islands.

Chapter 9 (pp. 166-193) is an additional chapter considering the influence of
Norman French on the two superstrate languages. In a first section, the
influence of the traditional Mainland Norman French on the regional French of
Normandy is examined, whereas a second section discusses the influence of
Insular Norman French on Channel Island English.

EVALUATION

This monograph deserves special praise on many accounts. First of all, it is
written in a clear, convincing way and presents a wealth of information on
Norman French both in Mainland Normandy and the Channel Islands. The book
amply illustrates that the author is truly familiar with the sociolinguistic
situation in both areas and carried out the fieldwork in an expert fashion.
Indeed, it establishes her as the leading authority on Norman French. At the
same time, the study can be recommended as a model for students and future
linguists who intend to study language variation from a
dialectological/sociolinguistic point of view. Last but not least, it makes an
outstanding contribution to contact linguistics by comparing a case of
'dialect contact' and 'language contact' in a unique way and clearly succeeds
in expanding our general knowledge of language variation and change.

References:

Brasseur, Patrice. 1980-2010. Atlas linguistique et ethnographique normand.
Paris: CNRS (4 volumes). [ALEN]

Gilléron, Jules and Edmond Edmont. 1902-1910. Atlas linguistique de la France.
Paris: Honoré Champion (35 volumes). [ALF]

Joret, Charles. 1883. Des caractères et de l'extension du patois normand.
Paris: Vieweg.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Heinrich Ramisch is a senior lecturer in English Linguistics at the University
of Bamberg (Germany). His doctoral dissertation was concerned with the
variation of English in Guernsey/Channel Islands and he has kept a keen
interest in the language contact between English and Norman French ever since.
His main areas of research include: geolinguistic studies of British English,
linguistic variation and change, Early Modern English, contact linguistics and
contrastive linguistics.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
                       Fund Drive 2016
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
            http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

        Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST!

----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-27-3404	
----------------------------------------------------------
Visit LL's Multitree project for over 1000 trees dynamically generated
from scholarly hypotheses about language relationships:
          http://multitree.org/