LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 01.MAR.2000 (14) [E]

Wed Mar 1 20:58:55 UTC 2000

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 01.MAR.2000 (14) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Ian James Parsley" <parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 01.MAR.2000 (08) [E]

That very interesting submission about Gibraltarian reminds me of a
similar
example (also of Spanish and English) in Crystal's _Encyclopedia of
Language_ (I have the first edition, 1987). On that occasion two women
were
heard in Los Angeles, and they tended to use Spanish when they were
ashamed
of something, and use English otherwise. I had a similar experience in
Austria where a grandmother returning to her native Austria on holiday
but
having been resident in England for 40 years used English for
statements of
opinion but German otherwise (e.g. "I think it's very cold aber wir
fahren
jetzt nach Hause"). This is not uncommon by any means.

The official language of Gibraltar is English, which is used in
government,
business and on signs in shops and by the road. However, I very seldom
heard
anything other than Spanish on my three visits in 1998, and the only TV
widely available is Spanish (though English is common on Forces Radio).
Locals speak to each other, generally, in Spanish, and waiters greeted
customers in Spanish more often than in English. In fact my first
experience
of Gibraltar was in a petrol station just over the border, when I spoke
to
the retailer in English and received a broken apology that she didn't
speak
English! I certainly never heard such language-mixing as indicated in
those
texts, but that is not to say it doesn't happen (the texts are, of
course,
made up, which may or may not explain why I could not draw any
conclusions
as to why the characters switch languages like the ones I mentioned
above).

I certainly had no trouble understanding the type of Spanish spoken
(well,
certainly no more than I have generally!), which sounds Andalucian
(i.e.
southern Spanish) to most ears (including most Spaniards' - this would
be
represented by such forms as "cuidao" rather than "cuidado" in the
text).
But apparently Gibraltarians and Andalucians themselves can detect a
slight
difference. This shouldn't be surprising. The land border was only
opened to
cars as recently as 1985 (having been closed for the best part of a
generation), the only way out of the colony being by air to London or
by
boat to Morocco. Furthermore, Gibraltarians are a big racial mix
(particularly Genoan and Portuguese, but there is a lot of Jewish,
Dutch,
other Mediterranean and of course British influence). It is perhaps
surprising, therefore, that they speak Spanish at all! Certainly the
Spanish
of Madrid (i.e. "High Castilian") would not have any real influence, as
Spanish is rarely taught in schools (the language is usually English)
and
even if it is, the accent of Madrid would certainly NOT be promoted! I
would
think there is probably a similarity to the situation in Luxembourg
here.

I wonder if other Lowlanders can detect similarities in their
language-mixing, and there is a case here for looking at mixing two
major
languages vs. mixing a major language and a minority language? Also, I
am
reminded early in the text where "ya no quedaban" is used in preference
to
the perhaps slightly more awkward "there weren't any of them left" of a
case
of a half-Spanish half-English baby who, when shown a picture in
school,
would name it depending on which language had the shorter word. Is this
usual (I would imagine it is)? Does it also happen with minority
language
vs. major language?

Best,
-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Language varieties

Dear Lowlanders,

This kind of mid-conversation and even mid-sentence code switching tends to be
more prevalent the more proficient the speakers are in both (or more)
languages, where this proficiency among all participants is known or assumed.
Personally, I have found what to me are extreme cases of code switching
especially among speakers of (Asian) Indian languages and of Viscayan, Tagalog
and other languages of the Philippines.  English is one of the official
languages in both countries.  In the case of India it also serves as a lingua
franca between speakers of various Indian languages.  In both countries,
proficiency of English as a second language tends to be advanced and is taken
for granted among well-educated people.  I hear constant switching between
English and Tagalog (Pilipino) virtually every day.  It even extends to
officially Tagalog-language TV programs.  It is also quite noticeable among
Hispanics of the US, especially among those who are quite fluent in both
Spanish and English.  This type of switching is also common in Hispanic poetry
of the US, many poems being textbook cases of maccaronic poetry, where this
type of switching tends to be used to accentuate cultural clashes or
conflicts.

You will also frequently encounter this type of code switching between Low
Saxon (Low German) and German in Northern Germany.  You might start off in Low
Saxon and then switch to German to say something about, say, technical or
bureaucratic matters.  This might lead you to continuing in German for a
while, but a change of topic or a more "relaxed" turn in the conversation
might lead you back to Low Saxon.  I would expect similar situations in cases
such as Afrikaans <> English, Low Saxon <> Dutch, Frisian <> Dutch, and Dutch
<> French, perhaps also Scots <> English, in our Lowlandic subject area.  I
have been known to slip into this type of Low Saxon <> German and German <>
English code switching myself (and I refer to it as "loose switch").  I have
noticed that it is very common in virtually all immigrants' groups where
everyone knows both the ancestral and new language.  Few people seem to be
able to stick to one language.

However, I think we are talking only about code switching here, not
necessarily about the creation of contact languages.

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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