LL-L "Code switching" 2005.02.16 (09) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Holger Weigelt <platt at holger-weigelt.de>
Subject: "Code switching"

> From: R. F. Hahn <lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net>
> Subject: Code switching
>
> Dear Lowlanders,
>
> I've been listening to various field research interview recordings whose
> purpose is to gather data from moribund languages.
... but I hope that my observations are
> relevant to such activities involving Lowlands varieties as well.
>
> It appears that the greatest interference in interviews of this type is
that
> of the interviewee wanting to accommodate the interviewer, especially
where
> the two share another language. I can see this as leading to distortions
and
> to deficient data sets.
...
> Persistent native speaker adjustment to outsiders can apparently even
result
> in the loss of lexicon among the native speakers' language variety itself.
> For instance, when I use Low Saxon words like _kars(beer)_ 'cherry' and
> _peyrsch_ (<Peersch>) 'peach', speakers of the Lower Elbe dialects of
Olland
> (Altes Land) and Veerlannen (Vierlanden) don't understand; they—being in
or
> from fruit-growing areas selling their produce to Hamburg—have adopted the
> German terms _Kirsche_ and _Pfirsich_ instead and apparently are no longer
> aware that those are loanwords (although the _Pf-_ ought to sent up a red
> flag).
>
> Code switching is a problem in interviewing.
...
> I wonder what others think about this.
>
> Regards,
> Reinhard/Ron

Hello, Ron !

There are some more problems appearing in the same line.
Often You'll find an adjustment of native speakers to assumed outsiders
which leads to confusion. I myself experienced situations in which it wasn't
realized that I was talking EF-Low Saxon to somebody and was constantly
answered in German. Obviously despite hearing and understanding his own
language the person I was talking to couldn't imagine me to be able to talk
this because of my age and possibly non-East Frisian looking.
This of course is an extreme situation but very often I experience that
people try to adjust their Low Saxon towards German when talking to me being
astonished when I "correct" them by using genuine words or phrases.
An other problem which weights much more for the whole language is the
permanent adjustment to German as the language of administration, school and
media which leads to lost of genuine vocabulary and grammatical structures
which become replaced by loans more and more.
This of course is due to the common and increasing need of native LS
speakers to adjust to German speakers and their permanent contact to German
which results in a self-intensifying decline of speaking competence for LS.
Greeting
Holger

----------

From:  R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Code switching

Hi, Holger!

Thanks for that.  I have experienced the same thing myself, and I keep
experiencing it, probably will do so in the future, usually based on
preconceived ideas and prejudices. ("From Hamburg and living overseas? What
would *he* know?")  When you are a true outsider, a foreigner, it can be
harder still, because many people simply cannot imagine that you could
possibly understand and appreciate.

It was one of the situations that I had meant to beware of in collecting
language recordings (especially of moribund varieties).  It is one of the
reasons why I feel an interviewer should avoid code switching, because code
switching is likely to not only cause the interviewee to switch code also,
but it also acts as a reminder or as supposed evidence that the interviewer
is linguistically deficient and must be accommodated.  In other words, it
takes the interview off track.  As you said, accommodating usually means
"scaling down" or "dumbing down," thus resulting in a language sample that
is not natural, not representative.  An interviewer ought to say as little
as possible, ought to allow the interviewee to ramble on, get lost in a
monologue.

Apparently that is hard to do in some cultures, as in Japanese, were the
listener is required to give constant feedback, signs of "Yes, I'm still
listening" (そうそう _Sou sou_,  はい _Hai_,  ええ、そうですね？ _Ee, sou desu ne?_,
わか゠ました _Wakarimashita_, etc.)  Some visiting Japanese people I deal with
here want to do this in English also, but they know those words are
inappropriate and cannot be translated, so oftentimes they just make
grunting sounds instead.  I heard bits of it in the Ainu interviews,
although the researcher seemed to do pretty well on the whole.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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