LL-L "Language varieties" 2011.06.20 (01) [EN]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 19 June 2011 - Volume 04
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From: Isaac M. Davis isaacmacdonalddavis at gmail.com
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2011.06.19 (04) [EN]

Ron Hahn wrote:

> The pattern seems to be this: a community of speakers of Language X
> endeavors to adopt more prestigious, imported Language Y, a language that is
> fairly closely related to Language X. In what in many cases is a
> transitional period, Language Y used by such a community is based on some,
> if not all, foundations of ancestral Language X. The result is what in
> popular opinion is regarded as being a low-prestige language hybrid,
> considered inferior with regard to both the original language of the land
> and the encroaching (power) language.
>
...
>

>
Are there any other Lowlands equivalents? Is Scottish English or a precursor
> of it an equivalent (between Scots and English)?
>

Would Shetlandic or Orcadian (Insular Scots) count? They're both Scots over
a Scandinavian (Norn) substrate, and are quite fascinating in the ways they
resemble other dialects of Scots while retaining a lot of L2 interference
from Norn (which is now extinct).

Isaac M. Davis

-- 

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master."
—Abraham Lincoln

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From: Mike Morgan mwmbombay at gmail.com
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2011.06.19 (04) [EN]
 R/R writes:
> The pattern seems to be this: a community of speakers of Language X
> endeavors to adopt more prestigious, imported Language Y, a language that
is
> fairly closely related to Language X. In what in many cases is a
> transitional period, Language Y used by such a community is based on some,
> if not all, foundations of ancestral Language X. The result is what in
> popular opinion is regarded as being a low-prestige language hybrid,
> considered inferior with regard to both the original language of the land
> and the encroaching (power) language.
>
> I would love to become acquainted with other equivalent cases.


Although it does match your description in every detail, Bangalore
Sign Language is probably such an instance.

Deaf Indians from north (Mumbai/Bombay and Dilli/Delhi at least
anyway) often say that Bangalorean Deaf sign ASL (American SIgn
Language)... and many Bangalorean Deaf also describe what they saign
in exactly that way.

In fact though (and I use the word "fact" loosely, as there has been
no research that I know of on this topic, and so it is based on my own
and others' shared observations and judgements) Bangalore Sign
Language is rather clearly an Indian Sign Language variety which has
replaced a significant portion of its vocabulary with ASL vocabulary,
replaced the "standard" two-handed fingerspellign system with the ASL
one-handed fingerspelling. As for grammar, little research has been
done, but there is an indication even in grammar that there has been
soem borrowing (wwith regard to position of clausal negation).

The adoption of ASL (vocabulary at least) was probably motivated as
much by circumstance as by prestige. The south (and also
Calcutta/Kolkata) had much more missionary influence in the Deaf
education systems, and one hearign missionary in Bangalore was famous
for his (ASL) signing).

Bangalorean Deaf are "proud" of their sign language, not overly
interested in tradign it for a standard(ized) Indian Sign Language.
OTHER Indians however regard it less generously, as if accepting a
foreign sign language (or even vocabulary) were treason (odd, since
the standard ISL has scores or hundreds of sign borrowed from all
over, including ASL, and the two-handed fingerspelling system was
borrowed from Great Britain). SO the non-Bangalorean view of Bangalore
Sign Langauge would more or less match R/R's description with regard
to low-prestige/inferiority....

Of course, though American SIgn Language and Indian Sign Language are
NOT closely related in the language family sense, but as sign
languages they are related by visual modality.... which seems to
dictate certain structural aspects of sign languages.

mwm || U C > || mike || мика  || माईक || マイク || மாய்க் (aka Dr Michael W
Morgan)

Senior Consultant
BA in Applied Sign Language Studies (BAASLS)
इन्दिरा गांधी राष्ट्रीय मुक्त विश्वविद्यालय | Indira Gandhi National Open
University, New Delhi, India

"Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we
excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered
dreams of others. ... [T]here is another kind of violence, slower but just
as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the
violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay." (Bobby
Kennedy, 5 April 1968)

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