Societal Multilingualism and Causes of Bilingualism

Causes of Societal Multilingualism

• Unknown reasons contribute to societal multilingualism
• Territorial expansion leads to multilingualism
• Group movements into previously uninhabited areas result in multilingualism
• Group movements of one group into another's territory cause multilingualism
• (Trans)migration is a cause of multilingualism
• Immigration of small groups who join the existing population leads to multilingualism
• Indentureship and slavery contribute to multilingualism
• Trade and foreign language learning also lead to multilingualism
• Media may also play a role in societal multilingualism

Three Concentric Circles of Englishes

• Lingua franca: a language used for communication between individuals with different first languages
• Examples of lingua franca use: Tamil and Hindi interacting in English in India, Japanese and Germans interacting in English

Immigrations to the British Isles

• Pre-Celtic tribes migrated to the British Isles
• Celtic tribes arrived around 300 BCE
• Roman invasion occurred in 43 CE
• Romans withdrew from Britain in 410 CE
• Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded Britain in 449 CE, leading to the development of Old English
• Viking invasions began in 787 CE, leading to the establishment of Danelaw in northern and eastern England
• Norman invasion occurred in 1066 CE, leading to a French-speaking court

Immigrations of Small Groups

• Small groups typically join the pre-existing population rather than conquer them or take over their territory
• Examples of small group immigrations: Latin American and Asian immigrants to the US, Commonwealth immigrants to the UK, Italian, Greek, and Turkish immigrants to Germany, refugees

Factors Supporting Stability

• Number of speakers supports language stability
• Institutional support contributes to language stability
• Language as a symbol of ethnicity and language loyalty also support stability
• Examples of stable situations: systematic exogamy (marriage in different communities), long-term trade relations

Instable Situations

• Invasion, conquest, and transmigration lead to unstable language situations

Lingua Franca Contexts

• Status of a lingua franca depends on political and economic factors (e.g. Spanish in the Philippines)

Consequences of Language Contact

• Casual contact: few bilinguals, borrowing of content words (mainly nouns)
• Slightly more intense contact: a significant minority group of speakers is fluent, borrowing of function words and phonological borrowing of sounds in loanwords
• More intense contact: more bilinguals, attitudes and social factors favor borrowing, borrowing of basic vocabulary and word order patterns
• Intense contact: very extensive bilingualism, social factors strongly favor borrowing, heavy lexical borrowing and structural borrowing at all levels