Search results for "Language contact"

Language shifts in the language biographies of immigrants from Upper Silesia residing in Germany

2020

Abstract The main objective of the article is to illustrate how language ideologies and language management at the macro-level (state language policy), micro-level (in families) and meso-level (local communities) influence language change and the conceptualization of multilingualism of immigrants from Upper Silesia residing in Germany. Language biographies of persons from Silesia demonstrate the significant influence of historical and political events on sociolinguistic processes. Original fragments of biographical interviews of the people surveyed constitute an integral part of the text.

Children’s beliefs about bilingualism and language use as expressed in child-adult conversations

2017

AbstractThe aim of this article is to describe young children’s beliefs about language and bilingualism as they are expressed in verbal utterances. The data is from Swedish-medium preschool units in three different sites in Finland. It was generated through ethnographic observations and recordings of the author’s interactions with the children. The meaning constructions in the interactions were analyzed mainly by looking closely at the participants’ turn taking and conversational roles. The results show that children’s beliefs of bilingualism are that you should use one language when speaking to one person; that languages are learnt through using them; and that the advantage of knowing more…

Affordances and constraints: Second language learning in cleaning work

2016

This paper examines opportunities for language learning in a cleaning job, which is a typical entry-level job for immigrants. An ethnographic case study approach is taken to investigate examples of the conditions that allow or prevent language learning for the focal participant, a sub-Saharan man who works as a cleaner in Finland. This case illustrates on a micro-scale the impact of the new economy on a worker in a company that has outsourced its cleaning services. Theoretically and methodologically, the study applies van Lier’s (2004) ecological approach to language learning and Scollon and Scollon’s (2004) nexus analysis. The analysis of interaction order shows that within outsourced clea…

Baltu filoloģija, 6

1996

Case and Contact Linguistics

2012

Abstract Language contact affects case categories in various ways. This article examines the effects of contacts between linguistic codes (languages, unrelated or related, or language varieties): changes in one code on the model of another. It deals with inflectional case markers, affixes, and adpositions from which they evolve. Though most adpositions express more specific relations, some are relatively desemanticised. Affixes and case-like adpositions may fulfil similar functions; the close correspondences between Dravidian case suffixes and Indic postpositions. Case markers and case functions are acquired through what is called ‘borrowing’, ‘diffusion’, ‘transfer’, ‘interference’, ‘repli…

Česko-polské jazykové vztahy z historického hlediska

2011

Friend or foe? : attitudes to and beliefs about English in Finland expressed by Finnish as a second language learners

2011

Tutkin pro gradu -työssäni S2-oppijoiden käsityksiä englannin kielen käytöstä ja asemasta Suomessa. Aiemmat tutkimukset englannin kielen käytöstä ja asemasta Suomessa ovat keskittyneet suomalaisten äidinkielenpuhujien käsityksiin. Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää minkälaisia käsityksiä S2-oppijoilla on englannin käytöstä ja asemasta Suomessa sekä heidän omassa elämässään että yleisemmällä tasolla. Lisäksi tutkin S2-oppijoiden asenteita englannin kieltä kohtaan. Tutkimus pyrkii samalla nostamaan esiin S2-oppijoiden käsityksiä englannin kielen mahdollisesta vaikutuksesta suomen kieleen sekä S2-oppimiseen ja -opettamiseen. Tutkimuksen aineisto kostuu sekä kirjallisesta että suullise…

Frisian as an Endangered Language: An Overview

2019

The main goal of the paper is to answer the questions whether Frisian can be referred to as an endangered language and if it managed to survive the constant influence of the surrounding larger cultures and languages. The first point to be analyzed is the geographic distribution of Frisian. The second issue to be considered is the historical and present cultural and social status of the Frisian language. The third matter to be analysed is the lexical variety of Frisian language and its complexity, which made its survival possible. The article takes the diachronic perspective and expounds upon all the mentioned factors and their role in the preservation of Frisian until today. The paper prese…

Grammatical changes caused by contact between Livonian and Latvian

2014

The article provides insight into the process of various grammatical changes in Livonian and Latvian that have taken place as a result of prolonged contact between the languages. Livonian is strongly influenced by Latvian at different levels due to the close contact between the speakers of two languages; it is necessary to note that speakers of Livonian were bilinguals for a long time. It is clear that Livonian has affected Latvian in a similar way. The process of mutual borrowings can be observed most clearly in the vocabulary, especially in dialects; however, there are changes that have occurred in the phonetics and grammar as well. Different changes can be found as a result of mutual inf…

Northeastern Neo-Aramaic and Language Contact

2020

The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects form one of the surviving branches of the Aramaic language family. Extremely diverse, they are or were spoken by Christian and Jewish minorities originating in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. They have been in intense contact with other languages of the region, most notably Kurdish, but also Arabic, Turkic languages and Persian. As a result, they show a great deal of contact influence, not only in lexicon and phonology but also in morphology and syntax. The precise forms of the borrowings, as well as their behavior, usually reflect the local dialects of the donor language, showing how important fine-grained dialectal data is in a study of language contac…