BILINGUALISM%20AND%20DIGLOSSIA%20IN%20SPAIN

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BILINGUALISM AND DIGLOSSIA IN SPAIN
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Defining Individual Bilingualism

• What is bilingualism?
• Definitions
• Weinreich (1968) The practise of alternately
  using two languages will be called bilingualism,
  and the person involved, bilingual.
• Diebold (1964) Incipient bilingualism
• Bloomfield (1933) In the cases where this
  perfect foreign-language learning is not
  accompanied by loss of the native language, it
  results in bilingualism, native like control of
  two languages.
• Mackey (1970) It seems obvious that if we are to
  study the phenomenon of bilingualism we are
  forced to consider it as something entirely
  relativeWe shall therefore consider bilingualism
  as the alternate use of two or more languages by
  the same individual.
• Factors to take into account (Mackey)
• Degree, function, alternation, interference.

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Examples

• 1. A 2yo who is beginning to talk, speaking
  English to one parent and Welsh to the other.
• 2. A Danish immigrant in New Zealand who has not
  had contact with Danish for the last 40 years.
• 3. A schoolchild from an Italian immigrant family
  in the USA who increasingly uses English both at
  home and outside but whose older relatives
  address him in Italian only.
• 4. A young graduate who has been studying French
  for eleven years.
• 5. A personal interpreter of an important public
  figure.
• 6. The Turkish wife of a Turkish immigrant in
  Germany who can converse orally in German but
  cannot read or write it.
• 7. A Japanese airline pilot who uses English for
  most of his professional communication.
• 8. A fervent Catalanist who uses Catalan at home
  and work, but is exposed to Spanish in the media
  etc and is fully conversant in both.
• Bilingualism as a CONTINUUM

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Describing Individual Bilingualism

• AGE
• Early bilingualism, late bilingualism
• CONTEXT
• Natural/ascribed bilingualism, achieved/secondary
  bilingualism
• RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIGN AND MEANING
• Coordinated bilingualism, subordinate
  bilingualism, compound bilingualism
• ORDER AND CONSEQUENCE
• Incipient and ascendant bilingualism, recessive
  bilingualism
• COMPETENCE
• Maximalist/minimalist views, semilingualism
• USE/FUNCTION
• ATTITUDE
• Consciousness of Bilingualism

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Societal Multilingualism

• Historical Factors
• Military conquest, occupation, annexation
• Political marriages and succession arrangements
• Colonisation
• Migrations and immigration
• Federation
• Contemporary Factors
• Neo-colonialism
• Present-day Immigration
• Language Promotion
• Internationalisation

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Societal Bilingualism Cont.

• Horizontal Bilingualism
• Territorial monolingualism
• Territorial bilingualism
• Instability

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Diglossia Charles Ferguson

• Diglossia basic definition
• Use of two languages/varieties of a language in
  one speech community but in different situations.

Charles A. Ferguson (Word, 1959) created
English word diglossia from French diglossie
(no English word before this to separate
diglossia from standard bilingualism)

• FERGUSONS CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF DIGLOSSIA
• FUNCTION
• Which language is used when
• High language (H) e.g. Church sermon,
  political speech, news broadcast
• Low language (L) e.g. conversations amongst
  family/friends, cartoon strip
• Mixing up the uses ? speaker becomes object of
  ridicule.
• PRESTIGE
• H seen as superior (more beautiful logical)
  maybe as religious texts were written in it
• Can lead to snobbery. Contemporary writers use
  words of old H to sound intellectual

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• Acquisition
• L taught at home mother tongue
• H is taught in formal education superposed
• ? children can speak L better than H and write H
  better than L!
• Before standardisation at least, H has
  dictionaries, vocabulary guides and a set
  grammar L has no unified grammar and may have
  lots of varieties within it
• Grammar vocabulary range of H, even after
  standardisation more complex
• Stability of Diglossia
• With illiteracy in society, diglossia can live
  for centuries / forever
• Widespread literacy can lead to unification of
  the 2 languages ? problem - which one to choose
  as base?

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• DIGLOSSIA
• a relatively stable language situation in
  which, in addition to the primary dialects of the
  language (which may include a standard or
  regional standards), there is a very divergent,
  highly codified (often grammatically more
  complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a
  large and respected body of written literature,
  either of an earlier period or in another speech
  community, which is learned largely by formal
  education and is used for most written and formal
  spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of
  the community for ordinary conversation
• Charles A. Ferguson

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Other Theorists views / Types of Diglossia

• Fergusons ideas mainly still stand some outdated
  and have been expanded
• Joshua Fishman
• biglossia diglossia involving two completely
  separate languages
• digraphia H is for written use, L is for
  conversational use
• Pauwels
• interlingual diglossia - 2 different languages
• intralingual diglossia - both derived from same
  language
• diglossia as a continuum ranging from rigid
  diglossia (clearly defined codes/situations for
  use) to fluid diglossia (lots of overlapping of
  use)
• Fasold
• Double-nested diglossia two Hs, one L (lower
  H acts as H and L)
• Polyglossia more than 2 languages
• (Code-switching 2 languages used in one
  situation/sentence)

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Language Choice and Domains

• (Ferguson would argue this is societal
  bilingualism and not diglossia)
• LANGUAGE CHOICE
• GROUP age, religion, sex
• SITUATION formality-informality, status
  equality-inequality
• ROLE RELATIONS e.g. mother-daughter (both as
  speaker listener)
• TOPIC can overrule the 3 factors above
• DOMAINS
• e.g. family, playground and street, school,
  church, military (Schmidt-Rohr)
• LANGUAGE SHIFT
• can occur with socio-political changes over time

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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BILINGUALISM
DIGLOSSIA(Joshua Fishman)

• BILINGUALISM AND DIGLOSSIA
• occurs when definite roles (of prestige) are
  established in a society
• everyone understands both (generally)
• DIGLOSSIA WITHOUT BILINGUALISM
• in past or in less developed countries with
  great social divide
• each group doesnt fully understand the other
  but have no need to
• BILINGUALISM WITHOUT DIGLOSSIA
• in societies with social unrest or change (e.g.
  immigrant influx in Western society during
  industrialization era)
• taught native language for work this used at
  home and their native language bought to work
• ? pidgin versions of both languages
  inevitable language shift
• NEITHER BILINGUALISM NOR DIGLOSSIA
• in small, isolated communities (but rare) with
  no social hierarchy or immigration
• still words people dont recognize (e.g. words
  used by young people to old people)

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Galician History

• 12th 14th century Golden Years, present in
  all formal domains
• 16th 18th century Dark Ages, entirely absent
  from formal domains
• 19th century Renaissance, won back some areas of
  formal use
• 1983 Statute of Autonomy and Law of Linguistic
  Normalisation, officially present alongside
  Spanish in all formal domains

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Galician Speakers

• Highly proficient
• Galician the language of preference
• Only in oral communication
• Written communication improving through education
• Old, lower classes, rural, less educated
• Negative image
• Less social success

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Galician Usage

• Code change
• Education
• Professional/economic interest
• Respect/courtesy
• Social prestige
• Informal/unofficial social contexts
• Classic diglossic situation

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Education, Church, Media

• Education
• Increased Galician language proficiency
• Degalicianise Galician speakers
• Though important for status and survival
• Church
• Prestige and influence
• Mass predominantly taken in Spanish

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• Media
• Reflect and condition sociolinguistic behaviour
• State-owned TV/radio Spanish
• Local TV/radio Galician
• Daily press Spanish
• Advertising Spanish

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Conclusion

• Classic example Diglossia
• Legal provisions ? ? proficiency and positive
  attitude
• Galician still seen as the low language (L) and
  Spanish the high language (H)
• Sociolinguistic inequality
• Outlook bleak

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Examples of bilingualism and diglossia in the
Basque Country

• Euskalherria consists of three principal areas
• the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), made up of
  Gipuzkoa, Araba, Bizkaia
• Navarra
• the three French provinces of Iparralde.

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• The Basque Autonomous Community Statute of
  Autonomy 1979 Castilian and Basque share
  co-official status
• High rate of bilingualism, encouraged by
  institutions such as the education system,
• However, the majority language of the BAC is
  Castilian.

• Basque
• family and friends
• predominantly oral situations,
• used informally and daily

• Castilian
• high-status situations that required a degree of
  formality
• e.g. academic spheres.

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• repression under the regime
• urbanisation
• immigration
• mean that the diglossic situation has changed.

The situation in the BAC could be best described
as fragmentary bilingualism with residual
diglossia in the Basque speaking districts of the
BAC.
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• Euskaldunes capaces de entender y hablar euskera
  
• Cuasi-euskaldunes Con alguna competencia activa
  o simplemente pasiva en euskera
• Erdaldunes Sin ninguna competencia en euskera
• Since 1991 there has been an increase of 5.3 in
  the number of euskaldunes in the BAC
• an increase of 25 in 1991 to 48 in 2001 of
  basque speakers in the age range 16 24

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• In times of rapid urbanisation, it was seen
  rather as an annoying obstacle to geographical
  and social mobility.
• Suffered harsh repression under Francos regime
• Immigration - Castilians entered the BAC in the
  industrial revolution
• Drop in number of Basque speakers, in favour of
  Castilian

• Basque became the language of the rural poor,
  came to represent backwardness in an era of
  progress
• Ikastolas private schools to promote the basque
  language in 1960s
• 1982 the Law of Normalisation of the Use of the
  Basque Language
• Bilingualism Decree of 1983

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• In the BAC, there are three different models of
  bilingual education.
• Model A
• the language of instruction is Castilian
• Basque is taught as a second language for 3 to 5
  hours a week.
• Model B
• Basque and Castilian are both used as languages
  of instruction
• Model D
• Basque is used as the language of instruction
• Castilian is taught as a subject.

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Evolution of the three linguistic models at
pre-university level

• Model A decline in number of students
• Models B and D increase in popularity

• Diglossia
• In theory, Basque can be used in all levels of
  society.
• However, in practice, the majority of all daily
  interactions take place in Castilian
• Many dont use Basque, even if they have the
  capability to.

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Keeping it in the family
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• the linguistic behaviour of Basque speakers has
  changed they now use their own language in more
  diverse social contexts than ever before. This,
  together with the language promotion efforts made
  by many different institutions, has contributed
  to an improvement in the perceived social status
  of Basque.

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Catalonia

• Population 6,343,110
• GDP 196,546million (18.7 of total Spanish GDP)
  
• Officially Bilingual
• Catalan is the official language of Catalonia,
  together with Castilian, the official language of
  the Spanish State. All persons have the right to
  use the two official languages and citizens of
  Catalonia have the right and the duty to know
  them.

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How Many People Understand Catalan?
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Diglossia in Catalonia

• Historically
• Industrialisation
• Franco Dictatorship
• Current situation the diglossic situation that
  was, in the past, attributed to Catalonia, has
  ceased to exist
• Biglossia as opposed to Diglossia

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Catalan or not Catalan? That is the Question!

• In-group/ intergroup interaction
• It is proper to Speak Catalan only to those who
  are know to be Catalan
• Location
• Apperence
• Accent

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Fa cara de català?
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Bilingualism in catalonia

• Involuntary Bilingualism
• Prefer to use their own language but can speak
  Castilian
• Natural Bilingualism
• Achieved / Secondary Bilingualism
• Passive bilingualism

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Conclusions

• Catalonia is a bilingual region re-enforced by
  the state (language planning)
• Probably more appropriate to talk about biglossia
  or interlingual diglossia
• Natural, achieved/secondary, passive and
  involuntary bilingualism.
• Catalan is a language of prestige and is promoted
  as such by the Catalan people.
• Standardised form of Catalan Some slight
  regional variation but there is a standard form
  which also prevents diglossia.

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Conclusion
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Bilingualism

• Individual
• Societal
• There is no single definition but instead a scale
  of different interpretations of what constitutes
  bilingualism

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Diglossia

• Two languages co existing within a society with
  completely separate functions
• Different statuses for the two languages

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Spanish Examples

• Only truly a state of diglossia in Galicia
• Less distinction between Castilian and the
  minority language in Catalonia and the Basque
  Country
• Galicia the language with the least prestige.
  Perhaps why it is in the most danger?

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Bibliography

• Hoffman, C. (1991) An Introduction to
  Bilingualism (Longman New York)
• Romaine, S. (1995) Bilingualism Second Edition
  (Blackwell Publishing Oxford)
• Wei, L. (2000) The Bilingualism Reader (Routledge
  London)
• Hudson, A. (2002) Outline of a Theory of
  Diglossia in International Journal of the
  Sociology of Language www.international
  .ucla.edu
• Pradilla, M. (2001) The Catalan-speaking
  Communities in Mulitilinguaism in Spain ed.
  Turell, M (Multilingual Matters Clevedon)
• Woolard, K. (1989) Double Talk Bilingualism and
  the Politics of Ethnicity in Catalonia (Stanford
  University Press Stanford)
• Beswick, J (2007) Regional Nationalism In Spain
  Language Use and Ethnic Identity in Galicia
  (Multilingual Matters Clevedon)
• 2001 Spanish Census www.ine.es
• Lasangabaster, D. and Huguet, A. (2007)
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  Language Use and Attitudes (Multilingual Matters
  Clevedon)
• Wright, S. (1996) Monolingualism and Bilingualism
  Lessons from Canada and Spain (Multilingual
  Matters Clevedon)
• www.eustat.es
• Etxebarria, M El Bilinguismo En El Estado Español
  (Bilbao)
• Skutnabb-Kangas, T (1981) Bilingualism or not
  The Education of Minorities (Multilingual
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