A long way from New York City: Socially stratified contact-induced phonological convergence in Ganluo Ersu (Sichuan, China) (original) (raw)
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Dynamics of Language Contact in China: Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Variation in Yunnan
The study of language contact epitomizes the dynamics of language as a system of human communication. The competing linguistic forces at work when speakers of different language varieties come into contact can be narrowed down to two basic concepts––convergence and divergence. Looking at linguistic areas using a macro approach, languages in contact tend to show convergence across all structural levels through diffusion and borrowing, but nevertheless, linguistic diversity persists in regions of high interethnic language contact. Ethnicity often plays a significant role in constructing identity, therefore a speaker’s linguistic choices can reflect ethnic identity and intergroup relations. Because these processes occur in and as a result of complex societies, “studies of interethnic language contact must begin by understanding the context in which speakers in a community construct their own ethnicity, as well as the ideologies that affect how they view other groups” (Fought 2013: 395). Southwest China is a particularly interesting region for language contact research because high levels of ethnolinguistic diversity in remote areas perpetuates traditional interethnic contact relations while these same groups are also currently under social and economic pressure to assimilate to mainstream Chinese society. This dissertation describes the social context of language contact in Yunnan Province’s Wuding County, an under-researched mountainous county with more than half of the population classified as non-Han ethnic minorities. Speakers of at least eight Ngwi varieties (Lolo-Burmese, Tibeto- Burman), two Hmong varieties, and one Tai variety are represented in villages across the county, although speaker numbers are diminishing due to widespread shift to Mandarin Chinese. This dissertation presents original ethnolinguistic maps of the distribution of ethnic minority villages in the county followed by two localized studies of interethnic contact scenarios in a Yi village area. A demographic survey of reported language proficiency in Miqie and Geipo households illustrates the role of access and geographic location in the rate of language shift to Mandarin; while the second study discusses the role of ethnic identity in persisting Miqie and Geipo language variation in intermarried households in the same village area. These studies highlight the dynamic social context in which language is used and changes for constructing identity and improving social mobility for speakers of languages facing endangerment in a rapidly changing society.
Following the quantitative tradition of sociolinguistic research pioneered by such scholars as William Labov, Walt Wolfram, and Penelope Eckert, Reynolds presents a detailed, coherent analysis of the social parameters behind a specific on-going sound change, the merger of syllable final bilabial nasal (m) with aveolar coronal nasal (n), in one small farming community in Qinghai Province. His is certainly not the first such study on Tibetan sound change. It is also not the first study to investigate the merger of (m) into (n), which is a prominent feature of so-called "farmer" dialects of Amdo Tibetan (Hua 2005). The results of Reynolds' study suggest that the distribution of the merged [n] and non-merged [m] variants of the variable (m) is associated with speaker age and also with language ideology, as the innovative variant [n] is more frequent in the speech of young speakers, who seem to be leading the on-going change. It appears less in speakers who report a positive identification with Tibetan language. The sound change that is the focus of Reynolds' paper and Spearhead, the community where it is occurring, exist within a larger sociolinguistic context of two traditionally identified sociolects in Amdo Tibetan, "farmer" dialects and "nomad" dialects. While the two lects are identified by the traditional subsistence means and lifestyles of their speakers, there are clear structural types that serve to broadly differentiate one speech variety from the other (Hua 2002; Padma Lhun'grub 2009). These broad structural differences have emerged primarily as a result of divergent patterns of language change, namely a conservative tendency shared across dialects spoken by traditional semi-migratory pastoralists, and an innovative tendency shared across those spoken by traditional sedentary agriculturalists (Green 2012). While all Amdo Tibetan dialects have undergone sound changes since the period during which Written Tibetan was created and standardized (ca. 650-850 CE), farmer dialects in particular seem to have gone through more changes compared with nomad dialects, particularly sound mergers which, resulting as they do in a reduction of the phonemic inventory, represent structural simplification. Language varieties with higher rates of change (i.e., innovative varieties) also tend to undergo a higher rate of simplifying changes (Dahl 2004).
Using forced alignment for sociophonetic research on a minority language
University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 2020
Until recently, large-scale phonetic analyses have been out of reach for under-documented languages, but with the advent of methodologies such as forced alignment, they have now become possible. This paper describes a methodology for applying forced alignment (using the Montreal Forced Aligner) to a speech corpus of Matukar Panau, a minority language spoken in Papua New Guinea. We obtained measurements for 68,785 vowel tokens, produced in both narrative and conversational data by 34 speakers. We examined the social conditioning on a subset of these vowels according to traditional sociolinguistic categories of age and gender, and also consider the impact of clan as a major axis of organization in this community. We show that there is a role for clan as a sociolinguistic factor in conditioning the variation observed.
Variation in Second and Heritage Languages: Crosslinguistic perspectives, 2022
For many individuals, the first acquired language is also the linguistically dominant language, but what are the implications to sociophonetic variation if the linguistically dominant language is a second acquired childhood language as is the case for many heritage speakers? This paper addresses two correlates of linguistic dominance on the production of L2influenced vowels in heritage Cantonese sociolinguistic interview data. Results show that Cantonese Production Score (CPS), an externally measured proficiency proxy, is consistently a better predictor than Ethnic Orientation (a self-reported identity metric) in accounting for speakers who are most likely to produce English influenced vowels. While a distinction between child vs. adult language acquisition remains important, these results highlight linguistic dominance as an interacting factor in sociophonetic variation.
A sociolinguistic analysis of Dzongkha : variation in final nasals and rhotics
2019
This first quantitative sociolinguistic analysis of Dzongkha (Bhutan’s official language), as spoken by residents of the capital Thimphu, investigates variation and change in two salient and traditional linguistic features: syllable-final nasals (N) and postvocalic rhotics (R). Thimphu is Bhutan’s central location for education, jobs, commerce and social network ties. Both (N) and (R) show variable deletion, as correlated with internal (phonetic environment, tone, grammatical category, phrase position) and external (style, sex, age, region, education) explanatory factors. Data came from thirty-six participants originating in three regional communities (Eastern native Tshangla speakers, Western native Dzongkha speakers and Southern native Lhotshampa speakers). All were Bhutanese nationals now living in Thimphu, divided amongst school children at seven schools, their teachers and their parents. 3,636 nasal tokens and 2,196 rhotic tokens were analysed using Rbrul to perform multiple lo...
Modeling change in contact settings: A case study of phonological convergence
2019
Convergence is an oft-used notion in contact linguistics and historical linguistics. Yet it is problematic as an explanatory account for the changes it represents. In this study, we model one specific case of convergence (Duoxu, an endangered Tibeto-Burman language with 9 last speakers) to contribute to a more systematic understanding of the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. The goals are (1) to address the role of some linguistic and social factors assumed to have an effect on the process of convergence, and (2) to test the following explanations of empirical observations related to phonological convergence: (a) the loss of phonological segments in a language that has undergone convergence is correlated with the relative frequency and markedness of these segments in the combined bilingual repertoire, and (b) widespread bilingualism is a prerequisite for convergence. The results of our agent-based simulation affirm the importance of frequency and markedness of phonological segments in the process of convergence. At the same time, they suggest that the explanation related to widespread bilingualism may not be valid. Our study suggests computer simulations as a promising tool for investigation of complex cases of language change in contact settings.