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Languages with no monoglots | ||
Tags: Endangered Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4615 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 26 10 February 2013 at 12:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What happens to a language when there are virtually no monoglot speakers left and people have to
frequently use another language in order to go about their business? Does the language begin to soak up more loan words and idioms than normal and take on new grammatical structures? For example, Irish-speaking communities in Ireland are located in small remote areas and people need to use English to communicate with the vast majority of the population. There are few (if any) Irish monoglots left, possibly some elderly people may not be comfortable in English but nearly all Irish speakers can speak English as if it were their native tongue. Surely this massive influx of English into the lives of Irish speakers must affect the make-up of Irish in some way? The situation must be different in places like Norway and the Netherlands. Many people in these countries are fluent in other languages (typically English) but few will actually use them extensively on a daily basis. The native language still holds sway over everyday life. Then you have places like India where English is the de facto business language and plays a big role in state affairs, but many people don't speak it well, but proficiency in English is seen as a badge of honour due to its perceived educated status. Of course, the encroaching language doesn't have to be English. Former republics of the Soviet Union had to adopt Russian wholesale. Francophone Africa is heavily dependant on French. Again, what effect did this have on the indigenous languages? Edited by beano on 10 February 2013 at 12:10pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6590 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 2 of 26 10 February 2013 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It all depends on how the people feel about their language. There must be quite few Catalan monoglots, but due to its status it remains strong.
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 3 of 26 10 February 2013 at 12:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, Scottish Gaelic is in a similar situation as Irish -- only worse. I don't think there are any Gaelic monoglots any more, everybody speaks English, and young people often don't see any use in speaking or even learning Gaelic. Since 2005, the Gaelic language is protected by Scottish law and organisations such as Bòrd na Gàidhlig or BBC Alba try to work for its survival, but as there are only about 55,000 native Gaelic speakers, the future of Scottish Gaelic is rather uncertain. Already now, the language is full of English loanwords, so it's rather probable that the decay will go on. Edited by Josquin on 10 February 2013 at 3:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4597 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 26 10 February 2013 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Like you said, Irish monolinguals are virtually non-existent any more, which means that
pure Irish full of idioms and expressions (not affected by English) like this is very hard to come by. English has a noticeable effect on native speakers. Nearly all modern appliances (electronics, health etc) are referred to by their English names. Des Bishop (a comedian, look up "In the Name of the Fáda" on YouTube) made some interesting (and funny!) remarks during his time in the Gaeltacht. One of the most famous was the use of the word bicycle instead of the word "rothar", so that on my bike became "Ar mo bhicycle". I know from my grandmother that she is much more proficient at expressing herself (ag nochtú a smaointe- making bare her thoughts, God I love those expressions) in Irish than in English. However, even she uses English vocab in her speech as is common in the Gaeltacht. For example, she uses "ringeál" for to ring. Among younger speakers of the Gaeltacht, English idioms are noticeable. A few weeks ago I was at a family wedding where during the meal my cousin remarked "Ní thiocfadh leat an beef a bhualadh", literally "You couldn't beat the beef", which comes from English. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5049 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 5 of 26 10 February 2013 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It's more interesting how English affects Irish phonetics and grammar. And whether those
words are changed according to the rules of Irish phonology and grammar. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iwwersetzerin Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Luxembourg Joined 5662 days ago 259 posts - 513 votes Speaks: French*, Luxembourgish*, GermanC2, EnglishC2, SpanishC2, DutchC1, ItalianC1 Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 26 10 February 2013 at 3:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Luxembourgish is a language with no monoglots. Almost all Luxembourgish speakers also speak German and French very well and English to varying degrees, depending on their education. Some older people (like my grandparents who are in their eighties) only speak Luxembourgish and German, because they grew up during World War II and didn't learn French in school when Luxembourg was occupied by Germany and never learned it beyond the basics later. It would be impossible for someone to only speak Luxembourgish.
Luxembourgish has always been very influenced by both German and French. For some words, there are two synonyms, one taken from German and the other one from French. Since Luxembourgish is more of a spoken language that is usually not used in writing for formal communication, it lacks a lot of technical and specialized vocabulary, so it has to burrow a lot from other languages, usually German, French or English, depending on the area. This doesn't affect the language negatively though, on the contrary, I would rather say that it enriches it and that Luxembourgish needs its neighboring languages. In the last couple of years, there has been a trend towards using more Luxembourgish, including in writing, and Luxembourgish courses are booming. I'd say that it's precisely the fact that it is a minority language that makes us proud of it. It's what sets up apart, we're Luxembourgers because we speak Luxembourgish. It's a very important part of national identity, as is multilingualism. According to the Constitution, Luxembourg has 3 official languages (Luxembourgish, French and German) that have equal status, but only one national language: Luxembourgish. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4597 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 26 10 February 2013 at 3:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is certainly the case with non-natives who often replace the Irish sounds with the nearest English equivalents. There is something very strange in hearing someone trying to make the difference between "Leabhar" and "Leabhair", while using an English R! The different sonorats seem to cause the most difficulty. Edited by liammcg on 10 February 2013 at 3:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5049 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 8 of 26 10 February 2013 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's obvious, and that happens with any language. Non-native English speakers replace English sounds with sounds of their languages. But I'm speaking about native Irish speakers. Irish grammar and Irish phonology are changing under the influence of English, but I don't know how. What I can hear that native Irish speakers pronounce foreign names in an English manner. For example, pronounce alveolar sounds instead of dental and so on. Broad and slender R are the most uncertain sounds in Irish, I think, it sometimes seems that every native Irish speaker pronounces them in his own way, I even sometimes fail to hear the difference between those sounds and sometimes do not hear them at all. Edited by Марк on 10 February 2013 at 4:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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