BILINGUALISM AND DIGLOSSIA IN SPAIN

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.

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

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

Societal Multilingualism
Historical Factors:

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

Contemporary Factors

Societal Bilingualism Cont.

Horizontal Bilingualism Territorial monolingualism Territorial bilingualism Instability

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

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?

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

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)

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

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)

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

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

Galician Usage
Code change
Education Professional/economic interest Respect/courtesy Social prestige

Informal/unofficial social contexts Classic diglossic situation

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

2001 Euskaldunes Cuasi-euskaldunes Erdaldunes (Castilian or French speaking)

BAC 29.4% 11.4% 59.2%

Navarra 10.3% 6.6% 83.1%

Iparralde 24.7% 11.9% 63.4

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

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

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.

Evolution of the three linguistic models at pre-university level

1983 - 84 Model A % Model B % Model D % 72.8 10.5 16.5 1990 - 91 50.6 24.9 24.4 1996 - 97 31.5 27.7 40.7 2002 - 03 30.6 22.5 46.4

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.

Keeping it in the family

2006 Basque Autonomous Community % What language do you speak in with your friends? Most often in Basque Both in Basque and in Castilian Mainly in Castilian What language do you speak in in neighbourhood shops? Most often in Basque Both in Basque and in Castilian Mainly in Castilian What language do you speak in in banks? Most often in Basque Both in Basque and in Castilian Mainly in Castilian What language do you speak in in the health centre? Most often in Basque Both in Basque and in Castilian Mainly in Castilian What language do you speak in with your partner? Most often in Basque Both in Basque and in Castilian Mainly in Castilian What language do you speak in with your children? Most often in Basque Both in Basque and in Castilian Mainly in Castilian What language do you speak in at home? Most often in Basque Both in Basque and in Castilian Mainly in Castilian 44 12 44 69 12 19 47 9 44 37 14 49 51 10 39 41 17 42 46 19 35

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.

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.

How Many People Understand Catalan?

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

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

Fa cara de catal?

Bilingualism in catalonia
Involuntary Bilingualism
Prefer to use their own language but can speak Castilian

Natural Bilingualism Achieved / Secondary Bilingualism Passive bilingualism

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.

Conclusion

Bilingualism
Individual

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

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

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?

Bibliography
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