(多言語多文化論)

Dr. Joseph DeChicchis
Professor, School of Policy Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University

KGU SPS course description (シラバス)

IMPORTANT DATES:

• The Comprehensive Exam for this class will be given on the last scheduled class day, 20 July 2021, and instructions will be posted on this site.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Due to continuing COVID-19 complications, an on-demand format will be used. New material will become available on or before the normally scheduled class days.
• Your grade will be based on the Luna tests and homework. You can take most of the Luna tests late for partial credit. However, the deadline for the Comprehensive Exam given on Luna will be very strict. You must pass the Comprehensive Exam to pass this course.
• When checking this page, please note the revision date at the bottom. When following links, make sure that you are not reading from an outdated cache.

WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS:

On 20 July 2021: Comprehensive EXAM

• Please take today's Comprehensive Exam on Luna. You should take the exam either today (20 July) or tomorrow (21 July).
• You will have 90 minutes to complete this exam. You must complete this exam in a single sitting.
• You will have only one chance to answer each question.
• You may consult your dictionaries and study materials; however, you may not ask other people for the answers.
• The deadline for taking this exam is 11 pm tomorrow (21 July); after that, your submission will be late, and your grade will be reduced.
• All but two of the exam questions are Multiple Choice. The first question is True/False. For the final question, you must write a Short Answer to this prompt: List the languages that you speak (or have studied) and the age at which you first began to use them. Indicate which languages are your "native" languages, and describe your abilities (or usage) for other languages. You should prepare your Short Answer in advance so that you do not waste time during the test period.

• Before the arrival of Europeans, many autochthonous languages were spoken in North America and Australia; however, today, relatively few speakers of these languages remain. In Australia and the USA, most people speak English, and almost all Canadians can speak either English or French, i.e., the two official languages declared by the Canadian constitution. Like Australia, the USA has no official language, but many Americans speak Spanish, which had been the official language of many parts of the USA that historically belonged to Spain.
• During their periods of European exploration and conquest, the USA, Canada, and Australia had robust immigration, and they continue to welcome immigrants. Consequently, Eurasian immigrant languages are more commonly spoken than the autochthonous languages of these countries. For example, there were nearly 400 Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait languages when Europeans arrived, but today only about a dozen are still being spoken in regular communities. An indigenous language of Australia is the main language for only about 50,000 Australians (i.e., about 0.25% of the Australian population). After English, the most widely spoken languages in Australia are languages of immigrants from Eurasia.
• US Census data on language usage shows the importance of Spanish in most of the States; however, if we ignore English and Spanish, then there is more variation in the common minority languages of the States. If we consider only autochthonous languages, there is also variation; however, some patterns of regional dominance are notable (e.g., Cherokee, Navajo). The second language status of Yukip in Alaska is a reflection of the the Arctic refuge. Regarding recent immigration from the Indian subcontinent and from sub-Saharan Africa, there is also variation by State.

• Of the many languages spoken in Europe, most are Indo-European languages.
• History records many nations with changing boundaries since ancient times, so it has been common for people to speak languages which are not the same as either the official or the dominant language of their nation-state. Language maps do not corresponded to the boundaries of nation-states. The Hungarian language is spoken outside Hungary, and even France has internal language boundaries. Several languages of Europe are on UNESCO's "critically endangered" list, including Manx and two dialects of Saami.
• Sometimes language differences have become aligned with political parties, as in Belgium.
• Switzerland has managed its multilingualism very well for many years, and its policies have informed language policies in other countries. Swiss children, in addition to using the local language as a general medium of school instruction, are required to learn another official Swiss language and also English. Consequently, upon graduating high school, a Swiss typically knows at least three languages.
• At various times during Europe's history, Latin, French, German, and English have enjoyed widespread status as an official government language, a lingua franca, or a lingua academica, despite the fact that large groups of people have spoken other languages.
• The Catalan language, which is spoken by over 7 million Europeans, mostly in Spain (e.g., Barcelona) and France, has official national status only in tiny Andorra, which is not an EU member state.
• Wikipedia has a frequently updated review of the many languages with special EU status. The most widely understood language in the EU is English (understood by 44% of all adults), and the most widely used mother tongue is German (spoken by 18%). Most EU business is conducted in English, French, or German (known as "procedural" languages); however, there are 24 EU official and working languages.
• There are areas of Africa and Asia (e.g., Nigeria, Indonesia) which are much more multilingual than Europe; however, the EU countries have been leaders in the development of good policies for accommodating and promoting multilingualism in a fair way.
• Since the end of World War II, Europeans have routinely supported efforts to recognize linguistic rights, which have been progressively defined by several international declarations:
     Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948, cf. Article 2)
     Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992)
     Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (1996)
     To speak or not to speak (1997)
     United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007)
• These declarations clarify three key concerns for language policy:
     1. Freedom of Choice -- Recognize and respect the right of each person to speak as he or she chooses. Recognize the existence of (minority) language communities and the right of a person to actively participate in those communities.
     2. Promotion and Preservation -- Promote the robust use of heritage languages. Make efforts to preserve endangered languages.
     3. Practicality -- Teach common languages which are commercially important and which will improve access to information and participation in government.
• Aware of these three concerns, the EU began promoting trilingualism over a decade ago. The idea was that every European should speak at least three languages. Because almost every European already wants to speak English (cf. practicality) and so much money is being spent on English language learning, the EU wants to ensure that heritage languages do not consequently suffer. Therefore, the EU began spending money on heritage language programs. More recently, due to immigration and also due to Europeans' desires to learn globally important languages (e.g., Chinese, cf. practicality and choice), the EU has been revising the multilingual policy advice that it gives to its member states.

• A good example of a robust multilingual community is southern Belize. When I first entered Punta Gorda, I was impressed by a large welcome sign written in 7 languages: English, Qʼeqchiꞌ, Mopan, Garifuna, Kriol (Creole English), Plautdietsch (German), and Spanish. Today, Belize is still a very multilingual place. Not only are several languages spoken there, but many Belizeans can speak multiple languages. Of greatest interest to me has been the Qʼeqchiꞌ Mayan speakers (also known as the Maya Kekchi), especially those living along the road from Jalacte via San Antonio and Machaca to Punta Gorda, where Mopan Mayan and other languages are also spoken. In San Antonio (Toledo District), it is common for these Qʼeqchiꞌ-speaking children to also know Mopan, English, and Kriol by the time they are in junior high school. Because so many children in southern Belize are multilingual, one’s choice of language is sometimes made to garner prestige or to express pride.
• Browse the Punta Gorda website. Note that there is no majority ethnolinguistic group.
• Read Belize Language Situation.
• Read Honduras Language Situation.
• The Garifuna are labeled "Black Carib" on this language map of Guatemala and Belize.
• The Garifuna (Black Carib) are also in northern Honduras, as shown on this map of indigenous languages from Belize to Costa Rica.
• The Garifuna language is generally considered to be Arawakan, as stated by Lyle Campbell, with some Carib admixture. Scholarly description differs regarding the extent of African language mixture, although the mixed African ancestry of the Garifuna people is not disputed. In any case, the Garifuna language is a creole (or mixed language) without a European base.

• The last independent Maya city, Tayasal, was conquered by the Spanish in 1697. The Spanish destroyed almost all of the Mayan books. Here is a page of the Dresden Codex. A complete replica of this book is in the KSC library.
• Note the declaration of Spanish to be the official language of Guatemala in the Guatemala 1985-1993 constitution (English translation, emphasis added):
  Article 143: Official Language:
  The official language of Guatemala, is Spanish. The vernacular languages, form part of the cultural heritage of the Nation.
• Relatively recently, Guatemala added Article 66: Protection of Ethnic Groups:
  Guatemala is formed by diverse ethnic groups among which are found the indigenous groups of Mayan descent. The State recognizes, respects, and promotes their forms of life, customs, traditions, forms of social organization, the use of the indigenous attire by men and women, [and their] languages and dialects.
• The inclusion of Article 66 in Guatemala's most recent constitution reflects the importance of Guatemala's autochthonous people, and especially the Mayan languages. It also reflects international initiatives to recognize and protect the world's minority peoples and languages.
• Read about Guatemala's language diversity and look at these maps:
  Guatemalan language map
  Mayan language area of Mesoamerica
  current Mayan languages

• The one area of Japan which has not been inhabited since prehistoric times is Ogasawara. Although Ogasawara is close to Guam and the Mariana Islands, and although there is evidence of Austronesian settlement in Kyushu and other parts of Japan, the Austronesians seem never to have settled in Ogasawara.
• As far as we can tell, there was no human community in Ogasawara until 1830. First discovered by a Spanish captain in 1543, the islands were later explored by a Japanese captain and then by an English captain, who claimed the islands for their respective sovereigns, but neither country sent anyone to live there. In 1830, an American and his international friends founded the first known settlement, and Perry recognized the independence of the islands in 1853. Subsequenty, Japan colonized the islands and governed until 1945. The US Navy governed the islands from 1945 to 1968, when Japan resumed control.
• After reading this brief introduction [PDF] to the history of Ogasawara, you can look at these slides [PDF] for more details.
• Because English was the language of the first community to ever live on Chichi-jima (part of Ogasawara), we can certainly say that English is indigenous to Chichi-jima, and thus that English is one of the indigenous languages of Japan, along with Ainu, Ryukyuan, and Japanese.

• Long before Taiwan became part of Japan, and long before it was inhabited by Sinitic language speakers, Formosa was arguably the birthplace of all Austronesian languages. The Austronesian expansion was the greatest human migration ever, spreading their language from Easter Island to Madagascar. For example, the Polynesians are a subgroup of the Austronesians whose islands are roughly inside the triangle formed by Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. When European explorers first encountered the Polynesians, they were surprised by the great similarity of their languages. It was obvious that their ancestors spoke the same language (cf. the chart of number words at the end of this Wikipedia article), but it was incredible that those ancestors could travel in small canoes such long distances through the Pacific Ocean. Eventually, linguists figured out that all of the Austronesian languages were descended from a common ancestor, and that their ancestor was probably from Formosa, the main island of Taiwan. In addition to linguistic similarity, DNA and other anthropological evidence has provided a good understanding of this great Austronesian migration.
• Scholars have noted the similarities of Japanese to Austronesian languages, and there may have been Austronesian languages spoken in parts of Yaeyama-gunto. However, it seems likely that the Japonic languages (Japanese and Ryukyuan) are descended from a mainland source (cf. Francis-Ratte regarding the genetic relationship of Japanese and Korean), possibly as a branch of the speculated Transeurasian family (cf. Robbeets). (The origin of Ainu remains unclear, but Ainu was certainly spoken in northern Japan before the arrival of Japanese.)
• Whatever the prehistoric connection of Japanese to Austronesian may have been, we do know that Japanese became the official government language of Formosa in 1895, and Taiwan 臺灣 (cf. 臺灣州郡市街庄一覽輯存) quickly became an integral part of Japan. Taihoku Imperial University 臺北帝國大學, the seventh Imperial University of Japan, was founded in Taipei in 1928, well before the founding of Ōsaka Imperial University 大阪帝國大學 (1931) and Nagoya Imperial University 名古屋帝國大學 (1939). Before colonization by Japan, older historical records document the immigration of speakers of Sinitic and European languages to this originally Austronesian territory. In 1945, Taiwan was ceded to the Republic of China (ROC), and Mandarin replaced Japanese as the official language of Taiwan. The situation of Taiwan's various Formosan and Sinitic languages at the end of the 20th Century are described in The politics of language names in Taiwan. Since that article was published, the ROC has increasingly recognized and supported the languages of Taiwan. In 2017, the ROC declared Formosan languages to be national languages (國家語言). In 2018, the ROC's National Languages Development Act (國家語言發展法) confirmed Holo, Hakka, and Taiwan Sign Language as national languages, and it declared a policy for indigenous language preservation and development. The links below show the important facts about Austronesian, Sinitic, and European language usage, as well as current government control.
• Taiwan maps
• ROC counties
• Dutch era Formosa colony map
• historic Formosan language map
• current Formosan language home usage
• current home language use map
• current home language use graph
• autochthonous, indigenous, (recent) immigrant, official/colonial/government languages of Taiwan
• ROC controlled and claimed territories

• An official language is a language used by a government office. If the use of a language is specified by law, then it is a de jure official language, especially if the law is a government constitution or statute. If a language is habitually used in a government office but that usage is not required by law, then that language is a de facto official language. There can be an official language for various levels of government: a national language (e.g., Hindi हिन्दी in India), a state language (e.g., Gujarati ગુજરાતી, one of the 22 "scheduled" languages of India), a provincial language (e.g., French in Québec), even a city language (cf. Tagalog, Spanish, and Chinese in San Francisco).
• Languages can also be described according to other contexts of usage: scientific language (e.g., Latin, Chinese, English, at various times and places in history), technical language (e.g., English at Nokia), commercial language (e.g., English in Panama), lingua franca (e.g., Funagalo in Africa mines), lingua academica (e.g., French at various schools in Africa), legal language (e.g., Law French in England), trade language (e.g., Chinook Jargon), administrative language (cf. European Union "procedural" languages).
• An immigrant language is any language brought into an area by an immigrant group. Significant immigrant language communities exist in the Americas as a result of the mass migration of Europeans and Asians to the New World during the 19th and 20th Centuries. More recent migrations of refugees have created immigrant language communities in Europe.
• During the era of colonialism, languages of government and commerce spread around the globe. Today, languages such as English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish continue to flourish in many independent countries along with the autochthonous languages of those countries. However, in some countries, usage of the old colonial languages has declined or ceased; e.g., Dutch in Indonesia, German in Samoa, Japanese in Korea.
• As the imperial powers explored and conquered countries around the world, people speaking many different languages often came into contact for the first time. When these people knew no common language, a pidgin language would sometimes be invented. When children would learn a pidgin as their first language, the pidgin would become creolized. Many languages today are creole languages which began as pidgins invented due to language contact; e.g., Kamtok (Cameroon), Krio (Sierra Leone), Tok Pisin (Papua), Bislama (Vanuatu), Garifuna (Belize), Creole (Haiti), Patois (Jamaica), Papiamento (Curaçao).
• Adam Kendon characterized Australian Aboriginal sign languages as auxiliary languages that are used when speech would be inappropriate.
• The languages which are part of the important history of an area or of a people are the heritage languages of that area or of that people. Ainu is one of the important heritage languages of Japan, and this is true even though very few people can speak Ainu today. Sometimes, the heritage language of a people is culturally so important that they may call it their mother tongue. For example, some people in Ireland call the Irish language their mother tongue, even though their mothers may have never spoken Irish. This meaning of "mother tongue" is different from the meaning of caretaker language, which refers to the language spoken by a child's mother or father or other caretaker from whom the child learns a first language.
• Although we often talk about a person's native language(s), we can also talk about a country's native language(s). In this latter sense, we may also call these native languages the indigenous or autochthonous languages of a country.

• Make sure that you know who Shigeru Kayano 萱野 茂 was. Also, make sure that you understand the different types of Ainu speakers: archival Ainu speakers, old Ainu-Japanese bilinguals, token Ainu speakers, second language learners of Ainu. (cf. The current state of the Ainu language)
• Ainu moshir map
• Ainu density
• Ainu dialect map
• Shigeru Kayano and Neil Gordon Munro
• Kayano visits Scotland
• Ainu quest for rights enters political realm (The Japan Times)
• The Diet (Japan's parliament) passed a resolution on 6 June 2008 to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people. On the same day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura released a comment on the resolution, in which he acknowledged the suffering of the Ainu and recognized them as an indigenous people. On 1 July 2008, Machimura decided to establish the Panel of Experts for Ainu Policy (cf. アイヌ政策のあり方に関する有識者懇談会の開催について).

• Read about Japanese language history [PDF].
• Read either the "Tagengo" article (written in Japanese) [images] or the "Precedents" article (written in English) [HTML]
• Read "The current state of the Ainu language" [images]   [HTML]

Adaptation
• Vocabulary adaptation has contributed greatly to language diversity. Differences in vocabulary can hinder translation and have other commercial consequences.

Migration
• This map shows the dispersion of four language families. (The Austronesian homeland, or Urheimat, is now generally considered to be Formosa.)
• Linguists and archaeologist have speculated about the migrations of Indo-European farmers from an ancestral homeland (Urheimat), which, according to the most popular Kurgan Hypothesis, was in the Steppe area north of the Black Sea. [From oldest to most recent, the path colors are: black (c. 4000 BCE), indigo, red, magenta, purple, gold, grey, yellow (c. 800 BCE).] The less popular Anatolian Hypothesis suggests that the Indo-European languages spread out from an Urheimat in present-day Turkey. Both hypotheses agree that the Indo-Europeans spread east into northern India. Compare the location of the Indo-European Indic languages, the soil map of India, and the location of Dravidian languages.
• The Hungarian migration seems to have followed the Steppe grasslands west into the area of present-day Hungary, and Hungarian speakers also live outside the border of modern Hungary.
• Ancient and historical migrations have juxtaposed languages from diverse linguistic and cultural. Such migration can cause social tension. Even nowadays, migrations are creating new language contact situations, cf. Ethnologue commentary.

Protection
• Many modern nation-states have minority groups living in remote areas. Note the location of Khoisan speakers in the desert of southern African nations. Note the importance of the Sea Islands to the preservation of Gullah in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Corridor of the USA. Locally dominant minorities may present special problems for the nation's central policy planners.

Read about
• types of multilingualism [PDF]

South Africa is a good example of a multilingual nation.
• language map of South Africa (a multilingual nation)

Speakers of Kurdish are native to one place in the Middle East; however, their homeland has been long divided amongst several nations, and recent wars have further affected their language usage. Consequently, in addition to Kurdish, different official languages are spoken in different parts of Kurdistan.
• Kurdistan (a transnational homeland)

There have always been multilingual places. Toponymic evidence can show historic migration or earlier language use:
• Yankee migration
• Arabic-Spanish contact
• Germanic border change

Follow these links for information about multilingual New York, Bolzano (Alto Adige), and George Town (Penang):
• New York City; 
  New York (State); 
  New York City endangered languages
• Bolzano (Wikipedia); 
  Bolzano (South Tyrol report) [PDF]
• George Town (Wikipedia)

Follow these links for more about the critical period of language learning:
• TED talk about baby brain and critical period
• perception, language, cognition
• Deb Roy’s study of his son [PDF]

These maps may help you identify your Japanese dialect:
• Japanese dialects
• Kansai area dialects

On 13 April 2021: Aural geography: languages in the world and multilingualism (世界の言語)
Many languages are spoken in the world, and different languages are dominant in different places. Geographers use maps to illustrate the influence of language families and the geographic extent of language usage. Unlike political maps, which mark the boundaries of nations, linguistic maps give richer insight into the linguistic similarities and differences of people. This is important, because language is the most significant determinant of human culture.

Please study these websites before next week:
• mapping the world by language
• Wikimedia map: a more detailed map of language families, from the Wikipedia list of language families
• Ethnologue chart of speakers per language family

Also, look at the following two websites, and try to estimate how many languages are currently spoken in the world.
• How many languages are there?
• Ethnologue Guides

If you are curious, you can follow these links to more language maps:
• Europe’s languages [PNG]; Europe’s languages [JPEG]
• I-E subgroups; Indo-European diffusion
• Belgium language map
• Nigeria language map
• Dravidian language family
• Uralic languages
• Altaic languages
• the Caucasus area
• circumpolar Yupik/Inuit; Yupik and Dene
• North America upon contact
• Africa ethnolinguistic map
• Austronesian area; Austronesian numerals; Austronesian language tree
• Austronesian Subgroups; Austronesian language expansion; Austronesian DNA

 

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(This page was last updated on 17 July 2021.)