Science topics: SociolinguisticsLanguage Contact
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Language Contact - Science topic
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Questions related to Language Contact
I'm Afrikaans, my wife is German, and we both speak English fluently. Here are our family's language contacts:
- Afrikaans: My native language and our main language at home and with family. Our son has extensive contact with his Afrikaans grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.
- German: My wife's native language. She tries to speak mainly German to our son, and his grandparent does too. However, outside our immediate family, very few understand German. (This complicates some interactions where inclusivity is key, like saying, "Show the nice lady your toy" in the lady's language.) One of our main language acquisition goals is for our son to be fluent in German.
- English: A language we're exposed to frequently. We have English-speaking friends, our church is English, and most media we consume is in English.
I'm currently learning German and cherish moments when I use German with our son—singing songs, reading books, or pointing out objects. Adhering strictly to the OPOL approach limits me to Afrikaans, which hinders my German learning journey—a language I'm passionate about and want to converse in, especially with my family. Being able to use German freely with my son would enrich both our experiences, but I want to know the risks involved regarding language acquisition.
My understanding is that OPOL is mainly to reinforce languages that might not come naturally to the child. Given that our son will likely be fluent in Afrikaans from various sources and German exposure is limited, would it be harmful if I continue my German interactions with him?
Any insights would be appreciated!
Language contact has always existed. This also happens between sign languages and spoken languages. How do spokenl languages influence sign languages? How do sign languages influence spoken languages? Is there research on this?
My research work is on language contact between kashmiri urdu and english and I need to develop a methodology for developing a questionnaire and carrying out the study so I need to know what can be my methodology for the study and questionnaire development with a sociolinguistics approach
Are there any researchers interested in the constitution of oral corpora in spoken Arabic in different parts of the Arab world? The data collected could be of interest to researchers working on different objects (morphology, syntax, semantics, semantics, pragmatic, didactics, language contact, grammar, koinization relationships, etc.).
Basically, I am working on a sociolinguistic project, trying to write a paper on Polish language in the North America. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
In questionnaires on language contact outside a formal setting, some opt for using overlapping categories, i.e. in a question such as: 'How many hours do you spend listening to music every day' some researchers will use the following options: 0, 0-1 hours, 1-2 hours, 2-3 hours, 3-4 hours, etc. Others, on the other hand, opt for non-overlapping categories such as: 0, 0-1:00, 1:01-2:00, etc. The latter categories are endorsed by textbooks on scale creation. I cannot find literature in favour of the overlapping categories but am hoping that someone can help me find arguments in favor of such use?
