Please share your reflection(s) on the issues raised in the materials of the last two modules on the issues raised in the materials of the last two modules. 200-300 WORDS. USE AT LEAST THREE PIECES OF EVIDENCE TO BACK UP YOU REFLECTION.
USE THESE LINKS TO FIND EVIDENCE:
‘Language Death: A Problem for All’ By David Crystal on Vimeo
Endangered Languages | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics
Independent Lens 2011 We Still Live Here As Nutayunean 720p – video Dailymotion
YOU CAN ALSO TAKE EVIDENCE FROM THIS MINI ARTICLE:
The reason why people speak differently in different regions of the world can be attributed to history and the processes of convergence and divergence. What happens when people of different backgrounds and regions come together and their vocabulary, pronunciation and syntax are not mutually intelligible? In effect they have to invent a new, makeshift language. Such languages are known as ‘pidgins’.
In the 18th century, as the British Empire spread to the Caribbean Islands, speakers of Portuguese, Dutch, English and Yoruba invented such pidgins to communicate about basic trade. After time, however, these pidgins were standardised and developed, so that speakers could express more complicated ideas through them. Standardized and developed pidgins are known as ‘creoles’. Jamaican Patois is an example of one such creole. As an example of standardization in Jamaican Patois, plural nouns are expressed through the word ‘dem’. The English word ‘teachers’ becomes ‘teacha dem’ in Patois. ‘Pens’ becomes ‘pen dem’, and so forth.
While the official language of Jamaica is English, the language of the people is Jamaican Patois. There is a continuum between Standard English (known on the creole continuum as an ‘acrolect’) and Jamaican Creole / Patois (known as a a ‘basilect’) on which Jamaicans can speak, depending on the context. Many Jamaicans can vary their speech to different degrees along this continuum. The TV series Rastamouse (clickable link) is a good example of a dialect that falls somewhere in the middle of the creole continuum (known as the ‘mesolect’) of Jamaican Patois and Standard English. It is intelligible for both people of the UK and Jamaica. Please watch a few minutes of the cartoon and see how much you can understand.
