Temporal Phylogenetic Networks and Logic Programming

The concept of a temporal phylogenetic network is a mathematical model of evolution of a family of natural languages. It takes into account the fact that languages can trade their characteristics with each other when linguistic communities are in contact, and also that a contact is only possible when the languages are spoken at the same time. We show how computational methods of answer set programming and constraint logic programming can be used to generate plausible conjectures about contacts between prehistoric linguistic communities, and illustrate our approach by applying it to the evolutionary history of Indo-European languages. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP)

Centering the Marginalized Identities of Immigrant Students of Color in the Literacy Classroom

The widespread degradation of immigrant communities of color in the Unites States has made the correlation between racial and linguistic discrimination increasingly clear. This paper describes some of the ways that the co-construction of race and language, or raciolinguistic ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2015), further marginalize children of immigrant communities in schools. Attention is particularly drawn to literacy classrooms of all grades, where students’ linguistic identities are pushed aside as monolingual middle-class White language practices set the standards for reading, listening, speaking, and writing instruction. The author calls for educators to embrace translanguaging (García, 2009) as a way to dismantle raciolinguistic hierarchies at the classroom level. Concrete examples of how a translanguaging approach can be implemented to center the identities of immigrant children and children of immigrant families in literacy classrooms are provided.Educatio

What Belgium Can Teach Bosnia: The Uses of Autonomy in 'Divided House' States

Belgium and Bosnia can be understood as “divided house” states, which contain proportionally similar groups with opposing views regarding whether the state should be more unitary or more decentralised. The Belgian example demonstrates that even where groups disagree on state structure, a mixture of various forms of group autonomy may facilitate stability and compromise within the state. Belgium addresses this dilemma in two ways: 1) non-territorial autonomous units in the form of the linguistic communities, and 2) exclusive competencies for different units within the diverse Belgian state. In Bosnia, the rights of minorities in different territorial units, as well as refugee returns to areas where they are minorities, might be improved by structures with non-territorial autonomy that are similar to the Belgian linguistic communities. Similar to Belgium, these non-territorial units might hold exclusive competencies for educational, linguistic, cultural, and religious matters, and enable more political representation of minority individuals. In order to advocate working models for Bosnia, analysts should more carefully examine actual examples from states with similarly divided populations

Foreign languages’ acquisition: self learning and linguistic schools

We examine patterns of acquiring non-native languages in a model with two linguistic communities with heterogeneous learning skills, where every individual faces the choice of self-learning the foreign language or acquiring it at a profit-maximizing linguistic school. We consider a one-school model with divisions in both communities and various two-school settings with a school in each community. We compare the number of learners and welfare implications under self- learning with those obtained under various schooling contexts. In particular, we show that for communities with similar size, introducing language schools always increases the number of learners with respect to the exclusive self-learning option.communicative benefits, linguistic equilibrium, learning costs

How Neighbours Communicate: The Role of Language in Border Relations

This paper reports on a study of the linguistic situation in the border region where Norway meets Russia in the north. The aim of the study was to investigate language use when contact is revitalised after a long period with closed borders. The Norwegian and Russian languages are very different in vocabulary and structure, which makes communication difficult. How are the two languages affected by extended contact and migration across the border? The study was carried out by the author and Marit Bjerkeng through interviews, a questionnaire and observation of the linguistic situations in two Norwegian communities. The results show an ongoing development where the neighbouring language is increasingly noticeable, and there is a clear link between attitudes, identity and language use. The role of public policy seems to play an important role for the developing linguistic situation, as the Barents region as a political concept introduced in the 1990s has led to cross-border contact within various fields and also inspired local language policy, contributing to cultural pride and changing attitudes

Youth Culture and Urban Pride; the Sociolinguistics of East Javanese Slang

This study offers an overview of the characteristics and social functions of youth slang in the Indonesian province of East Java. It examines Boso Walikan and various types of Surabayan slang. Boso Walikan emerged in Malang as a secret language that was deliberately made unintelligible to outsiders. Over the decades, large parts of Malang's urban population developed proficiency in the language and appropriated it as an identity marker. The situation in nearby Surabaya is different. While lacking a uniform local slang comparable to that of Malang, several communities make an effort to differentiate themselves through specific linguistic habits, which are briefly introduced. These case studies tell us not only how young people shape their speech, they illustrate how the East Javanese dialect deals with linguistic variety, lexical borrowing and innovation

Etyma for 'chicken', 'duck', and 'goose' among language phyla in China and Southeast Asia

This paper considers the history of words for domesticated poultry, including ‘chicken’, ‘goose’, and ‘duck’, in China and mainland Southeast Asia to try to relate associated domestication events with specific language groups. Linguistic, archaeological and historical evidence supports Sinitic as one linguistic source, but in other cases, Tai and Austroasiatic form additional centers of lexical forms which were borrowed by neighboring phyla. It is hypothesized that these geographic regions of etyma for domesticated birds may represent instances of bird domestication, or possibly advances in bird husbandry, by speech communities in the region in the Neolithic Era, followed by spread of both words and cultural practices

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND LANGUAGE SHIFT

In language shifts, ancestral tongues are abandoned by their speakers and replaced, in one way or another, by dominant languages. Such changes in language use will ultimately lead to the irreversible suppression of the world's language diversity. Language maintenance attempts to counter these processes. Linguists may assist ethno linguistic minorities in safeguarding their threatened languages in many different ways, including establishing orthography when necessary, but speakers decide to abandon their heritage languages within a broad socio-political and economic context. Communities uphold or give up languages, so only the speakers of endangered languages themselves can opt for and execute language maintenance activities. Linguists might have to accept that some communities may no longer care for their heritage languages