Mutual intelligibility between speakers of four related language varieties spoken in the northern half of the island of Pentecost in Vanuatu (Raga, Suru Kavian, Suru Rabwanga and Suru Mwerani) is ...investigated. Raga is a separate language spoken in the northernmost part of Pentecost and is intelligible to varying degrees to speakers of the other three varieties. The other three varieties are considered dialects of the same language, Apma. However, intelligibility between the dialects is asymmetric. Although Suru Kavian speakers claim to understand Suru Rabwanga and Suru Mwerani without difficulty, speakers of the latter two varieties maintain that they have significant problems understanding Suru Kavian. These claims are supported by the results. To explain the intelligibility results they were correlated with quantitative measures of linguistic (phonetic and lexical distances) and non-linguistic (geographical distances and a measure of exposure) factors that may play a role in mutual intelligibility.
The article analyzes the current state of the bilingual linguistic space of Ukraine, which citizens are currently using in all spheres of communication two closely related Slavic languages: Ukrainian ...and Russian. Attention is drawn to the fact that, taking into account the achievements of modern linguistics and a complex of areas adjacent to linguistics (in particular, the theory of intercultural communication, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, etc.), it became possible to form a more solid theoretical basis, which fully confirms the need for all-round approach. On the need for all possible support in the implementation of language policy in a country with clear biculturalism and bilingualism of balanced bilingualism and, accordingly, categorical inadmissibility of violating the linguistic rights of Russian speakers in this country.
This article introduces and defines the notion lingua receptiva (LaRa) as a mode of multilingual communication in which interactants employ a language and/or a language variety different from their ...partner’s and still understand each other without the help of any additional lingua franca. The quintessence of lingua receptiva is discussed in terms of pragmatic, psycholinguistic and language psychology approaches to multilingualism. Moreover, the occurrence of this mode is documented across various language families throughout time and in various discursive intercultures which it creates. Furthermore, three central characteristics are discussed, namely ideological barriers resulting in asymmetry, ‘inference-making’ mechanisms and the function of idiomatic expressions. Finally, lingua receptiva is compared to other multilingual modes, especially with English as lingua franca.
This study investigated how standard and substandard varieties of first language (L1) Dutch affect grammatical gender assignments to nouns in second language (L2) German. While German distinguishes ...between masculine, feminine, and neuter gender, the masculine–feminine distinction has nearly disappeared in Standard Dutch. Many substandard Belgian Dutch varieties, however, still mark this distinction, making them more akin to German than Standard Dutch in this respect. Seventy‐one Belgian and 104 Netherlandic speakers of Dutch with varying levels of German proficiency assigned gender‐marked German articles to German nouns with Dutch cognates; these gender assignments were then compared to the cognates’ gender in the standard and substandard L1 varieties. While the gender assignments of both Belgian and Dutch participants were strongly influenced by the cognates’ Standard Dutch gender, the Belgians’ responses showed, at best, weak traces of the masculine–feminine distinction in substandard Belgian Dutch. Possible reasons for this weak substandard variety influence are discussed.
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This paper examines the process of acquiring L2s that are closely related to the L1 through data on how adult French speakers learning L2 Spanish in a formal setting develop knowledge and use of past ...tenses in this L2. We consider the role of transfer and simplification in acquiring mental representations of the L2 grammar, specifically in the area of tense and aspect, and how learners deal with integrating grammatically encoded, lexical and discursive information, including mismatching feature combinations leading to particular inferential effects on interpretation. Data is presented on the Spanish past tenses (simple and compound past, pluperfect, imperfect and progressive forms) from two tasks, an oral production filmretell and a multiple-choice interpretation task, completed by learners at A2, B1, B2 and C1 CEFR levels (N = 20-24 per level). L1 influence is progressively attenuated as proficiency increases. Difficulties were not always due to negative L1 transfer, but related also to grammar-discourse interface issues when integrating linguistic and pragmatic information in the interpretation process. This has clear implications for the teaching of closely related languages: instruction should not only focus on crosslinguistic contrasts, but also prioritize uses requiring complex interface integration, which are harder to process.
This paper examines the phenomenon of
receptive multilingualism
where speakers of two different languages communicate through each speaking his/her own language and understanding the other’s. ...Comprehension in such an interaction is aided by the speaker and the listener employing linguistic, discourse-pragmatic and other features which represent strategies of
accommodation
(i.e. reduction of linguistics dissimilarities). This phenomenon is not presented as an alternative to interpreting, but in the context of interpreters who work from or into a language which is closely related, but not identical to the language spoken by one of the participating clients. Background information is provided from language pairs with a high level of mutual intelligibility and the experiences of interpreters, while the focus of the data sample is on 23 interpreters who have accreditation in one, two or three of the following closely-related languages: Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. Responses are elicited on the following: self-reported incidence of accommodation in non-interpreted interactions; linguistic and ethical protocols when a different, but closely-related language is used by a client; comments from clients about interpreters’ proficiency and ethnicity; attitudes on the distinctiveness of the three languages and future intelligibility. Informants’ linguistic behaviour is analysed according to the number of accreditations held and, in general, those with three accreditations report the highest levels of accommodation.
This article describes the lemmatisation and treatment of kinship terms in a proposed English-Sotho, Sotho-English dictionary with an amalgamated lemmalist. The first requirement is to build a list ...of kinship terminology for the Sotho languages. Secondly, it is necessary in terms of space restriction to determine the most frequently used forms to be lemmatised in such a dictionary. Thirdly, the macrostructure and microstructure of the dictionary should be planned in terms of an amalgamated approach. A short explanation of the amalgamated model will be presented and a schematic illustration of the paternal family tree structure in the Sotho languages is given in the appendix. Specific attention is given to the compilation of the amalgamated lemmalist focusing on absolute cognates and absolute cognates with a difference in form. Finally, where the reduction of huge quantities of terms, e.g. all derived forms of a specific term in all three Sotho languages are at stake, a lexicographic convention will be suggested to sensibly reduce the number of lemmas and to combat redundancy. Die leksikografiese hantering van verwantskapsterme in 'n Engels/Sepedi-Setswana-Sesotho-woordeboek met 'n geamalgameerde lemmalys Hierdie artikel beskryf die lemmatisering en bewerking van verwantskapsterme in 'n voorgestelde Engels-Sotho, Sotho-Engels woordeboek met 'n geamalgameerde lemmalys. Die eerste vereiste is die samestelling van 'n lys van verwantskapsterminologie vir die Sothotale. Tweedens is dit nodig om ter wille van ruimtebesparing die mees gebruiklike vorme te bepaal wat in so 'n woordeboek gelemmatiseer moet word. Derdens moet die makro- en mikrostruktuur van die woordeboek beplan word in terme van 'n geamalgameerde benadering. 'n Kort verduideliking van die geamalgameerde model sal aangebied word en 'n skematiese voorstelling van die paterne stamboomstruktuur in die Sothotale word in die bylaag aangegee. Spesifieke aandag word gegee aan die samestelling van die geamalgameerde lemmalys met die fokus op absolute kognate en absolute kognate met 'n vormverskil. Ten slotte, waar die vermindering van groot hoeveelhede van die terme, byvoorbeeld alle afgeleide vorme van 'n spesifieke term in al drie Sothotale ter sake is, sal 'n leksikografiese konvensie voorgestel word om die aantal lemmas sinvol te verminder en redundansie te bestry.
Hindi and Punjabi are closely related languages with lots of similarities in syntax and vocabulary Both Punjabi and Hindi languages have originated from Sanskrit which is one of the oldest language. ...In terms of speakers, Hindi is third most widely spoken language and Punjabi is twelfth most widely spoken language. Punjabi language is mostly used in the Northern India and in some areas of Pakistan as well as in UK, Canada and USA. Hindi is the national language of India and is spoken and used by the people all over the country. In the present research, Basic Hindi to Punjabi machine translation system using direct translation approach has been developed. The results of this translation system are surprisingly good. The system includes lexicon based translation, transliteration and continuously improving the system through machine learning module. It also takes care of basic word sense disambiguation. Index Terms - Machine Translation System, Closely related Languages, Hindi, Punjabi, Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics, Transliteration.
This paper examines the situation of twenty-eight Australia- and Europe-based translators for the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages and presents responses on the number of accreditations they ...hold and how they negotiate requests for assignments in languages other than their 'own'. Specifically, data is gathered on the following: accepting or declining assignments for languages in which a translator does not have accreditation; responses to requests where the nominated language has an unofficial designation; increased income as an incentive for work in more than one language and use of resources across languages. Two widely-held outlooks on working in other languages emerge: the first outlook views the languages as distinct and separate and encompasses those informants who hold one accreditation and who work almost exclusively in one language only; the other widely-held outlook recognises the separateness of the languages and advocates multiple accreditation as a means to perform translation across two or more languages.
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