Everything about Mixed Language totally explained
A
mixed language is a
language that arises when speakers of different languages are in contact and show a high degree of
bilingualism. Occasionally, more than two languages may be involved.
Definitions
A
mixed language differs from a
pidgin in that its speakers developing the language are fluent, even native, speakers of the source languages concerned, whereas a pidgin develops when groups of people with no knowledge of each other's languages come into contact and have need of a basic communication system, for example for trade, but don't have enough contact to learn each other's language or to develop a
lingua franca.
A mixed language differs from a
creole in that both parents are clearly identifiable. This isn't the case with creoles, who have a more diverse input, which can very often not be traced to any language. Also, while creoles tend to have drastically reduced inflections, mixed languages sometimes retain the inflectional complexities of both parent languages.
It differs from
code-switching in that it's set in its grammar and vocabulary, rather than the choice being left to the mood of the speaker. Speakers of mixed languages often don't know the input languages, something that precludes the possibility of linguistic improvisation.
Code-switching
A mixed language may be said to evolve from persistent
code-switching, and indeed language names such as "
Spanglish" or "
Porglish" are often given to persistent code-switching long before it's clear that a genuine mixed language has evolved. Other apparent mixed languages, such as
Franglais and
Yinglish, also are really nothing more than varieties of a language (such as
French and
English, respectively) characterized by large numbers of
loanwords from another language (such as
English and
Yiddish, respectively).
Mixed languages
A genuine
mixed language usually appears as the marker of a new ethnic or cultural group (for example,
Métis or immigrants).
Good examples of genuine mixed languages include:
- Michif, a mixture of French and Cree, where the nouns and adjectives tend to be French (including agreement), and the polysynthetic verbs are entirely Cree. There are two simultaneous gender systems, French masculine/feminine as well as Cree animate/inanimate, and the Cree obviative (fourth person).
- Mednyj Aleut, a mixture of Russian and Aleut, which retains Aleut verbs but has replaced most of the inflectional endings with their Russian equivalents.
- Cappadocian Greek, comprising mostly Greek root words, but with many Turkish grammatical endings and Turkish vowel harmony, and no gender.
- Mbugu or Ma’a: an inherited Cushitic vocabulary with a borrowed Bantu inflectional system.
- AngloRomani (mixture of Roma vocabulary and English syntax)
- Media Lengua (mixture of Quechua morphology and Spanish lexicon)
Possible examples include:
Chiac, a mixture of Acadian French language and English language
Wutunhua (a mixture of Chinese and Tibetan).
Yeniche (a mixture of German, various local German and French dialects, some Yiddish, and a few Romani words.)
Jopará, mixture of Guaraní and Spanish, Spanish verbs are changed to match Guaraní phonology and conjugated following Guaraní patterns.
Portuñol (Portuguese/Spanish).
Surzhyk (a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian).
Trasianka (a mixture of Belarussian and Russian).
Arwi (a mixture of Arabic and Tamil).Further Information
Get more info on 'Mixed Language'.
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