Language
Contact and Interference
By: Irfan Suryana
(Image is from Google)
On
the Flathead Reservation in Northwestern Montana, the
speakers there speak Salis. They always speak Salis to each other but they
usually speak English when others are present. That is the example of language
contact. Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties
interact.
There are many definitions of language contact. Language contact is the use of more than
one language in the same place at the same time.Language contact is the
social and linguistic phenomenon by which speakers of different
languages (or different dialects of the same language) interact with
one another, leading to a transfer of linguistic features. The other
example of language contact are scientists from whole world come to Antarctic
to discover something, European people come to America in order to spread
religion and trade there, and Maori speakers come to New Zealand then European
people colonize their territory. There is an expert, Thomason, who tells about
the five factors that cause language contact. First is two groups enter and
meet in unoccupied area. Second, a group comes to a certain group in large
numbers. Third, people exchange their laborers. Fourth, long-time neighbors
develop connection. Fifth, language imposes through education. Interference is
one of outcomes of language contact. The outcomes are lingua franca, pidgin,
creole, bilingualism, diglossia, code switching, code mixing, interference, and
integration. Before explaining those outcomes, it is better to explain first
about interference. Interference refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from
their native language to a second language. There is an expert as well who tells about five
factors that cause interference. He is Weinrich. The five factors are speaker bilingualism background, disloyalty to target language, the
limited vocabularies of TL mastered by a learner, needs of synonym, prestige and style. Another expert that
tells about factors that cause interference is Lott. He says that there are
three factors that cause interference. They are the interlingual factor, the over extension of analogy, transfer of structure. According to
Jendra, there are five levels in interference. First is Phonological
interference. Phonological interference is interference that happens in sound
level. For example, Javanese people say the name of placeswhich have sounds
/b/, /d/, /g/, and /j/ like Bandung becomes mBandung,
Deli becomes nDeli. They pronunce word /f/ or /v/ is spoken /p/ like “Ok, never
forget, see you” becomes “Ok, neper porget, see you”. The
other examples are selalu becomes slalu, adik
becomes adek, sayang becomes cayang, and ramai becomes rame. Second is
morphological level. Morphological level is interference that happens in
grammatical level. For example, traders in Bali speak with tourist using words
not grammatically. They add suffix-s like “This paintings is very old, Sir”. It
should be “this is a very old painting, Sir. They also often repeat the form
like Tomorrow-tomorrow come back, Sir. The other examples are Terpukul
becomes kepukul, tertabrak becomes ketabrak, terlalubesar becomes kebesaran, kesungguhan
becomes sungguhan, membuntuti becomes ngebuntutin, and mendongkrak
becomes ngedongkrak. Third is syntactic level. Syntactic level is
interference that happens in sentence level. For example, Rumah ayah Ali
yang besar di kampungini becomes
rumahnya ayahnya Ali yang besar sendiri di kampong ini and makanan itu telah saya makan becomes Makananitutelahdimakanolehsaya.
Traders in Bali often haven inversion of sentence structure like coming in Bali
your girlfriend? The other examples are Mereka akan merried tahun depan, Ani memakai baju pink,
so far aku baik-baik saja, bdw kemana saja kamu kemairn? Fourth is semantic level. Semantic level is interference that happens
in using a word that has variable in a language. For example, penampilannya sungguh keren, teman-temanku begitu gokil, suasana hatinya sedang galau, and apa kabar, Bro? Fifth is lexical level is interference that happens in a word
deductively based on dictionary. For example, traders in Bali use lexical
“Holiday”. Based on dictionary, “holiday” is a day of festivity or recreation
when no work is done. However, they have mistake to place that word, like
“Back, back, holiday.” It should be “Please, back ward here”.
The other outcomes of language contact are
first lingua franca. Lingua
franca is a
language used between two interlocutors but is not the first language (or
native tongue) of either of the interlocutors. Second is pidgin. pidginis a sociolinguistic phenomenon
where two people whose first languages are different and attempt to communicate
using elements from both of their languages in mixed manners. Third is creole. Creole happens when a contact
language is passed onto new generations in the same fashion a mother tongue is
acquired by children. Fourth is bilingualism. According to Spolsky, bilingualism happens when
someone has mastered his first language and second language. Fifth is
diglossia. According to Ferguson, Diglossia is used in society’s condition
where there are two variations from one language and each has roles. Sixth is
code switching. Code switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or
more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single
conversation. Seventh is code mixing.Code mixing refers to the mixing of two or more languages
or language varieties in speech. Eighth is integration. Integration is the use
of element of other language systematically as if it has been the part of the
speaker’s native language.
In brief, language
contact is the use of more than one language in the same place at the same
time. Interference refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their
native language to a second language. Interference is one of outcomes of
language contact. The other outcomes are
lingua franca, pidgin, creole, bilingualism, diglossia, code switching, code
mixing, and integration.
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