Jamaican Creole Proverbs from the Perspective of Contact Linguistics

28 Jamaican Creole Proverbs from the Perspective of Contact Linguistics do so almost always without breaking any of the grammatical rules of either language!” (ibidem). The dimension of the act of code-switching reaches beyond language. It can be a manifestation of cultural solidarity, detachment or it can serve as a sign of identity. Consequence 3: Language Convergence According to the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (DLTAL hereafter), language convergence is the process of two or more language varieties becoming more similar to one another. It may occur: (a) when one language variety gains status and the speakers of another variety change their pronunciation to be more like the variety with the status. Consequently, they tend to use words and grammatical structures from the more prestigious variety; (b) when speakers of two language varieties mix together, e.g. by moving to the same area, thus both varieties may change to become more alike (DLTAL). Language convergence occurs in communities where the degree of bilingualism is quite high and the speakers use and know the languages equally well. Mark Sebba states that “[l]anguage convergence […] involves the languages within a community changing and adjusting their structures so that they all become more similar to each other” (1997: 13). John Gumperz and Robert Wilson (1971: 151–165) present a case of three languages in a village in India (Marathi, Urdu and Kannada) which had been in contact for 400 years. The languages’ grammars have converged into a single system but the vocabularies have not changed (for a detailed discussion, see Gumperz & Wilson 1971: 151–165). Although both of the discussed phenomena, i.e. code switching and language convergence, may seem similar in certain aspects, there are several differences between them. Code switching is done by an individual speaker who knows both languages, convergence, on the other hand, requires time and “a community with a high degree of bilingualism” (Sebba 1997: 13). The languages, however, maintain separate sets of vocabularies and the members of the speech community may not necessarily be bilingual. Language convergence is a process which has a substantial impact on language change and which causes alterations in syntactical and lexical areas. Consequence 4: Pidginization The first three consequences of the language contact phenomenon require quite a high degree of bilingualism in a society. When it comes to the fourth possible consequence, i.e. pidginization, two or more groups of adults having

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