Sem II Unit 1: Sociolinguistics | MA English Advanced Studies

📋 Contents of This Page

Unit Introduction — Language in Society
Language Variation — Dialect, Register, Style, Slang, Jargon
Dialect — Regional and Social
Register, Style, Slang & Jargon
Language Contact — Code-switching & Code-mixing
Borrowing
Pidgins and Creoles
Bilingualism and Multilingualism
Language Planning
Language Maintenance, Shift & Death
India as a Multilingual Society
Exam Orientation
Common Student Mistakes
Quick Revision
Practice MCQs (20 Questions)

📖 Unit Introduction

Language in Society — What Is Sociolinguistics?

Until now, we studied language as an abstract system. Sociolinguistics asks: How does language actually work in real human societies? Why do people speak differently in different situations? Why do languages change, mix, and sometimes disappear?

🌍 The Big Idea

Language is not just a code — it is a social act. Every time you speak, you are also communicating who you are, where you come from, what group you belong to, and what your relationship to your listener is. Sociolinguistics studies exactly this relationship between language and society.

Definition of Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between language and society — how social factors (age, gender, class, ethnicity, situation) influence language use, and how language in turn shapes society.

✅ What This Unit Covers

Language variation: dialect, register, style, slang, jargon
Language contact: code-switching, code-mixing, borrowing
Pidgins and Creoles
Bilingualism and Multilingualism
Language planning and policy
Language maintenance, shift, and death
India as a multilingual society

🎯 Why This Matters for India

India has 1600+ languages and dialects
Every Indian is at least bilingual or multilingual
Code-switching between Hindi, English, and regional languages happens daily
Language policy debates (Hindi imposition vs. regional languages) are active
Many tribal languages are dying — an urgent sociolinguistic issue

🎨 Core Concept 1

Language Variation

No language is spoken the same way by all its speakers in all situations. Variation is the normal, expected state of language. Sociolinguistics studies these variations systematically.

📊 Types of Language Variation

Type of Variation	Based On	Technical Term	Example
Regional variation	Where the speaker is from geographically	Regional Dialect	American English vs. British English vs. Indian English
Social variation	Social class, education, occupation	Sociolect	Working-class Cockney vs. Received Pronunciation (RP)
Situational variation	The social situation or context	Register / Style	Formal language at a job interview vs. casual talk with friends
Occupational variation	Profession or field	Jargon	Medical, legal, scientific terminology
Age variation	Age of the speaker	Generational variation	Teenagers using slang vs. elders' formal speech
Gender variation	Gender of the speaker	Genderlect	Robin Lakoff's research on women's language
Ethnic variation	Ethnic/cultural group	Ethnolect	African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

Key Term: Variety A variety is a neutral term used to refer to any form of a language that differs in systematic ways from other forms — it covers dialects, registers, sociolects, and any other type of variation. Using "variety" avoids value judgments about which form is "correct."

🗺️ Core Concept 2

Dialect — Regional and Social

Definition

A dialect is a variety of a language that differs from other varieties in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, and is associated with a particular geographic region or social group. All speakers speak a dialect — there is no "dialect-free" speech.

🗺️ Regional Dialect vs. Social Dialect

🗺️ Regional Dialect

Based on GEOGRAPHY — where the speaker is from
Also called a geolect
Includes differences in accent (pronunciation), vocabulary, and grammar
Example: "lift" (British) vs "elevator" (American); "y'all" (Southern US)
Indian example: Marathi spoken in Pune vs. Nagpur vs. Konkan — all regional dialects

👥 Social Dialect (Sociolect)

Based on SOCIAL FACTORS — class, education, occupation, age, gender
Also called a sociolect
Example: Received Pronunciation (RP) — traditionally the prestige dialect of educated British speakers
Example: African American Vernacular English (AAVE) — systematic grammatical patterns
Indian example: Upper-class urban English vs. rural varieties

🔑 Dialect vs. Language — The Famous Question "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy." — Max Weinreich
The distinction between a "language" and a "dialect" is often POLITICAL, not purely linguistic. Mutual intelligibility is one criterion — if speakers can understand each other, they may be speaking dialects of the same language. But Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible yet considered different languages for political/cultural reasons.

Accent vs. Dialect Accent = differences in PRONUNCIATION only. An accent involves HOW you say words.
Dialect = differences in pronunciation + grammar + vocabulary. A dialect is a complete variety of a language.
Everyone has an accent. Everyone speaks a dialect. These are not flaws — they are natural features of language.

🎭 Core Concept 3

Register, Style, Slang & Jargon

📋

A variety of language used in a specific social situation or domain. Register is determined by field, tenor, and mode (M. A. K. Halliday).

legal register, medical register, academic register

🎨

Style

The level of formality a speaker chooses based on the social situation. Style shifts on a spectrum from formal to informal.

Frozen → Formal → Consultative → Casual → Intimate

😎

Slang

Informal, often playful vocabulary used within a social group — especially youth. Slang is temporary and group-specific.

"lit," "vibe," "yaar," "bro," "chill"

🔬

Jargon

Specialised technical vocabulary used by a professional group. It aids precise communication within the group but excludes outsiders.

medical: "myocardial infarction"; legal: "habeas corpus"; IT: "bandwidth"

🔒

Argot

Secret vocabulary used by a group (often criminal) to deliberately exclude outsiders or avoid detection.

Cockney rhyming slang, criminal underworld language

📈 Martin Joos's Five Styles of Register

Martin Joos (1967) identified five styles that speakers shift between depending on their relationship with the listener and the social context:

Style Spectrum — Formal to Informal

FrozenFormalConsultativeCasualIntimate

Style	Context	Features	Indian Example
Frozen	Fixed, permanent texts	No spontaneity; fixed wording	National Anthem, legal oaths, religious prayers
Formal	Professional, academic settings	Complete sentences, no contractions, technical vocabulary	University lecture, court proceedings, official report
Consultative	Semi-formal interactions	Some informal elements, back-channel responses	Doctor-patient consultation, teacher-student discussion
Casual	Friends, familiar people	Slang, contractions, incomplete sentences, interruptions	Friends chatting in college canteen
Intimate	Very close relationships	Private codes, nicknames, incomplete utterances, non-verbal heavy	Couples, close family members

Halliday's Three Components of Register Field: What is the discourse about? (the topic/subject matter)
Tenor: Who is involved? (the relationship between participants — formal/informal, equal/unequal)
Mode: What role does language play? (spoken or written, face-to-face or mediated)

🌟 Indian Example of Register Shift The same person in one day:
→ Morning puja: "हे परमेश्वरा, मला आशीर्वाद दे" (Frozen/Formal — religious register)
→ College lecture: "The postcolonial condition reflects linguistic hybridity" (Formal/Academic)
→ Canteen: "Yaar, kya chal raha hai?" (Casual — Hinglish code-mix)
→ WhatsApp to family: "Aayi, aaj late yeto" (Intimate — Marathi)
This is perfectly normal and shows linguistic competence, not inconsistency.

🔄 Core Concept 4

Language Contact — Code-switching & Code-mixing

🌐 What Is Language Contact?

When speakers of different languages or dialects come into regular contact, their languages influence each other. This leads to phenomena like code-switching, code-mixing, borrowing, pidginisation, and creolisation.

🔄 Code-switching vs. Code-mixing

Code-switching

The practice of alternating between two or more languages or dialects within a conversation, often at sentence boundaries. The speaker switches FROM one language TO another completely.

Code-mixing

The mixing of elements from two languages WITHIN a single sentence or utterance. Words or phrases from one language are inserted into the grammatical framework of another.

Code-switching vs Code-mixing — Indian Example

👩

Priya (Code-switching between sentences)

"आज meeting खूप छान झाली. The manager was really impressed with our presentation. आता आपण celebrate करू या!"

→ Switches from Marathi to English and back — CODE-SWITCHING

👨

Rahul (Code-mixing within sentences)

"Haan yaar, meeting mein presentation bahut impressive tha. Manager ne bahut appreciate kiya."

→ English words inserted into Hindi grammar — CODE-MIXING (Hinglish)

Aspect	Code-switching	Code-mixing
Where it happens	Between sentences or utterances	Within a single sentence
Unit switched	Entire language system	Words, phrases embedded into other language
Grammatical system	Switches completely to new language grammar	One language provides the base grammar
Awareness	Often more deliberate	Often unconscious, automatic
Indian name	Common in multilingual settings	"Hinglish," "Manglish," "Tanglish"

Why Do People Code-switch?

Social Reasons

To signal group membership ("I'm one of you")
To show solidarity with the listener
To mark shift in topic or tone
To exclude a third party from conversation
To signal identity (ethnic, regional)

Communicative Reasons

No equivalent word in the first language
To quote someone who spoke in another language
To clarify or emphasise a point
To express a concept better in one language
Triggered by topic change (technical vs. casual)

🤝 Core Concept 5

Borrowing

Definition

Borrowing is the process by which a language takes a word, phrase, or grammatical feature from another language and incorporates it into its own vocabulary. The borrowed item is called a LOANWORD.

🔁 Types of Borrowing

Type	Definition	Examples
Direct Borrowing (Loanword)	Word taken with little or no modification	café (Fr→En), yoga (Sanskrit→En), tsunami (Japanese→En)
Calque (Loan Translation)	Word-for-word translation of a foreign expression	"skyscraper" → Hindi "आकाशचुंबी इमारत"; "masterpiece" → German "Meisterstück"
Semantic Borrowing	A native word takes on new meaning from a foreign equivalent	English "mouse" (computer device) borrowed from computing register
Phonological Borrowing	Sounds or sound patterns borrowed from another language	Retroflex consonants in Indian English borrowed from Indian languages

🌟 English Words Borrowed FROM Indian Languages jungle (Hindi)shampoo (Hindi)bungalow (Bengali)yoga (Sanskrit)karma (Sanskrit)avatar (Sanskrit)guru (Sanskrit)thug (Hindi)loot (Hindi)pyjama (Urdu)cheetah (Hindi)pundit (Sanskrit)cushy (Urdu)jodhpurs (Rajasthan)

🌟 Words English Has Borrowed FROM Other Languages French: café, ballet, genre, cuisine, résumé | Spanish: tornado, mosquito, ranch, canyon | Arabic: algebra, algorithm, coffee, sugar | Japanese: karate, sushi, emoji | German: kindergarten, pretzel, angst | Italian: piano, pizza, umbrella

🌱 Core Concept 6

Pidgins and Creoles

🌱 The Development: From Contact to Creole

Languages in Contact

Lang A + Lang B

Trade, colonisation, migration

→

Language Contact

Communication need

No common language

→

Pidgin Forms

Limited contact language

No native speakers; simple grammar

→

Creole Develops

Full native language

Children grow up speaking it; complex grammar

Pidgin — Definition

A pidgin is a simplified contact language that develops when speakers of different languages need to communicate (usually for trade) and have no common language. A pidgin has no native speakers — it is learned as a second language by all its users.

Feature	Pidgin	Creole
Native speakers	None — learned as L2 by all speakers	YES — children grow up speaking it as their first language
Grammar	Simplified — reduced grammatical complexity	Full — fully developed grammatical system
Vocabulary	Limited — mainly from one dominant language	Expanded — richer vocabulary from multiple sources
Usage	Limited domains (trade, work)	Full range — home, education, literature
Stability	Less stable — varies between users	Stable — passed on to next generation consistently
Origin	Contact situation (trade, colonialism)	When pidgin becomes nativised (children acquire it as L1)
Example	Tok Pisin (early stage), Nigerian Pidgin English	Jamaican Creole, Haitian Creole, Tok Pisin (nativised)

Key Process: Nativisation / Creolisation When children born in a pidgin-speaking community grow up speaking the pidgin as their MOTHER TONGUE (first language), the pidgin undergoes creolisation — it expands grammatically and lexically to handle all communicative needs, becoming a full Creole language.

🌟 Indian Context — Nagamese and Butler English Nagamese: A creole based on Assamese and Naga languages — serves as a lingua franca in Nagaland.
Butler English / Bearer English: A pidgin-like variety of English that developed in India during colonial times, used between Indian servants and British employers.
Indian English: Not a pidgin or creole, but a fully developed nativised variety of English with distinct features.

🤝 Core Concept 7

Bilingualism and Multilingualism

Definitions

Bilingualism = the ability to use TWO languages with some degree of proficiency. Multilingualism = the ability to use THREE or more languages. Both can refer to individuals OR to speech communities.

🧠 Types of Bilingualism

Type	Description	Example
Compound Bilingualism	Both languages learned simultaneously in childhood — one concept, two words	Children of mixed-language families who grow up with both languages at home
Coordinate Bilingualism	Two languages learned in different contexts — separate conceptual systems	Learning English at school, Marathi at home — different worlds for each language
Subordinate Bilingualism	Second language processed through the first — L2 understood via L1	Adult language learners who translate internally before speaking L2
Simultaneous Bilingualism	Two languages acquired at the same time from birth	Child of English-French parents in Canada
Sequential Bilingualism	Second language learned after the first is established	Marathi child learning English in school after age 5

Diglossia (Ferguson, 1959) Diglossia is a situation where two varieties of the SAME language (or two different languages) are used in a community — one is HIGH (H) variety used for formal/prestigious contexts, and one is LOW (L) variety used for informal/everyday contexts.

Classic example: Arabic-speaking countries — Modern Standard Arabic (H) used in news, religion, education vs. Colloquial Arabic dialects (L) used at home and in daily conversation.
Indian example: Sanskrit (H) vs. regional languages (L) in classical era; Hindi (H) vs. regional dialects (L) in some contexts.

🌟 India — The Most Multilingual Country in the World India has 22 officially recognised languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, and over 1,600 languages in total (2011 census). Every Indian is typically multilingual:
Mother tongue (e.g., Marathi) + Regional language (may be same) + Hindi (national link language) + English (associate official language and global link) = minimum 3–4 languages for most urban Indians.

📋 Core Concept 8

Language Planning

Definition

Language planning refers to deliberate efforts by governments, institutions, or communities to influence the form, function, or acquisition of a language. It involves making conscious decisions about which language(s) to use, how to standardise them, and how to develop or promote them.

📋 Types of Language Planning

📐 Status Planning

Deciding which language(s) get official status and for what functions. Which language is the medium of instruction? The language of courts? The national language?

India example: Constitution declaring Hindi as official language + English as associate official language + 22 scheduled languages

📝 Corpus Planning

Decisions about the form of a language — standardisation of spelling, grammar, vocabulary. Creating new words for new concepts (neologism/terminology development).

India example: Hindi technical terminology development (e.g., "दूरदर्शन" for television, "रेलगाड़ी" for train)

📚 Acquisition Planning

Decisions about which languages are taught in schools, at what age, and to what standard. Language-in-education policy.

India example: Three-Language Formula — mother tongue + Hindi + English in schools

Language Policy vs. Language Planning Language Policy: Official decisions about language made by governments — laws, constitutional provisions, education policies.
Language Planning: The broader set of deliberate actions (including by non-governmental bodies) to shape language use and development.
Language policy is one instrument of language planning.

🌟 Indian Language Planning Examples Constitution, Article 343: Hindi in Devanagari script is the official language; English continues as associate official language.
Three-Language Formula: Proposed in 1961 — students learn mother tongue + Hindi + English.
Sahitya Akademi: Promotes literature in 24 Indian languages — a form of status and corpus planning.
Classical Language Status: Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia designated as Classical Languages — receiving government support for preservation.

⏳ Core Concept 9

Language Maintenance, Shift & Death

⏳ The Continuum: From Maintenance to Death

Language Maintenance

A community continues to use its language across generations, even under pressure from a dominant language. The language is passed on to children, used in homes, schools, and cultural events. Example: Welsh in Wales (successfully maintained through strong policy), Marathi in Maharashtra (constitutionally supported).

Language Shift (Beginning)

Community members begin to use a dominant language in more and more domains — first in work and education, then at home. Bilingualism increases, but the minority language loses ground. Example: Many tribal communities in India shifting to Hindi or regional state languages for economic reasons.

Language Shift (Advanced)

The minority language is used only by older generations. Children no longer learn it as a mother tongue. Intergenerational transmission breaks down — this is the critical point. The language is no longer being naturally acquired by children.

Endangered Language

The language has very few speakers, mostly elderly. UNESCO classifies languages as vulnerable, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered, or extinct. Example: Andamanese languages — some have fewer than 50 speakers.

Language Death

The last native speaker of a language dies, and the language ceases to be spoken. Sometimes a language becomes "dormant" rather than "dead" if written records survive and revival is possible. Example: Bo (Andaman Islands) — last speaker Boa Sr died in 2010. Hebrew — successfully revived after centuries of dormancy.

⚠️ Language Death — Why It Matters When a language dies, the world loses:
→ A unique way of understanding and describing reality
→ Centuries of oral literature, folklore, and cultural memory
→ Unique grammatical structures that expand our understanding of human language
→ Traditional ecological knowledge encoded in the language's vocabulary
David Crystal estimates that a language dies every two weeks. Of the world's ~7,000 languages, half are predicted to disappear by 2100.

Language Revival / Revitalisation Sometimes communities work to revive an endangered or dormant language.
Hebrew: The most successful language revival in history — from a classical/liturgical language with no native speakers to the official language of Israel with millions of native speakers.
Welsh: Revived through government policy, Welsh-medium schools, and community efforts — now ~870,000 speakers.
Māori: Revitalised in New Zealand through immersion schools (kōhanga reo) and official recognition.

Language Shift — Definition

Language shift is the process by which a speech community gradually abandons its native language in favour of another language, typically over the span of several generations, due to social, economic, or political pressures.

🇮🇳 Special Topic

India as a Multilingual Society

🇮🇳 India — A Sociolinguist's Paradise

India is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. It provides living examples of almost every sociolinguistic phenomenon studied in this unit.

Hindi

Northern India

~600M speakers (L1+L2)

Bengali

West Bengal, Bangladesh

~100M speakers

Marathi

Maharashtra

~83M speakers

Telugu

Andhra, Telangana

~82M speakers

Tamil

Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka

~78M speakers

Gujarati

Gujarat

~56M speakers

Urdu

Pan-India

~52M speakers (L1)

Kannada

Karnataka

~44M speakers

Sanskrit

Classical language

Classical status; ~25,000 daily speakers

English

Pan-India (official)

~125M speakers (L2)

Sociolinguistic Features of India Diglossia: Formal Hindi vs regional dialects; Sanskrit (H) vs vernaculars (L) historically.
Code-switching: Daily reality — Hindi-English (Hinglish), Marathi-English, Tamil-English (Tanglish).
Pidgins/Creoles: Nagamese in Nagaland; Butler English historically.
Language Planning: Three-Language Formula, constitutional provisions, classical language status.
Endangered languages: Great Andamanese (fewer than 20 speakers), Boro, Mising, Kokborok at risk.
Language death: Andamanese Bo — last speaker died 2010.

🎓 Exam Orientation

University QP Analysis — Sem II Unit 1

🔥 Q1 (Any 2 of 4) — 15 Marks — Sociolinguistics

Language variation — Dialect, Register, Style:
→ Define sociolinguistics → Language is not uniform (variation is normal) → Dialect: regional and social with examples → Register: Halliday's three components (field, tenor, mode) → Style: Joos's five styles → Slang vs Jargon → Indian examples throughout

Code-switching and Code-mixing:
→ Define both with clear distinction → Table comparison (location, unit, grammar) → Reasons for switching (social + communicative) → Indian Hinglish examples → Dialogue examples → Bilingualism as prerequisite

Pidgins and Creoles:
→ Define pidgin (no native speakers, limited grammar) → Define creole (native speakers, full grammar) → Flow diagram of contact → creolisation process → Comparison table (6 features) → Examples: Tok Pisin, Jamaican Creole → Indian: Nagamese

Language Planning, Maintenance, Shift and Death:
→ Define language planning → Three types: status, corpus, acquisition → Indian examples for each → Language maintenance → Language shift (causes and stages) → Language death → Timeline → Language revival (Hebrew, Welsh) → Indian endangered languages

📌 Predicted Questions (Based on Syllabus Pattern) 1. What is diglossia? Explain with suitable examples.
2. Distinguish between bilingualism and multilingualism. Why is India multilingual?
3. What is language death? Discuss its causes and consequences with examples.
4. Explain code-switching with examples from the Indian context.
5. Describe the sociolinguistic situation in India.
6. What is language shift? How does it lead to language death?

⚠️ Common Mistakes

Mistakes Students Commonly Make

❌

Treating "dialect" as inferior to "language"

This is a common social prejudice but linguistically incorrect. All dialects are equally rule-governed, systematic, and valid varieties of language. Standard English is itself a dialect — just one with more social prestige. Never describe a dialect as "broken" or "incorrect" language in an academic answer.

❌

Confusing Code-switching with Code-mixing

Code-switching = switching BETWEEN languages (usually at sentence boundaries). Code-mixing = mixing WITHIN a sentence (embedding words from one language in another's grammar). The key test: Is the switch at the sentence boundary? → Code-switching. Is it inside one sentence? → Code-mixing. Hinglish is primarily code-mixing.

❌

Saying a Pidgin "is a broken language"

A pidgin is NOT broken language. It is a systematically structured contact language with its own consistent grammar rules. The grammar is simpler than its source languages, but it is rule-governed. "Broken" implies random errors — a pidgin has predictable, consistent patterns.

❌

Confusing Pidgin and Creole with Slang or Dialect

Pidgin and Creole arise from LANGUAGE CONTACT situations between speakers of mutually unintelligible languages. Slang is informal vocabulary within ONE language. Dialect is a regional/social variety of ONE language. These are completely different phenomena.

❌

Writing "Language death = nobody speaks the language"

More precisely, language death = the death of the LAST NATIVE SPEAKER. The language may still exist in written records (making revival possible). Also distinguish: "language death" (natural extinction) vs. "language killing/linguicide" (deliberate suppression by colonial or governmental power). The latter is a political and ethical issue, not just a natural process.

❌

Confusing Register and Style

Register is primarily domain-based — the language used in a particular professional or situational context (medical register, legal register). Style is primarily formality-based — the spectrum from formal to informal depending on the social relationship. In practice, they overlap, but the distinction matters. A doctor uses medical register regardless of formality level; style is about HOW formally within that register.

⚡ Quick Revision

One-Page Summary

Sociolinguistics

Language + Society relationship
Social factors shape language use
Variation is normal, not deviant
Every speaker speaks a dialect

Language Varieties

Dialect = regional/social variety
Register = domain-specific variety
Style = formality level (Joos's 5)
Slang = informal group vocabulary
Jargon = technical occupational vocabulary

Code-switching vs Mixing

Switching = between sentences
Mixing = within one sentence
Hinglish = code-mixing
Reasons: solidarity, topic, identity, gaps

Pidgin vs Creole

Pidgin = no native speakers, limited
Creole = native speakers, full grammar
Creolisation = nativisation of pidgin
Tok Pisin, Jamaican Creole
Indian: Nagamese

Bilingualism

Compound, Coordinate, Subordinate
Simultaneous vs Sequential
Diglossia: H variety + L variety
India: 22 scheduled languages
Three-Language Formula

Language Planning

Status planning — official status
Corpus planning — standardisation
Acquisition planning — education
India: Art. 343, Three-Lang Formula

Language Shift & Death

Maintenance → Shift → Endangered → Death
Intergenerational transmission breaks
Bo (Andaman) — died 2010
Revival: Hebrew, Welsh, Māori

Borrowing

Loanword = direct borrow
Calque = loan translation
Indian → English: jungle, yoga, thug
English → Indian: many tech terms

🧠 Memory Tricks Joos's 5 styles: "Frozen Fish Can't Inspire" = Frozen, Formal, Consultative, Casual, Intimate.
3 types of Language Planning: SCA = Status, Corpus, Acquisition.
Pidgin vs Creole key: Pidgin = No Native Speakers. Creole = Native Speakers (children). The C in Creole = Children make it a mother tongue.
Code-switching vs mixing: Switching = at the SEAM (between sentences). Mixing = inside the SAME sentence.

📋 Contents of This Page

Language in Society — What Is Sociolinguistics?

✅ What This Unit Covers

🎯 Why This Matters for India

Language Variation

Dialect — Regional and Social

🗺️ Regional Dialect

👥 Social Dialect (Sociolect)

Register, Style, Slang & Jargon

Language Contact — Code-switching & Code-mixing

Why Do People Code-switch?

Social Reasons

Communicative Reasons

Borrowing

Pidgins and Creoles

Bilingualism and Multilingualism

Language Planning

📐 Status Planning

📝 Corpus Planning

📚 Acquisition Planning

Language Maintenance, Shift & Death

Language Maintenance

Language Shift (Beginning)

Language Shift (Advanced)

Endangered Language

Language Death

India as a Multilingual Society

University QP Analysis — Sem II Unit 1

Mistakes Students Commonly Make

Treating "dialect" as inferior to "language"

Confusing Code-switching with Code-mixing

Saying a Pidgin "is a broken language"

Confusing Pidgin and Creole with Slang or Dialect

Writing "Language death = nobody speaks the language"

Confusing Register and Style

One-Page Summary

Sociolinguistics

Language Varieties

Code-switching vs Mixing

Pidgin vs Creole

Bilingualism

Language Planning

Language Shift & Death

Borrowing

Practice MCQs — Sem II Unit 1: Sociolinguistics