Re: [tied] Affects of immigrant communities in language change

In a message dated 8/3/01 12:13:39 AM Central Daylight Time,
h5@... writes:

Good point. The Laplanders (their own name, Sami,
is mostly used nowadays) shouldn't be forgotten. Any Finns left in Sweden?
Sure, but I think most of those who live here now came in a wave of
immigration in the sixties.

Dear Hakan,

   Are there any Swedish ruled islands with Finnish inhabitants? Should a
study of language ignore recent arrivals who may have their own tongue
altered with loan words from the majority? Can the study of small groups
within a larger whole shed light on how borrowings affect definitions and
compound words?

   Here in the United States where we have large immigrant populations we
can note that virtually all of their native languages, even for those who
resist learning American English, will change significantly within a single
generation as loan words to define objects and customs not present in their
homelands are adopted from English, often with changes to the English word to
fit the taste of the non-English speaker.

   The second generation speakers may speak a hybridized language among
themselves while still being able to speak the native language well with
their parents and English well with their new countrymen. In turn, American
English has adopted words from immigrant languages, usually to describe food
in restaurants at first.

   Few Americans do not know what a Bodega (Spanish Puerto Rican grocery
store) or Teriyaki Sauce (Japanese fermented & spiced soybean sauce) are and
their ability to deal with French, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Thai
and other exotic foods from even places like Ethiopia is well known. These
words flow into the language from everywhere and enrich it.

   Languages that are insular with little foreign contact may remain "pure"
but any successful culture will be dynamic and attract outsiders to it, both
voluntarily and by conquest. How have newcomers, immigrants and cultural
imports, affected the Swedish language?

   I am a historian, not a linguist. I see that the interaction of peoples
and cultures create the dynamic for changes and growth in language
complexity. A 1500 word vocabulary may be enough to survive nicely in an
isolated subsistance farming community but once you introduce warfare and
metals technology the need for definitions multiply exponentially. I have
been watching these discussions for only a few days and I am pleased to see a
good deal of historical context.

   Have there been any studies on how the Swedish occupation of Finland
affected the Finnish language? Are there Swedish enclaves remaining in
Finland?

Best regards, John Piscopo
http://www.johnpiscoposwords.com
PO Box 137
Western Springs, IL 60558-0137
(708)246-7111