Multilingualism - Wikipedia

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Use of multiple languages
"Bilingual" redirects here. For other uses, see
Bilingual (disambiguation)
The frontage of the
Constitutional Court of South Africa
, with text written in eleven of
South Africa's twelve official languages
A multilingual sign outside the mayor's office in
Novi Sad
, Serbia, written in the four official languages of the city:
Serbian
Hungarian
Slovak
, and
Pannonian Rusyn
A stenciled danger sign in
Singapore
written in English,
Mandarin
Tamil
, and
Malay
(the
four official languages of Singapore
The logo and name of the
Swiss federal administration
in the
four national languages of Switzerland
German
French
Italian
, and
Romansh
Multilingualism
is the use of more than one
language
, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called
bilingualism
. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber
monolingual
speakers in the
world's population
More than half of all
Europeans
claim to speak at least one language other than their
mother tongue
but many read and write in one language. Being multilingual is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness.
Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible. People who speak several languages are also called
polyglots
Multilingual speakers have
acquired
and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called
first language
(L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is usually acquired without formal education, by
mechanisms
about which scholars disagree.
Children acquiring two languages natively from these early years are called
simultaneous bilinguals
. It is common for young simultaneous bilinguals to be more proficient in one language than the other.
People who speak more than one language have been reported to be better at language learning when compared to monolinguals.
Multilingualism in computing can be considered part of a continuum between
internationalization and localization
. Due to the status of
English in computing
, software development nearly always uses it (but not in the case of
non-English-based programming languages
). Some commercial software is initially available in an English version, and multilingual versions, if any, may be produced as alternative options based on the English original.
History
edit
One of the
Tripolitania Punic inscriptions
at
Leptis Magna
, written in both
Latin
(top) and
Punic
(bottom)
The first recorded use of the word
multilingual
in the English language occurred in the 1830s. The word is a combination of
multi-
("many") and -
lingual
("pertaining to languages").
The phenomenon of multilingualism is as old as the very existence of different languages.
10
Today, evidence of multilingualism in an area includes things such as
bilingual signs
, which represent the same message in more than one language. Historical examples include
glosses
in textual sources, which can provide notes in a different language from the source text;
macaronic texts
which mix together two or more languages with the expectation that the reader will understand both; the existence of separate sacred and vernacular languages (such as
Church Latin
vs.
common forms of Latin
, and
Hebrew
vs.
Aramaic
and
Jewish languages
); and the frequency of linguistic borrowings and other results of
language contact
11
Definition
edit
A bilingual "no trespassing" sign at a construction site in
Helsinki, Finland
(upper text in
Finnish
, lower text in
Swedish
The definition of multilingualism is a subject of debate in the same way as that of language fluency. At one end of the linguistic continuum, multilingualism may be defined as the mastery of more than one language. The speaker would have knowledge of and control over the languages equivalent to that of a native speaker. At the opposite end of the spectrum would be people who know enough phrases to get around as a tourist using the alternate language. Since 1992,
Vivian Cook
has argued that most multilingual speakers fall somewhere between minimal and maximal definitions. Cook calls these people
multi-competent
12
13
In addition, there is no consistent definition of what constitutes a distinct language.
14
For instance, scholars often disagree whether
Scots
is a language in its own right or merely a dialect of
15
Furthermore, what is considered a language can change, often for purely political reasons. One example is the creation of
Serbo-Croatian
as a
standard language
on the basis of the
Eastern Herzegovinian dialect
to function as
umbrella
for numerous
South Slavic
dialects; after the breakup of
Yugoslavia
, it was split into
Serbian
Croatian
Bosnian
and
Montenegrin
. Another example is the historical dismissal of
Ukrainian
as a Russian dialect by the Russian
tsars
to discourage national feelings.
16
Many small independent nations' schoolchildren are today compelled to learn multiple languages because of international interactions.
17
For example, in Finland, all children are required to learn at least three languages: the two national languages (Finnish and Swedish) and one foreign language (usually English). Many Finnish schoolchildren also study further languages, such as German, French or Spanish.
18
In some large nations with multiple languages, such as
India
, schoolchildren may routinely learn multiple languages based on where they reside in the country.
In many countries, bilingualism occurs through international relations, which, with English being a global
lingua franca
, sometimes results in majority bilingualism even when the countries in question have just one domestic official language. This occurs especially in regions such as
Scandinavia
and the
Benelux
, as well as among
Germanophones
, but the phenomenon has also been expanding into some non-Germanic countries.
19
Acquisition
edit
Main articles:
Language acquisition
Language education
Second-language acquisition
, and
Simultaneous bilingualism § Bilingual acquisition
One view is that of the
linguist
Noam Chomsky
in what he calls the human
language acquisition device
—a mechanism that enables a learner to recreate correctly the rules and certain other characteristics of language used by surrounding speakers.
20
This device, according to Chomsky, wears out over time, and is not normally available by
puberty
, which he uses to explain the poor results some adolescents and adults have when learning aspects of a
second language
(L2).
If language learning is a
cognitive process
, rather than a language acquisition device, as the school led by
Stephen Krashen
suggests, there would only be relative, not categorical, differences between the two types of language learning.
Rod Ellis
quotes research finding that the earlier children learn a second language, the better off they are, in terms of
pronunciation
European schools generally offer secondary language classes for their students early on, due to the interconnectedness among neighboring countries with different languages. Most European students now study at least two foreign languages, a process strongly encouraged by the
European Union
21
Based on the research in Ann Fathman's
The Relationship Between Age and Second Language Productive Ability
22
there is a difference in the rate of learning of English morphology, syntax and phonology based upon differences in age, but the order of acquisition in second language learning does not change with age.
In
second language
class, students commonly face difficulties in thinking in the target language because they are influenced by their native language and cultural patterns. Robert B. Kaplan believes that in second language classes, foreign students' papers may seem out of focus because the foreign student employs rhetoric and sequences of thought that violate the expectations of the native reader.
23
Foreign students who have mastered syntactic structures have still demonstrated an inability to compose adequate themes, term papers, theses, and dissertations. Robert B. Kaplan describes two key words that affect people when they learn a second language.
Logic
in the popular, rather than the logician's sense of the word, is the basis of rhetoric, evolved out of a culture; it is not universal.
Rhetoric
, then, is not universal either, but varies from culture to culture and even from time to time within a given culture.
23
Language teachers know how to predict the differences between pronunciations or constructions in different languages, but they might be less clear about the differences between rhetoric, that is, in the way they use language to accomplish various purposes, particularly in writing.
24
People who learn multiple languages may also experience
positive transfer
– the process by which it becomes easier to learn additional languages if the
grammar
or
vocabulary
of the new language is similar to those of the languages already spoken. On the other hand, students may also experience negative transfer – interference from languages learned at an earlier stage of development while learning a new language later in life.
25
Translanguaging
also supports the acquisition of new languages. It helps the development of new languages by forming connections from one language to another.
Receptive bilingualism
edit
Main article:
Passive speaker (language)
Receptive bilinguals are those who can understand a second language but who cannot speak it or whose abilities to speak it are inhibited by psychological barriers. Receptive bilingualism is frequently encountered among adult immigrants to the
U.S.
who do not speak English as a native language but who have children who do speak English natively, usually in part because those children's education has been conducted in English; while the immigrant parents can understand both their native language and English, they speak only their native language to their children. If their children are likewise receptively bilingual but productively English-monolingual, throughout the conversation the parents will speak their native language and the children will speak English. If their children are productively bilingual, however, those children may answer in their parents' native language, in English, or in a combination of both languages, varying their choice of language depending on factors such as the communication's content, context or emotional intensity and the presence or absence of third-party speakers of one language or the other. The third alternative represents the phenomenon of "
code-switching
" in which the productively bilingual party to a communication switches languages in the course of that communication. Receptively bilingual persons, especially children, may rapidly achieve oral fluency by spending extended time in situations where they are required to speak the language that they theretofore understood only passively. Until both generations achieve oral fluency, not all definitions of bilingualism accurately characterize the family as a whole, but the linguistic differences between the family's generations often constitute little or no impairment to the family's functionality.
26
Receptive bilingualism in one language as exhibited by a speaker of another language, or even as exhibited by most speakers of that language, is not the same as
mutual intelligibility
of languages; the latter is a property of a pair of
languages
, namely a consequence of objectively high lexical and grammatical similarities between the languages themselves (e.g., Norwegian and Swedish), whereas the former is a property of one or more
persons
and is determined by subjective or intersubjective factors such as the respective languages' prevalence in the life history (including family upbringing, educational setting, and ambient culture) of the person or persons.
27
Order of acquisition
edit
In
sequential bilingualism
, learners receive literacy instruction in their native language until they acquire a "threshold" literacy proficiency. Some researchers use age three as the age when a child has basic communicative competence in their first language (Kessler, 1984).
28
Children may go through a process of sequential acquisition if they migrate at a young age to a country where a different language is spoken, or if the child exclusively speaks his or her heritage language at home until he or she is immersed in a school setting where instruction is offered in a different language.
In
simultaneous bilingualism
, the native language and the community language are simultaneously taught. The advantage is literacy in two languages as the outcome. However, the teacher must be well-versed in both languages and also in techniques for teaching a second language.
The phases children go through during sequential acquisition are less linear than for simultaneous acquisition and can vary greatly among children. Sequential acquisition is a more complex and lengthier process, although there is no indication that non-language-delayed children end up less proficient than simultaneous bilinguals, so long as they receive adequate input in both languages.
29
A coordinate model posits that equal time should be spent in separate instruction of the native language and the community language. The native language class, however, focuses on basic literacy while the community language class focuses on listening and speaking skills. Being bilingual does not necessarily mean that one can speak, for example, English and French.
Outcomes
edit
Research has found that the development of competence in the native language serves as a foundation of proficiency that can be transposed to the second language – the common underlying proficiency hypothesis.
30
31
Cummins' work sought to overcome the perception propagated in the 1960s that learning two languages made for two competing aims. The belief was that the two languages were mutually exclusive and that learning a second required unlearning elements and dynamics of the first to accommodate the second.
32
The evidence for this perspective relied on the fact that some errors in acquiring the second language were related to the rules of the first language.
32
Another new development that has influenced the linguistic argument for bilingual literacy is the length of time necessary to acquire a second language. Previously, children were believed to have the ability to learn a language within a year, but today, researchers believe that within and across academic settings, the period is closer to five years.
33
34
needs update?
An interesting outcome of studies during the early 1990s, however, confirmed that students who do complete bilingual instruction perform better academically.
33
34
These students exhibit more
cognitive flexibility
, including a better ability to analyze abstract visual patterns. Students who receive two-way bilingual immersion, a form of dual language education that brings together students from two different language backgrounds to learn in both languages,
35
will perform at an even higher level.
citation needed
Examples of such programs include international and multi-national education schools.
In individuals
edit
"Polyglot" redirects here. For other uses, see
Polyglot (disambiguation)
See also:
List of polyglots
"Pvt. Lloyd A. Taylor, 21-year-old transportation
dispatcher
at
Mitchel Field
, New York City, who knows Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese, studies a book on Chinese. A former medical student at
Temple University
, he passes two hours a day studying languages as a hobby."
This picture was taken during
World War II
A multilingual person is someone who can communicate in more than one language actively (through speaking, writing, or signing). Multilingual people can logically speak any language they write in (aside from
mute
multilingual people
36
), but they cannot necessarily write in any language they speak.
37
More specifically, bilingual and trilingual people are those in comparable situations involving two or three languages, respectively. A multilingual person is generally referred to as a
polyglot
, a term that may also refer to people who learn multiple languages as a hobby.
38
39
Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called
first language
(L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two languages in this way are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals, one language usually dominates over the other.
40
In linguistics, first language acquisition is closely related to the concept of a "native speaker". According to a view widely held by linguists, a native speaker of a given language has in some respects a level of skill that a second (or subsequent) language learner cannot easily accomplish. Consequently, descriptive empirical studies of languages are usually carried out using only native speakers. This view is, however, slightly problematic, particularly as many non-native speakers demonstrably not only successfully engage with and in their non-native language societies, but in fact may become culturally and even linguistically important contributors (as, for example, writers, politicians, media personalities and performing artists) in their non-native language. In recent years, linguistic research has focused attention on the use of widely known world languages, such as English, as a
lingua franca
or a shared common language of professional and commercial communities. In lingua franca situations, most speakers of the common language are functionally multilingual.
The reverse phenomenon, where people who know more than one language end up losing command of some or all of their additional languages, is called
language attrition
. It has been documented that, under certain conditions, individuals may lose their L1 language proficiency completely, after switching to the exclusive use of another language, and effectively "become native" in a language that was once secondary after the L1 undergoes total attrition.
This is most commonly seen among
immigrant
communities. The most important factor in spontaneous, total L1 loss appears to be age; in the absence of neurological dysfunction or injury, only young children typically are at risk of forgetting their native language and switching to a new one.
41
Once they pass an age that seems to correlate closely with the
critical period
, around the age of 12, total loss of a native language is not typical, although it is still possible for speakers to experience diminished expressive capacity if the language is never practiced.
42
Cognitive ability
edit
Main article:
Cognitive effects of multilingualism
There is no evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive function and lexical difficulties are confined to those who learnt a second language later in life.
43
Some initial reports concluded that people who use more than one language have been reported to be more adept at language learning compared to monolinguals,
and this idea persisted in part due to
publication bias
44
Current meta-analyses find no effect.
45
Individuals who are highly proficient in two or more languages have been reported to have a certain very marginally enhanced or no different
executive function
46
47
and older onset for
dementia
48
49
50
51
52
More recently, however, this claim has come under strong criticism
53
54
with repeated failures to replicate.
55
56
57
Yet, many prior studies do not reliably quantify samples of bilinguals under investigation.
58
An emerging perspective is that studies on bilingual and multilingual cognitive abilities need to account for validated and granular quantifications of language experience in order to identify boundary conditions of possible cognitive effects.
59
60
61
62
Auditory ability
edit
Bilingual and multilingual individuals are shown to have superior auditory processing abilities compared to monolingual individuals.
63
Several investigations have compared auditory processing abilities of monolingual and bilingual individuals using tasks such as gap detection, temporal ordering, pitch pattern recognition etc. In general, results of studies have reported superior performance among bilingual and multilingual individuals. Furthermore, among bilingual individuals, one's level of proficiency in one's second language was also reported to influence auditory processing abilities.
Economic benefits
edit
Bilinguals might have important labor market advantages over monolingual individuals as bilingual people can carry out duties that monolinguals cannot,
64
such as interacting with customers who only speak a minority language. A study in Switzerland has found that multilingualism is positively correlated with an individual's salary, the productivity of firms, and the gross domestic production (GDP); the authors state that Switzerland's GDP is augmented by 10% by multilingualism.
65
A study in the United States by O. Agirdag found that bilingualism has substantial economic benefits, as bilingual people were found to earn around $3,000 more per year in salary than monolinguals.
66
Psychology
edit
A study in 2012 has shown that using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases. It was surmised that the
framing effect
disappeared when choices are presented in a second language. As human reasoning is shaped by two distinct modes of thought: one that is systematic, analytical and cognition-intensive, and another that is fast, unconscious and emotionally charged, it was believed that a second language provides a useful cognitive distance from automatic processes, promoting analytical thought and reducing unthinking, emotional reaction. Therefore, those who speak two languages have better critical thinking and decision-making skills.
67
A study published a year later found that switching to a second language seems to exempt bilinguals from social norms and constraints, such as
political correctness
68
In 2014, another study showed that people using a foreign language are more likely to make utilitarian decisions when faced with moral dilemmas, such as the
trolley problem
and its variations. Participants in this study chose the utilitarian option more often in the Fat Man dilemma when it was presented in a foreign language. For the related Switch Track dilemma, however, the use of a foreign language presented no significant influence on the choices participants made. The authors of this study surmised that a foreign language lacks the emotional impact of one's native language.
69
Personality
edit
Because it is difficult or impossible to master many of the high-level semantic aspects of a language (including but not limited to its
idioms
and
eponyms
) without first understanding the culture and history of the region in which that language evolved, as a practical matter an in-depth familiarity with multiple cultures is a prerequisite for high-level multilingualism. This knowledge of multiple cultures, both individually and comparatively, can shape an individual's sense of identity and how others perceive it.
40
70
Some studies have found that groups of multilingual individuals get higher average scores on tests for certain personality traits such as cultural
empathy
open-mindedness
and social initiative.
71
72
The idea of
linguistic relativity
, which claims that the language people speak influences the way they see the world, can be interpreted to mean that individuals who speak multiple languages have a broader, more diverse view of the world, even when speaking only one language at a time.
73
Some bilinguals feel that their personality changes depending on which language they are speaking;
74
thus multilingualism is said to create multiple personalities. Xiao-lei Wang states in her book
Growing up with Three Languages: Birth to Eleven
: "Languages used by speakers with one or more than one language are used not just to represent a unitary self, but to enact different kinds of selves, and different linguistic contexts create different kinds of self-expression and experiences for the same person."
75
However, there has been little rigorous research done on this topic and it is difficult to define "personality" in this context.
François Grosjean
wrote: "What is seen as a change in personality is most probably simply a shift in attitudes and behaviors that correspond to a shift in situation or context, independent of language."
76
However, the
Sapir–Whorf
hypothesis, which states that a language shapes our vision of the world, may suggest that a language learned by a grown-up may have much fewer emotional
connotations
and therefore allow a more serene discussion than a language learned by a child and to that respect more or less bound to a child's perception of the world.
Hyperpolyglots and savants
edit
Many polyglots know up to five or six languages, but the frequency of polyglotism drops off sharply past this point.
77
39
Those who know more languages than five or six—
Michael Erard
suggests eleven or more, while Usman W. Chohan suggests six to eight (depending on proficiency) or more—are sometimes classed as
hyperpolyglots
78
77
79
Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti
, for example, was an Italian priest reputed to have spoken anywhere from 30 to 72 languages.
39
79
The term
savant
, in a general sense, may refer to any individual with a natural or innate talent for a particular field; however, people diagnosed with
savant syndrome
are specifically individuals with significant mental disabilities who demonstrate certain profound and
prodigious
capacities or certain abilities far in excess of what would usually be considered normal,
80
81
occasionally including a prodigious capacity for languages. Savant syndrome is almost always associated with an increased memory capacity of some sort, which can, for certain savants, aid in storing and retrieving knowledge of different languages.
82
In 1991, for example, linguists
Neil Smith
and
Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli
described a man, named Christopher, who learned sixteen languages even with a non-verbal
IQ
between 40 and 70. Christopher was born in 1962, and he was diagnosed with brain damage approximately six months after his birth.
83
Despite being institutionalized because he was unable to take care of himself, Christopher had a verbal IQ of 89, could speak English with no impairment, and could learn subsequent languages with apparent ease. This facility with language and communication is considered to be unusual for most diagnosed with savant syndrome.
84
Neuroscience
edit
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Neuroscience of multilingualism
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Neuroscience of multilingualism
is the study of multilingualism within the field of
neurology
. These studies include the representation of different language systems in the brain, the effects of multilingualism on the
brain's structural plasticity
aphasia
in multilingual individuals, and
bimodal bilinguals
(people who can speak at least one
sign language
and at least one oral language). Neurological studies of multilingualism are carried out with
functional neuroimaging
85
electrophysiology
, and through observation of people who have suffered
brain damage
The brain contains areas that are specialized to deal with language, located in the
perisylvian cortex
of the left hemisphere. These areas are crucial for performing language tasks, but they are not the only areas that are used; disparate parts of both the right and left brain hemispheres are active during language production. In multilingual individuals, there is a great deal of similarity in the brain areas used for each of their languages. Insights into the neurology of multilingualism have been gained by the study of multilingual individuals with aphasia, or the loss of one or more languages as a result of brain damage. Bilingual aphasics can show several different patterns of recovery; they may recover one language but not another, they may recover both languages simultaneously, or they may involuntarily mix different languages during language production during the recovery period. These patterns are explained by the
dynamic view
of bilingual aphasia, which holds that the language system of representation and control is compromised as a result of brain damage.
Research has also been carried out into the neurology of bimodal bilinguals, or people who can speak at least one oral language and at least one sign language. Studies with bimodal bilinguals have also provided insight into the
tip of the tongue
phenomenon,
working memory
, and patterns of neural activity when recognizing
facial expressions
, signing, and speaking.
In communities
edit
Further information:
List of multilingual countries and regions
Croatian-Italian bilingual plate on a public building in
Pula
/Pola (Istria)
A bilingual sign in
Brussels
, the capital of
Belgium
. In Brussels, both
Dutch
and
French
are official languages.
multilingual sign
at the
Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier
in
Macau
. At the top are
Portuguese
and
Chinese
, which are the
official languages
of Macau, while at the bottom are
Japanese
and English, which are common languages used by
tourists
(English is also one of Hong Kong's two official languages).
A caution message in
Kannada
and
Hindi
found in
Bangalore
, India
The three-language (
Tamil
and
Hindi
) name board at the Tirusulam suburban railway station in
Chennai
(Madras). Almost all railway stations in India have signs like these in three or more languages (English, Hindi and the local language(s)).
Multilingual sign at
Vancouver International Airport
, international arrivals area. Text in English, French, and Chinese is a permanent feature of this sign, while the right panel of the sign is a video screen that rotates through additional languages.
Multilingual sign at an exit of
SM Mall of Asia
in
Pasay
, Philippines. Three or four languages are shown:
Japanese
Mandarin Chinese
("deguchi" or "chūkǒu", respectively),
("exit") and
Korean
("chulgu"). While
Filipinos
themselves are
anglophones
, such signs cater to the
growing number of Koreans
and other
foreigners
in the country.
Multilingual message at a public toilet in
Puerto Princesa
, Palawan, Philippines that prohibits foot washing. Text is written in six languages: English,
Filipino
Cebuano
, Chinese, Korean, and
Russian
, from top to bottom.
The name of a train found in South India written in four languages: Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, and English. Boards like this are common on trains that pass through two or more states where the languages spoken are different.
A trilingual (
Arabic
, English and
Urdu
) sign in the
UAE
in the three widely spoken languages in the UAE
Widespread multilingualism is one form of
language contact
. Multilingualism was common in the past: in early times, when most people were members of small language communities, it was necessary to know two or more languages for trade or any other dealings outside one's town or village, and this holds good today in places of high linguistic diversity such as
Sub-Saharan Africa
and
India
. Linguist Ekkehard Wolff estimates that 50% of the population of Africa is multilingual.
86
In multilingual societies, not all speakers need to be multilingual. Some states can have multilingual policies and recognize several official languages, such as
Canada
(English and French). In some states, particular languages may be associated with particular regions in the state (e.g., Canada) or with particular ethnicities (e.g., Malaysia and Singapore). When all speakers are multilingual, linguists classify the community according to the functional distribution of the languages involved:
Diglossia
: if there is a structural-functional distribution of the languages involved, the society is termed 'diglossic'. Typical diglossic areas are those areas in
Europe
where a
regional language
is used in informal, usually oral, contexts, while the state language is used in more formal situations.
Frisia
(with
Frisian
and
German
or
Dutch
) and
Lusatia
(with
Sorbian
and German) are well-known examples. Some writers limit diglossia to situations where the languages are closely related and could be considered dialects of each other. This can also be observed in Scotland where, in formal situations,
is used. However, in informal situations in many areas,
Scots
is the preferred language of choice. A similar phenomenon is also observed in Arabic-speaking regions. The effects of diglossia can be seen in the difference between written Arabic (
Modern Standard Arabic
) and colloquial Arabic. However, as time has passed, Arabic speakers have developed what some have deemed "Middle Arabic" or "Common Arabic", somewhere between the two extremes. Because of this diversification of the language, the concept of spectroglossia
87
has been suggested.
Ambilingualism
: a region is called ambilingual if this functional distribution is not observed. In a typical ambilingual area it is nearly impossible to predict which language will be used in a given setting. True ambilingualism is rare. Ambilingual tendencies can be found in small states with multiple heritages, like
Luxembourg
, which has a combined Franco-Germanic heritage, or
Malaysia
and
Singapore
, which fuse the cultures of
Malays
Chinese people
, and
Indians
, as well as in communities with high rates of deafness, like
Martha's Vineyard
, where historically most inhabitants spoke both
Martha's Vineyard Sign Language
and English, or southern Israel, where locals tend to speak both
Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
and Arabic or Hebrew. Ambilingualism also can manifest in specific regions of larger states that have both a dominant state language (be it
de jure
or
de facto
) and a protected minority language that is limited in terms of the distribution of speakers within the country. This tendency is especially pronounced when, even though the local language is widely spoken, there is a reasonable assumption that all citizens speak the predominant state tongue (e.g., English in Quebec vs. all of Canada; Spanish in Catalonia vs. all of Spain). This phenomenon can also occur in border regions with many cross-border contacts.
Bipart-lingualism
: if more than one language can be heard in a small area, but the large majority of speakers are monolinguals, who have little contact with speakers from neighboring ethnic groups, an area is called 'bipart-lingual'. An example of this is the
Balkans
Note that the terms given above all refer to situations describing only two languages. In cases of an unspecified number of languages, the terms
polyglossia
omnilingualism
, and
multipart-lingualism
are more appropriate.
Taxell's paradox
refers to the notion that monolingual solutions are essential to the realization of functional bilingualism, with multilingual solutions ultimately leading to monolingualism. The theory is based on the observation of the
Swedish
language in
Finland
in environments such as schools is subordinated to the majority language
Finnish
for practical and social reasons, despite the positive characteristics associated with mutual language learning.
88
89
Interaction between speakers of different languages
edit
Whenever two people meet, negotiations take place. If they want to express solidarity and sympathy, they tend to seek common features in their behavior. If speakers wish to express distance towards or even dislike of the person they are speaking to, the reverse is true, and differences are sought. This mechanism also extends to language, as described by the
communication accommodation theory
Some multilingual people use
code-switching
, which involves swapping between languages. In many cases, code-switching allows speakers to participate in more than one cultural group or environment. Code-switching may also function as a strategy where proficiency is lacking. Such strategies are common if the vocabulary of one of the languages is not very elaborated for certain fields, or if the speakers have not developed proficiency in certain lexical domains, as in the case of immigrant languages.
This code-switching appears in many forms. If a speaker has a positive attitude towards both languages and towards code-switching, many switches can be found, even within the same sentence.
90
If however, the speaker is reluctant to use code-switching, as in the case of a lack of proficiency, he might knowingly or unknowingly try to camouflage his attempt by converting elements of one language into elements of the other language through
calquing
. This results in speakers using terms like
courrier noir
(literally, mail that is black) in French, instead of the proper word for
blackmail
in French,
chantage
Sometimes
pidgins
develop. A pidgin is a fusion of two or more languages that is grammatically simplified but can be understood by native speakers of any of the original languages. Some pidgins develop into "real"
creole languages
(such as
Papiamento
in
Curaçao
or
Singlish
in
Singapore
), while others simply evolve into
slangs
or
jargons
(such as
Helsinki slang
, which remains more or less
mutually intelligible
with standard Finnish and Swedish).
clarification needed
In other cases, prolonged influence of languages on each other may have the effect of changing one or both of them to the point a new, non-creole language is born. For example, many linguists believe that the
Occitan language
and the
Catalan language
were formed because a population speaking a single Occitano-Romance language was divided by the political spheres of influence of France and Spain, respectively.
Yiddish
is a complex blend of
Middle High German
with
Hebrew
and also has borrowings from Slavic languages.
Bilingual interaction can even take place without speakers switching between languages or fusing them together. In certain areas, it is not uncommon for speakers to use a different language within the same conversation. This phenomenon is found, amongst other places, in
Scandinavia
. Most speakers of
Swedish
Norwegian
and
Danish
can communicate with each other speaking their respective languages, while few can speak both (people used to these situations often adjust their language, avoiding words that are not found in the other language or that can be misunderstood). Using different languages is usually called
non-convergent discourse
, a term introduced by the
Dutch
linguist Reitze Jonkman.
citation needed
To a certain extent, this situation also exists between
Dutch
and
Afrikaans
, although everyday contact is fairly rare because of the distance between the two respective communities. Another example is the former state of
Czechoslovakia
, where two closely related and mutually intelligible languages (
Czech
and
Slovak
) were in common use. Most Czechs and Slovaks understand both languages, although they would use only one of them (their respective mother tongue) when speaking. For example, in Czechoslovakia, it was common to hear two people talking on television each speaking a different language without any difficulty understanding each other. This bilingualism still exists nowadays, although it has started to deteriorate since Czechoslovakia split up.
91
Japanese, English, and Russian sign in Northern Japan
Mongolian, Chagatai, Chinese, Tibetan, and Manchu sign in Chengde, China
A sign at the Israeli
Ministry of Interior
and
Ministry of Immigration and Absorption
in Haifa in 2009 uses Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian
A multilingual sign in Singapore's four official languages: English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay
Urdu, Hindi, and English on a road sign in India
A sign in Morocco uses Arabic, Berber (written in
Tifinagh
), and French
Computing
edit
Dual-language
Hebrew
and English keyboard
Artificial Languages
edit
Computer programs are written using artificial languages known as
Programming Languages
. A computer programmer capable of reading and writing software in a multiple languages can also be called a
polyglot
92
Natural Languages
edit
With emerging markets and expanding international cooperation, business users expect to be able to use software and applications in their own language.
93
Multilingualisation (or "m17n", where "17" stands for 17 omitted letters) of computer systems can be considered part of a continuum between
internationalization and localization
A localized system has been adapted or converted for a particular locale (other than the one it was originally developed for), including the language of the user interface, input, and display, and features such as time/date display and currency; but each instance of the system only supports a single locale.
Multilingualised software supports multiple languages for display and input simultaneously, but generally has a single user interface language. Support for other locale features like time, date, number and currency formats may vary as the system tends towards full internationalization. Generally, a multilingual system is intended for use in a specific locale, whilst allowing for multilingual content.
An internationalized system is equipped for use in a range of locales, allowing for the co-existence of several languages and character sets in user interfaces and displays. In particular, a system may not be considered internationalized in the fullest sense unless the interface language is selectable by the user at runtime.
Translating the user interface is usually part of the
software localization
process, which also includes adaptations such as units and date conversion. Many software applications are available in several languages, ranging from a handful (the
most spoken languages
) to dozens for the most popular applications (such as
office suites
web browsers
, etc.). Due to the status of
English in computing
, software development nearly always uses it (but see also
Non-English-based programming languages
), so almost all commercial software is initially available in an English version, and multilingual versions, if any, may be produced as alternative options based on the English original.
The Multilingual App Toolkit (MAT)
94
was first released in concert with the release of Windows 8 as a way to provide developers a set of free tooling that enabled adding languages to their apps with just a few clicks, in large part due to the integration of a free, unlimited license to both the Microsoft Translator machine translation service and the Microsoft Language Platform service, along with platform extensibility to enable anyone to add translation services into MAT. Microsoft engineers and inventors of MAT Jan A. Nelson and Camerum Lerum have continued to drive the development of the tools, working with third parties and standards bodies to ensure that broad availability of multilingual app development is provided.
95
With the release of Windows 10, MAT is now delivering support for cross-platform development for Universal Windows Platform apps as well as for iOS and Android apps.
Internet
edit
Main article:
Languages used on the Internet
English-speaking countries
edit
According to Hewitt (2008)
full citation needed
entrepreneurs in London from Poland, China, and Turkey tend to use English for communication with customers, suppliers, and banks but their native languages for work tasks and other social purposes. Even in English-speaking countries, immigrants can often still use their mother tongue in the workplace thanks to the presence of other immigrants in that workplace who come from the same place. Kovacs (2004) describes this phenomenon in Australia with Finnish immigrants in the construction industry who spoke Finnish during working hours.
96
Although foreign languages may be used in the workplace, English is still a key working skill.
Asia
edit
Many Asian companies, due to increasing globalization, have recently been focusing more and more on their employees' English proficiency. Especially in
South Korea
since the 1990s, Asian companies have lately used different English language tests to evaluate job applicants, and the standards for these tests continue to be raised. Meanwhile,
Japan
ranks 53rd out of 100 countries in 2019
EF English Proficiency Index
, amid calls for this to improve in time for the
2020 Tokyo Olympics
citation needed
needs update
Within multiracial countries such as
Malaysia
and
Singapore
, it is not unusual for one to speak two or more languages, albeit with varying degrees of fluency.
97
98
99
Some are proficient in several Chinese varieties, given the linguistic diversity of the ethnic Chinese community in both countries. In Singapore, bilingualism is embraced in the education system with English as the medium of instruction and the official
mother tongue
taught as a second language.
100
Africa
edit
In Africa, knowledge of English is important not only for multinational companies but also in the fields of engineering, chemistry, electricity and aeronautics. A study directed by Hill and van Zyl (2002) shows that in South Africa young black engineers used English most often for communication and documentation. However, Afrikaans and other local languages were also used to explain particular concepts to workers in order to ensure understanding and cooperation.
101
Europe
edit
A Welsh Government video of an English medium school in
Wales
, where introducing a second language (
Welsh
) has boosted the exam results
Languages that are used in multiple countries include:
Arabic
in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman; and to a co-official extent in Mali, Chad, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Zanzibar, and the Comoros.
Chinese
in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and a minority in Malaysia
German
in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
Greek
in Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, and Italy (in Calabria and Salento).
French
in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra, and Switzerland; and to a co-official extent in Canada, as well as much of Francophone Africa including Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, and Togo.
Spanish
in Spain, Andorra, much of the
Hispanic America
including Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, etc; Western Sahara, Equatorial Guinea and a minority in the Philippines.
Portuguese
in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé e Príncipe, Timor-Leste and Macau.
in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Malta, South Africa, Botswana, the Gambia, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe; much of the Caribbean including Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago; to a co-official extent in India, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore; and in many of the Pacific Islands including Fiji, Samoa and Tuvalu.
Dutch
in the Netherlands, Belgium, Aruba, Sint Maarten, Curaçao, Caribbean Netherlands and Suriname.
Swedish
in Sweden and Finland.
Italian
in Italy, Switzerland, and San Marino; and to a co-official extent in Malta.
Russian
in Russia and Belarus and in Russian-occupied Ukraine; and to a co-official extent in some other former Soviet Union countries. Despite being spoken by some part of the population, it is not official in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova or Israel.
English is a commonly taught second language at schools, so it is also the most common choice for two speakers, whose native languages are different. However, some languages are so close to each other that it is generally more common when meeting to use their mother tongue rather than English. These language groups include:
Danish
Swedish
and
Norwegian
Arabic dialectic continuum
Czech
and
Slovak
Serbian
Croatian
Bosnian
and
Montenegrin
: standardized in the 19th century and throughout the existence of
Yugoslavia
, Croatian and Serbian were considered as Western and Eastern variants of a common,
Serbo-Croatian
language. After the
breakup of Yugoslavia
, each successor state
proclaimed and codified
its own official language. In
sociolinguistics
, however, these are still considered standardized varieties of one
pluricentric language
, all based on
Shtokavian
dialect, with the biggest distinction being between the
Ekavian
and
Ijekavian
pronunciation. Cyrillic and Latin writing scripts are official in Montenegrin and Serbian, while Latin is exclusively official in Bosnian and Croatian.
In multilingual countries such as Belgium (Dutch, French, and German), Finland (Finnish and Swedish), Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Romansh), Luxembourg (Luxembourgish, French, and German), Spain (Spanish, Catalan, Basque, and Galician), and Malta (Maltese, English, and Italian), it is common to see people who have mastered two or even three of their country's chief languages.
Many minor
Russian
ethnic groups, such as
Tatars
Bashkirs
and others, are also multilingual. Moreover, with the beginning of the compulsory study of the
Tatar language
in
Tatarstan
, there has been an increase in knowledge of Tatar among the natively Russian-speaking population of the republic.
102
Continued global
diversity
has led to an increasingly multilingual population. Europe has become an excellent model to observe this newly diversified culture. The expansion of the European Union with its open labour market has provided opportunities both for well-trained professionals and unskilled workers to move to new countries to seek employment. Political changes and turmoil have also led to migration and the creation of new and more complex multilingual workplaces. In most wealthy and secure countries, immigrants are found mostly in low-paid jobs but also, increasingly, in high-status positions.
103
Americas
edit
United States
edit
English is the official language of the United States.
104
According to the US census, there are 76 million multilingual people, 23% of the population. In March 2025 the White House released an executive order declaring, “...it is in America’s best interest for the Federal Government to designate one — and only one — official language” (The White House). In 2021 there were 5.3 million students receiving English Language Learner services
[1]
. Additionally, Net immigration rates have drastically increased since 2021 from 247,000 to 2.8 million in 2024 (US census).
Music
edit
Further information:
List of multilingual bands and artists
It is extremely common for music to be written in whatever the contemporary
lingua franca
is. If a song is not written in a common tongue, then it is usually written in whatever is the predominant language in the musician's country of origin, or in another widely recognized language, such as English, German, Spanish, or French.
105
The bilingual song cycles "there..." and "Sing, Poetry" on the 2011 contemporary classical album
Troika
consist of musical settings of Russian poems with their English self-translation by
Joseph Brodsky
and
Vladimir Nabokov
, respectively.
106
Songs with lyrics in multiple languages are known as
macaronic verse
107
Literature
edit
Fiction
edit
Multilingual stories, essays, and novels are often written by immigrants and
second generation American
authors.
108
109
Chicana
author
Gloria E. Anzaldúa
, a major figure in the fields
Third World Feminism
Postcolonial Feminism
, and
Latino philosophy
explained the author's existential sense of obligation to write multilingual literature.
110
An often quoted passage, from her collection of stories and essays entitled
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
, states:
"Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate. I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue – my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence".
111
Multilingual novels by
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
display phrases in
Igbo
with translations, as in her early works
Purple Hibiscus
and
Half of a Yellow Sun
. However, in her later novel
Americanah
, the author does not offer translations of non-English passages.
111
The House on Mango Street
by
Sandra Cisneros
is an example of
Chicano literature
that leaves Spanish words and phrases untranslated (though italicized) throughout the text.
112
American novelists who use foreign languages (outside of their own cultural heritage) for literary effect include
Cormac McCarthy
, who uses untranslated Spanish and
Spanglish
in his fiction.
113
Poetry
edit
This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding missing information
October 2023
Multilingual poetry is prevalent in the United States'
Latino literature
, where
code-switching
and
translanguaging
between English, Spanish, and
Spanglish
is common within a single poem or throughout a book of poems.
114
Latino poetry
is also written in Portuguese and can include phrases in
Nahuatl
Mayan
Huichol
Arawakan
, and other indigenous languages related to the Latino experience. Contemporary multilingual Latino American poets include
Giannina Braschi
Ana Castillo
Sandra Cisneros
, and
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
115
The British-Cuban political activist,
surrealist
poet and artist
Mary Stanley Low
published the trilingual poetry volume
Tres voces – Three Voices – Trois Vois
in 1957, which featured poetry in English, Spanish and French.
116
Film
edit
The 2021 Indian documentary film
Dreaming of Words
traces the life and work of
Njattyela Sreedharan
, a fourth standard drop-out, who compiled a multilingual dictionary connecting four major
Dravidian languages
Malayalam
Kannada
Tamil
and
Telugu
117
118
119
Travelling across four states and doing extensive research, he spent twenty five years
120
making this multilingual dictionary.
Television
edit
In
1899
, only in the English audio track, the characters, who are played by actors of different nationalities, speak in their original languages, with a total of 8 languages being broadcast.
121
Terms for speakers
edit
monolingual, monoglot - 1 language spoken
bilingual, diglot - 2 languages spoken
trilingual, triglot - 3 languages spoken
quadrilingual, tetraglot - 4 languages spoken
quinquelingual, pentaglot - 5 languages spoken
sexalingual, hexaglot - 6 languages spoken
septilingual or septalingual, heptaglot - 7 languages spoken
octolingual or octalingual, octoglot - 8 languages spoken
novelingual or nonalingual, enneaglot - 9 languages spoken
decalingual, decaglot - 10 languages spoken
undecalingual, hendecaglot - 11 languages spoken
duodecalingual, dodecaglot - 12 languages spoken
See also
edit
Cultural diversity
– Quality of diverse or different cultures
Digraphia
– Using multiple writing systems for one language
Economics of language
Linguapax Prize
List of multilingual countries and regions
Multilingualism and globalization
– Relationship between multilingualism & globalization
Official multilingualism
Plurilingualism
– Ability to switch between languages
Interlinguistics
– Subfield of linguistics
Linguistic rights
– Right to choose one's own language
Metatypy
– Type of linguistic change due to language contact
The Multilingual Library
– Library in Oslo, Norway
One person, one language
– Linguistic Parenting Method
Spanish language in the United States
Unexpected bilingualism
– Form of language acquisition in autistic people
Legislation and movements
European Commissioner for Multilingualism
European Day of Languages
– International observance, September 26
English-only movement
– Political movement in the U.S.
Language legislation in Belgium
– Belgian legislation
Languages of the European Union
Education
Multilingual education
– Multilingual teaching
In Africa
Notes
edit
See the
critical period hypothesis
References
edit
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Further reading
edit
Valore, Paolo (2011).
Multilingualism: language, power, and knowledge
. Pisa: Edistudio.
ISBN
978-88-7036-809-3
OCLC
863307786
(in English and Italian)
Bhatia, Tej; Ritchie, William C. (2004).
The Handbook of Bilingualism
. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-631-22735-9
Bialystok, Ellen (March 2017).
"The bilingual adaptation: How minds accommodate experience"
Psychological Bulletin
143
(3):
233–
262.
doi
10.1037/bul0000099
PMC
5324728
PMID
28230411
Burck, Charlotte (2007).
Multilingual Living
. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN
978-0-230-55433-7
Jared Diamond
The World until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
(especially chapter ten: "Speaking in many tongues"), Penguin Books, 2012 (
ISBN
978-0-141-02448-6
).
Komorowska, Hanna (2011).
Issues in Promoting Multilingualism. Teaching – Learning – Assessment
. Warsaw: Foundation for the Development of the Education System.
ISBN
978-83-62634-19-4
Christina Korkman (1995),
Tvåspråkighet och skriftlig framställning : en undersökning av tvåspråkiga elevers uppsatser i den finlandssvenska grundskolan / Christina Korkman
Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland
(in Swedish), Helsinki:
Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
ISSN
0039-6842
Wikidata
Q113529945
Kramsch, Claire (3 June 2011).
"Are You Another Person When You Speak Another Language?"
Berkeley Language Center
. Retrieved
2 June
2013
Catharina Lojander-Visapää (2001),
Med rätt att välja : språkval och språkstrategier i språkligt blandade hushåll i Helsingfors / Catharina Lojander- Visapää
Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland
(in Swedish), Helsinki:
Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
ISSN
0039-6842
Wikidata
Q113529982
Romaine, Suzanne (1995).
Bilingualism
. Oxford: Blackwell.
ISBN
978-0-631-19539-9
Baker, Colin; Prys, Sylvia (1998).
Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
. Multilingual Matters.
ISBN
978-1-85359-362-8
External links
edit
Look up
multilingual
multilingualism
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, or
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in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Library resources
about
Multilingualism
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Multilingualism
at Wikimedia Commons
Second-language acquisition
General
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Common misconceptions
Subfields
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Classroom research
Education
Phonology
Writing
Learners
Multilingualism
Heritage language
Multi-competence
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Error analysis
Error treatment
Interlanguage
Silent period
Linguistic factors
Language transfer
Linguistic universal
Word lists by frequency
Individual variation
Language-learning aptitude
Critical period hypothesis
Motivation
Willingness to communicate
Foreign language anxiety
Metalinguistic awareness
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