Factors Influencing Language

Historical Factors
Language situation in any country can be linked directly to historical factors. Colonisation is in
fact the greatest factor responsible for the spread of certain languages to diverse geographical
locations. The language is of slavery and plantation life. It looks at the dispersion of tribes on
plantations and colonies. The need to communicate and peals with sovereignty (take on the
language of the colony that took over).These factors are often related to colonization or
migration. For example, French and English are spoken in Canada today because it was the
scene of several conflicts between France and England in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Social Factors
Social dominance of a group ensures that its dialect becomes the one that assumes the place of
importance in society. Social factors affect interaction with peers. It affects how you
communicate with others of different age group and by structure in society.
Cultural factors ensure that the social dominance of a group ensures that its dialect becomes
the one that assumes the place of importance in the society and is considered to be standard
language of that society. Much of the dynamism of a language is a result of constant social
change and the emergence of new cultural phenomena. However, the elements of social and
economic class always affect attitudes to and choice of language. For example, persons seeking
to be recognized as part of a certain social group may deliberately cultivate the language or
dialect of that group although they do not normally speak that dialect. Sometimes persons may
switch from one variety of language to another throughout the day while they interact in
different social settings. Social factors also determine which types of language are considered
desirable and which ones are improper.
Global movement of people has been a major influence on language. Migrants and refugees are
eager to assimilate quickly to the new culture as they can, to facilitate their ability to fit in with
their society. As generations are born into new culture much of their original language is lost.
Acculturation or assimilating of the new culture affects the language of immigrants; sometimes
the language of the host country also undergoes change as a result of the new cultural
influences. The coexistence of different languages from different languages from different
cultures in a society results in linguistic changes in all the languages and the nature of the
cultural changes determines which language is more widely influential and what types of
change take place.

Interaction with peers

Media
Interaction with others [different age groups]
Structure of the society – cultural plurality [several cultures groups existing in the same
environment]

Environmental Factors
Environmental factors affects the present occasion. Meaning, it affects the function you attend.
It affects the register that you use and it helps you to determine what kind of register should be
used. This factor affects interaction within your home; the language used at church
(ceremonial); the school language, where the language is one of interaction with peers and
instruction.

Educational Factors
Level of educational background
Availability of educational materials which foster the development of language
The teacher
Interaction with students during class
Accessibility of and exposure to training
Level of literacy

Geographic Location
Rurality vs. urbanization
These factors give rise to the issues which perpetuate the prevailing attitudes, both negative
and positive, to language in Jamaica and some other territories in the Caribbean. Discuss among
your friends the attitudes the Standard English and Jamaican Creole which you have observed;
remember that you need to be able to analyse such in the Analytical section of the Internal
Assessment.

EDUCATIONAL – This deals with the level of educational background. The availability of
educational materials has helped to increase the development of language. Teachers help in
the development of education with the interaction with the class.

ECONOMIC – The availability of material to improve education. Traveling helps in the

development because by traveling, more exposure is gained.

POLITICAL – The official language of a country is normally indicated in the national

constitution or other official sources. Recognition given to other languages is also a political or
government decision. Most countries maintain the assigned status of their languages regardless
of political change. In some countries language is significantly influenced by political events.
Language policy determines which languages will be taught in schools, or used for particular
official purposes. The policy may either promote or discourage the use of a particular language
or languages. At other times it is designed to protect an ethnic language that may be in danger
of disappearing.
Political influences on language can determine the extent to which minority languages or
dialect are accepted, recognized or utilized in a society. Political decisions on language are
sometimes taken to promote national identity.
 History of Language in the Caribbean
In the Caribbean, language has always been an important and distinctcharacteristic as the
region is a colourful melting pot of varying cultures stemming from a vast and powerful history.
The Indigenous people, European colonization, the implementation of slavery and later
indentured labour all brought a mixture of different people, cultures and traditions. There is the
Anglophone Caribbean, the Francophone Caribbean, the Hispanophone Caribbean and the
Dutch speaking Caribbean; that would be the English speaking Caribbean, the French speaking
Caribbean, the Spanish speaking Caribbean and the Dutch speaking Caribbean.

In terms of the original settlers in the Pre-Columbian world, the Amerindians such as the Tainos
and Kalinagos, often referred to as the Arawaks and Caribs respectively, as a result of the
impact of the Spanish conquistadores, their languages underwent linguistic genocide due to
their mass population decrease. Many languages destroyed in this way have left behind
sometimes just a language name and a word list recorded by some curious literate European.
According to Taylor (1977), the dead languages include the probably Cariban languages,
Nepuyoand Yao, spoken in Trinidad as well as the Arawakan language Shebayo. However, their
influence can still be heard in words such as tobacco, cassava and guava as the Spanish hadn’t a
name for it thus adopting the words of the indigenous people into their own language. English
also absorbed words from Amerindian sources such as tobacco, cashew and hammock.

Throughout the 17th -19th centuries, the Caribbean was basically rolled into a mixture of
different European languages; initially the Spanish then the English followed by the French and
Dutch. Often in those times, territories would change colonisers and the influence of the
language would be dependent upon which island it was and who the colonisers were. In the
event of a coloniser seizing control over from another, they would try to erase any trace of the
former’s language and replace it with their own. This inevitably led to countries having a
number of influences based on their colonial background. For example, Dominica was a colony
of Spain, France and Britain; changing between them twelve times before eventually becoming
a British colony yet French remaining the main and strongest influence on the language.

Moreover, not only did European colonisation lead to the demise of indigenous language and
introduction to European language, but also lead to the creation of new ones. New languages,
Creole languages, were being created. These produced a new linguistic diversity, partly
coexisting with the old, partly replacing it. With the introduction of plantation agriculture by the
European conquerors, new communities were assembled to produce plantation
crops. The bulk of the plantation labour force was constituted from Africans, mainly West Africa
ns, imported as slaves from their countries of origin.

Essentially what can be agreed upon is that their languages were the linguistic expressions of a
European dominated plantation society culture. They were created and spoken by people who
were part of that culture. However, the major participants in the process of culture and
language creation were West African slaves and their immediate descendants. They would have
imported into the newly developing language, linguistic and cultural features from West Africa.
The debate has focused on exactly how much and how it might have been transmitted.

After slavery ended and the apprenticeship system was over, indentured labour was
introduced. The first set of indentured labourers to arrive was the Chinese (1806), the
Portuguese (latter part of the 1800’s) whose linguistic influences were not heavy and cannot be
compared with Indian indentured labour (1838). The first set of Indians to arrive was referred
to as the "hill coolies" from Chota Nagpur. They spoke Bhojpuri for example, “coolie” or
originally “kuli” means labourer and “chamar” which means leatherworker and is an extreme
profanity.

In the Caribbean of today, one can clearly see the vast mixture of many cultures and linguistic
influences throughout. From the original language of the Amerindians, the sophistication of
European languages, the West African languages on the plantations to the Bhojpuri of the
Indian indentured labourers, the Caribbean is notorious in its syntax and pidgin as the
languages themselves seem to subliminally showcase its rich history