-
Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa by Lotfi Sayahi (review)
- The French Review
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 89, Number 3, March 2016
- pp. 285-286
- 10.1353/tfr.2016.0405
- Review
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Reviews 285 responses to the question Qu’est-ce qu’un verbe?, with Roubaud and Gomila as well as Lavieu-Gwodz presenting the results of simple verb identification tasks. The final article by Sautot examines the use of complex verb forms (passé composé, faire causatif, venir de, and so on) in written production data from elementary and middle school students. Unfortunately, the volume suffers from several typographical and production errors.Although most are minor distractions that have no effect on meaning, some are more serious, including the transcription of one of the verbal stems of devoir as [dev] (rather than [dv]) in Gerolimich and Stabarin’s verb classification system, and reference in one article to bolded and italicized items in a table that has no such formatting. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis A. Kate Miller Sayahi, Lotfi. Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2014. ISBN 978-0-521-11936-8. Pp. 251. $95. Sayahi’s volume provides a wealth of information regarding the present state of language contact and language change in a linguistically diverse region that includes areas of North Africa, Iberia, and the Maltese Islands. The book’s scope is significant, particularly because it covers a large geographic area and deals with a complex linguistic situation. Comprised of an introduction, six chapters, and a conclusion, Sayahi’s study is a fresh look at diglossia and language change. Sayahi explores various definitions of diglossia beginning with the classical definition (Ferguson 1959). He ultimately adopts an updated Fergusonian theory (Ferguson 1991) with the incorporation of the notion of bilingualism and contact with unrelated languages. In the first chapter, Sayahi describes the languages of North Africa; he notes that, in North Africa, “the coexistence of these languages has led to a situation of diglossia and bilingualism where the overlap of the domains of usage of some of these varieties is triggering significant change” (54). He explains that while Berber is the native language and French the language of higher education and commercial interactions, classical Arabic is used in the mosques, Spanish in border communications, and regional dialects in most everyday situations (54). The diversity of dialects found in electronic and audiovisual media, Sayahi argues, is having an impact on the functionality of these varieties. Regarding bilingualism, he remarks that while French/Arabic bilingualism appears to promote the spread of French, Berber/Arabic bilingualism seems to work against Berber. The subsequent chapters discuss language contact and the functionality of the varieties. The contact between the High and the Low varieties of the same language occurs in the form of code-switching, which also is found between a Low variety and a third language. These contacts lead to various results, including a very complex system of lexical borrowings and phonological changes that can lead the varieties in different directions. Other changes such as the spread of particular syntactic constructions are due to loanwords, particularly from French. Sayahi has shown, for example, that the analytical forms of the expression of possession in North African dialects are more widely used with borrowed French words.In addition,among the many interesting insights of this study is that the High and Low “varieties are substantially different structurally and it is not only because of their intense contact with other languages [such as French], as is often believed by speakers and policymakers” (201). With the widening differences between the Low and the High varieties, and the increased awareness of the communicative functionality of the Low varieties, diglossia could end, thus leading to the emergence of new languages. Providing its new perspective, Sayahi’s book is a welcome addition to the research within the field of multilingualism, language contact, and bilingualism in North Africa. University of Delaware Ali Alalou TRISTRAM, ANNA. Variation and Change in French Morphosyntax: The Case of Collective Nouns. Oxford: Legenda, 2014. ISBN 978-1-907975-95-0. Pp. 178. $99. While language variation and change have been the focal point for linguists on this side of the Atlantic, Tristram argues that studies on morphosyntactic variation in French studies are lacking due to a focus on phonology and dialectology as well as denial of variation and change...