Language island

A language island (a calque of German Sprachinsel; also language enclave, language pocket) is an enclave of a language that is surrounded by one or more different languages.^[1] The term was introduced in 1847.^[2] Many speakers of these languages also have their own distinct culture.

Language islands often form as a result of migration, colonization, imperialism, or trade without a common tongue. Language islands are common of indigenous peoples, especially in the Americas, where colonization has led them to isolate themselves greatly.

Language islands often overlap others.^[3]^[4] For example, in Brussels, a Belgian language island, most of the population is fluent in both Flemish and French, and is still considered a language island or enclave; yet, some consider Brussels' Flemish and Brussels' French to be of separate islands, despite them generally being the same people.

Examples of language islands

Alguerese

Alguerese is a variety of Catalan spoken in Alghero, Sardinia, Italy, with around 45,000 speakers. It is mutually intelligible with Catalan, and although both Standard Catalan and Alguerese have been influenced by Italian and Spanish, Alguerese has experienced a much closer relationship between the two.^[5]

Initially, Alguerese held sway as the dominant language in the region until Spanish took over. However, in the mid-eighteenth century, Italian supplanted Spanish, becoming the new official language. Notwithstanding, and with the Alguerese influence persevered, and today the language enjoys a form of semi-official status alongside Italian.

Arbëresh

Arbëresh is the language of the Arbëreshë people, an originally Albanian ethnolinguistic group of Italy, mainly concentrated in Sardinia with around 100,000 speakers. Many Arbëreshë people also speak Italian, and thus Arbëresh has been affected greatly by it.

The first Arbëreshë who settled in Italy did so mainly because of their severe mistreatment in what was then the Ottoman Balkans, but even so they had been subjugated further in Italy; Pier Paolo Pasolini called their continued and prospering existence there an "anthropological miracle." It took very long for them to be granted equal rights, and longer yet for the general public to accept them as one of their own.^[6]

Betawi

Betawi is the native language of the Betawi people, with an uncertain population, with certain estimates saying 600,000—5,000,000.^[7]

Due to social stratification, Betawi is often imitated by celebrities and youth, making it a core part of popular culture in the area and across indonesia.^[8]

Khalaj

Khalaj is the language of the Khalaj people in Iran. Despite having disputed Turkic origins, it also has much in common with Persian and sometimes Arabic.

It has been described as an extremely endangered language, and is not often passed down to younger generations. Its current population is ambiguous, but it is widely understood that it is rapidly decreasing, due to the greater practicality of using Persian.^[9]

Italiot Greek

Italiot Greek is a variety of Modern Greek spoken in southern Italy. It is split into two dialects, Calabrian Greek Griko, with a total of around 2000 speakers.^[10] Almost all of its speakers are bilingual in both Italian and Griko.

Sorbian

Sorbian is a dialect continuum spoken in two provinces of Germany, namely Saxony (Upper Lusatia) and Brandenburg (Lower Lusatia).^[11]

The Sorbs of Germany have had a similar history to the Jews of Germany, in that they were both oppressed by the federal and state governments (particularly by federal), they were both dismissed minorities in favor of the German population, and were unfairly categorized and separated by region, age, generation. A notable difference between the two however, was that Jews had often fought to be represented with little prevail at the time, whereas although several programmes had been implemented to preserve the Sorbian languages and cultures, Sorbs often and still do reject West Slavic culture to blend in with the German surrounding. Granata, C. A. (n.d.). Celebration and suspicion:^[12]

The Sorbian languages are a language family of West Slavic languages spoken in Saxony and Brandenburg, Germany, by the Sorbs.^[13]

Patagonian Welsh

Patagonian Welsh is the dialect of the Welsh language spoken by Welsh Argentinians in Patagonia, a region of southern Argentina. Despite it maintaining most mutually intelligible with European Welsh, it has been heavily influenced by Spanish, the national language of Argentina. Many Welsh Argentinians are bilingual or sometimes trilingual in Spanish, Welsh, and English.^{[citation needed]}

In 1780, reports by English officials fabricated racist propaganda to raise suspicions against the Welsh people; this led to laws prohibiting the Welsh language and parts of its culture.^[14]

Later, after Argentina had firmly established itself in the area, the Argentinian government was pressured into organizing higher promotion of the Welsh language. Today, although it has been suppressed in the past, Patagonian Welsh is regularly used in public media and taught in various educational institutions.^[15]

Talian

Talian is a dialect of Venetian spoken in several provinces of Brazil. It is the result of an influx of nineteenth century Italian settlers arriving along the southern Brazilian coast.^[16]

Talian is still mutually intelligible with Venetian, and somewhat so with Italian. It has been influenced heavily by Portuguese, but it has also been influenced by German, another language island in the Brazilian coast. Most Talian speakers are at least bilingual in Talian and Portuguese, and tend to cluster around the south.^[17]

Talian has an estimated population of 500,000 speakers.^{[citation needed]}

Examples of language islands:

Tianjinnese, a Central Mandarin variety surrounded by Northern varieties^[18]
Ganzhounese, a Southwestern Mandarin variety surrounded by Hakka in southern Jiangxi, being one of the many Junhua
Cantonese spoken in Sichuan Province
Hangzhounese, a Mandarinic variety surrounded by Northern Wu lects, caused by the change of capital during the Southern Song dynasty^[19]
Zhongshan Min, a group of Eastern Min and Southern Min varieties surrounded by Yue varieties, caused by migrants seeking shelter during the Song and Yuan dynasties.

Gallery

The predominantly French-speaking enclave of Brussels surrounded by Dutch-speaking area
Language islands in Romania
Sorbian language area in Germany
Sanxiang of Zhongshan Min can be seen in the west coast of the Pearl River Delta, far from the rest of Southern Min

References

^ Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, Volume 1, 2009, Section "The history of language island research (Sprachinselforschung)", p.335
^ Peter Auer, Frans Hinskens, Paul Kerswill. Dialect change: convergence and divergence in European languages. p. 221. "The term 'Sprachinsel' was used for the first time in 1847 to designate a Slavonic community surrounded by a German-speaking population close to Konigsberg, East Prussia cf. Mattheier 1996. 812"
^ Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, Volume 1, 2009, Section "The history of language island research (Sprachinselforschung)", p.335
^ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-005-0009-z
^ Breschi, M., Esposito, M., Mazzoni, S., & Pozzi, L. (2014). Fertility transition and social stratification in the town of Alghero, Sardinia (1866–1935). Demographic Research, 30, 823–852. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26348219.
^ Mandalà, Matteo, and Kateřina Knittlová. The Arbëresh: A Brief History of an Ancient Linguistic Minority in Italy. kulturnistudia.cz/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/KS-2-2024-p-137-151.pdf, https://doi.org/10.7160/KS.2024.230206en.
^ Betawi (ISMI) — The Language Documentation Training Center. (n.d.). The Language Documentation Training Center. https://www.ldtc.org/languages/betawi.
^ Post, J. (2008, June 21). The perseverance of Betawi language in Jakarta.The Jakarta Post. https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/06/21/the-perseverance-betawi-language-jakarta.html
^ Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation. (n.d.). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/khalaj-ii-language.
^ Nanasi, T. (2022). Research on the Griko minority language. Attitudes towards the language and suggestions for its revitalization. Nanasi | iNTERCULTURAL tRANSLATION iNTERSEMIOTIC. https://doi.org/10.26262/iti.v11i2.9073.
^ Minority Rights Group. (2024, April 12). Sorbs in Germany - minority rights group. https://minorityrights.org/communities/sorbs/#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20Sorbs%20is,(dolnoserb%C5%A1%C4%87ina)%20spoken%20in%20Brandenburg.
^ Sorbs and Jews in the Soviet Occupied Zone and German Democratic Republic, 1945–1989 - ProQuest. https://www.proquest.com/openview/914cd8cd7d2b158fbb43510076439dc8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y.
^ Marti, R. (2007). Lower Sorbian — twice a minority language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2007(183), 31-51. https://doi.org/10.1515/IJSL.2007.003.
^ The Welsh language in Patagonia and Wales. (n.d.-b). https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/welsh-language-in-patagonia-and-wales.
^ British Council on the lookout for welsh speakers to teach 7,000 miles from home. British Council on the lookout for Welsh speakers to teach 7,000 miles from home | British Council. (2023a). https://wales.britishcouncil.orgo/en/about/press/british-council-lookout-welsh-speakers-teach-7000-miles-home-programme-send-welsh.
^ Ribeiro, A., & Maggio, G. (2019). Contexto histórico da formação do Talian: algumas considerações. Revista De Italianística, 38, 73–87. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2238-8281.v0i38p73-87.
^ A gramática do Talian: ação de salvaguarda da Língua de Referência Cultural Brasileira
^ 李世瑜; 韩根东 (1991). "略论天津方言岛". 天津师大学报 (2).
^ Richard VanNess Simmons (1999). Chinese Dialect Classification: A comparative approach to Harngjou, Old Jintarn, and Common Northern Wu. John Benjamins Publishing Co.

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[1] Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, Volume 1, 2009, Section "The history of language island research (Sprachinselforschung)", p.335

[2] Peter Auer, Frans Hinskens, Paul Kerswill. Dialect change: convergence and divergence in European languages. p. 221. "The term 'Sprachinsel' was used for the first time in 1847 to designate a Slavonic community surrounded by a German-speaking population close to Konigsberg, East Prussia cf. Mattheier 1996. 812"

[3] Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, Volume 1, 2009, Section "The history of language island research (Sprachinselforschung)", p.335

[4] ttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-005-0009-z

[5] Breschi, M., Esposito, M., Mazzoni, S., & Pozzi, L. (2014). Fertility transition and social stratification in the town of Alghero, Sardinia (1866–1935). Demographic Research, 30, 823–852. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26348219.

[6] Mandalà, Matteo, and Kateřina Knittlová. The Arbëresh: A Brief History of an Ancient Linguistic Minority in Italy. kulturnistudia.cz/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/KS-2-2024-p-137-151.pdf, https://doi.org/10.7160/KS.2024.230206en.

[7] Betawi (ISMI) — The Language Documentation Training Center. (n.d.). The Language Documentation Training Center. https://www.ldtc.org/languages/betawi.

[8] Post, J. (2008, June 21). The perseverance of Betawi language in Jakarta.The Jakarta Post. https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/06/21/the-perseverance-betawi-language-jakarta.html

[9] Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation. (n.d.). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/khalaj-ii-language.

[10] Nanasi, T. (2022). Research on the Griko minority language. Attitudes towards the language and suggestions for its revitalization. Nanasi | iNTERCULTURAL tRANSLATION iNTERSEMIOTIC. https://doi.org/10.26262/iti.v11i2.9073.

[11] Minority Rights Group. (2024, April 12). Sorbs in Germany - minority rights group. https://minorityrights.org/communities/sorbs/#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20Sorbs%20is,(dolnoserb%C5%A1%C4%87ina)%20spoken%20in%20Brandenburg.

[12] Sorbs and Jews in the Soviet Occupied Zone and German Democratic Republic, 1945–1989 - ProQuest. https://www.proquest.com/openview/914cd8cd7d2b158fbb43510076439dc8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y.

[13] Marti, R. (2007). Lower Sorbian — twice a minority language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2007(183), 31-51. https://doi.org/10.1515/IJSL.2007.003.

[14] The Welsh language in Patagonia and Wales. (n.d.-b). https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/welsh-language-in-patagonia-and-wales.

[15] British Council on the lookout for welsh speakers to teach 7,000 miles from home. British Council on the lookout for Welsh speakers to teach 7,000 miles from home | British Council. (2023a). https://wales.britishcouncil.orgo/en/about/press/british-council-lookout-welsh-speakers-teach-7000-miles-home-programme-send-welsh.

[16] Ribeiro, A., & Maggio, G. (2019). Contexto histórico da formação do Talian: algumas considerações. Revista De Italianística, 38, 73–87. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2238-8281.v0i38p73-87.

[17] A gramática do Talian: ação de salvaguarda da Língua de Referência Cultural Brasileira

[18] 李世瑜; 韩根东 (1991). "略论天津方言岛". 天津师大学报 (2).

[19] Richard VanNess Simmons (1999). Chinese Dialect Classification: A comparative approach to Harngjou, Old Jintarn, and Common Northern Wu. John Benjamins Publishing Co.

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