LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:6 June 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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IMPACT OF BORROWINGS FROM ENGLISH ON JAFFNA TAMIL
(A Text Book For University Students)

Dr. V. SUNTHARESAN, Ph.D.

Bilingualism and Language Contact

The Jaffna Tamil Society in Sri Lanka comprises both bilinguals in Tamil and English and Tamil monolinguals. It’s a common feature that bilinguals and monolinguals in Jaffna use a number of English words in their day-to-day speech and in writing in Tamil at home in social interaction , in education, for religious purpose etc. In case of bilinguals the use of English words may be through Language contact situations like code switching, code mixing borrowing etc. But the English words used by the monolinguals are only borrowings. This volume focuses on English borrowings only among the Tamil monolinguals in Jaffna as English borrowings are more used by the monolinguals and the characteristics including the assimilated forms of the borrowings and the functions of the borrowings can be better identified and studied among the monolinguals.

The initial development of bilingualism in Tamil and English in Jaffna is the outcome of English Education and civil administrative activities through the English medium during the British colonial rule in Sri Lanka. English is still taught as a Second Language in educational institutions and a considerable part of the administration is carried out in English in Sri Lanka. As a result, English still continues to be in contact with the national languages Sinhala and Tamil and this language contact situation has led to the presence of several English borrowings in Tamil.

Two or more languages are said to be in contact if they are used alternately by the same persons. Bilingualism is the practice of alternately using two languages and the persons involved are bilinguals. As a result of language contact there have been instances of deviations from the norms of either language. These deviations occurring in the speech of bilinguals because of their familiarity with more than one language are referred to as interference. The term interference implies the rearrangements of patterns resulting from the infiltration of foreign elements into the highly structured domains of language such as the phonemic system, morphology and syntax and some area of vocabulary. Such transfer of elements from one language into the other is called borrowing in general. The extent of interference relies on the extent of differences or similarities between the languages concerned (Weinreich, 1953)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. V. SUNTHARESAN, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
English Language Teaching Center
University of Jaffna
Jaffna, Sri Lanka
suntharesan@yahoo.com
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