hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2015-06-04

■ #2229. マルタの英語事情 (2) [esl][new_englishes][diglossia][bilingualism][sociolinguistics][history]

　昨日の記事 ([2015-06-03-1]) に引き続き，マルタの英語事情について．マルタは ESL国であるといっても，インドやナイジェリアのような典型的な ESL国とは異なり，いくつかの特異性をもっている．ヨーロッパに位置する珍しいESL国であること，ヨーロッパで唯一の土着変種の英語をもつことは昨日の記事で触れた通りだが，Mazzon (593) はそれらに加えて3点，マルタの言語事情の特異性を指摘している．とりわけイタリア語との diglossia の長い前史とマルタ語の成立史の解説が重要である．

There are various reasons for the peculiarity of the Maltese linguistic situation: 1) the size of the country, a small archipelago in the centre of the Mediterranean; 2) the composition of the population, which is ethnically and linguistically quite homogeneous; 3) its history previous to the British domination; throughout the centuries, Malta had undergone various invasions, its political history being intimately connected with that of Southern Italy. This link, together with the geographical vicinity to Italy, encouraged the adoption of Italian as a language of culture and, more generally, as an H variety in a well-established situation of diglossia. Italian has been for centuries a very prestigious language throughout Europe, since Italy has one of the best known literary traditions and some of the oldest European universities. Maltese is a language of uncertain origin; it was deeply "restructured" or "refounded" on Semitic lines during the Arab domination, between 870 and 1090 A.D. It has since then followed the same path as other spoken varieties of Arabic, losing almost all its inflections and moving towards analytical types; the close contact with Italian helped in this process, also contributing large numbers of vocabulary items.

　現在のマルタ語と英語の2言語使用状況の背景には，シックな言語としての英語への親近感がある．世界の多くのESL地域において，英語に対する見方は必ずしも好意的とは限らないが，マルタでは状況が異なっている．ここには，国民の "integrative motivation" が関与しているという．

The role of this integrative motivation must always be kept in mind in the case of Malta, since the relative cultural vicinity and the process through which Malta became part of the Empire made this case somehow anomalous; many Maltese today simply deny they ever were just a "colony"; young people seem to partake in this feeling and often stress the point that the British never "invaded" Malta: they were invited. There is a widespread feeling that the British never really colonialized the country, they just "came to help"; the connection of the Maltese people with Britain is still quite strong, not only through the British tourists: in many shops and some private houses, alongside the symbols of Catholicism, portraits of the British Royal Family are proudly displayed on the walls. (Mazzon 597)

　確かに，マルタはESL地域のなかでは特異な存在のようである．マルタの言語（英語）事情は，社会歴史言語学的に興味深い事例である．

　・ Mazzon, Gabriella. "A Chapter in the Worldwide Spread of English: Malta." History of Englishes: New Methods and Interpretations in Historical Linguistics. Ed. Matti Rissanen, Ossi Ihalainen, Terttu Nevalainen, and Irma Taavitsainen. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1992. 592--601.

[ 固定リンク | 印刷用ページ ]