Transborder Language

A transborder language is same a Langue spoken by an ethnicity, a tribe or a nation, located in a geographical surface distributed between two or several internationally recognized countries. A transborder language is always an international language (between two nations) but a language known as international is not forcing transborder.

Territorial continuity must be taken into account. It differs from one spoken language inside a border and sometimes from a international Langue. The transborder language is characterized by its geographical surface and the distribution of its number of speakers. It can have many functions through cultural or economic social mechanisms, political offices, of refuge, of traffic, assimilatrices or handling in favor. If a language is spoken by two countries without territorial continuity like the French in Canada and in France, it is preferable to speak about a international language or a common language .

Types

The transborder languages are of four types. Either they are measured according to the criterion of the size even of the geographical surface. Either they are measured according to the criterion of the size even of the linguistic population.

The transborder languages are international limited , with or without official statute, when they are distributed in a small geographical surface compared to the size of the country. They are international when they are located on one or more geographical surfaces (of regional with continental) with at least an official statute in a country.

According to their sizes, the frontier languages are is symmetrical or asymmetrical . The symmetrical frontier languages are spoken languages by the small ones or great linguistic groups on the two sides of a border. Many are the languages which can often seem unimportant, but they play a big role in the interaction, integration and the economic activities. The asymmetrical frontier languages are spoken by great groups on a side about the border and by small groups on other side. Since they are dominant in at least a country, they have the potential to be used in broader fields and according to the means of the speakers.

1 - Symmetrical and limited as the Kurdish which is minority in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. These types of languages most, are diversified and the most threatened of extinction. These types of languages have little or not recognition on the 2 sides of the border. It is more than 90% of the transborder languages in the world which are classified in this category. The Gagaouze spoken by 250000 people of which 170000 in Moldavie does not have international recognition, it is spoken by communities in Ukraine and Romania, and also in Bulgaria.
2 - Symmetrical and international , the German which is a language officialized for a long time in Austria, has the same linguistic statute in Germany. It is also a spoken language in 8 countries. It is with the profit of this type of languages that much disappears. French in fact part.
3 - Asymmetrical and limited , the Wolof, lingua franca de facto and majority in Senegal since 80% of the population speak it, is also a very minority language in Mauritania where it does not have any official statute. The Basque is recognized like official language with the Spaniard in 3 of the 7 provinces of the Pays Basque. In the other provinces, it has only one partial regional recognition.
4 - Asymmetrical and international , the Russian in Kazakhstan strongly marginalized was compared with its prevalence passed following the installation of a linguistic policy which aims at reducing to the maximum the Russian speaker presence, which accounts for 30% more of the total population. The Russian remains an international language in spite of the fall of the USSR but loses ground in all the ex-republics. The Hungarian is a minority language in Romania (Transylvania), as Slovakia, in Serbia (Voïvodine) with or without minor rights in all the countries bordering on Hungary, where it is the only official language.

It is necessary can be to note, concerning the asymmetrical and symmetrical limited transborder languages, that the size of the population of a country remains relatively important and must be taken into account. A minority language among linguistic small groups in a small country can be more considered than a spoken language by many speakers in a large country. People speaking Haoussa are on the whole 25 million including 18 million out of the 140 million which account Nigeria. They are a great linguistic group but minority in this country, since they account for only 13% of the Nigerians. Haoussas of Niger are only 5 million out of 11 million but they represent a linguistic proportion more imposing than in Nigeria, that is to say 45%, although they are 3.5 times there fewer. Haoussa with thus more importance in Niger than in Nigeria.

Criteria

Territorial continuity forms integral part of the definition. The international languages are often transborder languages. When a transborder language recuts on several countries like the Arab , of Mauritania in Iraq one says it also international. There are also the not-transborder languages, which are of 2 types, either they are international or or they are not it, but one sometimes confuses them with the transborder languages. The Portuguese is not a transborder language (except perhaps with the Portuguese dialect which in Spain is the Galician ) because all the Portuguese-speaking countries distributed on 4 continents are not touched at all but it is an international language. The English became world international language for the exchange of goods and of services in the economic higher realms, it became a transborder language following the Irish conquest then northern American. If a language is not transborder like the Vietnamese or the Japanese, it has can of chance to be used in the transborder exchanges, and its use remains limited inside even of a country. Another exception, that of the Chinese Language, official language in 3 countries, which are a language international but not transborder. Singapore which counts Chinese 77%, Taiwan and the China does not have territorial continuity.

The transborder languages seldom have any speaker of native tongue in the border zone with the exeption of the international languages. The Swahili is also an exception in oneself, because native tongue for only 5 million people on the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania, it is used like Lingua franca and transborder language on 11 borders with 55 million speakers. Swahili is used between Burundi and R.D.Congo like language of exchange. In spite of its small territory and maternal number of speakers, this language was métissée with the Arab to become the language of communication between the people.

Statutes of the speakers

There exist various levels of comprehension of a transborder language according to the speaker. The language Basque is an example of comprehension and that applies to many transborder languages. This language, named Euskara, is spoken in Spain and into France and is divided into 4 linguistic categories for the inhabitants of this area.

the unilingual one of the transborder language. Unilingual the bascophone is a person who speaks only Basque in France or Spain. There is very little of it is 0.7% (20 000 people).
bilingual credit. It is a person who speaks two languages, that is to say French/Spanish Basque or /Basque. They are 26.9% that one divides into 3 categories.
1. Bilingual 40% with the French or Spaniard dominating or Erdara dominating.
2. Bilingual 29% balanced.
3. Bilingual 32% with the Basque dominating.
the Bilingual liability. It is a person who includes/understands or reads the Basque but speaks it little. It account for 15.3%.
the unilingual one of an official language or lingua franca. Unilingual the non-bascophone is a person who knows only the Spaniard or the French inside the Pays Basque. They are 57.8% and form the great majority.

Roles

A role of intermediary in the extension of religions . The institutions use the transborder language as tool of Propagande to convert people. The religious extension is done through religious institutions. Example: Nowadays, certain Christian churches, with the translation of the bible and the assistance of association like SIL, évangélisent populations in Africa, like that which practices the Kibangui church in the linguistic zone of the Kikongo (18 million speakers divided between Angola, Gabon and in the west of both Congo). The religions play a decisive part in the process of socialization and regional integration, which widens the fields of the conflicts and worsens the crisis situations.

The economic role of the transborder language is most usually used. The saving in a country towards another obliges with the use of a language international and/or transborder because that facilitates the exchanges. Besides the English plays an important role between the relations of the United States with Canada they are the two economically most dependant countries in the world.

The transborder language is a refuge . Many are the Basques which took refuge in France during pro-Franco repressions. Many are the speakers Pachto who go to Pakistan to escape misery, with repression talibane or American in Afghanistan. All these people speaking a transborder language too often escape the censuses.

The mediums political in many countries uses the international languages major time but of the transborder languages are used in an abstract or official way. In the resolution of the frontier conflict between Ethiopia and Érythrée, the two countries agreed so that the Tigrinya and the Arab are the working languages.

The culture is seldom dissociable linguistic luggage which accompanies it. It is easy for a Flemish Belgian to be able to diffuse a book or film towards the Netherlands. This transborder language that Dutch is the is a facilitator of cultural exchanges and social.

The traffic or smuggling is very widespread at the transborder linguistic minorities which finds there a means of subsistence by illegal means. The Mohawk is used when autochtones of Quebec or Ontario cross the American border without problem since their reserve is with horse on two countries.

The handling of the demographic statistics of a threatened transborder language is current thing. It is interesting to see that certain countries do not take into account of way right of the population or a different linguistic group to erase them national destiny. The Tibetan does not exist officially any more in China, there must be drowned to the Chinese Mandarin. Today in Tibet, there is more Chinese Han than Tibetans of stock (7.5 versus million 6 million). The Chinese takes the top and that to make against 900 million Hans of language tangerine. Little chance that the Tibetan survives in his current linguistic territory. He is still spoken with the Indian Cashmere.

The role of assimilation linguistic by transborder, generally asymmetrical languages and considered important by the remainder the population of the country, continues its extension to the detriments of other languages less prestigious . At the beginning of the XX ième Century, Belgium underwent a rather considerable retreat of the Flemish to the profit of the French because of the international statute which this language had.

Future

To define the transborder languages according to the laws of a country or an internationally recognized nation is the standard in almost all the countries. For example, speech the Lunda, it is in the second place to belong to a precise geographical surface of 3 countries such as Angola, Zambia and the Democratic republic of Congo, 3 internationally recognized countries, but is initially to belong to a definite linguistic territory by the reality of the existence even of Lunda and its practice above all. The opposite exercise is too often made. The borders are installed, then the transborder languages there are placed. The existence of a transborder language precedes with the intentions of a country and results from a last linguistic history. As for the future of the languages, the tendency to the consideration of a frontier diagram defining the languages which will survive it, from where the disappearance of the 90% of the 6700 languages within one century, is in agreement with the current linguistic policies. These last will determine the survival of the transborder languages in the majority of the countries. There exist some tools such as the European Charte of the regional or minority languages, which protects the minority languages and supported by the Politique linguistics from the European Union, which must face the linguistic Impérialisme international languages.

Difficult references

There are few documentations on the subject, because the transborder language does not interest the states nations only when that made their deal. As the linguistic recognition of 90% of the small transborder languages often passes by the recognition of the nation which practices it, it is preferable for the countries to be unaware of it, banish it or of the walnut tree. Moreover, the fact that a language is on two countries, that poses a double problem.

List in America

All transborder languages on the American continent.

North America

Canada/the United States: English, French, Ojibwan or Chipewyan, Sénéca, Mohawk, Malécite Passamaquoddy, Blackfoot, Salish and Okanagan.
Canada/Alaska (the United States): Upper Tanana, Hän, Inupiatun, Tlingit, Tsimshian and English.
the United States/Russia: Aleut and Central Yupik.
the United States/Mexico: Spanglish, Spaniard, Kumiai, Tohono O' odam, Creole Afro Séminole and Kickapoo.

Central America

Mexico/Guatemala: Spaniard, Kekchi, Lacandon, Ixtatan Chuj, Jacalteco Western, Man, Tacaneco and Tektiteko.
Mexico/Belize: Spaniard and Maya of Yucatan.
Belize/Guatemala: Spaniard, Garifuna and Kekchi.
Haiti/Dominican Republic: Creole Haitian.
Island Saint Martin's day or Sint-Maarten: English (French, Dutch and Papiamentu on the occasion)
Guatemala/Honduras: Spaniard, Garifuna, Pipil and Culbuco Achi.
Honduras/El El Salvador: Spaniard, Lenca and Pipil.
Guatemala/El El Salvador or Costa Rica/Nicaragua: Spaniard.
Nicaragua/Honduras: Spaniard and Miskitos.
Costa Rica/Panama: Spaniard, Bribri and Ngabere.
Panama/Colombia: Spaniard, Embera Catio, Kuna and Embera of North.

South America

Colombia/Venezuela: Spaniard, Wayuu, Japreria, Yukpa, Motilon, Tunebo Central, Playero, Cuiba, Guahibo, Puinave, Curripaco and Piapoco.
Colombia/Ecuador: Spaniard, Awa Cuaiquer, Cofan, Quichua Nopan, Siona and Huitoto.
Colombia/Peru: Spaniard, Huitoto Murui, Inga, Resigaro, Yagua, Ticuna, Huitoto Nipode, Huitoto Minica and Bora.
Venezuela/Guyana: Warao, Akawaio, Pemon and Arawak.
Guyana/Suriname: Arawak.
Surinam/French Guiana: Wayana, Ndyuka and Carib kaliña.
Brazil/French Guiana: Palikur, Portuguese, Swivel and Wayampi.
Brazil/Suriname: Portuguese and Sikiana.
Brazil/Guyana: Portuguese, Akawaio, Patamona, Wapishana and Macushi.
Brazil/Venezuela: Pemon, Ninam, Arutani, Yanomami and Nhengatu.
Brazil/Colombia: Curripaco, Cubeo, Guanano, Tariano, Tucano, Macuna, Waimaha, Yuhup, Ticuna and Huitoto.
Brazil/Peru: Matses, Pisabo, Yaminahua, Asheninca Ucayali Yurua, Amahuaca, Culina, Sharahua and Cashinahua.
Brazil/Bolivia: Portuguese, Yaminahua, Pakaasnovos, Purubora, Chamacococo, Sakirabia and Chiquitano
Peru/Ecuador: Spaniard, Shuar, Achuar Shiwiar, Quichua Pastaza, Zaparo, Quechua Napo and Secoya.
Peru/Chile: Spaniard and Aymara.
Peru/Bolivia: Spaniard, Aymara Central, Bolivian Northern Quechua, Ese Ejja and Yaminahua.
Chile/Bolivia: Spaniard, Central Aymara and Bolivian Southern Quechua.
Argentinian/Chile: Spaniard, Aymara Central, Huilliche, Mapudungun and Quechua Jujuy.
Argentinian Bolivia/: Spaniard, Wichi Lhamtes Nocten, Chorote Iyojwaja, Quechua Jujuy and Chorote Iyowujwa.
Argentinian/Paraguay: Spaniard, Paraguayan Guarani, Wichi Lhamtes Iyojwaja, Toba, Kaiwa and Guarani Mbya.
Argentinian/Brazil: Kaiwa, Spaniard, Guarani Mbya.
Brazil/Uruguay: Guarani Mbya.
Argentinian/Uruguay: Spaniard.
Brazil/Paraguay: Portuguese, Chiripa, Kaiwa, Guarani Paraguayan, Chamacococo, Toba Mascoy, Guana and Pai Tavytera.

See articles

linguistic Border

External bonds

transborder linguistic Charts

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