Bilingualism and Multingualism

• Bilingualism is commonly defined as an ability to speak with at least two languages to

other person by an individual (ASHA, 2004). One language is from their mother tongue
or their first language and one language its from any other foreign language. The
bilingual speaker are very fluently to talk in that two languages which allows the
speaker to function and appear as a native-like speaker of two languages.
• Multingualism is an ability of a person to talk to other person or talking in a community
and they can fluently talk with three or more languages in their conversation. A person
who can speaks with many language is called as a polyglot or a multilingual.
• The original language of a person is actually come from their parents or can be come
from their environment as their first language or their mother tongue. People who is
raised by their parents that speaking with two languages and that meant their child will
have two first languages or two mother tongues is called a simultaneous bilingual.
• To be clear, the difference between bilingualism and multingualism is :
Bilingualism – The ability to speak two languages proficiently.
Multilingualism – The ability to speak many languages proficiently.
• In a society in which have more than one language (or variety) is used
and you must find out who makes use of what, when, and for what
purpose if you are to be socially competent. Your language choices are
the part of the social identification that you declare for yourself.
(Wardhaugh 96)
• In many components of the world people speak in a number of
languages and individuals may not will be aware of how many one-of-
a-kind languages they talk. They talk them due to the fact they need to
do so in order to live their lives and also their information is
instrumental and pragmatic. In such conditions language gaining more
knowledge of how language learning is comes evidently and is pretty
unforced. (Wardhaugh 98)
• Bilingualism is actually seemed as a problem in that many bilingual
individuals generally tend to occupy rather low positions in society
and understanding of any other language will become related with
‘inferiority.’ Bilingualism is sometimes visible as a non-public and a
social problem, no longer some thing that has strong wonderful
connotations. (Wardhaugh 100)
• A bilingual, or multilingual, in any situation can still produce a results
on one or more of the languages are involved. But now it ends in
diffusion, in a certain capabilities unfold from one language to the
other (or others) due to the contact state of affairs, particularly certain
sorts of syntactic capabilities. (Wardhaugh 100)
• One of the example of people who talk in multingualism is The
Tukano of the Northwest Amazon. They are a multilingual people due
to the fact men must marry a women outside their language that they
use in their group; that is, no men may additionally have a wife who
speaks his language, for that type of marriage relationship is not
authorised and would be regarded as a sort of incest. Men pick the
ladies they marry from numerous neighboring tribes who
communicate with a different languages. The diverse languages
spoken by ladies who originate from distinctive neighboring tribes;
and a considerable regional ‘trade’ language. Children are born into
this multilingual environment: the child’s father speaks one language,
the kid’s mother another, and different women with whom the child
has each day contact possibly still others. (Wardhaugh 97)
• A different type of bilingual situation exists in Paraguay. Because of
its lengthy isolation from Spain and the paucity of its Spanish-talking
populace, an American Indian language, Guaraní, has flourished in
Paraguay to the quantity that today it's miles the mother’s tongue of
about 90 percent of the populace and a second language of the
numerous additional percent. (Wardhaugh 98)
• Spanish and Guaraní exist in a relationship that according to Fishman
(1980) the relationship is called as a ‘prolonged diglossic’ in which
Spanish is the H range and Guaraní the L variety. Spanish is the
language used on formal occasions; it's far always used in government
or business, in conversation with strangers who are nicely dressed,
with foreigners, and in most commercial enterprise transactions.
People use Guaraní, however, with friends, servants, and strangers
who are poorly dressed, within the confessional, when they inform
jokes or make love, and on most casual occasions. (Wardhaugh 98-99)