Hypercorrection in language as overcoming stigma and beyond any standard

It is noticeable that many people go beyond the standard by “running” and adding letters to words and deforming the unified Albanian language itself. And the cases of adapting to a local vernacular are daily. On Wednesday morning, linguist Rrahman Paçarizi presented his study on this phenomenon at the Seminar for Albanian Language, Literature and Culture through the lecture “Hypercorrection”. He started with a joke by academician Rexhep Ismajli for the year 1972

That there is a certain great tendency for different social groups to surpass their own dialect and replace it with a standardized Albanian is something that is noticeable. But it is even more noticeable that there are many who surpass the standard in a "rush" by adding letters to words and deforming the standardized Albanian language itself. And the cases of adapting to a local vernacular are daily. 

On Wednesday morning, linguist Rrahman Paçarizi presented his study of this phenomenon through his lecture “Hypercorrection”. He started with a joke by academician Rexhep Ismajli from 1972 when a professor, overjoyed by the results of the Albanian Language Spelling Congress, says to the waiter: “A coffee and a glass of water, please!”. Academician Ismajli mentioned this in his work “Linguistic Community, Unit, Variety”. Paçarizi indicated that academician Bardh Rugova also used it in “The Ideology of Linguistic Error”, where, as he said, “'fights'” against prescriptivism in linguistics. Paçarizi started from the roots of Sterling's correctness where he said that Labov also begged for and found the roots. 

"To explain the phenomenon of overcorrection (as Ismajli Albanianized it) to students, I usually use the example: 'Have you ever seen someone try so hard to get on a horse and then jump over the horse, meaning they're still not on the horse?'" he said. 

While talking about overcorrection as a phenomenon, he said that there are professors who say "we brought it" instead of "brought", moderators who say "I haven't given up" instead of "removed", MPs who say "we will give it a vote" instead of "give it", and other examples. 

"If you think a farmer made a mistake when he said 'I planted the field', or 'I picked the grapes', then you are in a hurry. Thus, a '-ur' added to the participle (taken, followed, came out or even given and given), as well as an 'ë' instead of the nasal 'a' (we will support this proposal) do not ensure the correct use of the standard variant - they are manifestations of the linguistic inferiority of those who fail to learn it, but who still love it so much, when they see it very well achieved", he said. According to university professor Paçarizi, overcorrection is influenced by public speaking, mainly by the media. He mentioned that once in the '90s in a play a comedian said: absolutistich and normalitich. And, according to him, they are now dominant. 

also Culture 10 o. before "Dua" seeks the "Heart of Sarajevo" with Pristina of the '90s

"The speaker heard them in the theater (prestige), then they were replicated in the media, creating the idea of ​​a normative form, which can be found in posts on social networks and by professionals, who not only have language as a daily means of communication, but also serve as a model of public speaking," he said to the audience in the "Idriz Ajeti" hall of the Faculty of Philology. He quoted the renowned researcher Labov as saying: "Hypercorrection is a term often used to describe the well-known tendency of speakers to 'overcome the stigma' in grammatical use; in an attempt to correct some non-standard forms, they apply the correction to other forms, for which the rules they use do not apply." Labov also concluded that this has its roots in a deep linguistic insecurity. 

"Trudgill interprets this as a consequence of 'linguistic uncertainty' as Bourdieu and Francard had previously called it, which Ismajli discusses extensively," said Paçarizi. 

He continued by saying that an important starting point for this is the term “hyperurbanism”, which has been largely equated in the sociolinguistic literature. He cited that Ismajli, Rugova and Munishi in the encyclopedic entry to treat the phenomenon generally called overcorrection, have named it “hyperurbanism”, defining it as: “Inappropriate analogical use of a form that is taken as urban in a linguistic structure that is not identified as urban”. He then showed that Labov was indirectly referring to Sterling, who in 1926 raised the need for correction to a doctrine, describing an entire movement that had occurred in English, where, as Labov also expressed it, the teacher and the dictionary rose to the unsurpassed authority for “proper” speech in England and America.  

“This seems similar to what Rugova (2021) has called the 'Ideology of Linguistic Error', where the basic premise is the conflict between the prescriptive and descriptive approaches, in which case the concept of the ideology of linguistic error, in the sense of the standard as the axis of popularizing dictates on language, is based on several fundamental points, such as the existence of two parties in this discussion; 'I speak Albanian, you speak dialect'...", said Paçarizi. He showed that the discussion in the Interacademic Council - a forum of the two academies of sciences of Kosovo and Albania - when it was proposed that the ë be removed in some phonetic contexts, some linguists strongly rebelled, since the proposal that the "identity" ë of Albanian be removed from the word 'national' would be tantamount to national treason.
It has taken examples of group hypercorrection with “we” and “you”: instead of “we” and “you” and several other examples. Then there are also examples of “prestigious” words such as “mention, say, affirm, emphasize, make known” and even the hypercorrection of the intervocalic “n”: “sandy, sandy, woody”. 

According to the data that Paçarizi has disclosed in what he has called ideological hypercorrection, "Albanian" is used 2 percent in official communications and 20 percent in unofficial ones. While "traitor" is used up to 65 percent and "treason" is used 35 percent.

also Culture 21 o. before Phyllida Law – the successful actress of many scenes

Then he came to hyperurbanism, saying that as academic Rugova observed, "the uncultivated rural speakers were the ones who 'speak nasally'." 

"During this path of their transformation, due to inferiority, or the rush for identification, these speakers, relying primarily on analogy, fall into the traps of hyperurbanism, even beyond phonetic transformations, in which case, inferior speakers, in order to distance themselves from the rural (or urban) phonemes that are part of mocking stereotypes, or to integrate into the capital, begin to manifest first phonetic flattening, and then signs of phonetic hyperurbanism," said Paçarizi. According to him, motivated by the need for social belonging, they give up a "q", and words like "qetër" but build forms like pastjetërnesër, for pasqitinesër that is used in Prishtina under the influence of its rural substrate. 

"Speakers from Malisheva and Rahovec, under the pressure of the overuse of 'a' instead of 'o' (pa škoj, kaliba, etc.), use hypercorrective forms poqetë instead of the paqetë of Prishtina. Speakers from Drenica, in an attempt to eliminate nasals, use hypercorrective forms sante, instead of the sânte form as used in most Kosovo dialects," Paçarizi said. In this case, he gave many examples. 

And when he spoke about the endemic overcorrection in Albanian, he said that in order to relate to the linguistic typification of the characters, as Vehbiu found, Byron had noticed a writing by Shkurtaj: "One of the author's merits in relation to the language of the characters is that Dini, the central figure of the novel, as well as Vjollca, Neri, Titi and his other friends who represent what is modern, have been given a speech created on the basis of the literary language and their individualism has been achieved mainly through the lexicon and not through word forms. On the contrary, the language of the older generation... has been accurately reflected through dialectal speech". He said that Shkurtaj, in 1970, had started the battle of "'occupying'" the domain of literature and art by the standard language.

also Culture 23 o. before Film as a bridge between the Balkans and Europe

"Metaphorically, standard languages ​​are artificial lakes, which are necessary, as they serve larger groups than individual families who drank water from wells. Language varieties, in this metaphor, are the streams, rivulets, creeks and rivers that fill and refresh the stagnant water of an artificial lake, which is the standard language. Trying to stop these streams of fresh water is suicidal, as the artificial lake would turn into a swamp of stagnant water, which no one needs, except frogs and dragonflies, and even then only for a short period of time," Paçarizi said. 

On Wednesday, a roundtable discussion dedicated to the work of Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was also held at the Seminar on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death. Muhamet Hamiti, Kujtim Shala, Nysret Krasniqi and Agron Gashi spoke. In addition to the courses, several lectures were also held.