Language Maintenance and Shift

Migrant Minorities
• minority language in a predominantly monolingual culture and society
• The order of domains in which language shift occurs may differ for
different individuals and different groups, but gradually over time the
language of the wider society displaces the minority language mother
tongue.
• There is pressure from the wider society too. Immigrants who look
and sound ‘different’ are often regarded as threatening by majority
group members. There is pressure to conform in all kinds of ways.
• Four generations
Non-migrant communities
• Language shift is not always the result of migration. Political,
economic and social changes can occur within a community, and this
may result in linguistic changes too.
• Examples of China and Iran
• In Oberwart, an Austrian town on the border of Hungary, the
community has been gradually shifting from Hungarian to German for
some time.
Migrant Majorities
• When colonial powers invade other countries their languages often
become dominant.
• Countries such as Portugal, Spain, France and Britain have generally
imposed their languages along with their rule.
• New Zealand’s Maori speaking community’s shift to English
Language Death and Language Loss
• Example: In 2011, British newspapers reported that Ayapaneco, an
indigenous language of Mexico, was in danger of dying out as the only
two remaining fluent speakers (aged 75 and 69) refused to talk to
each other.
• It is generally true that when all the people who speak a language die,
the language dies with them.
• In Tasmania, the whole indigenous population of between 3000 and
4000 people was exterminated within seventy-five years.
• Language loss: Turkish community in English.
Factors contributing to language shift
• Reasons for learning a second language
• Learning a second language results into bilingualism
• Bilingualism is a precursor of language shift
• Not taking the active steps to maintain the first language
Attitudes towards languages
• Language shift tends to be slower among communities where the
minority language is highly valued.
How can a minority language be maintained?
• Where language is considered an important symbol of a minority
group’s identity, for example, the language is likely to be maintained
longer.
• The degree and frequency of contact with the homeland.
• Institutional support
Source
• Chapter 3 of Janet Holmes’s An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Pages:
53 - 75)