Sociolinguistics
Language Maintenance and Shift
Supervized by Dr. Khalil Nofal
Prepared by Saif Alazzeh
Language Maintenance and Shift
• - Language shift: it happens when the language of
the wider society (majority) displaces the minority
mother tongue language over time in migrant
communities or in communities under military
occupation. Therefore when language shift occurs,
it shifts most of the time towards the language of
the dominant group, and the result could be the
eradication of the local language .
• A language shift happens when a community uses
less and less of its own vernacular and adopts a
new language in many domains.
• Language shift: the process by which communities
adopt another language.
• Q What factors lead to language shift?
A-Economic, social and political factor
1-The dominant language is associated with social
status and prestige.
2-Obtaining work is the obvious economic reason for
learning another language.
3-The pressure of institutional domains such as
schools and the media.
- The new Language is more appealing because it can
give them power (better jobs, entry into more
prestigious social circles, access to business, etc.)
• 1- Economic, social and political factors:
A- Importance of second language: The community believes in the
importance of the second language. The importance is attributed
to economic or political reasons. For example, looking for a job
forces the speaker to learn English in English-dominated countries.
This causes bilingualism which is a precursor of language shift.
Although this is not the case in Diglossic communities.
B- Unimportance of ethnic language: the speakers believe that
there is no reason in maintaining the ethnic language, and that it
does not offer any advantages to their children. In this case, shift
is inevitable.
C- The speed of shift is governed by the social and the economic
goals of the individuals in a community. When the dominant
language is a prerequisite for success, the people are anxious to
emerge successfully in the community. Newly arrived immigrant
women to Zealand tend to have less education than their
husbands because they tend to stay at home and do not seek job
opportunities, maintaining their minority language
Demographic factors
1-Language shift is faster in urban areas than rural.
2-The size of the group is some times a critical factor.
3-Intermarriage between groups can accelerate
language shift.
Attitudes and values
1-Language shift is slower among communities where
the minority language is highly valued, therefore
when the language is seen as an important symbol
of ethnic identity its generally maintained longer,
and visa versa.
• 2- Demographic Factors:
A- Rural VS Urban areas: in rural areas people use their ethnic
language as it fulfills all their needs. They are also isolated from
the centre of political power, while in urban areas they tend to
use the predominant language. For example, in New Zealand
Maori survives in inaccessible rural areas, and used by Maori
people. In Canada, Ukrainians who live in rural areas and on farms
maintained their ethnic language better than Ukrainians in towns.
B- The size of group is a critical factor. Language shift occurs at one
group faster than another. For example, the Spanish community is
great in USA, and this is why the Spanish language survived in USA.
Example 5 shows how it is important to have a number of people
to use the ethnic language with to protect it from dying. A
Spanish-speaking girl finds herself weird among other students in
school. This is why she shifts to English. She even refused to use
Spanish at home, while her parents spoke Spanish to each other.
The parents in this case are isolated. Maintaining language under
such conditions is nearly impossible.
C- Intermarriage accelerates language shift. In this case one
language tends to predominate in home. For example, a German
man in Australia marries an English-speaking Australian woman,
the language used in home will be English. It will also be the main
language used with children. In other cases, when a mother’s
English is not strong and wants to pass her ethnic language to the
children, she would slow down the process of language shift by
using the ethnic language to her children. Italian and Greek fathers
in Australia believe that it is important for the children to acquire
their ethnic language. Also, Maori fathers pass Maori to their
children in order to be used in ceremonies like marriage or any
other official occasion. When children of mixed marriages start
school, a parent must exert so much effort to keep the ethnic
language used in home.
D- Attitudinal factors: Language shift is slower when the ethnic
language is valued by a community. Example 6 shows how a
Samoan family is proud of its ethnic Samoan language, and how it
keeps using it every now and then in different occasion. The
children are also happy because their parents taught them
Samoan.
• Also, if the language enjoys a high-level status on
the international level, it will be maintained.
French is maintained in USA and Canada because it
is a language of an international status. The Greek
people are proud of their contribution to the
western philosophy and culture. They view their
language as important, and that is why they resist
attempts of language shift to English. However
there must be a community to support these
positive attitudes, otherwise the language, even if it
enjoys an international status, would die. (In
example 5, the Spanish language was obliterated
because there was no support to use it in the
community of the speaker, even in home.).
• Language shift in different communities:
A- Migrant minorities:
In English speaking countries like UK, USA or Australia, children
are exposed to English in school, and over time they start to
use English in home when they discuss school topics or even
friends’ issues. Gradually English infiltrates the home through
the Children who use English when they grow up and be
engaged in jobs.
Immigrants who look and sound different have to use the
language of the mainstream or the predominant society.
They are under pressure, and therefore they shift to English.
Speaking good English is then regarded as a sign of
successful assimilation. This leads to abandoning the
minority language. Typically migrants are monolingual in their
mother tongue, their children are bilingual, and their
grandchildren are monolingual in the language of the host
country.
• Example 1 shows that migrant families provide
examples of language shift. The example illustrates how
a British Hindu woman living in Britain tended to use
Gujerati at home as well as her work place with her
friends as their home language. However when she was
promoted (and this shows that she has moved to a high
level which forces her to use an H variety) she used
English more of the time. Finally when she was moved
to the Main Office she used English all the time. This
example shows the experience of a minority in a
monolingual country, and how the predominant
society’s language over time displaced the mother
tongue of the minority. This shift was made by social
factors, as the shift occurs from one language to
another for communicative needs.
• B- Non-migrant minorities:
• Here, the shift is caused by political, economic and social
changes in a community. Example 2 shows how people of
Oberwart, which was a part of Hungary before WW1, spoke
Hungarian to each other, and German to outsiders. When the
war was over, the town became a part of Austria, and grew to
be an industrial area, the German language was increased to
include domains of school, education, business and official
transactions. It also symbolized formality and social distance.
On the other hand, Hungarian was the language of solidarity
used for social and affective functions. It became associated
with peasants, and became old-fashioned, while the German
language was associated with economic and social progress.
Later, the young people used German with their friends, and
even parents used German with their children. Hungarian
was confined to prayers and church. The use of linguistic
choices “patterns of language use” depend on the social
networks that the speaker is involved in. (Social interaction)
C- Migrant Majorities:
Sometimes the language shift reflects the influence of political and
economic factors such as the need to work. People may shift location
and language for this reason. Many Scottish, Irish and Welsh people
moved to England and changed their language accordingly by shifting
to English in order to get a job. In this case, they need to shift to
English to maintain their social being and for their job success.
We also find the same result when a majority group moves to another
place. For example, colonial countries like England, Spain or France
made their language dominated in the places they have colonized
such as India, South Africa and Papua New Guinea. But this was also
by the help of the multilingual nature of those areas. Multilingualism
was well established in those areas. Otherwise it would be very
difficult that an alien language would have the ability to eradicate
(obliterate or delete) the indigenous (original) language. But when
multilingualism was not widespread, the indigenous language
becomes under threat, and the dominating language (the language of
the colonizers) will be described as the “Killer Language”. Where one
group brings about political power and imposes its language along
with its institutions (government- education-religious places, courts),
the minority will find themselves as under pressure to adopt the
language of the dominant group .
Example 3 shows how Maori people moved from
monolingualism in Maori to bilingualism in both
Maori and English, then to monolingualism again
but in English. A survey made in 1998 indicated that
less than 10% of Maori people can speak Maori
fluently. The survey also indicated that there are
very few domains where Maori is used.
The indigenous people in USA and Australia have
similarly lost their language, as their language was
obliterated by the language of the colonizer which
is English. The indigenous people were also
decreased in number due to war and diseases.
• Language Shift in Different Communities
a. Migrant Minorities
There is pressure from the wider society. Immigrants
who look and sound ‘different’ are often regarded as
threatening by majority group members. There is
pressure to conform in all kind of ways. Language shift
to English, for instance, has often been expected of
migrants in predominantly monolingual countries such
as England, the United States, Australia, and New
Zealand. Speaking good English has been regarded as a
sign of successful assimilation, and it was widely
assumed that meant abandoning the minority
language. We can observe the shift by nothing the
change in people’s patterns of language use in different
domains over time.
• Migrant minorities
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 are many different social factors which can
lead a community to shift from using one language for most
purposes to using a different language, or from using two distinct
codes in different domains, to using different varieties of just one
language for their communicative needs. Migrant families provide
an obvious example of this process of language shift.
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. In Oberwart, an Austrian
town on the border of Hungary, the community has been gradually
shifting from Hungarian to German for some time.
b.
Migrant Majorities
Language shift often reflects the influence of political
factors and economic factors, such as the need for
work. People may shift both location and language for
this reason. Over the last couple of countries, many
speakers of Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, for
instance, have shifted to England, and consequently to
English, primarily in order to get work. They need
English both for their job success and for their social
well-being-to make friends. But the outcome is the
same when it is the majority group who do the physical
moving.
Read more
at: http://ridhaharwan.blogspot.com/2012/04/languag
e-shift-language-death-and.html#axzz3VfUMOGaL
Language Death and Language Loss
When all the people who speak a language die, the
language dies with them.
With the spread of a majority group language into
more and more domains, the number of contexts in
which individuals use the ethnic language
diminishes. The language usually retreats till it is
used only in the home, and finally it is restricted to
such personal activities as counting, praying and
dreaming.
Language death differs from language shift. In
language death, the language is not spoken by
anyone at all. This is due to the fact that the
speakers of this language are disappeared due to
continuous extermination or death by diseases.
For example, Cornish disappeared completely from
Cornwell by the 18th century by the death of the last
speaker of Cornish, Dolly Mousehole. On the other
hand, a community such as the Turkish community
in England may shift to English over a couple of
generations. This involves the loss of the language
of these speakers. But the Turkish Language,
however, is not facing any threat because it is still
being used in Turkey.
• The process of language death comes about through a gradual loss of
proficiency and competence by the speakers. Example 3 shows how a
young speaker of Dyirbal (an Australian aboriginal language) has lost a great
number of vocabulary of Dyirbal because she uses English most of the time.
She even uses English words while she talks to her grandmother because
she cannot remember the words in Dyirbal, and how her grandmother
complains her word order.
• The result of this situation:
The girl cannot use inflection and word order in the right way, because she
puts the words together in the same way she does in English. The language
in such a situation erodes over time.
With the spread of a majority group language (English in this case) into
more and more domains, the number of domains and contexts in which the
original language is being used decreases until it becomes confined to very
personal things like dreaming or praying.
The stylistic range that people acquire when they use a language in a
wider range of domains disappears.
There is a gradual simplification of grammatical constructions and sound
rules.
The number of vocabulary becomes smaller.
• In a wide community the language may survive for
ritual occasions, but the speakers’ fluency will be
confined to prayers. For instance, in Australia Maori
is used for ceremonial and religious speeches by the
elders who still know how to perform the rituals.
• How can a minority language be maintained?
· Regarding the ethnic language as important: if the ethnic
language is regarded as an important symbol of identity, it is
likely to be maintained longer. For example, Polish people
eyed their language important wherever they immigrated to
preserve their identity. Therefore, the Polish language was
maintained for three or four generations. The case is similar
with Greek migrants to Australia, USA and New Zealand.
· Frequency of contact: if families from a minority group live
near each other, their ethnic language is likely to be more
preserved. For example, members of the Greek community in
New Zealand belong to a common church where they use
Greek, and have also established shops where they sell Greek
food. In the market place they also used Greek with each
other. The same goes with Indian and Pakistani communities
in UK, in USA, Chinese people who live in Chinatown also
preserved their Chinese dialect.
·
Degree of frequency of contact with homeland: migrants to
another country or visitors need to keep their ethnic language
alive. New Zealand Polynesian visitors arriving in New Zealand are
being welcomed by the Polynesian New Zealands. The visitors
provide a new linguistic input to the New Zealand community.
Also, organizing trips back home is also a good opportunity to
maintain fluency. Greek New Zealanders regard a trip to Greece as
essential, which forces them to maintain proficiency in Greek.
· Social factors may also help in resisting language shift resulting
from economic pressures: Using the language in home, banning
intermarriages help in maintaining the language. Associating the
use of language with a particular setting like the school or the
place of worship also helps in maintaining the ethnic language.
· Institutional Support: governmental offices, media, press,
education, law or religion are domains of the predominant
language. If the ethnic language is tied to such domains it will be
maintained for sure.
How can a minority language be maintained?
1- A language can be maintained and preserved, when it's highly valued as an
important symbol of ethnic identity for the minority group.
2- If families from a minority group live near each other and see each other
frequently, their interactions will help to maintain the language.
3- For emigrate individuals from a minority group, the degree and frequency
of contact with the homeland can contribute to language maintenance.
4- Intermarriage within the same minority group is helpful to maintain the
native language.
5- Ensuring that the minority group language is used at formal settings such as
schools or worship places will increases language maintenance.
6- An extended normal family in which parents, children and grandchildren live
together and use the same minority language can help to maintain it.
7- Institutional support from domains such as education, law, administration,
religion and the media can make a difference between the success and
failure of maintaining a minority group language.
• Language Revival
• Sometimes a community becomes aware of the fact that its
language is being threatened or endangered by disappearance.
Therefore, attempts were made to revive these communities’
languages. For example:
a- Hebrew: Hebrew was dead for nearly 1700 years. Its use was
confined to religious sermons or prayers. However, the strong
feelings of nationalism helped in promoting and reviving the
Hebrew language
b- Welsh: when English industrialists invaded Wales (in-migration),
the Welsh language was under a process of erosion. The miners
and the workers began to use English as it became the
predominant language used excessively by the English people. The
situation became worse when many Welsh workers left the place
(out-migration). The two thirds of population started to speak
English. Welsh people then worked on slowing down the
language loss by obtaining a welsh-language TV channel, as well
as establishing bilingual educational programs. (bilingual
education)