Chapter Three
Language Maintenance and Shift
This chapter discusses the political and
economic factors that influence Language choice.
Language shift in different communities:
A- Migrant minorities:
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.
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.
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
Death and Language Loss
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 can not
remember the words in Dyirbal, and how her grandmother complains her word
order.
The result of this situation:
-
The girl can not
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 sue 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.
Factors that contribute to / lead to
Language Shift
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.
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 fro 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 her self 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, other wise 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.).
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. I
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.
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)
Glossary
Minority أقلية
Mother
tongue اللغة الأم
Predominant
السائد والمسيطر
Migrants
مهاجرون
Mainstream
الأغلبية
Infiltrates
يتغلغل إلى
Assimilation
اندماج
Institutions
المؤسسات
Erodes: يتآكل erosion تآكل
Attributed
to / due to / because of يرجع إلى
Contribute
to يسهم في
Demographic
سكاني / له علاقة بعدد السكان
Inevitable:
حتمي/ لا مفر منه/ لا يمكن تجنبه
Language
Loss فقدان اللغة /death اندثار اللغة
Language
maintenance الحفاظ على اللغة
Language
Revival إحياء اللغة
Migrants
مهاجرين
In-migration
الانتقال والهجرة إلى مكان
Out-migration
الانتقال من وترك المكان لمكان آخر
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