MULTILINGUAL
SPEECH COMMUNITIES
LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND SHIFT
OUTLINE
• Language shift in different communities
• Migrant minorities
• Non-migrant minorities
• Migrant majorities
• Language death and language loss
• Factors contributing to language shift
• Economic, social and political factors
• Demographic factors
• Attitudes and values
• How can a minority language be
maintained?
• Language revival
Language shift in different
communities
Migrant minorities
Example 1
Gujerati: home with family
parents and grandparents,
workmates of same origin
in shop floor
At workplace
Gujerati English
English: language at
workplace, office
10 years
Language shift: gradually over time the
language of the wider society displaces
the minority language mother tongue.
-from using one language for most
purposes to using a different language
-from using two distinct codes in
different domains, to using different
varieties of just one language
SCHOOL
English: language at English: talking to
school for brothers or sisters
instructions, talking -> talking to parents
to teachers and -> parents talking to
friends children
PRESSURE FROM WIDER SOCIETY
Immigrant = threat
•Shifts can take from 2 to 4 generations.
Language shift in different
communities
Non-migrant minorities
Example 2
Farsi: official language of Azeri: Armeen’s native
Iran, used in street signs language, not taught to
read and write, rich
literature in the language
Example 3 Before World War I: Hungarian:
official language
After World War I: German: official
language, Hungarian banned in
schools
In the 1920s:
- Hungarian: peasants talking to each
other -> low (L) language,
interactions with townspeople
- Functions of German expanded
-> high (H) language, language of
school, official transactions,
economic advancement -> young
people began to use German ->
parents to children
By the 1970s: little use for Hungarian
Political, economic and social changes
can occur within a community, and this
may result in linguistic changes too.
Language shift in different
communities
Migrant majorities
Example 4
best understand
speaker of Maori, not fluent speaks and
Maori speakers understands
English, only
know some
Maori phrases go to Maori
pre-school
Maori people in New Zealand
Monolingualism Bilingualism in Monolingualism
in Maori Maori & English in English
Late 19th 1950s
century
▪When colonial powers invade other
countries their languages often become
dominant.
▪When multilingualism was not
widespread in an area, or where just
one indigenous language had been used
before the colonisers arrived, languages
were often under threat.
When language shift occurs, it is almost
always shift towards the language of the
dominant powerful group.
A dominant group has little incentive to
adopt the language of a minority.
The dominant language is associated
with status, prestige and social success.
Language death and
language loss
Example 5
Ayapaneco: name given by outsider
True name of language: Nuumte Oote (True Voice)
They finally spoke to each other in 2014!
True reasons for disappearance of Ayapaneco:
- Increasing urbanisation of the population
- Compulsory education in Spanish (political)
Example 6
Annie’s Dyirbal: no English: school
reading materials, language
fewer contexts
=> Vocabulary
shrunk
=> Grammar
affected by English
=> Competence
erodes
=> Language death
(gradually)
Language death: when all the people
who speak a language die, the language
dies with them.
When a language dies gradually, the
process is similar to that of language
shift.
=> domains taken over one after another
=> speakers become less proficient
=> language gradually dies
Factors contributing to
language shift
Economic, social and political
factors
▪The community sees an important reason
for learning the second language:
Economic/Political reasons => bilingualism
$$$
▪ Bilingualism may or may not lead
language shift (eg. stable diglossa)
▪The community sees no reason to take
active steps to maintain their ethnic
language. (not see any advantage/not
realise danger of disappearing)
▪The social and economic goals of
individuals => speed of shift
▪ Young people: fastest shift
▪ Led by women or men depending on new
jobs and gender roles
Factors contributing to
language shift
Demographic factors
▪Resistance to language shift tends to
last longer in rural than in urban
areas.
▪ Rural: isolated from centers of political
power for longer
▪ Examples: Ukrainians in Canada who live
out of town on farms, Maori in
inaccessible rural areas
▪Size of group: bigger => lower rates
of shift
▪Intermarriage between group =>
faster shift.
▪ Unless multilingualism is normal in a
community, one language tends to
predominate in the home
Chinatown in Manhattan
Example 7
Spanish: no
opportunity to use in
her place, seem odd to Language shift to
friends of school, English completed by
refuse to use at home age 13 (no longer
speaking Spanish)
Factors contributing to
language shift
Attitudes and values
Example 8
Ione’s Family proud of Samoan culture
Part of an active Samoan community
Samoan used for church services and social events
Samoan Youth Club (of church): play sports, dances, sing
and write songs, go on trips
Ione is proud to be Samoan and is
pleased his family taught him his
language. For him, being Samoan
means knowing how to speak Samoan.
How can a minority
language be maintained?
‘. . . nothing benefits a country more than to
treasure the languages and cultures of its
various peoples because in doing so, it fosters
intergroup understanding and realizes greater
dividends in the form of originality, creativity
and versatility.’
Gao Hong-na (2011), School of Chinese
Language and Literature Shaanxi Normal
University
How can a minority
language be maintained?
▪language is considered
an important symbol of a
minority group’s identity
▪Families from a minority
group live near each
other and see each other
frequently
▪The degree and
frequency of contact with
the homeland.
How can a minority
language be maintained?
▪Social factors:
▪extended family with
grandparents and
unmarried relatives living in
the same house,
▪discourage intermarriage
▪language used in schools,
places of worship
▪Institutional support:
Education, law and
administration, religion
and the media
How can a minority
language be maintained?
Ethnolinguistic vitality (EV): For predicting
the likelihood that a language will be
maintained
Three components:
1. the status of the language as indicated
by attitudes towards it;
2. the size of the group who uses the
language and their distribution (e.g.
concentrated or scattered);
3. the extent to which the language enjoys
institutional support.
Language Revival
The History and Revival of the Hebrew
language
For more information, please visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBiiad9fO-g
Sometimes a community becomes aware that its
language is in danger of disappearing and takes
deliberate steps to revitalise it.
Economic factors are likely to be important in
assessing the long-term outcomes of efforts at
language maintenance and revival.
Languages can be maintained, and even revived,
when a group values their distinct identity highly
and regards language as an important symbol of
that identity.
Pressures towards language shift occur mainly in
countries where monolingualism is regarded as
normal, and bilingualism is considered unusual.
