Chapter 3

Section Ⅰ  Multilingual Speech Communities

Chapter 3: Language maintenance and shift

■ Language shift in different communities

□ 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. (Janet Holmes 2013: 53)

# 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. (Janet Holmes 2013: 53-54)

# 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. (Janet Holmes 2013: 54)

# Typically migrants are virtually monolingual in their mother tongue, their children are bilingual and their grandchildren are often monolingual in the language of the ‘host’ country. (Janet Holmes 2013: 54)

□ Non-migrant communities

# Political, economic and social changes can occur within a community, and this may result in linguistic changes too. (Janet Holmes 2013: 55)

(From exercise : This first section has shown how the patterns of use of a minority language shift over time. In which domains might a minority language group realistically hope to maintain their language? (Janet Holmes 2013: 56)

----In general, the more domains in which a minority language is used, the more likely it will be maintained. Domain compartmentalisation – keeping the domains of use of the two languages quite separate – also assists resistance to infiltration from the dominant language. Where minority languages have resisted shift longest, there has been at least one domain in which the minority language is used exclusively. The home is the one most under any family’s control and, especially where there are grandparents and older family members who use the language, language maintenance has sometimes been possible. In larger minority communities the minority language may be maintained in more domains than just the home. Religious services may be held in the minority group language; some education (e.g. out-of-school classes) may take place in the language. There may even be some work available which allows the use of the minority language.) (Janet Holmes 2013: 71-72)

□ Migrant majorities

# When colonial powers invade other countries their languages often become dominant. (Janet Holmes 2013: 57)

# It was not possible for a single alien and imported language to displace and eradicate hundreds of indigenous vernacular languages. But when multilingualism was not widespread in an area, or where just one indigenous language had been used before the colonizers arrived, languages were often under threat. (Janet Holmes 2013: 57)

# Minority groups will find themselves under increasing pressure to adopt the language of the dominant group. (Janet Holmes 2013: 57)

# The result of colonial economic and political control was not diglossia with varying degrees of bilingualism, as found in many African, Asian and South American countries, but the more or less complete eradication of the many indigenous languages. Over time the communities shifted to the colonizer’s language, English, and their own languages died out. (Janet Holmes 2013: 57)

# 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. (Janet Holmes 2013: 58)

■ Language death and language loss

# It is generally true that when all the people who speak a language die, the language dies with them. (Janet Holmes 2013: 59)

# 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.

# The stylistic range that people acquire when they use a language in a wider range of domains disappears. Even in the contexts where the language is still used, there is a gradual reduction in the complexity and diversity of structural features of the language – speakers’ sound rules get simplified, their grammatical patterns become less complex and their vocabulary in the language gets smaller and smaller.

# In the wider community, the language may survive for ritual or ceremonial occasions, but those who use it in these contexts will be few in number and their fluency is often restricted to prayers and set speeches or incantations.

(Janet Holmes 2013: 60)

■ Factors contributing to language shift

□ Economic, social and political factors

# Obtaining work is the most obvious economic reason for learning another language.

# Bilingualism is always a necessary precursor of language shift.

# The community sees no reason to take active steps to maintain their ethnic language.

# At first it appears very important to learn the majority language in order to achieve social and economic success. The minority language seems safe because ‘we all speak it’. Yet, without conscious maintenance it can and usually does disappear in as few as three generations.

# The social and economic goals of individuals in a community are very important in accounting for the speed of shift. Rapid shift occurs when people are anxious to ‘get on’ in a society where knowledge of the second language is a prerequisite for success.

(Janet Holmes 2013: 61)

□ Demographic factors

# Demographic factors are also relevant in accounting for the speed of language shift. Resistance to language shift tends to last longer in rural than in urban areas. (Janet Holmes 2013: 61)

# Shift tends to occur faster in some groups than in others. The size of the group is sometimes a critical factor. (Janet Holmes 2013: 62)

# Intermarriage between groups can accelerate language shift. Unless multilingualism is normal in a community, one language tends to predominate in the home. (Janet Holmes 2013: 62)

□ Attitudes and values

# Language shift tends to be slower among communities where the minority language is highly valued. (Janet Holmes 2013: 63)

# The status of a language internationally can contribute to these positive attitudes. (Janet Holmes 2013: 63)

■ 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. (Janet Holmes 2013: 64)

# Another factor which may contribute to language maintenance for those who emigrate is the degree and frequency of contact with the homeland. A regular stream of new migrants or even visitors will keep the need for using the language alive. (Janet Holmes 2013: 65)

# Although the pressures to shift are strong, members of a minority community can take active steps to protect its language. (living in an extended family, groups discouraging intermarriage...) (Janet Holmes 2013: 65)

# Institutional support generally makes the difference between success and failure in maintaining a minority group language. Education, law and administration, religion and the media are crucial domains from this point of view. (Janet Holmes 2013: 66)

# Howard Giles and his colleague suggest the concept of ‘ethnolinguistic vitality’. These social psychologists suggest that we can predict the likelihood that a language will be maintained by measuring its ethnolinguistic vitality.

----Three components are involved:

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.

----The concept of ethnolinguistic vitality is clearly very useful in studying language maintenance and shift, though devising satisfactory ways to measure the components is often a challenge. The concept of

ethnolinguistic vitality also provides some ideas for those interested in slowing down or reversing language shift. (Janet Holmes 2013: 66)

# Examining linguistic landscapes means looking at public texts in their physical and social context. (Janet Holmes 2013: 67)

----Evidence of the vitality of a minority linguistic group may consist of restaurant signs, shop signs, church signs and advertisements in the minority language. (Janet Holmes 2013: 67)

# Public or official bilingual or multilingual signs can be interpreted in many different ways. (Janet Holmes 2013: 67)

■ Language revival

# It is sometimes argued that the success of such efforts will depend on how far language loss has occurred – that there is a point of no return. But it seems very likely that more important are attitudinal factors such as how strongly people want to revive the language, and their reasons for doing so. (Janet Holmes 2013: 67)

# Economic factors are very influential and rarely work in favour of maintaining small minority group languages.

# Globalization also contributes to this trend. Along with the global spread of concepts, artifacts and ways of doing things comes the global language which labels them.

# Successful resistance requires a conscious and determined effort to maintain the minority language.

# Though economic and political imperatives tend to eliminate minority languages, it is important to remember examples like Welsh and Hebrew which demonstrate that 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.

# It is also important to realize that pressures towards language shift occur mainly in countries where monolingualism is regarded as normal, and bilingualism is considered unusual.

(Janet Holmes 2013: 70)

■ Concepts introduced

Language shift

Language death

Language loss

Language maintenance

Bilingual education

Ethnolinguistic vitality

Linguistic landscapes

Language revival