Language Shift and Language Maintenance
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The document discusses language shift, which is a change from using one language to using another, more dominant language. This often occurs among immigrant families and communities. It provides examples of language shift occurring among Coptic speakers in Egypt and Hungarian speakers in Austria. Language shift happens for various social, economic, political and demographic reasons, and it can ultimately lead to language loss or even death if a language is no longer spoken. Maintaining positive attitudes about a minority language and frequent use of it can help prevent language shift.
Language Shift and Language Maintenance
- 1. Language Shift and Maintenance
- 2. Language Shift- • also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation • a change from the use of one language to the use of another language • often occurs when people migrate from one country to another country where the main language is different • the speaker of the lesser-used language, gradually shifts from his/her native language to the dominant language • in order to restricting the number of languages used as media of instruction, language shift may be actively encouraged by government policy • may also occur when the main language of a region/country is needed for employment opportunities and wider communication • it should not be confused with Language Change
- 3. Example - The Coptic Language In Egypt the usage of Coptic language was in decline since the Arab conquest in 7th century. # Today Coptic language survives only as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church
- 4. Coptic language continues…. • The language of the Copts, which represents the final stage of ancient Egyptian language, a descendent of the Afro-asiatic language • Is the latest stage of Egyptian Language • In the 1st century AD Egyptian began to be written in the Coptic alphabet- an adaptation of the Greek script • After the rise of Islamic power in 7th century , Arabic replaced Koine- Greek and Coptic as the sole administrative language • Today it exists only as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church The Coptic alphabet is an adaptation of the Greek alphabet with some letters inherited from Demotic scripts(developed from ancient Egyptian scripts)
- 5. • Children of migrant families meet English at school. • Influenced by TV programmes and interacting in English with friends and in school • English is the only means of communication with teacher and other children • Starts talking English at home. • Gradually parents start speaking English with their children. Language shift process of the migrant families in English speaking countries.
- 6. In many monolingual countries Speaking good dominant language and abandoning the minority mother tongue has been regarded as a sign of successful assimilation • Pressure from society also has a vast effect in displacing the minority language mother tongue. • Immigrants who sound different regarded as threatening by the majority group • A successful assimilation in dominant language helps making a tighter bond with the dominant culture and society • Gradually shifting may take three or four generations.
- 7. Non migrant communities Political, economic and social changes within a community may result in linguistic changes too. For example the community of Oberwart ( Hungarian name Felsöör) an Austrian town on the border of Hungary has been gradually shifted from Hungarian to German language. Before World War I Oberwart was part of Hungary but after war Oberwart became part of Austria and German replaced Hungerian as official language. Hungarian was also banned from schools. This marked the beginning of a period of language shift.
- 8. Language shift in Migrant majority countries • Language shift often reflects the influence of political and economic factors •The language of a colonial power often become dominant in invaded countries. • countries such as United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain and France have generally imposed their language along with their colonial rule. • as a result many languages of multilingual countries like India, Papua New Guinea and in most African countries were under threat of extinction. • After obtaining political power, a colonial country imposes language along with its institutions- education, government administration, law court, etc • Minority group find themselves under thriving pressure to adopt the language of the dominant group
- 9. Language death and language loss •The ultimate step of language shift is language death or language loss • When all the people who speak a language die, the language dies with them • Shifting to the dominant language for couple of generations causes language loss to the community. • Language loss can be occur on two levels. Personal level or familial level • Which is often the case with immigrant communities in monolingual countries • The entire language may be lost when it ceases to be spoken at all •This scenario has become an all-too-common threat in indigenous communities in the United States, because their languages are not spoken anywhere else in the world.
- 10. Factors contributing to Language Shift Social economic and political factors- • In English- dominated countries people learn English to get a good job •Demand for learning the dominant language results bilingualism- which is always a necessary precursor of language shift • when a specific community fails to take active steps to maintain their ethnic language • they may not see their native language is offering any advantages to their children • not realizing that the language is in danger of disappearing • Giving excessive importance in learning dominant-language in order assimilate into the dominant-society.
- 11. Demographic factors • Language shift tends to occurs lot faster in urban areas than in rural areas • Ukrainians in Canada who live out of town have maintained their ethnic language better than those live in towns. •Maoris of New Zealand who live in isolated areas still maintain their Maori language and culture • size of community or group is also a critical factor • In Australia the largest groups of Maltese speakers had the lower rate of shift towards English
- 12. Attitude and values • Language Shift tends to be slower among communities where the minority language is highly valued • When language is seen as a symbol of ethnic identity, it is maintained intensively • Positive attitudes and international status of a language, helps people to resist the pressure from the majority group to use their language • It is easier to maintaining French in Canada and in the USA because it is a language with immense international status • Greek language has international prestige and immigrant Greeks are proud of the contribution of Greek to Western philosophy and culture • Immigrant Italians are also proud of their food, culture and art. They are very emotional about their “mama” and mother tongue.
- 13. Language maintenance The degree to which an individual or group continues to use their language, particularly in a bilingual or multilingual area or among immigrant groups. Factors that affect language maintenance • Whether or not the language is an official language • Whether or not it is used in the media, for religious purpose or for education • How many speakers of the language live in the same area. In some places where the use of certain language has decreased there have been attempts at revival, e.g. of Welsh in Wales and Gaelic in parts of Scotland.
- 14. How Language can be maintained • Families from minority group need to communicate with each other frequently • this will help them to maintain their language •A frequent contact with the homeland • setting specific purpose school or institution or club Frequent nurturing of native culture ensures language longevity. Picture : a Bengali cultural program in the USA.
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