Summaries- "Introduction to

Sociolinguistics" by Janet Holmes-

Chapter 3
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, lawor 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)