LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE

AND SHIFT

Presented by:
Zaini Yasir Rasyid Rabani
410-321-2213-1015
Language Shift in Different Communities
Non-Migrant
Migrant Minorities Migrant Majorities
Communities

Political, Economic,
Social influences

Invasion;
Environment Social Threatening to
Influence political,
Pressure Majority group
economic and social

Start using accepted community language

Successful
BUT
Assimilation
Abandoning mother tongue

Accepted by
Communities
Language Death and Language Loss

 When all the people who speak a language die,

the language dies with them. The people still
thrive, but their mother tongue is not.
 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 functions of the language are taken over in
one domain after another by another language.
 As the domains in which speakers use the
language shrink, the speakers of the dying
language become gradually less proficient in it.
Factors Contributing to
Language Shift
Political, Economic, and
Social factors

Get a better job Accepted by community No reason to maintain

Influence speed of shift

 (cont)
Demographic Factor Attitude and Values

Intermarriage between Pride, Important

Size of a groups
groups Identity

Influence speed of shift

 Maintain Minority Language

Howard Giles’
Ethnolinguistic Vitality

Size of groups and their

Status of a language Institutional support
distribution

Scattered Managing and ensure

Minority important
or language is used in
symbol or identity
Concentrated some settings / domains

Slowing down or
reversing language shift
 Language Revival

Community awareness Economic

How strongly people

wants and their reason Social
for doing so

Take a step to revitalize Demographic

Revived
OR Attitudinal
Prolonged
OR
Death