Language Maintenance and Shift

Muhammad AzamResearch Scholar

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Lahore, Pakistan

Introduction

• What happens when people with different mother tongues meet each others?

• 1. They simply maintained their mother tongue. That’s called “Language Maintenance”

• 2. They shift to the new L2 as their main (or only) language. It is “ Language Shift”

Introduction

• There are three main possible outcomes when speakers are exposed to a second language:

Introduction

• How much time is required for language shift?

Introduction

• However, a ‘three generation shift‘ is not the only possible pattern. Paulston (1994) cites the Greeks in Pittsburgh as experiencing a four generation shift. She attributes this slower shift to the use of a standardized, prestigious written language; access to an institution teaching Greek language and literacy (i.e. Greek churches in Pittsburgh); and arranged marriages with one partner being a monolingual Greek speaker from Greece.

Introduction

• A five stage shift from minority language monolingualism to majority language monolingualism was found by Von Gleich and Wölck (1994) in Peru:

– (1) mono-lingualism in Quechua (Quichua),– (2) bilingualism but Quechua stronger than Spanish,– (3) bilingualism with Quechua and Spanish approximately

balanced, – (4)bilingualism but Spanish dominant over Quechua,– (5) mono-lingualism in Spanish.

Introduction

• Amongst Panjabi, Italian, Gaelic and Welsh communities in Britain, there are occasional ‘fourth generation’ individuals who sometimes wish to revive the language of their ethnic origins.

• The pressure to become part of a larger whole seems to result in a counter-balancing need to have secure roots within a smaller and more domestic community.

Political, Social and Demographic Factors

Political, Social and Demographic Factors

Cultural Factors

Cultural Factors

Linguistic Factors