Language Attitudes as Insights into Indigenous Language Shift and Maintenance

This study focuses on the maintenance of Mandaran as a minority language used by the Mandar community in Kampung Mandar Village, Banyuwangi. The primary objective of this research is to identify the factors influencing the sustainability of Mandaran as well as the strategies employed by the community to maintain its use amid the dominance of the majority language. This study employs a qualitative approach with data collection techniques including participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. The findings reveal that the process of maintaining Mandaran involves several key aspects. First, language choice patterns across various domains of life, such as family, social environment, workplace, education, social media, and in customary practices and traditions. Second, the language attitudes of the Mandar ethnic community towards the use of Mandaran. Third, the degree of language maintenance determined by language choice, language attitudes, the role of rituals and traditions, and the intensity of language use. Fourth, determining factors affecting the maintenance of Mandaran include the language's social status, its speakers' distribution, and institutional support. Furthermore, the discussion addresses strategic themes such as language maintenance and revitalization, language attitudes about cultural identity, language choice dynamics within mixed families, the influence of language contact on language shift, the role of economic factors, and the contribution of rituals and traditions in sustaining the existence of Mandaran within a multilingual society.

In South Africa, reports on language shift have focused on instances of language shift from indigenous African languages to English. There is, however, also research that suggests that language shift is taking place from Afrikaans to English in the Western Cape. Anthonissen (2009), for example, notes in her research among Coloured communities that a shift has taken place from Afrikaans first language (L1), across three generations, to English L1. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates language shift in two semi-urban Western Cape Coloured communities; in particular, it examines what patterns of language shift/maintenance can be observed, and investigates sociolinguistic factors, such as age, language of schooling, socio-economic status and language attitudes, to which the observed patterns can be ascribed. The aim is to ascertain whether language shift, from Afrikaans to English has taken place, and which factors appear to encourage or discourage language shift in the two communities. Through the administration of a questionnaire to 50 households, 25 in each of the communities, the study this paper reports on examined language use across a number of domains: at home, in the community, in church, and in the workplace. It also explored the language attitudes of the participants (53 in total) towards Afrikaans in order to investigate the possibility that this language might be used for indexing their identity. The collected data does not provide any evidence of language shift from Afrikaans to English. However, there seems to be increased use of English in the public domains (such as the workplace and in the church), with Afrikaans being used almost exclusively in the intimate domains. It appears that Afrikaans remains a strong marker of identity in the two semi-urban Western Cape Coloured communities, despite English largely being regarded as the language of upward socio-economic mobility.

In migrant communities, parents and children not only represent two diverse generations, but two different languages and cultures. As migrants who still carry memories of their homeland and culture close to their hearts, many are tied linguistically, culturally, and emotionally to their native country and culture. Language maintenance in migrant families assists parents and their children not only to communicate but to also understand cultural values better, which are crucial to their identity and worldview. Although research on community languages has flourished since Michael Clyne’s pioneering work on community language maintenance in the 1960s, there is limited understanding of the role of migrant families in maintaining and transmitting a community language and its influence on identity in Australia. Specific research on Rioplatense Spanish language maintenance and Argentinean identity within the Argentinean community has remained largely unexamined in the contemporary global landscape. In particular, we lack research on how and why first and second generation Argentineans maintain the Spanish language, but more specifically, Rioplatense Spanish and the consequences this has for their experience of Argentinean identity. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap for Australia and elsewhere by examining and discussing the following four themes. First, the central role of the family (as opposed to governments) in conceptualising and implementing language maintenance and identity practices. Second, the influence of familial (endogamous and exogamous unions, extended family, siblings, and language strategies) and extra-familial factors (social networks, travel, language status, and institutions) in augmenting the development and maintenance of community language literacy skills and identity. Third, how linguistic strategies and attitudes are dynamic and play a role in the process of language learning and maintenance, and last, the role and consumption of media (print, audio, audio-visual, and digital communication technologies), and technology in community language maintenance and identity. This thesis analyses the results of a two-step study, drawing upon data derived from mixed-methods research. First, a community-based survey of first and second generation Argentineans from Australia’s three largest cities — Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane — examined respondents’ use and maintenance of the Spanish language and the influence this has on their experience of Argentinean identity. Second, semi-structured interviews with first and second generation Argentineans were conducted to verify and triangulate survey findings and develop insights derived from the survey data. The analyses of the survey and interview data in this thesis provide insights into how the attitudes and actions of first generation Argentineans since the 1970s have influenced intergenerational ethnolinguistic vitality in Spanish language maintenance. This thesis illuminates our understanding by demonstrating how Argentineans in contemporary Australia maintain and transmit the Spanish language, their dialect Castellano Rioplatense [Rioplatense Spanish], and the implications this has for their experience of Argentinean identity. It also demonstrates that although the Argentinean community pertains to the broader Latin American community in Australia, they signal their uniqueness via their use of Rioplatense Spanish. The principal finding of this thesis is that despite Australia’s dominant monolingual landscape, first and second generation Argentineans continue to transmit and maintain Spanish, but more specifically, Rioplatense Spanish. Moreover, their use of Rioplatense Spanish allows them to maintain a distinct Argentinean identity in a multicultural context that otherwise publicly renders them as ‘Latin Americans.’ This thesis identifies four key elements in community language maintenance and identity. First, the family is the most salient factor in language maintenance and transmission. Second, the heterogeneity of the Argentinean community compared to other Latin American communities in Australia is reflected by their distinct use of Rioplatense Spanish, which maintains and ameliorates ethnolinguistic vitality, framing their Argentinean identity. Third, positive language attitudes within families further aids in the transference and maintenance of Rioplatense Spanish in various domains, at both micro and macro levels. Fourth, the consumption of media and digital communication technologies influences how the community language is used and experienced. This is achieved by individuals participating in diverse spaces that use and sustain not only the Spanish language, but more specifically, Rioplatense Spanish, and Argentinean identity. Hence, the use and maintenance of Spanish creates a sense of an imagined community, with individuals sensing that they mentally belong ‘here’ in Australia and ‘there’ in Argentina. The findings of this thesis have implications for promoting intergenerational language and identity within families, communities, pedagogical programming, educational and linguistic policies to facilitate language maintenance and identity opportunities.

This paper examines the patterns of language use among immigrant children from Anglophone African countries living in Botswana. The study reveals major differences in their patterns of language use when compared to that of their parents. Three distinct language use patterns were identified; namely, children who are monolingual in English; those who are bilingual in English and the mother tongue, English and Kiswahili, or English and Setswana; and a third group who are multilingual in the mother tongue, English, Kiswahili and/ or Setswana. The study also reveals that whereas majority of the immigrant parents do not speak Setswana, in spite of their length of residence in Botswana, a good percentage of their children speaks Setswana. Another interesting finding is that many of the immigrant children who cannot speak their mother tongues are fluent speakers of Setswana, the dominant language of the host community. Data for this study were collected using two instruments; namely, a questionnaire designed for parents and an interview schedule for children aged between 18- 25. The questionnaire was administered to 100 immigrant parents from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia. Fifty immigrant children from these countries were interviewed to get more insightful data on the patterns of language use among this population. Convenience sampling was used to identify the participants. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the “opportunity versus motivation” argument on language maintenance and language shift. The researcher recommends that immigrant children should be given more exposure and opportunities to learn and speak their mother tongue languages, especially in the family domain.

Language remains the primary medium through which culture, knowledge, values, and collective memory are transmitted from one generation to another. Indigenous languages therefore represent more than tools of communication; they embody the identity, history, and worldview of their speakers. In Nigeria, many indigenous languages are increasingly threatened by neglect, language shift, and unfavourable language attitudes. This paper examines the phenomenon of indigenous language endangerment in Nigeria, with specific focus on the Akye language spoken in parts of Nasarawa State. Using both primary data obtained through field questionnaires and secondary data drawn from existing literature, the study investigates the sociolinguistic factors responsible for the declining use of Akye and assesses the level of intergenerational transmission. Findings reveal a sharp reduction in language use among younger speakers, dominance of English and Hausa in education and public life, absence of Akye in formal schooling and the media, and weak institutional support. The paper argues that without deliberate and coordinated revitalisation efforts involving families, schools, communities, government, and the media, the Akye language faces the risk of gradual extinction. The study concludes by proposing practical strategies for language maintenance and revitalisation that are culturally grounded and policy-driven.

This monograph describes the language planning situation in Nigeria, one of the most multilingual countries in Africa. It is divided into four sections. The first section presents the language profile of Nigeria and provides a background of the general language situation in the country. The second section discusses language spread and use. It focuses particularly on language in education and the media. The core section of the monograph investigates language policy and planning, with an emphasis on the mother tongue medium (or first language) policy and the multilingual policy. The fourth discusses language maintenance and language shift in Nigeria with respect to the indigenous languages and English, the exoglossic language. It shows that in spite of the first-language and multilingual policies, English is still dominant in virtually every aspect of life and that concrete policy actions need to be taken not only to begin to break the hegemony of English but also to ensure that indigenous languages have a secure future. The final section also provides some practical insight on ways to begin to resolve some of the problems posed by Nigeria’s language policies.

For a very long time, France’s language policy has considered French as the only language of the republic, ignoring any other languages spoken across the country. In such a situation, immigrant minorities are most likely to experience significant challenges in preserving their heritage language. This paper addresses language maintenance and shift among the Algerian minority group in France, which represents the largest immigrant group with 12.7% of the total number of foreigners living in the country. It seeks to compare three generations by examining their language proficiency, language use, and language attitude in order to gauge the degree to which each generation is maintaining the heritage language. It also seeks to determine whether participants’ language proficiency and use are associated with their length of residence in the host country, age at immigration, and language attitudes. To reach these goals, a questionnaire was administered to the target population, together with interviews recorded with a smaller group in each generation. Based on the questionnaire data from 187 participants, the Kruskal-Wallis test revealed significant differences between the three generations in their self-reported proficiency and use of Arabic and French languages, which may be an indication of a gradual shift towards French. The interviews conducted with 11 participants suggested that the reasons behind such a shift are related to: prior exposure to the French language before migration, lack of exposure to the Arabic language, and experiences of discrimination and marginalization. The correlation between the extralinguistic variables and language proficiency has shown no relationship between participants’ length of residence and their level of proficiency in the Arabic language. However, age at immigration and attitude have positively and significantly correlated to participants’ Arabic language proficiency.

Studies of social change and language maintenance and shift have tended to focus on minority immigrant languages (e.g., Fishman, 1991; Gal, 1979; Milroy, 2001; Stoessel, 2002). Very little is known about language shift from a demographically dominant language to a minority but economically dominant one (e.g., Bowerman, 2000; de Klerk, 2000; Kamwangamalu, 2001, 2002a,b, & in press; Reagan, 2001). This chapter contributes to such research by looking at the current language shift from majority African languages such as Sotho, Xhosa, and Zulu to English in South Africa. In particular, it examines to what extent the sociopolitical changes that have taken place in South Africa (i.e., the demise of apartheid and its attendant structures) have impacted everyday linguistic interaction and have contributed to language shift from the indigenous African languages to English, especially in urban Black communities. It argues that a number of factors, among them the economic value and international status of English, the perceived lower status of the indigenous African languages, the legacy of apartheid-based Bantu education, the new multilingual language policy, the linguistic behaviors of language policy makers, etc., interact in complex ways to accelerate language shift in urban Black communities. In conclusion, the chapter explores ways in which the observed language shift can be curbed to prevent what Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) has termed “linguistic genocide,” particularly in a country that has a well-documented history of this phenomenon (Lanham, 1978; Prabhakaran, 1998).

Manukau City is the most language-rich area in New Zealand, yet it has date not been the subject of any detailed sociolinguistic study. This paper reports on pilot work for a major project on the languages of Manukau, and addresses the question of whether linguists can contribute language maintenance efforts. It consists of an analysis of New Zealand census data on language use in the area, supported by qualitative data collected from eight pilot interviews. The 1996 New Zealand census was the first contain a language question, and we show how this provides background information on language use and language shift in Manukau. The census results depict the use of both ethnic languages and English in the four main Pasifika communities--Samoan, Cook Islands, Tongan, and Niuean. Age grading of self-reported proficiency in the Pasifika languages indicates the differing degrees which they are undergoing shift or maintaining their standing. Qualitative data gathered in interviews with community members p rovide some possible explanations of how these Pasifika languages are shifting English. The final section of the paper looks at the issue of whether and what linguists can contribute language INTRODUCTION There are two sections this paper: section I reports on a project that is currently investigating the state of health of the Samoan, Cook Islands Maori, Tongan, and Niuean languages in Manukau City. We present the findings from the pilot study that preceded the main project. It consists of the analysis of the 1996 New Zealand census data on language use in these four Pasifika communities, supplemented by qualitative comments from one older and one younger member from each community. Section 2 of the paper addresses the basis of one of the stated goals of the Languages of Manukau project. The project has as its twin aims to investigate the use of and attitudes the four main Pasifika languages in the Manukau region, and contribute their maintenance. We examine the assumptions behind the second goal by asking what linguists can do, if anything, help the language maintenance efforts. The question becomes all the more important in situations where linguists are not native speakers of the languages be maintained. In such situations, communities have been known question the authority and qualifications of foreign linguists effectively carry out research on, and make informed statements and recommendations about, the endangered language. In cases where linguists have not been seen be of substantial help, it is taken as confirmation that they indeed lack the qualifications intervene successfully in language maintenance efforts. There is also the view that issues of l anguage survival may be peripheral to--or even lie outside the scope of--theoretical linguistics as it is currently formulated. In the Pacific this has probably led a decrease in the number of linguists concerned with language maintenance, or at least fewer presentations and publications on language endangerment issues. 1. THE PASIFIKA PEOPLES IN NEW ZEALAND In this paper, Pasifika people refers Polynesian communities other than New Zealand Maori. The four largest Pasifika communities in New Zealand are the Samoan, Cook Islands, Tongan, and Niuean peoples. Together they make up only 5 percent of the New Zealand population, but in Manukau, they make up 20 percent (see figure 1). (2) Manukau City lies the south of Auckland, which is New Zealand's largest city. Manukau has more people of different cultures and languages than any other part of New Zealand. These four communities are the largest Pasifika groups in Manukau, and represent a substantial proportion of the total New Zealand population of the groups. For this reason it is likely that trends we note in Manukau will apply other regions of the country. …

Language Maintenance and Language Shift among Keralites in Oman

In this paper we examine the language situation among the Gypsies of Jordan within the framework of previous theories on language maintenance and shift as proposed by Le Page, Fishman, Dorian and Kelman. The study investigates language and cultural maintenance among the Gypsies of Jordan to permit comparison of the relative influences of various social parameters on their use of both Arabic and Gypsy. Here we analyse a corpus of data collected from 100 speakers by means of a questionnaire and interviews. Evidence is presented that Arabic is used for various functions and Gypsy is still used in a variety of social domains, viz. home, neighbourhood, religious and cultural settings. Language maintenance is attributed here to the fact that the Gypsies find themselves unable to gain access to the majority-group culture, and thus they often come to be clustered in their own areas by the element of ‘necessity’ imposed on them by the majority host community. It has also been observed that the social and cultural isolation of the Gypsies from the Jordanian mainstream has contributed to cultural maintenance among them. A comparison between the results of this study and those of Al-Khatib's work on the Armenians of Jordan, another minority group inhabiting the country for the same period, shows that unlike the Armenians, the Gypsies of Jordan are experiencing a clear-cut case of language and cultural maintenance.

This study aims to: (1) reveal the language attitudes toward the use of the first language in Paleteang Subdistrict, Pinrang Regency, as seen from age, and (2) reveal the language attitudes toward the use of the first language in Paleteang Subdistrict, Pinrang Regency, as seen from gender. This type of research is a mixed-methods study, combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The population of this study consists of people living in Paleteang Subdistrict, Pinrang Regency. The sample for this study consists of 30 individuals. The sampling technique used was stratified random sampling, grouped into 5 age categories and 2 gender categories from the villages of Pacongang and Temmasarangnge. Data collection techniques included observation, questionnaires (surveys), and interviews, with data analysis using descriptive statistics and PawsStatistical analysis in the form of percentage data from each respondent’s answers on the language attitude scale. The results of the study indicate that: (1) The language attitudes (loyalty, pride, and awareness of norms) of the community toward the use of the first language in Paleteang Subdistrict, Pinrang Regency, based on age, are insufficient. This is due to the phenomenon in the minority community where individuals are neither loyal nor proud of their first language. The language attitude percentage scale is <50%, with a significant value of <0.05, (2) The language attitudes of the community toward the use of the first language in Paleteang Subdistrict, Pinrang Regency, based on gender, are adequate. This is reflected in the overall percentage result of the community's language attitude toward the use of the first language (Bugis or Makassar language), with a percentage greater than 50%. Both male and female attitudes are positive, with no significant difference in language attitudes (loyalty, pride, and awareness of norms) and a significant value of >0.05.

Reviewed by: Language and national identity: Comparing France and Sweden by Leigh Oakes Annette Harrison Language and national identity: Comparing France and Sweden. By Leigh Oakes. (IMPACT: Studies in language and society 13.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001. Pp. x, 305. ISBN 1588111164. $100 (Hb). This revised presentation of Oakes’s 2000 dissertation, completed at the University of Melbourne, Australia, examines the role language plays in the construction of national identity. The study is organized around a comparison of French and Swedish national identities. First, a content analysis of social, historical, political, and economic data regarding the role of language in the construction of national identity in each of the countries is presented. Next, the author describes a survey that she conducted in the two countries. Her approach is multidisciplinary, though her analysis and explanations rely on a theoretical framework from the social psychology of language. Chs. 1–3 introduce concepts necessary to the analysis and interpretation of the data contained in following chapters: ethnicity, civic and ethnic nations, nationalism, and linguistic variation within an ethnolinguistic community. Next, topics associated with the social psychology of language are treated: language attitudes, language ideology and power relationships, social identity theory (SIT), and ethnolinguistic identity theory (ELIT). Ch. 4 provides a general perspective of language and national identity, including the concepts of linguistic consciousness, standardization, prescriptivism, language purism, and language myths. A historical overview of the emergence of each nation’s language and identity precedes a review of each nation’s attitudes to language change and spelling reform in the modern era. In the subsequent chapters, language and identity issues are described for each country in the context of the national, European, and global arenas. Here the framework of comparing and contrasting the situations in France and Sweden is particularly useful as the discussion touches on the different effects of various social, political, and economic decisions on the use and function of language as it pertains to the construction of national identity. Salient notions include that of ‘the Other’, linguistic and nonlinguistic boundaries, and convergence/divergence. The author demonstrates how both countries have made recourse alternately to regional minority groups and to immigrants as linguistic Others as necessary contradistinctions in order to form a national identity through language. Linguistic and nonlinguistic boundaries create social spaces in which language and identity may have different relationships to each other, resulting in phenomena such as the indirect use of language as a socially acceptable basis for discrimination, the use of language to resist forces of assimilation and globalization, or the possibility of language shift. Strategies for the construction of national identity have involved the nation’s convergence toward and/or divergence away from minority groups, European neighbors, and other countries on an international playing field, such as the United States. In Ch. 8, O describes the methodology for the construction of the questionnaire used in her survey of secondary school students in France and Sweden, and presents the series of hypotheses on which it was based. Her original hypothesis had predicted a high degree of national and linguistic consciousness in France, and this was borne out among the French students. But contrary to her expectations, she also found a high degree of national and linguistic consciousness among the Swedish students. Likewise, her findings concerning French and Swedish attitudes towards regional and immigrant languages were the reverse of what her hypothesis predicted. The final chapter contains a summary and evaluation of the book’s contents and suggestions for future research. One noteworthy conclusion is that the official rhetoric and actions by agents on the national level do not necessarily guide or coincide with the construction of national identity at the grassroots level. The value of O’s research lies in her unique comparison of the history of official policies and actions concerning language and national identity to the synchronic study of speakers at a grassroots level. This book will be appreciated by those with interests in the areas of language attitude studies, the effects of language standardization, the globalization of English, and more particularly by those monitoring linguistic pressures in Europe. [End Page 899] Annette Harrison University of California, Santa Barbara and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL...

ABSTRACTBy 2050, the majority of Australia’s surviving Indigenous languages are likely to become extinct. The intergenerational transmission of languages in which children acquire languages from their parents and grandparents is a key mechanism for reversing language shift, but many Australian children whose parents speak an Indigenous language do not speak that language. Using a unique, national survey of Australian Indigenous children, I identify factors associated with the successful intergenerational transmission of Indigenous languages within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. Results highlight the importance of parents’ language use. Although community-level characteristics account for some of the variance in successful language transmission, parents who use Indigenous languages at home, speak them as well as they speak English, and do not also speak a creole language are more likely to pass those languages onto their children.

The language use of Ukrainian war refugees has attracted the attention of researchers worldwide due to the unprecedented number of individuals displaced since the onset of the war in 2022. Earlier studies have documented a shift in language use and attitudes in Ukraine, marked by a diminished role for Russian and increased prominence of Ukrainian both within the country and among Ukrainian émigré communities abroad. However, the role of age in this process has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Moreover, research on the specific characteristics of language shift and social integration among Ukrainian refugees in Canada is still insufficient. This article reports the results of a study aimed at examining how home languages shift and the use of the official languages among Ukrainian refugees in Canada may vary by age. The vresearch employed a mixed-methods approach, based on a survey (65 participants). In this research, quantitative data were drawn from the closed-ended survey questions, and open-ended questions were employed to illustrate quantitative results for more depth and insight. The results indicate that there are no significant differences in L1 and L2 or L3 by age in this sample. The study confirms a language shift from Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism in Ukraine to Ukrainian dominance, which does not differ by age or age group. What does differ by age and generation is the proficiency in English, English use, and the perceived difficulty in learning English, whereby younger participants reported higher proficiency in English, its higher use in daily communication, and less difficulty acquiring it, as compared to their older peers. While the findings align with previous research on language use among immigrants—including the impact of age—they offer new insights into the experiences of refugees, highlighting how different age groups respond to social pressures in migration. A further contribution of this study lies in addressing the language shift from the perspectives of both younger and older refugees and establishing that the language shift in Ukraine swept across all ages.