Language maintenance

1. Language maintenance:
language maintenance refers to the situation
where a speaker,a group of speakers,or a speech
community continues to use their language in
same or all spheres of life despie compettion with
the dominant or majority language to become the
main language in these spheres…

2. Factors of language
maintenance:
Giles,bourhis and taylor
(1977) have constructed a
model to systemize the main
factors operating.
They propose a combination of
three main factors.

3. 1. Status
2. Demographic
3. Institutional support

4. 1. Status includes:
 Economic status:is a prominent factor in
nearly all studies in language
maintainance,where grup of minority
language speaker have relatively low
economic status,there is a strong
tendency to shift towards majority
language.

5. Social status:
social status is very closely linked
with economic status and it is
probably equally with respect
to language maintainance.a
group social status ,which here
refers to the group esteem
depends largely upon its
economic status.

6.  Language status:
Language status and social status are
closely related In the sense that the
latter infuences the former.the self
ascribed language status will be low
especially when the minority speak
a dialect of the language in
question.thus languages with low
status are in danger of Becoming
asolescent,where this will happens
also depends on the status of
competing language,which will
often be the majority language.

7. Demographic factor:
They concern the number of
member of a linguistic minority
group and their socal
distribution.the absolute
number of speakers of a
certain language become
important when it decreases.

8. Institutional support:
 It refers to the extent to which The
language of minority group is
represented in the various
institutions of a nation or
community.
 Maintainance is supported when the
minority language is used in various
institutions of the
government,church,cultural
organization etc.

9.  He called these 3 factors as
ethnolinguistic vitality.
 What is ethnolinguistic vitality?
 According to Giles:
 The vitality of an ethnolinguistic
group likely to behave as distinctive
and collective entity in inter group
situation.

10. In simple words:
Ethnolinguistic vitality is a
group's ability to maintain and
protect its existence in time as a
collective entity with a
distinctive identity and language.

11. Others factors:
Linguistic factors
Cultural factors

12. Linguistic Factors:
Maintenance: Mother tongue is
standardized and exists in written form
Loss: Mother tongue is non-standard and/or
not in written form

13. Linguistic Factors:
Maintenance: Use of an alphabet which
makes printing and literacy relatively easy
Loss: Use of writing system which is
expensive to reproduce and difficult to learn

14. Linguistic Factors:
Maintenance: Home language has
international status
Loss: Home language of little or no
international importance

15. Linguistic Factors:
Maintenance: Home Language literacy
used in community and with homeland
Loss: Illiteracy in the home language

16. Linguistic Factors:
Maintenance: Flexibility in the
development of the home language (e.g.
limited use of new terms from the majority
language).
Loss: No tolerance of new terms from
majority language; or too much tolerance of
loan words leading to mixing and eventual
language loss.

17. A generalized scenario from Appel &
Muysken (1987) follows:
‘The first generation (born in the country of origin)
is bilingual. But the minority language is clearly
dominant, the second generation is bilingual and
either of the two languages might be strongest, the
third generation is bilingual with the majority
language dominating and the fourth generation
only has command of the majority language.’

18. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Mother tongue institutions
(e.g. schools, community organizations)
Loss: Lack of Mother-tongue institutions
mass media, leisure activities.

19. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Cultural and religious
ceremonies in the home language.
Loss: Cultural and religious activity in the
majority language.

20. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Ethnic identity strongly tied
to home language
Loss: Ethnic identity defined by factors
other than language.

21. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Nationalistic aspirations as a
language group
Loss: Few nationalistic aspirations

22. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Mother tongue the homeland
language.
Loss: Mother tongue not the only homeland
national language, or mother spans several
nations.

23. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Emotional attachment to
mother tongue giving self-identity and
ethnicity.
Loss: Self-identity derived from factors
other than shared home language.

24. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Emphasis on family ties and
community cohesion.
Loss: Low emphasis on family and
community ties. High emphasis on
individual achievement.

25. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Emphasis on education to
enhance ethnic awareness or controlled by
language.
Loss: No emphasis on education to enhance
ethnic awareness.

26. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Low emphasis on education
if in majority language.
Loss: Acceptance of majority language
education.

27. Cultural Factors:
Maintenance: Culture unlike majority
language.
Loss: Culture and religion similar to that of
the majority language.

28. Thank
you…