scholarly journals Languages and language varieties: Comparative research on the linguistic attitudes in four bilingual minority communities in Hungary

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Anna Borbely
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Research ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Advanced Stage ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Positive Attitudes

A central issue of this paper is to study the patterns invariation of attitudes toward minority language varieties in four minority communities from Hungary: German, Slovak, Serb and Romanian. This study takes part from the research which focuses on how to obtain significant information about the mechanism of the language shift process concerning autochthonous minorities in Hungary. The results demonstrate that in the course of language shift communities at an advanced stage of language shift have less positive attitudes toward their minority languages than individuals from communities where language shift is in a less advanced stage. In Hungarian minority groups speakers’ attitudes toward minority language varieties (dialect vs. standard) are the symptoms of language shift.

Language Use and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Policy-Makers and Educators in Northeast Vietnamese Areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-130
Author(s):  
Ha Ngan Ngo ◽  
Maya Khemlani David
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Status ◽  
Wedding Songs

Vietnam represents a country with 54 ethnic groups; however, the majority (88%) of the population are of Vietnamese heritage. Some of the other ethnic groups such as Tay, Thai, Muong, Hoa, Khmer, and Nung have a population of around 1 million each, while the Brau, Roman, and Odu consist only of a hundred people each. Living in northern Vietnam, close to the Chinese border (see Figure 1), the Tay people speak a language of the    Central    Tai language group called Though, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di. Tay remains one of 10 ethnic languages used by 1 million speakers (Buoi, 2003). The Tày ethnic group has a rich culture of wedding songs, poems, dance, and music and celebrate various festivals. Wet rice cultivation, canal digging and grain threshing on wooden racks are part of the Tày traditions. Their villages situated near the foothills often bear the names of nearby mountains, rivers, or fields. This study discusses the status and role of the Tày language in Northeast Vietnam. It discusses factors, which have affected the habitual use of the Tay language, the connection between language shift and development and provides a model for the sustainability and promotion of minority languages. It remains fundamentally imperative to strengthen and to foster positive attitudes of the community towards the Tày language. Tày’s young people must be enlightened to the reality their Tày non-usage could render their mother tongue defunct, which means their history stands to be lost.

Endangered minority and regional languages (‘dialects’) in Italy

Modern Italy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Coluzzi
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Expert Group ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regional Languages ◽  
Italian Dialects ◽  
Local Languages

The Italian linguistic situation is characterised by a remarkable number of language varieties, although the development of Italian in the past 150 years has been the cause of a language shift from local languages to Italian. The degree of endangerment suffered by so-called ‘Italian dialects’ is shown using the Major Evaluative Factors of Language Vitality drawn up by a UNESCO ad hoc expert group in 2003, and the data offered by the 2006 ISTAT survey on language use. The debate in Italy on the vitality of ‘dialects’ and their future has done little to activate mechanisms and strategies to reverse the worrying language shift that both minority languages and ‘dialects’ are undergoing.

scholarly journals Dynamics of linguistic and social change: Minority languages in Hungary and the sociolinguistic situation of Serbian

2009 ◽  
pp. 331-357
Author(s):  
Marija Ilic
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language Research

Over the past decades, minority languages and processes of language shift/maintenance have become an important scholarly concern. This paper aims to describe in brief the sociolinguistic situation of the Serbian minority language in Hungary with special attention paid to the relation between language ideology and processes of language shift/maintenance. The first section of this paper presents the current socio-political framework for protection of minority languages in Hungary. The second paper's section provides an overview of the main sociolinguistic surveys of the minority languages in Hungary that have had many centuries of contact with Serbian i.e. German, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Croatian. Finally, the paper provides a quick recapitulation of the Serbian language research in Hungary, and depicts the current sociolinguistic situation of Serbian.

scholarly journals Maximizing Scalability in Literacy Game App Design for Minority Languages

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 668-680
Author(s):  
Christy Hemphill ◽  
Aaron Hemphill
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Educational Game ◽  
Literacy Skill ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Technology Markets ◽  
Resource Investment ◽  
App Design ◽  
Skill Building

Minority language communities lack access to educational technology that facilitates literacy skill building. The approach currently taken by most educational game app developers privileges widely spoken languages and often requires intensive resource investment.  In response, a new game app was designed to provide easily localized, pedagogically appropriate games for literacy skill building. Scalability to multiple minority languages was possible through a programming design based on language packs that could be compiled by local implementation teams without specialized technical skills and without significant resource investment. We describe the scalability issues encountered when localizing the app for the initial ten minority language pilot groups and how a language-neutral app design that relies on language packs to specify language-specific content and parameters can adequately address these issues. When it comes to meeting the demands of growing education technology markets in underserved Indigenous and minority communities, localizing an app initially designed for maximum scalability is more feasible than investing significant resources converting apps custom designed for one language into new languages.

Language Shift

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenore A. Grenoble
Keyword(s):  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual

Language shift occurs when a community of users replaces one language by another, or “shifts” to that other language. Although language shift can and does occur at the level of the individual speaker, it is shift at the level of an entire community that is associated with widespread language replacement and loss. Shift is a particular kind of language loss, and differs from language attrition, which involves the loss of a language over an individual’s lifetime, often the result of aging or of language replacement (as in shift). Both language shift and attrition are in contrast to language maintenance, the continuing use of a language. Language maintenance and revitalization programs are responses to language shift, and are undertaken by communites who perceive that their language is threatened by a decrease in usage and under threat of loss. Language shift is widespread and can be found with majority- or minority-language populations. It is often associated with immigrant groups who take up the majority language of their new territory, leaving behind the language of their homeland. For minority-language speaker communities, language shift is generally the result of a combination of factors, in particular colonization. A nexus of factors—historical, political, social, and economic—often provides the impetus for a community to ceasing speaking their ancestral language, replacing it with the language of the majority, and usually politically dominant, group. Language shift is thus a social issue, and often coupled with other indicators of social distress. Language endangerment is the result of language shift, and in fact shift is its most widespread cause.Since the 1960s there has been ever-increasing interest across speaker communities and linguists to work to provide opportunities to learn and use minority languages to offset shift, and to document speakers in communities under the threat of shift.

Deutsche Minderheiten und ihre Sprache in Europa

1984 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Nelde
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Language Maintenance And Shift ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time

SUMMARY German Minorities and Their Language in Europe Research in contact-linguistics in the last few years has particularly focused on a language that has always been prone to contact with others, namely, German. For this reason, the German language deserves special attention in the study of language-contact phenomena. Not only does it serve as a language of communication between East and West—a large amount of literature has already been produced on the important role it plays in Central Europe—but it also illustrates the many different aspects of a minority language, particularly in language-border areas. This paper gives a general survey of the present situation of German, whose "functional" position in relation to the most important rival languages represents a central point of discussion. The German minority groups in Europe are then briefly analyzed in order to demonstrate the importance of extra-linguistic factors such as the effects of the most recent political movements on language maintenance and shift. With reference to internal linguistic changes from all grammatical aspects, particular details of German as a minority language are then discussed. These may be considered as linguistic universals since they are normally valid for the whole Romance-Germanic linguistic border area of Europe with its frequently opposing norm concepts. For the first time, the meaning of auxiliary languages and "natiocisms"—Belgicisms, Italianisms, Netherlandicisms, and so forth (linguistic innovations valid for particular states independent of the language variant in question)—is studied in relation to German in Belgium. Finally, an attempt is made to minimize the discrepancy between the fact that German, on the one hand, represents one of the most significant minority languages in Europe and, on the other, has so far not been studied sufficiently, so that the prerequisites for a focal point of research on "German as a Minority Language" may be formulated within the framework of contact-linguistics. RESUMO La germanaj malplimultoj kaj ilia lingvo en Europo La kontaktlingvistika esplorado dum la lastaj jaroj aparte koncentrigis pri lingvo, kiu tendencis kontaktiĝi kun aliaj lingvoj—la germana. Do, la germana meritas apartan atenton dum la studado de lingvokontaktaj fenomenoj. Gi servas ne nur kiel pontlingvo inter Oriento kaj Okcidento—oni jam multe verkis pri ĝia grava rolo en Centra Eůropo —sed ĝi ankaü bildigas la multajn aspektojn de minoritata lingvo, aparte en lingvolimaj zonoj. La nuna referajo generale trarigardas la nunan situacion de la germana, kies "funk-cia" pozicio rilate al la plej gravaj konkurencaj lingvoj konsistigas centran diskutpunkton. Sekve oni mallonge analizas la germanajn minoritatajn grupojn de Europo, por mon-tri la gravecon de eksterlingvaj elementoj, kiel ekzemple la efiko de la plej lastatempaj politikaj movadoj, pri la reteno au la intersanĝo de lingvo. Rilate al internaj lingvaj sanĝiĝoj el ciuj gramatikaj aspektoj, oni sekve diskutas apartajn detalojn de la germana kiel minoritata lingvo. Eblas konsideri ilin kiel universalajoj de la lingvo, car ili kutime validas en la tuta lingvolima zono latinida-ĝerm ana de Europo, kun ties ofte konfront-antaj normkonceptoj. Oni unuafoje pristudas la signifon de helplingvoj kaj de naciismoj —t.e. belgismoj, italismoj, nederlandismoj ktp. (t. e: lingvaj novigoj, kiuj validas en aparta stato, senrilate al la koncerna lingvoformo)—rilate al la germana en Belgio. Oni fine klopodas minimumigi la misrilaton inter la fakto, ke la germana, unuflanke, estas unu el la plej gravaj minoritataj lingvoj en Eùropo, dum aliflanke, oni nesufice priesploris gin. Tiel, ni provas starigi la antaůkondicojn de fokuso de esploro pri "la germana kiel minoritata lingvo" ene de la ramo de la kontaktlingvistiko.

Language shift and language (re)vitalisation: the roles played by women and men in Northern Fenno-Scandia

Multilingua ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tove Bull ◽  
Leena Huss ◽  
Anna-Riitta Lindgren
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
The Other ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
The North ◽  
Other Hand

Abstract The research question of the present paper is the following: to what degree (if any) is gender relevant as an explanatory factor in, firstly, the process of assimilation and later, the process of (re)vitalisation of indigenous and minority languages in northern Fenno-Scandia (the North Calotte)? The assimilation of the ethnic groups in question was a process initiated and lead by the authorities in the three different countries. Finland, Sweden and Norway. Nevertheless, members of the indigenous and minority groups also took part in practicing, though, not necessarily promoting, the official assimilation politics, for different reasons. (Re)vitalisation, on the other hand, was initially – and still is – mostly a process stemming from the minority groups themselves, though the authorities to a certain extent have embraced it. The paper thus addresses the question of whether gender played a role in the two different processes, assimilation and (re)vitalisation, and if that was the case, how and why.

scholarly journals Minority Languages as a Resource for Tourism Promotion on the Web: The Case of Some Minority Communities in Italy

2021 ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Francesco Costantini ◽  
Diego Sidraschi ◽  
Francesco Zuin
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Cultural Experience ◽  
Local Variety ◽  
Tourism Promotion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Tourism Websites ◽  
Local Languages ◽  
The Web

Minority languages have been the subject of a rich literature in the field of the sociolinguistics of tourism and a number of works have underlined that they have been increasingly used in tourism promotion in the last few decades as they convey overtones evoking authenticity. Travel websites do not only provide a first glance at a destination for potential guests, but they are also part of the tourist experience because they introduce visitors to relevant contents related to specific places. In view of this, in websites of a destination where a minority language is spoken the use of the local variety could be particularly relevant in order to promote a specific place as offering an immersion into a unique cultural experience. The present article addresses the question how ten minority communities in Italy mobilize their local languages for self-representation purposes within their tourism websites.

scholarly journals Varietätengebrauch und Varietätenkontakt in Südtirol und Ostbelgien

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Maria Riehl
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Standard Variety ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Symbolic Value

Dialect often plays an important role in minority communities where it functions as a marker of ethnic identity. In this case it also becomes an issue for speakers of the majority group who intend to acquire the minority language. The situation, however, differs from region to region and within different minority groups. The article discusses the linguistic setting and variety use of two German-speaking minorities, South Tyrol and East Belgium. The main focus is on the dimensions of dialect use in different domains, its linguistic influence on the standard variety, and its role for identity building. It will be pointed out that South Tyrolians almost exclusively identify with their regional dialect, whereas East Belgians also make use of language mixing. In its conclusion the article emphasizes the importance of dialectal and regional varieties for L2-learners: Learners should not only acquire a passive knowledge of the respective minority dialects, but also come to appreciate its symbolic value in the respective communities.

The dilemmas of ‘saving’ a dying language

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-286
Author(s):  
Silvia Dal Negro
Keyword(s):  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Standard Variety ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Funding Support ◽  
Italian Context ◽  
Administrative Domains

Abstract Walser German is a prototypical example of ‘extreme’ minority language, the survival of which appears at present extremely critical, at least in the Italian context. From a sociolinguistic point of view, Walser German is dispersed in a discontinuous territory and subject to language shift, language attrition and demographic shrinkage. Linguistically, it is part of a dialect continuum that stretches north of the Alps; yet, the dialects spoken in Italy have developed independently from each other and from their Swiss counterparts, with the result that they are now mutually unintelligible, and structurally too distant from Standard Modern German for this variety to be eligible as their Dachsprache. Given this background, the effects of a law protecting and promoting minority languages were foreseeable: Walser German is not a language under any sociolinguistic respect and could neither be protected or promoted by encouraging its use in administrative domains or developing a standard variety. However, what actually happened was not foreseeable either. Legal and funding support fostered documentation activities creating or enhancing local expertise in various domains; in addition, communities started to feel legitimised of a cultural and linguistic ‘otherness’ that could be exploited as a commodity, especially in the domain of tourism.

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