Lower domain language shift in Taiwan: The case of Southern Min

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Chang Liu ◽  
Johan Gijsen ◽  
Chung-Ying Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Region Of Origin ◽  
Chinese Identity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Determinants ◽  
Southern Min ◽  
The Status

AbstractThis paper presents data from a quantitative survey based on 746 written questionnaires and 23 semi-structured interviews. The main purpose of the study was to measure Southern Min and Mandarin lower domain language use among a cross-section of Taiwan’s multilingual population. As organizing elements for our discussion of Taiwan’s current language situation, we made use of Sridhar’s notion of societal multilingualism as well as Ó Riagáin’s idea that the home is possibly the first domain to exhibit language shift. This study followed Ó Riagáin by focusing our research on lower domain language use as well as relevant political determinants. We investigated whether Southern Min speakers tend to prefer a Taiwanese rather than Chinese identity, and whether the Taiwanese link their language choice to age, gender, and region of origin. Political improvements in Taiwan for the past two decades did enable the Taiwanese to compete with the Mainlanders who moved to Taiwan and they now have a stronger case to promote the status of Southern Min and maintain it. Evidence of language shift was discovered: proficiency in Mandarin by the Taiwanese is increasing, while that in Southern Min is decreasing. It is predicted that this language shift will continue, but that the attitudes held by Taiwanese toward their ethnic identity might slow down such a process considerably.

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.

scholarly journals A Bridge to Portugal: Language and Identity in Bridgeport, CT

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Fabio Scetti
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
American English ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Language And Identity ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Status

Here I present the results of BridgePORT, an ethnographic study I carried out in 2018 within the Portuguese community of Bridgeport, CT (USA). I describe language use and representation among Portuguese speakers within the community, and I investigate the integration of these speakers into the dominant American English speech community. Through my fieldwork, I observe mixing practices in day-to-day interaction, while I also consider the evolution of the Portuguese language in light of language contact and speakers’ discourse as this relates to ideologies about the status of Portuguese within the community. My findings rely on questionnaires, participant observation of verbal interaction, and semi-structured interviews. My aim is to show how verbal practice shapes the process of identity construction and how ideas of linguistic “purity” mediate the maintenance of a link to Portugal and Portuguese identity.

Canadian heritage German across three generations: A diary-based study of language shift in action

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris Stolberg
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Fourth Generation ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Language System ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractIt is well known that migration has an effect on language use and language choice. If the language of origin is maintained after migration, it tends to change in the new contact setting. Often, migrants shift to the new majority language within few generations. The current paper examines a diary corpus containing data from three generations of one German-Canadian family, ranging from 1867 to 1909, and covering the second to fourth generation after immigration. The paper analyzes changes that can be observed between the generations, with respect to the language system as well as to the individuals’ decision on language choice. The data not only offer insight into the dynamics of acquiring a written register of a heritage language, and the eventual shift to the majority language. They also allow us to identify different linguistic profiles of heritage speakers within one community. It is discussed how these profiles can be linked to the individuals’ family backgrounds and how the combination of these backgrounds may have contributed to giving up the heritage language in favor of the majority language.

Language maintenance and language shift

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Rubino ◽  
Camilla Bettoni
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Region Of Origin ◽  
The Impact

Patterns of language use by Sicilians and Venetians living in Sydney are here presented with particular attention to the maintenance of Italian and Dialect under the impact of widespread shift to English. Data gathered by questionnaire self-reporting are analysed according to four main variables: domain, linguistic generation, gender and region of origin. Results suggest that the original Italian diglossia between the High and the Low languages is well maintained, as Italian occupies the more public, formal and regionally heterogeneous space in the community, and Dialect the more private, informal and homogeneous one. Among the subjects’ variables, generation predictably accounts for the greatest variation, as both languages are used most by the first generation and least by the second. However, the original diglossia holds well also among the second generation. With regard to gender and region of origin, it would seem that, compared to men, women maintain both languages slightly better, and that, compared to men and Sicilians respectively, both women and Venetians maintain slightly better the original diglossia. We conclude that the position of Italian, although more limited, seems somewhat more solid than that of Dialect, and suggest some reasons for it.

Multilingualism, multiculturalism, and multiple identities

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sai-hua Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
International News ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Past ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Soft News ◽  
Local Dialect ◽  
Southern Min ◽  
News Headlines

This study aims to explore discursive changes in current Taiwanese society, with a particular focus on code-mixing in newspaper headlines. Data were collected from three major newspapers catering to different readerships during three time periods (i.e. 1985, 1995, and 2005). The language of Taiwanese newspaper is hybrid and heterogeneous in that local dialect (i.e. Southern Min), English, Japanese, Cantonese, and even Zhuyin (Mandarin Phonetic Symbols) are included in Mandarin news headlines. My analysis has found that over the past two decades, there has been an increase of code-mixing in all three newspapers, In addition, a cross-sectional comparison has revealed that soft news texts (e.g. entertainment news) contain more instances of code-mixing than hard news texts (e.g. political and international news). I argue that this increasing linguistic hybridization found in Taiwanese media texts is not only linked with the indigenization, globalization, marketization, and technologization in current Taiwanese society. More importantly, since language use is a kind of identity-constructing devices, this ongoing discursive change also reflects an emerging new Taiwan identity, which can be characterized by multilingualism, multiculturalism, and multiple identities.

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 Using Sasak Language: Am I Too Old-Fashioned?

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
M. Rosyidi
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Match Method ◽  
Linguistic Data

The language shift and maintenance are two phenomena which take place in tandem and inseparable. The language shift represents a cumulative result of language choice. This study will reveal several causes that make Sasak language start to be left aside by youth’s generation and the related effects towards Sasak language as a local wisdom of Sasak tribe. The study pries the primarily concerned issue using ethnography study in order to reveal the perspective owned by the subjects. The data which are gained through this study comprise both linguistic and non-linguistic data. The data in the form of comments, perspectives, or shared paradigm are analyzed using match method. Furthermore, ones in the kind of dialogue are analyzed using communicative components. This study concludes that the domination of Indonesian language use tends to decrease the domain where Sasak language is commonly used. Such this situation foreshadows that diglossic situation has threatened.

scholarly journals A Hundred Years of Football English: A Dictionary Study on the Relationship of a Special Language to General Language

2019 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Gunnar Bergh ◽  
Sölve Ohlander
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Language Use ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Status ◽  
Oxford Dictionary ◽  
Core Vocabulary ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Special Language

General-purpose dictionaries may be assumed to reflect the core vocabulary of current language use. This implies that subsequent editions of a desk dictionary should mirror lexical changes in the general language. These include cases where special-language words have become so familiar to the general public that they may also be regarded as part of general language. This is the perspective of the present study on English football vocabulary, where a set of well-known football words – dribble, offside, etc. – are investigated as to their representation in five editions of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1911–2011), and in four of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1948–1995). Two other dictionaries are also consulted: the Oxford Dictionary of English (2010) and – for first occurrences of the words studied – the Oxford English Dictionary. It is shown that, over the past hundred years, football vocabulary has gradually, at an accelerating pace, become more mainstream, as demonstrated by the growth of such vocabulary (e.g. striker, yellow card) in subsequent dictionary editions. Yet, some football terms make an esoteric impression, e.g. nutmeg ‘play the ball through the opponent’s legs’. Interestingly, such words also tend to be included in present-day dictionaries. Thus, football language is in a state of constant flux, responding to developments in and around the game. This is reflected in the dictionaries studied. In conclusion, due to the status and media coverage of the “people’s game” today, English general-purpose dictionaries have increasingly come to recognize much of its vocabulary as part of general language.

scholarly journals PEMAKAIAN BAHASA OLEH MASYARAKAT BUGIS DI DESA SENGANAN, TABANAN, BALI

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
I Made Suparta ◽  
I Nyoman Kardana
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Minority Ethnic Group ◽  
Geographic Environment ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
The Village ◽  
Minority Ethnic

[Title: The language use by Bigesnese community at Senganan Village, Tabanan, Bali] This research is about language use by the Bugisnese community at Senganan Village, Penebel District, Tabanan as a minority ethnic group in Bali. The research discusses the use of languages among the different domains and factors causing the language shift at Senganan Village. Theory used in this research is the theory of bilingualism, the theory of language choice and the theory of language shift. The result shows that the use of Bugisness language is not found on different observed domains, such as domains family, religion, neighborhood, administration, and education. The use of Balinese and Indonesian dominated their language uses in all domains. Thus, it can be concluded that Bugisnese language is not used anymore by the community or its use has already shifted. The factors causing the shift of Bugisnese language at the village is internally related to the attitude of the speakers covering unsustainable transfer of the mother tongue and the unfaithfulness to the mother tongue, and externally it deals with the factor consisting of geographic environment of the village surrounded by villages of which people mostly speak Balinese language.

scholarly journals The patterns of language choice at the border of Malaysia-Thailand

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 176
Author(s):  
Mohammad Fadzeli Jaafar ◽  
Norsimah Mat Awal ◽  
Mohammed Azlan Mis ◽  
Norhayati Lateh
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Boundary Area ◽  
Thai Language ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Border Towns ◽  
Domain Concept

Any activities conducted at the boundary area between countries will only be successful if the community of speakers has mutual understanding in terms of language, especially those involving business. This study focuses on a community in the northern part of Malaysia near the Thailand border where majority of people are bilingual in Malay and Thai. This study aims to investigate the patterns of language used by speakers in the Malaysia-Thailand border, in the context of language maintenance and language shift. Both countries use different languages; with Malaysians use Malay and the Thais use Thai language. In this cross-border context, activities pertaining to business, visit or personal matters will have an impact on the development of the two languages. This study presents the findings on the language choice from a survey involving 202 respondents that was conducted in two border towns at the Malaysia-Thailand border, namely Rantau Panjang (Malaysian side) and Golok (Thailand side). By utilizing the domain concept that was introduced by Fishman (1972), this study focuses on two domains namely, business and family. In addition to the questionnaire, participant observations and interviews were also conducted as supplements. The data on the patterns of language choice were analyzed statistically. The findings show that although Malaysians and Thais speak two different languages, Kelantanese dialect, which is a variety of the standard Malay, was the most dominant language at the border. This study also found that age was a significant factor in determining the patterns of language use. The younger generations were using Kelantanese dialect and Thai language in domains where older people would only use Kelantanese dialect. This points to the occurrence of language shift at the border. However, the community at the Thai side of the border tends to choose Kelantanese dialect in their daily activities, which seems to indicate language maintenance in this area. These findings suggest that language can serve as a marker of identity, especially for those communities in Golok as most of them are originally from Malaysia. Finally, this study has contributed empirical data on language usage at the Malaysia-Thailand border.

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