Awatif Obaid 2014930463

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND SHIFT Aimi Syafiqah 2014743991

WHAT IS LANGUAGE SHIFT?
According to Winford [2003:15], language shift refers to the partial or
total abandonment of a group's native language in favour of another.

The gradual displacement of one language by another in the lives of the

community members manifested as loss in number of speakers, level of
proficiency, or range of functional use of the
language...(Hornberger,2010)
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO LANGUAGE SHIFT
FOR MIGRANT MINORITIES
1) Daily interactions in a specific domain.
In countries like England, Australia, New Zealand and the USA
the school is one of the first domains in which children of
migrant families meet English.
They may have watched English TV programmes and heard
English used in shops before starting school, but at school they
are expected to interact in English. They have to use English
because it is the only means of communicating with the teacher
and other children.
For many children of migrants, English soon becomes the
normal language for talking to other children including their
brothers and sisters.

In many families, English gradually infiltrates the home

through the children. Children discuss school and friends in
English with each other, and gradually their parents begin to
use English to them too, especially if they are working in jobs
where they use English.
2) Pressure from the wider society

-Immigrants who look and sound different are often regarded

as threatening by majority group members. There is pressure
to conform in all kinds of ways.

- Speaking good English has been regarded as a sign of

successful assimilation, and it was widely assumed that
meant abandoning the minority language.
So most migrant families gradually shift from using Gujerati, or
Italian or Vietnamese to each other most of the time, to using
English. This may take three or four generations, but sometimes
language shift is completed in just two generations.

Typically migrants are virtually monolingual in their mother

tongue, their children are bilingual and their grandchildren are
often monolingual in the language of the host country.
 MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE: (1)
The Chinese and Indians workers came to Malaya in the 1800 (
brought in by the British East India Company )
Thus the 1st and 2nd generation of the Chinese and Indian
workers experience monolingual. The 3rd and 4th generation are
bilingual as they speak both mother tongue and Bahasa
Melayu/English to communicate.
The 5th and 6th generation are monolingual in the language of
the host country.
 MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE (2)
Many immigrants from Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam and
Myanmar come to Malaysia to work.

In order to be accepted among Malaysian, most of them adopt

Bahasa Melayu in order to be less different, to communicate
and to blend in with Malaysian.

With B.Melayu, Malaysian feel safer as they assimilate with

the locals.
NON-MIGRANT COMMUNITIES
Language shift is not always the result of migration.
Political, economic and social changes can occur within
a community and this may result in linguistic changes
too.
Example:
In the 1920s, Oberwart was a small place and the peasants used
Hungarian to each other, and German with outsiders. As Oberwart grew
and industry replaced farming as the main source of jobs, the functions
of German expanded.

German became the H language in a broad diglossia situation in

Oberwart. German was the language of the school, official transactions
and economic advancement. It expressed formality and social distance.

Hungarian was the L language, used in most homes and for friendly
interaction between townspeople. Hungarian was the language of
solidarity, used for social and affective functions.
The idea to get on meant learning German, &
knowledge of German is equivalent with social and
economic progress. Speaking Hungarian was
increasingly associated with peasantness and old-
fashioned.
Young people began to use German to socialize &
parents communicate in German instead of
Hungarian to their children.

By the 1970s, God was one of the few addressees

to whom young people still used Hungarian when
they said their prayers or went to church.
 MIGRANT MAJORITIES
When colonial powers invade other countries, their language often
become dominant.

Countries like Portugal, Spain, France and England have generally imposed
their languages along with their rule.

However, this has not always resulted in language shift.

Multilingualism was too well-established as normal in countries like India and

Papua New Guinea. It was not possible for a single alien language to
eradicate hundreds of indigenous vernacular languages.
But when multilingualism is not widespread in an area,
or where just one indigenous language had been used
before the colonisers arrived, languages were often
under threat.

In this context, English has been described as a killer

language.

When the colonisers impose their language in

government administration, law courts, education and
religion, the minority groups will find themselves under
increasing pressure to adopt the language of the
dominant group.
An example of this is in New Zealand.

In New Zealand, Maori people have overwhelmingly moved

from monolingualism in Maori in the late nineteenth
century, through bilingualism in Maori and English, to
monolingualism in English in the second half of the
twentieth century.

Now, there is a small increase in the number of Maori

people who are able to speak the language.

When language shift occurs, it is. almost always towards

the language of the dominant powerful group
A dominant group would see no need to adopt the language
of a minority.

The dominant language is associated with status, prestige

and social success.

This eventually leads to many young minority group

speakers abandoning their language as they see that the
dominant language will give them more advantage.
MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE (3)
Due to British colonialism, English has been part of the
varieties that exist in Malaysia.
Most Malaysian are bilingual due to exposure from the
colonizer as they came very dominant.
Before the independence of Malaysia, the language in
government administration, law courts, education are all
English.
The usage of English in crucial aspects of the nation has
caused worry among local writers as the people are slowly
losing their faith in B. Melayu.
This lead to the existance of ASAS 50 by the local
writers- radical in language awareness and their
creativity.

The constant fight lead to the existance of Lembaga

Bahasa Melayu which is later known as DBP.

To honour the Independence of Malaysia, B.Melayu is

honoured as the national language based on the
recommendation of Suruhanjaya Reid.
LANGUAGE LOSS &
LANGUAGE DEATH
 Language LOSS
Example

o Annie is experiencing language loss. This is the

manifestation, in the individuals experience, of
wide-scale language death.
 Language LOSS
o Because Annie uses English for most purposes,
her vocabulary in Dyirbal has shrunk and shrunk.

o Since English is now so widely used in her community

it seems unlikely that Dyirbal will survive. When
Annies generation die, it is pretty certain that Dyirbal
will die with them.

o The process of language death for the language

comes about through this kind of gradual loss of
fluency and competence by its speakers.
 Language Death
o When all the people who speak a language
die, the language dies with them.

o Eg: Manx has now completely died out in the Isle of

Man the last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in
1974.

o This is a case of language death rather than

language shift. These languages are no longer
spoken anywhere.
How can
A MINORITY LANGUAGE
BE MAINTAINED?
 1. Language = important
symbol of minoritys group
identity
 4. Extended family with
grandparents and
unmarried relatives living
in the same house
5. Their language is
ensured to be used
in settings
Language