Minority Languages And Bilingualism
This book deals with the past, present, and possible future of minority languages. It begins with a number of relevant concepts in macro-sociolinguistics as a background for analyzing the problems associated with minority languages. The fundamental question posed throughout is whether these minority languages will continue to exist, caught as they are in the strong currents of national and international development. A history of the society and language is given for each area. Comparisons are...
Search in google:
This book deals with the past, present, and possible future of minority languages. It begins with a number of relevant concepts in macro-sociolinguistics as a background for analyzing the problems associated with minority languages. The fundamental question posed throughout is whether these minority languages will continue to exist, caught as they are in the strong currents of national and international development. A history of the society and language is given for each area. Comparisons are made in quantitative terms, in addition to interpretations based on the spontaneous remarks of interviewees. Beyond the statistical comparisons between samples and the differences of age, gender, and social class, the attitudes of the interviewees toward their respective minority language make the reader aware of the emotional reactions to questions of ethnic and language identity. In the final chapter, language planning is discussed.
Preface1Bilingualism: Issues and Definitions1Domains, Roles, and Codes3Diglossia and the Status Gradient5Variations in Bilingualism and Diglossia7Bilingualism and Societal Needs8Some Behavioral Aspects of Bilingualism92Bilingual Societies: Patterns in Continuity and Change13The Hierarchy of Languages14Societal and Individual Factors in Language Maintenance19The Individual and Language Choice: Some Critical Variables223The Celtic Languages: Marginality and Defiance27Gaelic and Marginality27Welsh: A Success Story or Nearly So34Breton: An Uneasy Twilight41Conclusions494Three Romance Languages: Past and Present50Romansh: Conflict, Identity, and Determination50Friulan: A People and a Language in Search of Autonomy56Galician: A Language Between Two Nations615The American Scene: Pennsylvania German68Minority Languages in the United States68The Pennsylvania German Tradition69The 20th Century: An Irreversible Decline?726Research Methods and the Samples78Research Design and the Interviews78Description of the Samples827Subcultures, Codes, and Language Maintenance92Age and Intergenerational Differences92The Impact of Social Class99The Question of Gender101The Rural-Urban Continuum106The Time Dimension107Other Variables1088Language Socialization and Cross-Pressures: Attitudes and Projections110Variations in Language Acquisition110The Community and the Institutional Structure114Functions, Domains, and Maintenance119Feeling, Identify, and Change1249Conclusion129Minority Languages and Language Planning134Appendix A: A Note on Methodology138Appendix B: Geographic Composition of the Samples141References143Author Index161Subject Index167
