LIN 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Worldwar Series, Bilingual Education, Social Class

• School: University at Buffalo
• Department: Linguistics
• Course: LIN 200
• Professor: David Fertig

Document Summary

Language maintenance linguistic minority continue to speak their language (possibly alongside another language) and pass it on to new generations. Language shift linguistic minority lose their language and switch to (being monolingual in) the dominant language of the society they live in. Immigrants to the u. s: complete shift within 3 generations. Continue speaking ancestral language at home, and often ret=main stronger in their native language than in english throughout their lives (age) 2nd generation: u. s-born children of the immigrants. Start learning english from playmates and/or at school. English is usually their stronger language as adults. 3rd generation: the grandchildren of the immigrants. Learn no more than a smattering of ancestral language. --shift to english often proceeds even more quickly (recent times) --raise their children as monolingual english speakers, completing language shift within just 2 generations. Historical trends in immigrant language shift------recent immigrants: more rapidly than past. Long-term maintenance of immigrant languages (since colonial time)