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Making do with less: Some surprises along the language death proficiency continuum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Nancy C. Dorian
Nancy C. Dorian*
Affiliation:
Bryn Mawr College
*
Nancy C. Dorian, Departments of German and Anthropology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
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Abstract

Relative proficiency in Gaelic varies by age in a Highland Scottish region where Gaelic is spoken by a decreasing number of bilinguals in a steadily aging population segment. Although there is a Gaelic proficiency continuum ranging from full fluency (and Gaelic dominance) to minimal generative skills (and English dominance), there are also deviations at both extremes of skill: Fully fluent speakers show self-conscious difficulty with one morphological and four syntactic structures, while minimally proficient speakers show less difficulty than might be expected in the use of conjunctions. An exceptionally keen though low-proficiency speaker can devise unusual means of compensation in using the language. Neither full fluency nor marked deficiency produces altogether predictable levels of structural conservatism or communicative success.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , September 1986 , pp. 257 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

REFERENCES

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