Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T07:26:11.005Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language Maintenance and Language Shift among Four Immigrant Minorities in the Nordic Region: A Re-evaluation of Fishman's Theory of Diglossia and Bilingualism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Sally Boyd  and
Sirkku Latomaa
Sally Boyd
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Göteborg University, S-412 98 Göteborg. E-mail: [email protected].
Sirkku Latomaa
Affiliation:
Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington, PO Box 353420, Seattle, WA 98198, USA E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

In his (1972) book, The Sociology of Language, Joshua Fishman presents his often-cited typology of language contact situations in the form of a four-cell table: + or − diglossia and + or − bilingualism. Although criticism has been made of this typology and particularly of the predictions based on it, in this paper we operationalize Fishman's concepts of diglossia and bilingualism as presented in this book. We then examine results from a comparative study of language contact among four immigrant minorities in the Nordic region – North Americans, Finns, Turks and Vietnamese. Each of these groups was studied in at least two locations in the region, making a total of nine informant groups. By comparing the results for the generations, it is possible to see if there is evidence to support Fishman's predictions in the cases studied. The relatively stable levels of bilingualism found among the Americans and the Turks are not predicted by Fishman's typology, at least as we have operationalized it. The “stability” would seem to result more from the way these minorities have been received by the host societies than from the pattern of language use within the groups.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 19 , Special Issue 2: Special issue on LANGUAGE CONTACT AND LANGUAGE CHANGE , December 1996 , pp. 155 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Berggreen, H. & Latomaa, S. 1994. Språkbytte og språkbevaring blant vietnamesere i Bergen og Helsinki. In Boyd, S. et al. (eds) vol. 1.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1982. The Economics of Linguistic Exchanges. Social Science Information 16, 645–668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, S. 1985. Language Survival. A Study of Language Contact, Language Shift and Language Choice in Sweden. Gothenburg Monographs in Linguistics 6. Göteborg: Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Boyd, S. 1994. Sociala natverk och den nordiska språkkontakten. In Boyd, S. et al. (eds), vol. 2.Google Scholar
Boyd, S., Holmen, A. & Jørgensen, J. N. (eds) 1994b. Sprogbrug og sprogvalg blandt indvandrere i Norden. Vol. 1 & 2. Københavnerstudier itosprogethed. Vol. 22 & 23. Copenhagen: Royal Danish School of Educational Studies.Google Scholar
Boyd, S., Jørgensen, J. N. & Latomaa, S. 1994a. Språkanvåndning bland amerikaner i Göteborg, Helsingfors & Köpenhamn. In Boyd, S. et al. (eds), vol 1.Google Scholar
Clyne, M. 1991. Community Languages. The Australian Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, C. 1959. Diglossia. Word. XV, 325–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fishman, J. 1972. The Sociology of Language. An Interdisciplinary Social Science Approach to Language in Society. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. 1985. The Rise and Fall of Ethnic Revival. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fishman, J. 1991. Reversing Language Shift. Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Giles, H., Bourhis, R. & Taylor, D. 1977. Towards a Theory of Language in Ethnic Group Relations. In Giles, H. (ed.) Language Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jørgensen, J. N. & Holmen, A. 1994. Sprogbrug hos tyrker i Danmark og Sverrig. In Boyd, S. et al. (eds), vol. 1.Google Scholar
Hjulstad Junttila, J. & Andersson, P. 1994. Språkbruk hos finnar i Göteborg og Finnmark. In Boyd, S. et al. (eds), vol. 1.Google Scholar
Jaspaert, K. & Kroon, S. 1990. Social Determinants of Language Shift by Italians in the Netherlands and Flanders. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 90, 77–96.Google Scholar
Latomaa, S. 1994. Aikuisten maahanmuuttajien toisen kielen taito. In Boyd, S. et al. (eds), vol 2.Google Scholar
Latomaa, S. 1995. Om självskattad språkfärdighet hos fyra invandrargrupper i Norden. In Jørgensen, J. N. & Horst, C. (eds), Et flerkulturelt Danmark. Perspektiver på sociolingvistik, sprogpædagogik, dansk som andetsprog. Festskrift til Jørgen Gimbel 22.9.1995, Københavnerstudier i tosprogethed bind 25. Copenhagen: Royal Danish School of Educational Studies.Google Scholar
Leets, L. & Giles, H. 1995. Dimensions of Minority Language Survival-Nonsurvival. In Fase, W., Jaspaert, K. & Kroon, S. (eds), The State of Minority Languages. International Perspectives on Survival and Decline. European Studies on Multilingualism 5. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger.Google Scholar
Milroy, L. 1980. Language and Social Networks. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Milroy, L. & Milroy, J.Social Network & Social Class. Toward an Integrated Sociolinguistic Model. Language in Society 21: 1, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smolicz, J. J. 1981. Core Values and Ethnic Identity. Ethnic and Racial Studies 4, 75–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
William, G. 1992. Sociolinguistics: A Sociological Critique. London: Routledge.Google Scholar