Language maintenance:

language maintenance refers to the situationwhere a speaker,a group of speakers,or a speechcommunity continues to use their language in same or all spheres of life despie compettion with the dominant or majority language to become the main language in these spheres…

Factors of language maintenance:Giles,bourhis and taylor

(1977) have constructed a model to systemize the main factors operating.

They propose a combination of three main factors.

1. Status

2. Demographic

3. Institutional support

1. Status includes:

Economic status:is a prominent factor in nearly all studies in language maintainance,where grup of minority language speaker have relatively low economic status,there is a strong tendency to shift towards majority language.

Social status:social status is very closely

linked with economic status and it is probably equally with respect to language maintainance.a group social status ,which here refers to the group esteem depends largely upon its economic status.

Language status:Language status and social status

are closely related In the sense that the latter infuences the former.the self ascribed language status will be low especially when the minority speak a dialect of the language in question.thus languages with low status are in danger of Becoming asolescent,where this will happens also depends on the status of competing language,which will often be the majority language.

Demographic factor:

They concern the number of member of a linguistic minority group and their socal distribution.the absolute number of speakers of a certain language become important when it decreases.

Institutional support: It refers to the extent to which

The language of minority group is represented in the various institutions of a nation or community.

Maintainance is supported when the minority language is used in various institutions of the government,church,cultural organization etc.

He called these 3 factors as ethnolinguistic vitality.

What is ethnolinguistic vitality?

According to Giles: The vitality of an ethnolinguistic

group likely to behave as distinctive and collective entity in inter group situation.

In simple words: Ethnolinguistic vitality is a

group's ability to maintain and protect its existence in time as a collective entity

with a distinctive identity and language.

Others factors:

Linguistic factors

Cultural factors

Linguistic Factors:

Maintenance: Mother tongue is standardized and exists in written form

Loss: Mother tongue is non-standard and/or not in written form

Linguistic Factors:

Maintenance: Use of an alphabet which makes printing and literacy relatively easy

Loss: Use of writing system which is expensive to reproduce and difficult to learn

Linguistic Factors:

Maintenance: Home language has international status

Loss: Home language of little or no international importance

Linguistic Factors:

Maintenance: Home Language literacy used in community and with homeland

Loss: Illiteracy in the home language

Linguistic Factors:

Maintenance: Flexibility in the development of the home language (e.g. limited use of new terms from the majority language).

Loss: No tolerance of new terms from majority language; or too much tolerance of loan words leading to mixing and eventual language loss.

A generalized scenario from Appel & Muysken (1987) follows:

‘The first generation (born in the country of origin) is bilingual. But the minority language is clearly dominant, the second generation is bilingual and either of the two languages might be strongest, the third generation is bilingual with the majority language dominating and the fourth generation only has command of the majority language.’

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Mother tongue institutions (e.g. schools, community organizations)

Loss: Lack of Mother-tongue institutions mass media, leisure activities.

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Cultural and religious ceremonies in the home language.

Loss: Cultural and religious activity in the majority language.

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Ethnic identity strongly tied to home language

Loss: Ethnic identity defined by factors other than language.

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Nationalistic aspirations as a language group

Loss: Few nationalistic aspirations

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Mother tongue the homeland language.

Loss: Mother tongue not the only homeland national language, or mother spans several nations.

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Emotional attachment to mother tongue giving self-identity and ethnicity.

Loss: Self-identity derived from factors other than shared home language.

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Emphasis on family ties and community cohesion.

Loss: Low emphasis on family and community ties. High emphasis on individual achievement.

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Emphasis on education to enhance ethnic awareness or controlled by language.

Loss: No emphasis on education to enhance ethnic awareness.

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Low emphasis on education if in majority language.

Loss: Acceptance of majority language education.

Cultural Factors:

Maintenance: Culture unlike majority language.

Loss: Culture and religion similar to that of the majority language.

Thank you…