Questions and Tasks
Choose a country the population of which consists of several language groups and analyze its linguistic situation from the point of view of the three models of community organization.
What factors of human social organization favor monolingualism? What favors bilingualism?
8. Factors encouraging maintenance
Here is a list of the main factors that encourage maintenance of an LI. In every case, their opposites would promote shift.
Societal-level demographic factors encouraging maintenance
Horizontal rather than vertical multilingualism in the larger community
Large numbers of speakers living together, preferably in a homeland community
Physical separation from other groups (homogeneous village or own urban area)
If immigrants, recently arrived with proximity to home community or ability to visit it easily
International status of LI
Societal-level occupational factors encouraging maintenance
Jobs with fellow speakers of the LI
Low level of education restricting socio-economic mobility
Stable source of salaried occupations in community
» Societal-level educational factors encouraging maintenance
Best: official provision for LI as a medium of instruction, at least in lower primary levels
Or, provision to teach LI as a subject
Literature available in LI
Provisions for radio and TV broadcasts in LI
In-group factors encouraging maintenance
Overall sense of subjective ethnolinguistic vitality
Types of social networks (density and strong ties with in-group memberships)
A group culture with unique features
Group attitudes about LI as ethnic symbol
Ties between group's religion and its LI
Beliefs that a separate nation for the group is possible
Emphasis on cohesion of the group
Standardized dialect of LI and many group members know it
A literary tradition
LI community institutions (language schools, other organizations)
Individual views and aspirations as factors encouraging maintenance
Networks: both strong and weak ties with in-group memberships
Position in in-group networks (centrality)
Psychological attachment to LI for self-identity
Importance placed on group identity versus identity in larger society
Personal emphasis on family ties
Low level of education
Low emphasis on education in dominant language
Low potential for occupational change
Religious fervor and group's religion (if different from that in the larger society)
Words and phrases to remember
Horizontal multilingualism = a linguistic situation when native speakers of different languages coexist but it hardly ever involves close contacts
Vertical multilingualism = a linguistic situation when people are in direct contact with speakers of other languages on a daily basis
Social network analysis = a model of community organization which tries to explain social behavior by examining social contacts between members in a community
Ethnolinguistic vitality = a characteristic of a group's vitality based on a number of certain sociological variables