ELL: RE: Language Shift and Gender

[cem bozdag]

Hello everyone !

First of all I think this current discussion is very interesting, because my
parents native-tongue ( Zaza ) is dying out and I live in Germany and my own
mother-tongue is Turkish and not German.

I think women keep more to their native language than men. So I was
surprised, when I´ve read about the Scadinavian situation. For example my
father never speaks Zaza at home. His opinion on this language is, that Zaza
is nothing more than the language of uneducated women. Turkish is for him
the language of education and knowledge. When he went to school, Zaza was
forbidden and the Turkish-only policy was present. Sometimes, when I start
to speak Zaza heloughs and answers: What language are you talking. He denies
his own native-tongue. Vice versa my mother nevers refuses her
native-language. Even among Turks she starts speaking Zaza, about what my
father feels embarassed.

My native-tongue is Turkish. I can speak Turkish to some degree, but if I
want to explain something technical in Turkish, I can´t do it. My Turkish is
too poor for it. Sometimes I listen to Turkish news on TV and sometimes I
can´t understand it. This is that, what Ina Genee didn´t recognize. It is
difficult for foreigners to distinguish, if a child is a fluent speaker or
not, if someone can´t understand the spoken language. Speaking a few
sentences in a language means nothing. My Turkish grammar is very bad and
because of that a lot of Turks recognize in Turkey, that I´m not living in
Turkey or that I´m a foreigner. I myself I won´t be able to pass on
languages like Turkish or Zaza to my children. But I´m sure it´ll be German.

Regards,

Cem

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