First-language attrition

[Stan-Sandy Anonby]

I really enjoyed reading about David's experience. He sounds like a remarkable man, from a remarkable family, who has lived in remarkable circumstances. I think the language ecology model might explain some of his experience.

>>From what little I understand of Africa, it seems like a rural place. The percentage of people living in cities is low compared to the rest of the world. I'm sure there are some cross tribal marriages occuring in cities, and some of the children of these cross tribal marriages likely grow up speaking only the L2 of the city. However, since Africa is so multilingual, this is probably still rare.

In most of the world, the language ecology is very different. In Brazil, for instance, the huge majority of people live in cities and speak only Portuguese. When indigenous people who speak their own language move to the city, their children almost always lose their L1. Could say the language ecology is much more hostile in Brazil?

Stan Anonby

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 17:13:21 -0400
 David Balosa <balosa at lasalle.edu> wrote:
> Dear  Hamo:                    When Does L2 Endanger L1?      My answer to your concern is based on my personal experience.First, I believe that L2 endangers L1 in a situation where L2 is of a high prestige language and that L1 is of a low prestige one. Second, L2 endangers L1 in a situation of personal attitude and identity choice.Bilingual or multilingual people like myself will endanger our L1 not because of how much a given L2 is sold to us, but because of our choice of the language we want to identify ouselves with and the social class that each of these languages can offer.    I actually speak various languages ( Portuguese, French, English, Spanish, Lingala, Kiswahili, Kikongo ---). I started learning French when I was 12 years old. At that age, I spoke Portuguese, as my L1 at home with my parents and spoke F!
 rench as
> my L2 at school and when playing with peers. Besides Portuguese and French was  Lingala, a  lingua franca and a language of wide communication in the DR Congo.To make the language business more complicated for me at that younger age, my parents spoke their "indigenous" L1, Kikongo at home and with their peers. Kikongo languagesneighboringis one of Angolan national languages. Many of its dialects are also used as national languages in the neighboring countries such as Congo Kinshasa and Congo Brazzaville.         How did I keep my Portuguese in spite of a substantial French and Lingala invasion? My parents did draw a line, which i call "parent's voice", saying "Portuguese at home because we will go back to Angola one day, OK!"I was receptive to their message, but said to myself 'French is more beautiful than Portuguese and French people are more developed than Portuguese people.' I decided to learn and de!
 velop both
> French and Portuguese because of social demands, my parent and my personal attitude.The rest of the languages came along little by little because of their consistent exposure. instruction was not needed or supplied. With what outcome?Today I still speak Portuguese with a native intuition, French with a native like intuition, English, my everyday,  professional and research language for 12 years now, as my L2.  As you can see,  my English performance has not invaded my L1a, L1b, and L1c ... because i have drawn a line between these languages and have given them specific role in my cognitive universe. ImplicationI believe that the only way we can help language learners not to let L2 endangers L1 is to address each language role and personal attitude toward these languages.Our memories are very dependent. It belongs to us as languages users to direct it. David Balosa