Dissertation: Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance in Second-generation Migrants: a study of Albanian and Egyptian pupils in Athens

[Christina Paulston]

Well, Stan, it probably is not "social status" per se which is the 
independent variable for Arabic maintenance but rather some of the 
implications that follow from it.  I would look for some factors such 
as private schooling for religious reasons by the Egyptians, ostracism 
of the Albanians with lack of access to Greek speakers, Schermerhorn's 
"degree of enclosure" variable, etc.  Your very stigmatized groups may 
have a harder time finding jobs that necessitate speaking Portuguese.  
But you see what I mean, it is what social status entails in the 
particular culture which will be explanatory, not just social status. 
Christina
On Dec 4, 2007, at 7:22 PM, Stan-sandy Anonby wrote:

> I'd be interested to hear how Nikolaos arrived at the conclusion that 
> "the main reason for Arabic's maintenance was found to be the 
> Egyptians' better social status ascribed by the Greek society as 
> compared to the Albanians who have been suffering stigmatisation."
> How do you find that out?
>
> In dealing with small minority groups here in Brazil, I've found the 
> opposite to be true. Although counter-intuitive, the indigenous groups 
> with higher social status lose their languages more quickly. The very 
> stigmatized groups tend to hang onto their languages for longer 
> periods.
>
> Stan Anonby
>
> On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:02:51 -0500
>  "Harold Schiffman" <hfsclpp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance in Second-generation
>> Migrants: a study of Albanian and Egyptian pupils in Athens
>>
>>
>> Institution: University of Sussex
>> Program: DPhil Linguistics
>> Dissertation Status: Completed
>> Degree Date: 2007
>>
>> Author: Nikolaos Gogonas
>>
>> Dissertation Title: Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance 
>> in
>> Second-generation Migrants: a study of Albanian and Egyptian pupils in
>> Athens
>>
>>
>> Dissertation Director:
>> Russell King
>> Nicola J. Woods
>>
>> Dissertation Abstract:
>>
>> In this study I investigate the factors affecting language 
>> maintenance among
>> second-generation Albanian and Egyptian migrant pupils in Greece. 
>> Using a
>> combined quantitative and qualitative methodology, I explore the 
>> influence
>> of three sets of variables on language
>> maintenance. These are a) ethnolinguistic vitality, defined by the
>> demography, status and institutional support of each group in Greece,
>> as well as migrant and indigenous pupils' perceptions regarding these
>> factors; b) migrant parents' attitudes to language maintenance and 
>> their
>> role in language transmission in the home; and c) the attitudes of 
>> teachers
>> and the institutional approaches of mainstream Greek education to 
>> linguistic
>> and cultural diversity.
>>
>> As regards the ethnolinguistic vitality component of the study, 
>> findings
>> indicate that numerical strength is not a factor that accounts for
>> language maintenance: this is illustrated by the fact that despite the
>> numerical superiority of the Albanian group vis-à-vis the Egyptian
>> migrant community, the latter fares better in terms of language 
>> maintenance.
>> The main reason for this was found to be the Egyptians'
>> better social status ascribed by the Greek society as compared to the
>> Albanians who have been suffering stigmatisation.
>>
>> Regarding the role of the family in language maintenance, I found that
>> religion and language form core values for Egyptian parents, a fact 
>> that
>> leads - especially Muslim Egyptians - to a higher mobilisation for the
>> transmission of the ethnic language to their children compared to the
>> Albanians. On the other hand, the lack of a 'religious tradition' in
>> combination with a general 'fluidity' of ethnic identity that 
>> characterises
>> the Albanian parents, leads them to embrace the Greek language at the 
>> cost
>> of ethnic language maintenance and its transmission to the next 
>> generation.
>>
>> Finally, the role of mainstream Greek education in language 
>> maintenance was
>> found to be determining. The emphasis placed on
>> Ancient Greek and Western European languages and the simultaneous
>> undervaluation of all other languages and cultures leads
>> to the marginalisation of languages such as Albanian and Arabic. In 
>> this
>> exclusionary context, migrant pupils' linguistic capital is 
>> considered as a
>> deficit; as a result, migrant pupils internalise the negative 
>> attitudes to
>> their languages and the possibilities of language
>> maintenance are minimised.
>>
>> http://linguistlist.org/issues/18/18-3551.html
>>
>>
>> -- 
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>