Ziel der vorliegenden Untersuchung ist die Beschreibung der Varietäten der italienischen Sprache, wie sie von in Berlin lebenden italienischen Auswanderern gesprochen werden. Die Stichprobe, die sich aus 64 Informanten zusammensetzt, wurde ausgehend von deren Bildungsgrad in zwei Gruppen aufgeteilt, die wiederum nach erster und zweiter Generation unterteilt wurden. Die insgesamt vier Gruppen bestehen aus jeweils 16 Informanten. Die Analysen erfolgten auf soziolinguistischer und sprachlicher Ebene. Für die erste Untersuchung wurde eine Studie zum Phänomen des language shift durchgeführt, bei der die Einstellungen zu den Sprachen im Repertoire der Gemeinschaft untersucht wurden. Die Analyse ergab zum einen, dass es zwei verschiedene Sprachgemeinschaften mit zwei Repertoires gibt, die sich nicht vollkommen überschneiden, und zum anderen, dass ein unterschiedlicher Grad der Integration innerhalb der deutschen Gemeinschaft festzustellen ist. Die soziolinguistischen Ergebnisse wurden durch die anschließende Analyse der sprachlichen Merkmale bestätigt, die die beiden Gruppen der ersten Generation nach dem Bildungsgrad und der unterschiedlichen Dialektverwendung unterscheiden. In der Gruppe mit niedrigem bis mittlerem Bildungsgrad zeigt sich eine Verschiebung von der varietà popolare hin zur Umgangssprache, während in der Gruppe mit mittlerem bis hohem Bildungsgrad eine Verschiebung vom neo-standard hin zur Umgangssprache erkennbar ist. Interessant ist jedoch die Analyse der jeweiligen Gruppen der zweiten Generation, aus der – unabhängig von der Herkunft der Eltern – viele gemeinsame Merkmale ersichtlich werden. Dies lässt sich tendenziell durch den längeren Kontakt mit der deutschen Gesellschaft erklären, der zu einem Rückgang des Italienischgebrauchs führt. / The present dissertation investigates the varieties of spoken Italian used by members of the Italian community in Berlin from a sociolinguistic perspective. The aim is to determine whether there are different Italian linguistic communities in Berlin and how they differentiate from one another. The sample consists of 64 participants, 32 from the first generation and 32 from the second, further divided according to their educational degree. The study takes into account the relationship between linguistic codes and domains of language use, whilst exploring the language shift phenomenon. The qualitative analysis of the data reveals that two linguistic communities with two specific repertoires have gradually taken shape. This is confirmed by the linguistic analysis of the Italian varieties spoken by the participants. The educational degree and the different use of the heritage Italo-Romance dialect of the informants emerged as sociolinguistic variable. The variety of the first generation with low educational degree and extensive use of the dialect shares linguistic features both of the “italiano popolare“ (i.e. the variety of Italian spoken by those individuals who learned as their native language an Italo-Romance dialect) and of the colloquial variety of Italian. On the contrary, the variety of the first generation with a high educational degree and a restricted use of the dialect shares linguistic traits both of the neo-standard and of the colloquial variety. Findings of the second generation groups indicate that the parent's background seems to have a marginal effect on the linguistic variety. This could be due to the second generation participants being exposed to the German society for a longer period of time, causing a decline in their competency of the Italian language.

Language issues, often linked with ideas of history, sentiment, identity, ideology, maintenance, revitalization, minority, and indigenous peoples, are raised constantly in Taiwan. This study focused on examining issues related to language planning and bilingual education at the elementary school level in Taiwan. The research purposes were: 1) to examine the current language education practices in the elementary school by employing perspectives of language planning and bilingual education in Taiwan; and 2) to make recommendations about the current language planning and policy of Taiwan with respect to elementary school language education. There were 123 participants involved in this study. They were elementary school language teachers, language professionals, and parents. Data collection began in the winter of 2004 and continued through the summer of 2005. The research context was elementary school language education. Transcripts and questionnaires were the primary sources for data analysis. Five major phenomena with respect to elementary school language education in Taiwan were found. First, there was no systematic language planning for the present elementary school language education in Taiwan. Second, the three language subjects, Mandarin, English, and Dialects, within the Language Arts area were seen as independent courses without any interdisciplinary integration. Third, parental decisions about the prior order of language learning were structured upon a profound process related to language ideology and instrumentalism. Fourth, the elementary school language curriculum was guided by the concept of Han-centrism. Fifth, because of the phenomenon of language shift, Mandarin has become most children's mother tongue rather than the local languages. Based on the five findings, I suggest that first, team teaching is helpful for elementary school language teachers to integrate children's learning of different languages. Second, parents, language professionals, and language teachers should have more opportunities to communicate with each other about children's language learning. Third, language planners should bear the Han-centric phenomenon in mind, especially when considering issues of educational resources and opportunities and social justice. Fourth, the definition of mother tongues needs to be redefined. Fifth, it is important for every elementary school to develop its own school-based language policy.

Sub-cultural languages in South Africa – languages which do not enjoy official status amongst other qualities – have not received much attention academically. Existing theories of maintenance and shift accommodate mainstream languages in their role and function within dominant society. However the sub-cultural languages, in which Fanagalo will later be categorised, and their role and function in society are unclear. This may be the result of the inefficiency of current theories of maintenance and shift to explain the functionality of sub-cultural languages and the process they undergo leading to either maintenance or shift. Furthermore, failure to recognise the role and function of such sub-cultural languages may be attributed to their non-official status as they are not officially supported by language policies. The purpose of this study is therefore to understand the process of maintenance or shift a sub-cultural language undergoes. This process is accommodated by developing a theoretical model related to maintenance or shift for sub-cultural languages. This model, specifically based on Fanagalo, will expand on the boundaries set in existing theoretical models of maintenance and shift in order to accommodate sub-cultural language. It is important to stress that the period during which the data was collected on site at Mine X in Rustenburg, is volatile in nature. The unrest in the social context concerning the mine workers themselves during the period in which this data was gathered alludes to the value of the data and provides a unique insight not achievable under non-adverse circumstances. The unrest began in 2012 during which a “strike over pay ha(d) escalated into alleged turf war between unions” (Smith & Macalister, 2012) in Marikana, Rustenburg where more than thirty people were killed on the 17th of August, 2012. A year later, an agreement between Amcu (Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union) and Lonmin was signed which, according to Mathunjwa, president of Amcu, was quoted as saying, ‘This shows that the victims did not die in vain and we pledge to continue with their fight for a living wage” (Mathunjwa, 2013, quoted by Steyn, 2013). This pledge was upheld as on 28 August, 2013, Amcu was, “asking for increases as high as 150%, and Solidarity are still engaging” (Nicolson, 2013). As the interviews as part of the data collection process for this study were conducted on 14 August 2013, the value of the data should not go unrecognised. / MA (English), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

This thesis investigates the assimilation and/or integration of German families in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario into Anglo-Canadian culture. By administering questionnaires to and interviewing members in three three-generational families (n=29), different factors involved in an effort to ascertain what factors, if any, determine one's decision to pass on or continue learning German. The thesis proposes that if participants have a positive attitude towards German, i. e. , they see some use or value in it, then they will pass it on to the following generation. The first chapter outlines the aims of the study, methodology, and important terms. The second chapter describes previous research on the topic of immigrant integration in more detail, explaining the influences of external agents such as the government, school system, and media, and more 'internal' agents such as one's circle of friends and other social contacts as well as the family. The third chapter describes the three families and summarizes the main characteristics of each generation. Chapter four reports the results of the questionnaires and interviews. Chapter five, the conclusion, suggests which individual factors need to be studied further. The findings in this study suggest that there is no single factor which decides if those of German heritage decide to pass on their language or continue learning/using it themselves, or if they prefer to assimilate into Anglo-Canadian culture. Two factors did prove to be very important, namely the practicality of learning German, and how important one's heritage was to a participant. However, not even the presence of these two variables guaranteed a desire to continue learning German, demonstrating that numerous variables are taken into consideration when deciding whether to continue learning German and/or to pass it on to the next generation.

Cette étude explique comment, après leur émergence dans ce monde selon leur mythe de la Création, leur Histoire sous le joug des Espagnols, des Mexicains et des Américains, après une période de coercition, après leur déportation et leur détention loin de leur terre, après l’acculturation forcée de leurs enfants, les Navajo se sont efforcés de reprendre en main leur destin. La deuxième moitié du XXe siècle a été marquée par un renouveau de cette tribu qui se nomme elle-même les Diné, qui vit dans une réserve grande comme la Belgique, au Sud-ouest des États-Unis et qui est célèbre pour la facture de ses bijoux en argent et turquoise et ses tapis. Le Conseil tribal a mis en place des programmes de revitalisation de la langue et de la culture, encadrés par une législation qui leur octroie la souveraineté en matière d’éducation, acte politique d’affirmation identitaire vis-à-vis des États-Unis et du reste du monde. En s’appuyant sur leur mythologie et les fondations de leur culture et malgré les dissensions intra communautaires générées par ce nouveau mode de transmission, les Navajo ont créé des écoles pilotes et des nids linguistiques permettant aux enfants et à leurs parents de réapprendre leur langue et de recouvrer leur fierté identitaire. Si les résultats obtenus aux tests locaux et nationaux s’améliorent sensiblement par rapport aux normes établies par le Ministère de l’éducation fédéral, il reste à la Nation navajo à faire baisser le taux d’abandon scolaire, à augmenter le niveau de vie de ses membres dont un bon nombre vit encore en dessous du seuil de pauvreté et à développer son économie. Les gains des casinos permettront peut-être à la Nation navajo d’améliorer sa situation économique et de combler le fossé numérique mais face à la mondialisation, elle devra veiller à la préservation de son héritage afin que ses membres puissent vivre en harmonie dans les deux mondes tout en gardant leur ancrage culturel, linguistique et identitaire. / The 19th century federal measures to “kill the Indian and save the man” entailed a language shift. The loss of the native language was linked to a sense of shame and a loss of cultural identity. The founding principles that used to frame the Navajos’ way of life were no longer being passed on from one generation to the next. So in the late 1960’s, the Navajos who call themselves the Diné and are well-known for their exquisite jewellery and finely woven rugs, instituted a comprehensive strategy to retain and revitalize their language and their culture. This dissertation examines how, despite intra-community conflicts over the validity of the transmission of a language and a culture through school-based education, the Navajos have implemented the revitalization of their language and culture based on the Creation Story and the teaching of the Holy People, their ancestors. If one the one hand these significant steps in sovereignty in education have managed to make the Navajo regain pride in who they are and where they come from and improved the scores in local and national tests, the Navajo Nation must make sure it will find a way to reduce the number of drop-outs, improve the standard of living of a great number of its member who live below poverty level and develop its economy and heal societal evils that hamper social individual success. The financial returns of Indian gaming may help the Navajo nation overcome these challenges, but its leaders must ensure they can cope with globalisation and they can balance Navajo and western culture while preserving their heritage so as to live in harmony in both worlds still keeping their cultural, linguistic and cultural roots

While language shift is common in immigrant families by the third generation, maintenance of the heritage language is not impossible, depending on geography and other language socializing contexts such as parental communication and interactions with monolingual relatives of the minority language that provide the third generation with opportunities to use the language. The scholarship on the language shift to monolingual-English and the maintenance of Spanish in Latino immigrant families in the United States typically only considers how earlier generations socialize later generations to use one language over the other, without much attention to third-generation individuals themselves. Therefore, the purpose of the present thesis is to examine the narrative accounts of third-generation Mexican-American adults—the generation that typically loses the heritage language—in order to understand how they construct the experience of being socialized to use English and Spanish throughout their lives. Data consist of ten, hour-long, transcribed audio-recorded interviews with ten third-generation Mexican-American individuals. The interview questions were quite open-ended about their use of Spanish. I conducted discourse analysis with the purpose of identifying narrative accounts that conveyed these third-generation individuals’ constructed realities regarding their own Spanish use and their interactions with various Spanish-speaking family members. The findings indicate that the participants construct themselves as linguistically insecure with regard to their Spanish use. They explain their lack of ideologically “pure” Spanish in relation to socialization as they have interacted with various Spanish-speaking relatives throughout their lives. Moreover, they justify their lack of “pure” Spanish by constructing a third space for their Spanish use. They claim to use a new, localized variety of Spanish, which they consider to be illegitimate, thus self-defining as monolingual English speakers. However, I argue that their narrative accounts actually de-dichotomize bilingualism by opening the possibility of Third Space Spanish. Implications include the need for further research on the relationship between socialization, linguistic insecurity, and contested third space Spanish.

This study deals with the impact by modernisation and nationalism on the ethnicity and national identity among the Finnish speaking minority in the Torne Valley in the north of Sweden. The starting point is 1809 when Sweden lost the Finnish part of the kingdom to Russia. It resulted in the division of the Torne Valley into two na­tion-states and modernisation projects. The aim of the study is to investigate what happened to the ethnic content in the national identity in the two parts of the valley over time. The focus is placed on the parish of Övertorneå on the Swedish side between 1850 and 1939. According to the modernist and constructivist approach in theories of nationa­lism, national consciousness and national sentiments are confined to the era of industrialisation and modernisation. In the dissertation nationalism on the contrary is regarded as a myth-symbol complex which is transferred by one or many ethnic groups from the pre-modern state to the modern nation-state. A perspective from both above and below is used in the study. The investigation in the state assimilation policy shows, by contrast with previous studies, that the main aim up to the middle of the 1880s was to maintain religious hegemony in relation to the Laestadian revi­valist movement. It also shows that the assimilation policy was influenced by the continuity of the Finnish speaking minority in the nation-state and the previous link of Sweden together with Finland in the former unitary state. Moreover it shows that it was influenced by internal changes in the paradigm of education and party policy, the new international status of national minorities after First World War and language revitalisation in the Torne Valley. The process of language shift is used as an important marker of ethnicity and national identity. When following the shift of language use among the Torne Valley people from 1890 to 1930 the study shows that the language policy in school played an essential role for the shift, but the difference between women and men also reve­als the impact from the society outside school. It also reveals a dynamic change from both Finnish to Swedish and reverse before 1890. In contrast to previous studies the writing abilities in Finnish was at a considerable level and sustain in time compared to the writing abilities in Swedish. The stable pattern of inter-marriage between the Swedish Torne Valley and Finland 1860-1919 reveals a cultural continuity which stands in contrast to the dramatical political events of the time. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis investigates the assimilation and/or integration of German families in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario into Anglo-Canadian culture. By administering questionnaires to and interviewing members in three three-generational families (n=29), different factors involved in an effort to ascertain what factors, if any, determine one's decision to pass on or continue learning German. The thesis proposes that if participants have a positive attitude towards German, i. e. , they see some use or value in it, then they will pass it on to the following generation. The first chapter outlines the aims of the study, methodology, and important terms. The second chapter describes previous research on the topic of immigrant integration in more detail, explaining the influences of external agents such as the government, school system, and media, and more 'internal' agents such as one's circle of friends and other social contacts as well as the family. The third chapter describes the three families and summarizes the main characteristics of each generation. Chapter four reports the results of the questionnaires and interviews. Chapter five, the conclusion, suggests which individual factors need to be studied further. The findings in this study suggest that there is no single factor which decides if those of German heritage decide to pass on their language or continue learning/using it themselves, or if they prefer to assimilate into Anglo-Canadian culture. Two factors did prove to be very important, namely the practicality of learning German, and how important one's heritage was to a participant. However, not even the presence of these two variables guaranteed a desire to continue learning German, demonstrating that numerous variables are taken into consideration when deciding whether to continue learning German and/or to pass it on to the next generation.

In this dissertation, I analyze classroom interactions between a White, nonlocal high school English teacher and American Indian students on the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. I focus on the participants' strategic use of humor and distinctive linguistic features in these interactions, particularly teasing as a cultural activity among the students, the teacher's immersion and adaptation to that culture, and the affective and sociocultural importance of the ethnolinguistic repertoire to the students. I argue that the main functions of the humor and teasing are threefold: (a) to build rapport, (b) to accomplish interactional goals in the classroom, and (c) to negotiate teacher-student power struggles in a socioculturally acceptable way. I show that the students' humor and discourse is constitutive of local culture and often counterhegemonic, implicitly and at times explicitly critiquing mainstream educational practices and the marginalized status of the students. My analysis considers the data from a discourse level as well as examines the indexical and patterned use of microlevel linguistic resources from the student's ethnolinguistic repertoire--specifically, distinctive interjections and scooped-accent intonation. The primary data is naturally occurring classroom discussions, complemented by individual and group interviews and ethnographic observations. This study points to the importance of sociocultural factors in language variation and change in communities undergoing or having undergone radical language shift. It thus adds to the literature that considers how cultural practices are disrupted and may be restructured as the linguistic code changes. This research also contributes to the research that details the difficulties nonmainstream students face in public schools when their home culture and language practices are at odds with those of the school, and it examines humor and teasing as student strategies to navigate these differences. This study aims to help paint a more complete picture of the contemporary social and linguistic contexts in which American Indian speakers live, with a mind toward how this understanding can be applied to the real-world circumstances of these youth. / text

Sub-cultural languages in South Africa – languages which do not enjoy official status amongst other qualities – have not received much attention academically. Existing theories of maintenance and shift accommodate mainstream languages in their role and function within dominant society. However the sub-cultural languages, in which Fanagalo will later be categorised, and their role and function in society are unclear. This may be the result of the inefficiency of current theories of maintenance and shift to explain the functionality of sub-cultural languages and the process they undergo leading to either maintenance or shift. Furthermore, failure to recognise the role and function of such sub-cultural languages may be attributed to their non-official status as they are not officially supported by language policies. The purpose of this study is therefore to understand the process of maintenance or shift a sub-cultural language undergoes. This process is accommodated by developing a theoretical model related to maintenance or shift for sub-cultural languages. This model, specifically based on Fanagalo, will expand on the boundaries set in existing theoretical models of maintenance and shift in order to accommodate sub-cultural language. It is important to stress that the period during which the data was collected on site at Mine X in Rustenburg, is volatile in nature. The unrest in the social context concerning the mine workers themselves during the period in which this data was gathered alludes to the value of the data and provides a unique insight not achievable under non-adverse circumstances. The unrest began in 2012 during which a “strike over pay ha(d) escalated into alleged turf war between unions” (Smith & Macalister, 2012) in Marikana, Rustenburg where more than thirty people were killed on the 17th of August, 2012. A year later, an agreement between Amcu (Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union) and Lonmin was signed which, according to Mathunjwa, president of Amcu, was quoted as saying, ‘This shows that the victims did not die in vain and we pledge to continue with their fight for a living wage” (Mathunjwa, 2013, quoted by Steyn, 2013). This pledge was upheld as on 28 August, 2013, Amcu was, “asking for increases as high as 150%, and Solidarity are still engaging” (Nicolson, 2013). As the interviews as part of the data collection process for this study were conducted on 14 August 2013, the value of the data should not go unrecognised. / MA (English), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014