<p>The aim of this thesis is to shed light upon the construction of identity within the Swedish- Canadian immigrant group during the first half of the 20th century. The most important sources of ethnic and nationalistic influences this study scrutinizes are the homeland Sweden, Swedish-America, Scandinavian-Canada and the Canadian host society. It also examines the interaction with other social identities, such as gender and religion. Theoretically, this dissertation takes its point of departure in Fredrik Barth’s assumptions on cultural boundaries and ethnic grouping, which emphasizes the meeting and confrontation with other groups as a trigger in the development of a new ethnic identity. The study is carried out on three partly interacting levels: the individual, the organizational and the official/ rhetorical level.</p><p>On the individual level, the first generation Swedes in Canada was probably as Swedish as they could be concerning identity, culture and social networks. But as it turned out, the shattered Swedish immigration, the vast and often hardly passable Canadian landscape, together with indirect help from the Canadian government, would prevent an extensive establishment of ethnic organizations. The surplus of single Swedish-Canadian men also affected the transference of Swedishness negatively in the change of generations.</p><p>The intense dialogue with Swedish America, mostly conducted through the Augustana Synod and the Vasa Order, contributed to a new sense of Swedishness. Both these Swedish- American organizations had “Diaspora ambitions” and they relatively soon established a certain cooperation with the pan-Swedish movement in Sweden. Women played an important social, economical as well practical role in both secular and religious organizational life. Many Swedish-Canadians congregations and organizations would have had no future, if not for the women’s commitment.</p><p>Swedish rhetoric on the official level was carried out by men, to men, in a male language and imaginary. In this context the term Swede thus became synonymous with Swedish man. Both outspoken desires from the Swedish homeland and its actual internal development were considered and reformulated in Swedish-Canadian rhetoric. When the nationalistic discourse changed in Sweden, the Swedish-Canadian rhetoric changed in the same direction. Swedes in Canada also responded to ethnic competition, especially from Norwegians, by trying to define how the two related groups differed. Of certain importance was the signals given from the host society. With a general suspicion of foreign elements together with a demand for assimilation, the Canadian government seems to have hastened the integration process of Swedish-Canadians.</p>

<p>Afrikaans in practice replaced Dutch and became one of South Africa's official languages (along with English) from 1925. It reached the apex of its development and influence during the years of Nationalist party rule and the apartheid regime as a language of officialdom, of the judiciary and education. However, in 1994 nine African languages were afforded official status along with English and Afrikaans in South Africa. Presently, Afrikaans is still taught in the majority of schools in the Western Cape as either a first or second language. This thesis compares and contrasts the language attitudes and motivation towards Afrikaans in two groups of secondary school learners - grade eight and grade eleven learners - at the same school, viz. the Settlers&rsquo / High School in Parow, a northern suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. At this English medium school, Afrikaans as a second language is a compulsory subject. The thesis also examines the dominant ideologies held towards Afrikaans by the learners and by the school in question which contributes towards shaping their attitudes and motivations for learning the language as well as their actual use of the language. The study finds a correlation between the learners&rsquo / attitudes towards Afrikaans and their actual patterns of use of the language, which indicates that the use of Afrikaans may be in decline among especially the younger, grade eight, learners.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to shed light upon the construction of identity within the Swedish- Canadian immigrant group during the first half of the 20th century. The most important sources of ethnic and nationalistic influences this study scrutinizes are the homeland Sweden, Swedish-America, Scandinavian-Canada and the Canadian host society. It also examines the interaction with other social identities, such as gender and religion. Theoretically, this dissertation takes its point of departure in Fredrik Barth’s assumptions on cultural boundaries and ethnic grouping, which emphasizes the meeting and confrontation with other groups as a trigger in the development of a new ethnic identity. The study is carried out on three partly interacting levels: the individual, the organizational and the official/ rhetorical level. On the individual level, the first generation Swedes in Canada was probably as Swedish as they could be concerning identity, culture and social networks. But as it turned out, the shattered Swedish immigration, the vast and often hardly passable Canadian landscape, together with indirect help from the Canadian government, would prevent an extensive establishment of ethnic organizations. The surplus of single Swedish-Canadian men also affected the transference of Swedishness negatively in the change of generations. The intense dialogue with Swedish America, mostly conducted through the Augustana Synod and the Vasa Order, contributed to a new sense of Swedishness. Both these Swedish- American organizations had “Diaspora ambitions” and they relatively soon established a certain cooperation with the pan-Swedish movement in Sweden. Women played an important social, economical as well practical role in both secular and religious organizational life. Many Swedish-Canadians congregations and organizations would have had no future, if not for the women’s commitment. Swedish rhetoric on the official level was carried out by men, to men, in a male language and imaginary. In this context the term Swede thus became synonymous with Swedish man. Both outspoken desires from the Swedish homeland and its actual internal development were considered and reformulated in Swedish-Canadian rhetoric. When the nationalistic discourse changed in Sweden, the Swedish-Canadian rhetoric changed in the same direction. Swedes in Canada also responded to ethnic competition, especially from Norwegians, by trying to define how the two related groups differed. Of certain importance was the signals given from the host society. With a general suspicion of foreign elements together with a demand for assimilation, the Canadian government seems to have hastened the integration process of Swedish-Canadians.

<p>Afrikaans in practice replaced Dutch and became one of South Africa's official languages (along with English) from 1925. It reached the apex of its development and influence during the years of Nationalist party rule and the apartheid regime as a language of officialdom, of the judiciary and education. However, in 1994 nine African languages were afforded official status along with English and Afrikaans in South Africa. Presently, Afrikaans is still taught in the majority of schools in the Western Cape as either a first or second language. This thesis compares and contrasts the language attitudes and motivation towards Afrikaans in two groups of secondary school learners - grade eight and grade eleven learners - at the same school, viz. the Settlers&rsquo / High School in Parow, a northern suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. At this English medium school, Afrikaans as a second language is a compulsory subject. The thesis also examines the dominant ideologies held towards Afrikaans by the learners and by the school in question which contributes towards shaping their attitudes and motivations for learning the language as well as their actual use of the language. The study finds a correlation between the learners&rsquo / attitudes towards Afrikaans and their actual patterns of use of the language, which indicates that the use of Afrikaans may be in decline among especially the younger, grade eight, learners.</p>

This research investigated the effect of frequency of language use on the production of consonant gradation by non-dominant speakers of Finnish in the immigrant community of Sointula, BC. Three types of frequency – word-frequency, suffix-frequency, and stem-frequency – were tested. It also investigated whether quantitative or qualitative gradation is more successful in producing gradation than the other and, finally, whether immigrant generation can explain the variation between participants. A translation task was administered to the six participants across three generations. Based on the framework of exemplar-driven cognitive grammar (Bybee 2001; Pierrehumbert 2001), the frequency-effects were assumed to be contingent upon the mode of lexical access; frequent complex words, presumably accessed as wholes thanks to frequent usage, would not exhibit as many gradation errors as infrequent words, which would be accessed via their composite parts due to infrequency. The anticipated frequency-effects were not found. Both frequent and infrequent words manifested some gradation loss as an analogical change. This suggests that all words are infrequent. While Bybee’s model assumes high-volume language use over time in dominant language contexts, lack of volume appears to suppress the differential behavior between frequent and infrequent words in Sointula. However, correct gradation was predictable based on suffix-use, which in turn was determined partly by semantics of suffixes; those Finnish suffixes that are semantically mappable to equivalent morphemes in English were better preserved than GEN object-markers, which do not have corresponding morpheme in English. With the atrophy of the GEN object-marker also gradation becomes redundant. This may arise from the tendency to mark syntactic constituency with word-order alone in English-influenced Finnish. Thus, semantics of suffixes proves to be a better predictor of gradation than frequency. Gradation loss increased with each generation born abroad; by G3, it has all but disappeared. Consonant gradation is not preserved through the generations. Qualitative gradation disappears before quantitative gradation. The above findings are sensible in a context of reduced language-functionality. Against expectation, little evidence for storing sub-word morphemes and decomposed access was found. Instead, the data suggests that most stored lexical items are whole words and that gradation is associated with whole complex forms.

Thesis (MA (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH SUMMARY: This sociolinguistic study examines selected aspects of the linguistic behavior of a rural language community in South Africa. The general aims are to establish first, whether this "coloured" community in the historically Afrikaans town of Beaufort West is still predominantly Afrikaans, second, whether there is evidence of language shift in the community, specifically following more use of English in other formerly Afrikaans communities after the change of government in 1994, and third, what the nature of such language shift may be. An overview of pertinent aspects of the social and political history of South Africa generally and of Beaufort West specifically, is presented in order to contextualise the language dispensation – past and present – addressed in this study. History reveals that the town in question was first named Hooyvlakte and only later acquired the name of Beaufort West. Hooyvlakte is currently the name of one of the suburbs in which a section of Beaufort West's "coloured" community resides. For the purpose of this study the larger Beaufort West community which is in focus here, is also referred to as the Hooyvlakte community The study is mainly of a qualitative nature. The respondents were 184 members of the Hooyvlakte community, they included individuals of both genders and were aged between 16 and 87 years. The only requirement for participation in this study was that the respondent should have been a Beaufort West resident for at least 15 years. Each respondent completed a questionnaire from which his/her language proficiency, language use and language preference could be assessed. The questionnaire also allowed respondents an opportunity to express their opinion on the value and practice of multilingualism in their community. The results of this study indicate that the Hooyvlakte community remains predominantly Afrikaans. There is, however, an increase in the knowledge and use of English, and despite possible limits in actual English proficiency, the residents in the Hooyvlakte mostly view themselves as balanced Afrikaans-English bilinguals. This view is related to the gradual change in linguistic identity, from an almost exclusively (often stigmatized) Afrikaans identity to a (mostly proud) Afrikaans-English bilingual one. The stigmatized "coloured" and Afrikaans identities appear to be products of South Africa's sociopolitical history of ethnic and cultural categorisation and segregation. Stigma, on the one hand, and exclusion, on the other, have led to a desire in the Hooyvlakte community to associate with a language other than Afrikaans as well. This shift to an Afrikaans-English bilingual identity contrasts with the shift from predominantly Afrikaans monolingualism to virtual monolingualism in English found in other Coloured communities studied in the Western Cape's and Eastern Cape's metropoles (see Anthonissen and George 2003; Farmer 2009; Fortuin 2009). / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie sosiolinguistiese studie ondersoek geselekteerde aspekte van die talige gedrag van 'n landelike taalgemeenskap in Suid Afrika. Die algemene doelstellings van die studie is eerstens, om vas te stel of die "bruin" gemeenskap in die histories Afrikaanse dorp Beaufort- Wes steeds hoofsaaklik Afrikaans is, tweedens, of daar aanduidings is van taalverskuiwing, spesifiek een wat neig na 'n toenemende gebruik van Engels, soos gevind is in ander histories Afrikaanse gemeenskappe na die regeringsverandering in1994, en derdens, wat die aard van so 'n taalverskuiwing sou wees. 'n Oorsig word gegee oor beduidende aspekte van die sosiale en politieke geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika in die algemeen, en meer spesifiek van Beaufort-Wes, om die huidige en voormalige taalsituasie soos dit in hierdie studie aan die orde kom, te kontekstualiseer. Geskiedkundige verslae wys daarop dat die dorp eers die naam Hooyvlakte gehad het voor dit verander is na Beaufort-Wes. Hooyvlakte is tans die naam van een van die dorp se woonbuurte waar 'n gedeelte van Beaufort-Wes se "bruin" gemeenskap woonagtig is. In hierdie studie benoem "Hooyvlakte" die "bruin" gemeenskap van die hele dorp. Dit is in húlle wat hierdie tesis geïnteresseerd is. Die studie is hoofsaaklik kwalitatief van aard. Die respondente was 184 lede van die Hooyvlakte gemeenskap, en deelnemers het individue van beide geslagte tussen die ouderdomme van 16 en 87 jaar ingesluit. Die enigste vereiste vir deelname aan die studie was dat informante reeds 15 jaar in Beaufort-Wes woonagtig moes wees. Elke informant het 'n vraelys voltooi op grond waarvan sy/haar taalvaardigheid, taalgebruik en taalvoorkeur vasgestel kon word. Die vraelys het ook die informante geleentheid gegee om hul mening te lug oor die waarde en gebruik van veeltaligheid in hul gemeenskap. Die bevindinge van die studie toon aan dat die Hooyvlakte gemeenskap steeds hoofsaaklik Afrikaans is. Daar is egter 'n toename in hul kennis en gebruik van Engels, en ten spyte van moontlike beperkinge in hul Engelse taalvaardigheid wat formele toetse sou kon uitwys, beskou deelnemers hulself steeds as gebalanseerde tweetalige sprekers van Afrikaans en Engels. Hierdie siening hou verband met 'n verskuiwing in talige identiteit, van 'n oorwegend eksklusiewe (meestal gestigmatiseerde) Afrikaanse identiteit na 'n (grootliks trotse) Afrikaans en Engels tweetalige identiteit. Die gestigmatiseerde Bruin en Afrikaanse identiteite blyk neweprodukte te wees van die (etniese en kulturele) klassifiseringsgebruike uit die vorige Suid-Afrikaanse sosio-politiese bestel. Stigma, enersyds, en uitsluiting, andersyds, het 'n begeerte in die Hooyvlakte gemeenskap laat ontstaan, om te assosieer met 'n ander taal benewens Afrikaans. Hierdie verskuiwing na 'n tweetalige Afrikaans-Engelse identiteit kontrasteer met die verskuiwing van hoofsaaklik Afrikaanse taalidentiteit na feitlik uitsluitlik eentalig Engelse identiteit, wat onlangs in "bruin" gemeenskappe elders waargeneem en opgeteken is (vgl. Anthonissen en George 2003; Farmer 2009; Fortuin 2009).

Silozi is one of the local languages of Namibia with over 200 thousand mother-tongue speakers. The aim of this study is to examine the language situation in the Malozi Community of Caprivi and to identify the factors influencing the maintenance of Silozi in Namibia. The following factors were identified as relevant to the maintenance of Silozi: education, media, religion, contact situations, cultural activities and language loyalty. Despite the strong influence of English in education and increased use of English bythe younger generation, the findings indicate that Silozi is likely to survive for several generations into the future. The study reveals that a high percentage of both young and old use more Silozi in the domain of home, neighbourhood and church than English. It is evident that Silozi will continue to be used as a functional language in Caprivi for many years to come. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / (M.A. (Sociolinguistics))

This thesis is devoted to the issue of understanding Romani and the majority languages by Romani preschoolers in order to consider the possibility of introducing Romani language in schools. Also it analyses the influence of using Romani language on the ability to perform age-appropriate tasks by Roma preschoolers. The work is divided into two parts. The first, theoretical part presents a summary of the relevant works on school failure of Romani children with an emphasis on their language handicap. We also pay attention to the theory of language shift, language code, and subtractive bilingualism. In the second, empirical part a primary research is carried out examining the degree of understanding Romani and majority languages in three locations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. As a methodology, a mixed research design was chosen. It was divided into two phases. During the first phase a field research was conducted, followed by quantitative evaluation of tasks performed by the Romani preschoolers in the second phase. Research has shown, that there are different linguistic situations in the surveyed locations and therefore no generic measure can be introduced. At the same time the outcomes rejected the presumption that children who speak Romani better than the majority language will be more successful in...

Magister Artium - MA / Afrikaans in practice replaced Dutch and became one of South Africa's official languages (along with English) from 1925. It reached the apex of its development and influence during the years of Nationalist party rule and the apartheid regime as a language of officialdom, of the judiciary and education. However, in 1994 nine African languages were afforded official status along with English and Afrikaans in South Africa. Presently, Afrikaans is still taught in the majority of schools in the Western Cape as either a first or second language. This thesis compares and contrasts the language attitudes and motivation towards Afrikaans in two groups of secondary school learners - grade eight and grade eleven learners - at the same school, viz. the Settlers' High School in Parow, a northern suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. At this English medium school, Afrikaans as a second language is a compulsory subject. The thesis also examines the dominant ideologies held towards Afrikaans by the learners and by the school in question which contributes towards shaping their attitudes and motivations for learning the language as well as their actual use of the language. The study finds a correlation between the learners' attitudes towards Afrikaans and their actual patterns of use of the language, which indicates that the use of Afrikaans may be in decline among especially the younger, grade eight, learners. / South Africa

Language contact is a universal phenomenon found in bilingual or multilingual societies. It is the basic and distinct quality of every culture. Language is the means by which people communicate, express their points of views, say what their feelings are and attach names to objects. As multicultural as South Africa is, it is almost impossible for one not to have an encounter with other people’s languages. This study therefore aims at investigating the influence of IsiNdebele on Sepedi learners at the primary schools around the Dennilton region in the Limpopo Province. Much has been said about language contact and its influence in urban areas but no study has yet been conducted in rural areas focusing on Sepedi and IsiNdebele speakers. In their works, researchers such as Malimabe (1990:12), Pettman (1993:3), Calteaux (1996:187) point out that urbanization has brought diverse cultures together in the townships and workplaces. To curb their language differences, lingua franca like Tsotsitaal, Iscamtho, Fanagalo and others inevitably emerged. The same happened in the Limpopo Province when the AmaNdebele came to the farms and mines seeking employment at the Marble Hall and Groblersdal areas, and some did find a place of refuge in these areas. As Pettman (1993:3) notes, various races, using different languages cannot occupy the same territory and live in daily contact without being mutually affected; each will acquire something from and in turn give something to the other. In Chapter One, the Constitutional requirement as well as the progress made in the teaching and learning of isiNdebele at the primary schools in the Dennilton region is explored. The findings in Chapter Two reveal that Amandebele children still speak isiNdebele at home but Sepedi at school. At some schools, the learners who take Sepedi first language and those who take isiNdebele first language are accommodated in one class and only separate during their first language instruction periods. This is done because of the shortage of classes but will obviously promote cross language influence, such as code-switching and code-mixing. The findings reveal that language influence is also perpetuated by multilingual families and educators. The isiNdebele speaking learners and teachers bring isiNdebele to the learning environment; hence the Sepedi speaking learners in these schools experience difficulties adjusting to the use of appropriate, standard Sepedi when they speak or write essays. The isiNdebele phonological sounds as in [z] mzala for Sepedi [ts] motswala ’cousin’, [dl] dlala for Sepedi [b] bapala ‘play’, [v] vula for Sepedi [β] bula etc. are observed to be infiltrating the Sepedi sound system and are outlined in Chapter Three. After examining the learners’ written work in Chapter Four, it is observed that there is the adaptation of phonemes on the morphological, semantic and the syntactical disciplines from isiNdebele into Sepedi lexical stock. Chapter Five recapitulates the whole study. Recommendations by the language teachers and the researcher to the Limpopo Education Department, the parents and all stakeholders involved in the teaching and learning of languages are stated in this concluding chapter. AFRIKAANS : Taalkontak is ’n universele fenomeen in tweetalige of veeltalige gemeenskappe. Dit is die basiese en onderskeidende kwaliteit van enige kultuur. Taal is die instrument waarmee mense kommunikeer, hul menings lug, hul gevoelens uitdruk en objekte benoem. Dit is byna onmoontlik om in ’n multikulturele Suid-Afrikaanse konteks nie kontak te hê met ande tale nie. Dié studie stel ondersoek in na die invloed van IsiNdebele op Sepedi leerders in laerskole rondom die Dennilton area in die Limpopo provinsie. Baie is al gesê oor taalkontak en die invloed daarvan in stedelike areas, maar geen studie is al onderneem in plattelandse gebiede wat fokus op Sepedi en IsiNdebele sprekers nie. In hul ondersoeke het navorsers soos Malimabe (1990:12), Pettman (1993:3), Calteaux (1996:187) daarop gewys dat verstedeliking diverse kulture saamgebring het in informele nedersettings en werkplekke. Om taalverskille te oorkom, het lingua francas soos Tsotsitaal, Iscamtho, Fanagalo en ander ontwikkel. Dieselfde het in die Limpopo provinsie gebeur toe die AmaNdebele na plase en myne in die Marble Hall en Groblersdal areas gekom het om werk te soek. Sommige het ’n tuiste in hierdie areas gevind. Pettman (1993:3) noem dat verskillende rasse wat verskillende tale gebruik nie dieselfde gebied kan bewoon sonder om ondeling beïnvloed te word nie; elk sal iets van die ander nodig hê en beurtelings iets aan die ander gee. In hoofstuk 1 word die konstitusionele vereiste en die vordering wat gemaak is met die onderrig en en leer van isiNdebele in laerskole in die Dennilton area ondersoek. Die bevindinge in hoofstuk 2 wys daarop dat Amandebele kinders steeds isiNdebele tuis gebruik, maar Sepedi in die skoolopset. By sommige skole word leerders wat Sepedi en isiNdebele onderskeidelik as ’n eerste taal neem in een klas geakkommodeer en word hul slegs geskei gedurende eerste taalonderrigperiodes. Dié word gedoen weens ’n tekort aan klasse, maar sal vanselfsprekend kruistaal beïnvloeding bevorder soos kodewisseling en kodevermenging. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat taalbeïnvloeding ook aangewakker word deur veeltalige families en opvoeders. Die IsiNdebele leerders en opvoeders bring isiNdebele na die leeromgewing; daarom ondervind die Sepedi leerders in hierdie skole probleme met die gebruik van aanvaarbare standaard Sepedi as hul praat of opstelle skryf. Die isiNdebele fonologiese klanke soos [z] vir Sepedi, [ts] motswala, [dl] dlala vir Sepedi, [b] bapala, [v] vir Sepedi [β] bula ens. is besig om die Sepedi klanksisteem te infiltreer en word in hoofstuk 3 aangedui. Nadat die leerders se geskrewe werk in hoofstuk 4 geëksamineer is, is bevind dat ’n aanpassing van foneme op die morfologiese, semantiese en die sintaktiese dissipline van die isiNdebele na Sepedi leksikale standard plaasvind. Hoofstuk 5 neem die algehele studie in oënskou. Voorstelle deur taalonderwysers en die navorser aan die Limpopo Onderwysdepartement, die ouers en alle rolspelers betrokke by die onderrig en leer van tale word in die slothoofstuk gestel Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / African Languages / unrestricted