Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a
speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived to be higher status stabilise or spread at the expense of other languages that are perceived by their own speakers to be lower-status. An example is the shift from
Gaulish to
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
during the time of the
Roman Empire.
Mechanisms
Prehistory
For
prehistory
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...
, Forster et al. (2004) and Forster and Renfrew (2011) observe that there is a correlation of language shift with intrusive male
Y chromosomes but not necessarily with intrusive female
mtDNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...
. They conclude that technological innovation (the transition from
hunting-gathering to
farming, or from
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
to
metal tools) or military prowess (as in the
abduction of British women by
Vikings to
Iceland) causes immigration of at least some men, who are perceived to be of higher status than local men. Then, in mixed-language marriages, children would speak the "higher-status" language, yielding the language/Y-chromosome correlation seen today.
Assimilation is the process whereby a speech-community becomes
bilingual and gradually shifts allegiance to the second language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of the speech-community that speaks the second language more often at home. The data are used to measure the use of a given language in the lifetime of a person, or most often across generations. When a speech-community ceases to use their original language,
language death is said to occur.
Indo-European migrations
In the context of the Indo-European migrations, it has been noted that small groups can change a larger cultural area.
Michael Witzel refers to Ehret's model "which stresses the
osmosis, or a "billiard ball," or
Mallory
Mallory is an Irish surname derived from the Gaelic ''Ó Mallairígh''. Spelling variants include Mallary, Mallery, Malorie, Mallorie, Mallerie and Mallorey. Mallory and Mallerie are also given names derived from the surname.
Surname
* Arenia ...
's ''Kulturkugel'', effect of cultural transmission." According to Ehret, ethnicity and language can shift with relative ease in small societies, due to the cultural, economic and military choices made by the local population in question. The group bringing new traits may initially be small, contributing features that can be fewer in number than those of the already local culture. The emerging combined group may then initiate a recurrent, expansionist process of ethnic and language shift.
David Anthony notes that the spread of the Indo-European languages probably did not happen through "chain-type folk migrations", but by the introduction of these languages by ritual and political elites, which are emulated by large groups of people. Anthony explains:
Anthony gives the example of the Luo-speaking Acholi in northern Uganda in the 17th and 18th century, whose language spread rapidly in the 19th century. Anthony notes that "Indo-European languages probably spread in a similar way among the tribal societies of prehistoric Europe", carried forward by "Indo-European chiefs" and their "ideology of political clientage". Anthony notes that "elite recruitment" may be a suitable term for this system.
Examples
Liturgical language
Historical examples for status shift are the early
Welsh and
Lutheran Bible translations
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
, leading to the liturgical languages
Welsh and
Standard German thriving today.
Austria
Until the mid-19th century, southern
Carinthia in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
had an overwhelming
Slovene-speaking majority: in the 1820s, around 97% of the inhabitants south of the line
Villach-
Klagenfurt-
Diex
Diex (; sl, Djekše) is a town in the district of Völkermarkt in Austrian state of Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. ...
spoke Slovene as their native language. In the course of the 19th century, this number fell significantly. By 1920, a third of the population of the area had already shifted to
German as their main language of communication. After the
Carinthian Plebiscite
The Carinthian plebiscite (german: Kärntner Volksabstimmung, sl, Koroški plebiscit) was held on 10 October 1920 in the area in southern Carinthia predominantly settled by Carinthian Slovenes. It determined the final border between the Republi ...
in the 1920s, and especially after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, most of the population shifted from Slovene to German. In the same region, today only some 13% of the people speak Slovene, while more than 85% of the population speak German. The figures for the whole region are equally telling: in 1818, around 35% of the population of Carinthia spoke Slovene; by 1910, this number had fallen to 15.6% and by 2001 to 2.3%. These changes were almost entirely the result of a language shift in the population, with emigration and genocide (by the Nazis during World War II) playing only a minor role.
Belarus
Despite the withdrawal of
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
from the USSR proclaimed in 1991, use of the
Belarusian language is declining. According to the 2009 Belarusian population census, 72% of Belarusians speak Russian at home, and Belarusian is used by only 11.9% of Belarusians. 52.5% of Belarusians can speak and read Belarusian. Only 29.4% can speak, read and write it. One in ten Belarusians do not understand the Belarusian language.
Belgium
In the last two centuries,
Brussels has transformed from an exclusively
Dutch-speaking city to a bilingual city with
French as the majority language and
lingua franca. The language shift began in the 18th century and accelerated as
Belgium became
independent and Brussels expanded out past its original city boundaries.
[ "Wallonie - Bruxelles", Le Service de la langue française, 19/05/1997](_blank)
From 1880 on, more and more Dutch-speaking people became bilingual, resulting in a rise of monolingual French-speakers after 1910.
Halfway through the 20th century, the number of monolingual French-speakers began to predominate over the (mostly) bilingual Flemish inhabitants.
Only since the 1960s, after the establishment of the Belgian
language border and the socio-economic development of Flanders took full effect, could Dutch use stem the tide of increasing French use.
French remains the city's predominant language, while Dutch is spoken by a minority.
Canada
The use of the
French language in Canada
French is the mother tongue of approximately 7.2 million Canadians (22.8 percent of the Canadian population, second to English at 56 percent) according to the 2016 Canadian Census. Most Canadian native speakers of French live in Quebec, th ...
is complex. In English-speaking regions of Canada, many former
Canadian French minorities have disappeared. Meanwhile, in Quebec, the decline of French has been reversed and the use of English sharply declined due to high rates of emigration after the 1976 election of the
Parti Québécois. Quebec's
Eastern Townships, once predominantly English-speaking, are now overwhelmingly French-speaking. The formerly shrinking French-speaking populations in neighboring
Ontario and
New Brunswick have also rebounded thanks to recent immigration of French-speakers. With few exceptions, many indigenous languages are declining, or have gone extinct. However, limited revival efforts exist.
China
Historically, one of the most important language shifts in China has been the near disappearance of the
Manchu language. When China was ruled by the
Qing dynasty, whose Emperors were Manchu, Chinese and Manchu had co-official status, and the Emperor heavily subsidized and promoted education in Manchu, but because most of the Manchu
Eight Banners
The Eight Banners (in Manchu: ''jakūn gūsa'', ) were administrative and military divisions under the Later Jin and Qing dynasties of China into which all Manchu households were placed. In war, the Eight Banners functioned as armies, but the ...
lived in garrisons with Mandarin-speaking Han Bannermen located across Han Chinese civilian populated cities, most Manchus spoke the Beijing dialect of Mandarin by the 19th century and the only Manchu speakers were garrisons left in their homeland of
Heilongjiang. Today there are fewer than 100 native speakers of Manchu.
At the current time, language shift is occurring all across China. Many languages of
minority ethnic groups are declining, as well as the many regional
varieties of Chinese. Generally the shift is in favour of
Standard Chinese (
Mandarin), but in the province of
Guangdong the cultural influence of
Cantonese has meant local dialects and languages are being abandoned for
Cantonese instead.
Languages like
Tujia and
Evenki have also disappeared due to language shift.
;Hong Kong
In
Hong Kong, Cantonese has become the dominant language spoken in society since widespread immigration to Hong Kong began in the 1940s. With immigrants of differing
mother tongues, communication was hard without a dominant language. Cantonese originated from the capital of neighboring
Canton province, and it became the dominant language by extension, and other similar dialects started to vanish from use in Hong Kong. Original residents, or aboriginals, of Hong Kong used their own languages including the
Tanka,
Hakka and
Waitau dialect, but with a majority of Hong Kong's population being immigrants by the 1940s and 50s, these dialects rapidly vanished. Most of Hong Kong's younger generation does not understand, let alone speak, their ancestral dialects.
Beginning in the late 1990s, since Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty, Mandarin Chinese has been more widely implemented in education and many other areas of official society. Though Mandarin Chinese has been quickly adopted into society, most Hong Kong residents would not regard it as a first language/dialect. Most Hong Kong residents prefer to communicate in Cantonese in daily life.
Speakers of Mandarin Chinese and of Cantonese could not mutually understand each other without learning the languages, due to vast differences in pronunciation, intonation, sentence structure and terminology. Furthermore, cultural differences between Hong Kong and China result in variations between the Cantonese used in Hong Kong and that in Canton Province.
Egypt
In
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
, the
Coptic language, a descendant of the
Afro-Asiatic Egyptian language, has been in decline in usage since the time of the
Arab conquest in the 7th century. By the 17th century, it was eventually supplanted as a spoken language by
Egyptian Arabic. Coptic is today mainly used by the
Coptic Church
The Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, translit=Ti.eklyseya en.remenkimi en.orthodoxos, lit=the Egyptian Orthodox Church; ar, الكنيسة القبطي� ...
as a liturgical language. In the
Siwa Oasis, a
local variety of
Berber is also used alongside Arabic.
Ethiopia
In
Ethiopia, various populations of
Nilotic origin have shifted languages over the centuries, adopting the idioms of their Afro-Asiatic-speaking neighbors in the northern areas. Among these groups are the
Daasanach or Marille, who today speak the
Daasanach language
Daasanach (also known as Dasenech, Daasanech, Dathanaik, Dathanaic, Dathanik, Dhaasanac, Gheleba, Geleba, Geleb, Gelebinya, Gallab, Galuba, Gelab, Gelubba, Dama, Marille, Merile, Merille, Morille, Reshiat, Russia) is a Cushitic language
The Cu ...
. It belongs to the
Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. However, modern genetic analysis of the Daasanach indicates that they are more closely related to
Nilo-Saharan and
Niger-Congo-speaking populations inhabiting
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
than they are to the Cushitic and
Semitic Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations of Ethiopia. This suggests that the Daasanach were originally Nilo-Saharan speakers, sharing common origins with the
Pokot. In the 19th century, the Nilotic ancestors of these two populations are believed to have begun separate migrations, with one group heading southwards into the
African Great Lakes
The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in th ...
region and the other group settling in southern Ethiopia. There, the early Daasanach Nilotes would have come into contact with a Cushitic-speaking population, and eventually adopted this group's Afro-Asiatic language.
Finland
Finland still has coastal
Swedish-speaking enclaves, unlike
Estonia where the last coastal Swedes were decimated or escaped to
Sweden in 1944. As Finland was under Swedish rule from the medieval ages until 1809, the language of education was
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
, with
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
being allowed as a medium of education at the
university only in the 19th century, and the first thesis in Finnish being published in 1858. Several of the coastal cities were multilingual;
Viipuri had newspapers in
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
,
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
German. However, the industrialization in the prewar era and especially the postwar era and the "escape from the countryside" of the 1960s changed the demography of the major cities and led to Finnish dominating. While
Helsinki was a predominantly Swedish-speaking city in 1910, the
Swedish-speaking minority is now 6% of the population.
France
;Alsace and Lorraine
In
Alsace,
France, a longtime
Alsatian-speaking region, the native Germanic dialect has been declining after a period of being banned at school by the French government after the
First World War and the
Second World War. It is being replaced by French.
;French Flanders
French Flanders, which gradually became part of France between 1659 and 1678, was historically part of the
Dutch sprachraum, the native dialect being
West Flemish
West Flemish (''West-Vlams'' or ''West-Vloams'' or ''Vlaemsch'' (in French-Flanders), nl, West-Vlaams, french: link=no, flamand occidental) is a collection of Dutch dialects spoken in western Belgium and the neighbouring areas of France and ...
(
French Flemish
French Flemish (French Flemish: , Standard Dutch: , french: flamand français) is a West Flemish dialect spoken in the north of contemporary France. Place names attest to Flemish having been spoken since the 8th century in the part of Fland ...
). This is corroborated by the Dutch origin of several town names in the region, such as that of 'Dunkerque' (
Dunkirk) which is a French phonetic rendition of the original Dutch name 'Duinkerke' (meaning 'church in the dunes'). The linguistic situation did not change dramatically until the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
in 1789, and Dutch continued to fulfill the main functions of a cultural language throughout the 18th century.
During the 19th century, especially in the second half of it, Dutch was banned from all levels of education and lost most of its functions as a cultural language. The larger cities had become predominantly French-speaking by the end of the 19th century.
However, in the countryside, many elementary schools continued to teach in Dutch until
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and the
Roman Catholic Church continued to preach and teach the
catechism in Flemish in many parishes.
Nonetheless, since French enjoyed a much higher status than Dutch, from about the interbellum onward, everybody became bilingual, the generation born after World War II being raised exclusively in French. In the countryside, the passing on of Flemish stopped during the 1930s or 1940s. Consequently, the vast majority of those still having an active command of Flemish are older than 60.
Therefore, complete extinction of
French Flemish
French Flemish (French Flemish: , Standard Dutch: , french: flamand français) is a West Flemish dialect spoken in the north of contemporary France. Place names attest to Flemish having been spoken since the 8th century in the part of Fland ...
can be expected in the coming decades.
[, by Hugo Ryckeboer. University of Ghent.]
;Basque Country
The
French Basque Country
The French Basque Country, or Northern Basque Country ( eu, Iparralde (), french: Pays basque, es, País Vasco francés) is a region lying on the west of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Since 1 January 2017, it constitu ...
has been subject to intense French-language pressure exerted over the Basque-speaking communities. Basque was both persecuted and excluded from administration and official public use during the takeover of the
National Convention (1792-1795),
War of the Pyrenees and the Napoleonic period. The compulsory national education system imposed early on a French-only approach (mid-19th century), marginalizing Basque, and by the 1960s family transmission was grinding to a halt in many areas at the feet of the Pyrenees.
By the 2010s, the receding trend has been somewhat mitigated by the establishment of Basque schooling (the ''
ikastolak'') spearheaded by the network
Seaska, as well as the influence of the
Basque territories from Spain.
;Brittany
According to
Fañch Broudic,
Breton has lost 80% of its speakers in 60 years. Other sources mention that 70% of Breton speakers are over 60. Furthermore, 60% of children received Breton from their parents in the 1920s and only 6% in the 1980s. Since the 1980s, monolingual speakers are no longer attested.
On the 27 October 2015, the
Senate rejected the draft law on ratification of the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages driving away the assumption of Congress for the adoption of the constitutional reform which would have given value and legitimacy to regional languages such as Breton.
;Corsica
Corsican was long employed as a conglomerate of local
vernaculars in combination with
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, the official language in Corsica until 1859; afterwards Italian was replaced by French, owing to the acquisition of the island by France from
Genoa in 1768. Over the next two centuries, the use of French grew to the extent that, by the
Liberation in 1945, all islanders had a working knowledge of French. The 20th century saw a wholesale language shift, with islanders changing their language practices to the extent that there were no monolingual Corsican speakers left by the 1960s. By 1995, an estimated 65 percent of islanders had some degree of proficiency in Corsican, and a small minority, perhaps 10 percent, used Corsican as a first language.
[ To access the data, click on List by languages, Corsican, Corsican in France, then scroll to ''Geographical and language background''.]
;Occitania
Germany
;Southern Schleswig
In
Southern Schleswig
Southern Schleswig (german: Südschleswig or ', da, Sydslesvig; frr, Söödslaswik) is the southern half of the former Duchy of Schleswig in Germany on the Jutland Peninsula. The geographical area today covers the large area between the Eid ...
, an area that belonged to Denmark until the
Second Schleswig War, there was a language shift from the 17th to the 20th centuries from
Danish and
North Frisian dialects to Low German and later High German. Historically, most of the region was part of the Danish and North Frisian language area, adjacent in the south to the German-speaking Holstein. But with the
Reformation in the 16th century German became the language of the Church, and in the 19th century also that of schools in the southern parts of Schleswig. Added to this was the influence of German-speaking Holsatian nobility and traders. German was (occasionally) also spoken at the royal court in Copenhagen. This political and economic development led gradually to a German language dominating in the southern parts of Schleswig. Native dialects such as the
Angel Danish
Angel Danish (German: ''Angeldänisch'', Danish: ''Angeldansk'' or ''Angelbomål'') was a variant of South Jutlandic spoken in the area of Angelia (German: ''Angeln;'', Danish: ''Angel'') and Swania (German: ''Schwansen'', Danish: ''Svansø'') ...
and
Eiderstedt Frisian vanished. In the
Flensburg area, there arose the mixed language
Petuh combining Danish and German elements. As late as in 1851 (in the period of nationalization) the Danish government tried to stop the language shift, but without success in the long run. After the Second Schleswig War the Prussians introduced a number of language policy measures in the opposite direction to expand the use of (High) German as the language of administration, schooling and church services.
Today, Danish and North Frisian are recognized as minority languages in the federal state of
Schleswig-Holstein.
Hungary
Cumans, seeking refuge from the Mongols, settled in Hungary and were later
Magyarized. The
Jassic people of Hungary originally spoke the Jassic dialect of
Ossetic
Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetia ...
, but they fully adopted
Magyar, forgetting their former language. The territory of today's Hungary was formerly settled by
Slavonic tribes, which gradually assimilated to Magyar. Also, language shift may have happened in Hungarian pre-history, as the prehistoric culture of Magyars shows very little similarity to that of speakers of other
Uralic languages.
India
In India, many languages are assimilated into standard languages like
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
or
Bengali. For example a tribe called
Bhumij, whose native language
Bhumij, a language of
Austroasiatic language family. But over the two countries they almost abandoned the their native language and adopted Bengali and Odia language. And now
Bhumij language is one of the
Endangered Languages of India.
Ireland
Israel / Palestine
An example is the shift from Hebrew to Aramaic in and around Jerusalem during the time of Classical Antiquity. Another example is during the Middle Ages, when shifting from Aramaic to Arabic through the advent of Islam. A third shift took place in Modern times, under the influence of
Zionism, from
Jewish languages such as
Yiddish,
Ladino and various dialects of
Judeo-Arabic to
Modern Hebrew.
Italy
The
Italian peninsula, the
Po river basin and the nearby islands are home to
various languages, most of which are Latin-derived. Italy would be politically organized into states until the late 19th century.
Since the times of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
, a trans-Italian language was developed in
central Italy
Central Italy ( it, Italia centrale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region, and a European Parliament constituency.
Regions
Central I ...
, based on
Florentine Tuscan; in light of its cultural prestige, it was used for formal, literary and written purposes among the literate classes from the various states of mainland Italy,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
and Corsica (France), sidelining the other dialects in education and formal settings. Thus, literary
Florentine was established as the most representative dialect of Italy long before its
political unification in 1861, Tuscan having been officially adopted by the preunitarian states. Italian further expanded as a common language for everyday use throughout the country after World War II.
Most other languages, with the exception of those spoken by
specific ethno-linguistic groups, long served as local vernaculars alongside Italian; therefore they have been mislabelled "dialects" by their own speakers, but they are still usually spoken just as much as standard Italian in a
diglossic spectrum with little conflict.
For instance, the local
Venetian dialects in
Northeast Italy
Northeast Italy ( it, Italia nord-orientale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency. Northeast ...
are widely used and locally promoted in the region; after all, Italian had been an integral part of the
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...
since the 14th century, whose elites used to revere the most prominent Tuscan authors and tuscanize their own speech as well. On a survey made by
Il Gazzettino
''Il Gazzettino'' is an Italian daily local newspaper, based in Mestre, Italy. It is the main newspaper in the Northeast Italy and is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy.
Profile
''Il Gazzettino'' has the following eight local editions:
#Veni ...
in 2015, 70% of respondents told they spoke
Venetian "very or quite often" in the family, while 68% with friends. A much lower percentage reported to use it at work (35%); the local language is less used in formal situations. However, the frequency of use within the family networks and friendship stopped respectively at -4 and -11 percentage points, suggesting a slow morphing to Italian, while the use in the workplace dropped to -22 percentage points. A visible generational gap has also been noted, since the students and young people under the age of 25 are the social group where the use of dialect fell below the threshold of absolute majority (respectively 43 and 41%). Nonetheless, despite some tendencies signalling the slow advancement of standard Italian, the
local dialects of
Veneto and the
Province of Trieste are still widely spoken alongside Italian; like in much of Italy, the presence of Italian in
Northeast Italy
Northeast Italy ( it, Italia nord-orientale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency. Northeast ...
does not seem to take anything away from the region's linguistic heritage.
Like the aforementioned case of Northeast Italy, even in
Southern Italy and
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
the local dialects from the
Italo-Dalmatian family are widely used in combination with standard Italian, depending upon the social context. More specifically, Italian as the prevalent language spoken among family members is spoken the least in
Campania (20,7%),
Calabria (25,3%) and
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
(26,6%), contrary to frequency of use of the local dialects (
Basilicata, 69,4%; Calabria 68,6%; Campania, 75,2%; Sicily, 68,8%).
;Germanic languages
Trentino's
Cimbrian, a
Germanic language
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...
related to
Bavarian, was spoken by at least 20,000 people in the 19th century, with 3,762 people in 1921 and fewer than 300 in 2007. The same scenario goes for
Mòcheno and
Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser people are named a ...
.
;Sardinia
Unlike the neighbouring island of Corsica (France) and elsewhere in today's Italy, where Italian was the standard language shared by the various local elites since the late Middle Ages, Italian was first officially introduced to Sardinia, to the detriment of both
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Sardinian (the only surviving Neo-Latin language from the
Southern branch), only in 1760 and 1764 by the then-ruling
House of Savoy, from
Piedmont.
[Bolognesi, Roberto; Heeringa, Wilbert. ''Sardegna fra tante lingue'', pp.25, 2005, Condaghes] Because of the promotion and enforcement of the Italian language and culture upon the
Sardinian population since then, the majority of the locals switched over to such politically dominant language and no longer speak their native ones, which have seen steady decline in use. The language has been in fact severely compromised to the point that only 13% of the children are able to speak it, and today is mostly kept as a
heritage language. With the exception of a few sparsely populated areas where Sardinian can still be heard for everyday purposes, the island's indigenous languages have by now been therefore largely replaced by Italian; the
language contact ultimately resulted in the emergence of a
specific variety of Italian, slightly divergent from the standard one.
Malta
Before the 1930s,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
was the only official language of Malta, although it was spoken by only the upper classes, with
Maltese being spoken by the lower class. Even though English has replaced Italian as a co-official language alongside Maltese, the Italian-speaking population has since grown, and the growth of English in the country now threatens the status of Maltese. A trend among the younger generations is to mix English and Italian vocabulary patterns, in making new Maltese words. For example, the Maltese word "bibljoteka" has been overtaken by "librerija", formed from "library" and an Italian ending. In addition to mixing English with Italian,
Maltenglish involves the use of English words in Maltese sentences. Trends show that English is becoming the language of choice for more and more people, and is transforming the Maltese language.
Pakistan
Urdu, the lingua franca of South Asian
Muslims, as Pakistani national and official language since its independence, while most educated
Pakistanis can speak Urdu. Despite positive attitudes towards Punjabi in the urban areas of Pakistani Punjab, there is a shift towards the Urdu language in almost all domains. Pashtuns and other minorities in northern Pakistan use Urdu as a replacement for former native languages.
Paraguay
Guarani, specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guarani (
endonym ''avañe'ẽ'' 'the people's language'), an indigenous language of
South America belonging to the
Tupi–Guarani family of the
Tupian languages
The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.
Homeland and ''urheimat''
Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian urheimat to be somewhere betwee ...
, is one of the official languages of
Paraguay (along with
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
), where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and where half of the rural population is monolingual. Guarani is one of the most-widely spoken
indigenous languages of the Americas and the only one whose speakers include a large proportion of non-indigenous people. This represents a unique anomaly in the
Americas, where language shift towards European colonial languages has otherwise been a nearly universal cultural and identity marker of
mestizos (people of mixed
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Amerindian
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
ancestry), and also of
culturally assimilated, upwardly mobile
Amerindian
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
people.
Paraguayan Guarani has been used throughout Paraguayan history as a symbol of nationalistic pride.
Populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...
dictators such as
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco () (6 January 1766 – 20 September 1840) was a Paraguayan lawyer and politician, and the first dictator (1814–1840) of Paraguay following its 1811 independence from the Spanish Viceroyalty of ...
and
Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (; 3 November 1912 – 16 August 2006) was a Paraguayan army officer and politician who served as President of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 to 3 February 1989.
Stroessner led a coup d'état on 4 May 1954 with t ...
used the language to appeal to common Paraguayans, and upon
the advent of Paraguayan democracy in 1992, Guarani was enshrined in the new constitution as a co-equal language along with Spanish.
Jopara, the mixture of Spanish and Guarani, is spoken by an estimated 90% of the population of Paraguay.
Code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualis ...
between the two languages takes place on a spectrum where more Spanish is used for official and business-related matters, whereas more Guarani is used in art and in everyday life.
Parthia
Instances of language shift appear to have occurred twice in the history of the
Parthian Empire: once before its foundation, when the
Parni
The Parni (; grc, Πάρνοι, ''Parnoi'') or Aparni (; Ἄπαρνοι, ''Aparnoi'') were an East Iranian people who lived around the Ochus ( grc, Ὧχος ''Okhos'') ( Tejen) River, southeast of the Caspian Sea. It is believed that their o ...
invaded
Parthia, eventually losing their
Eastern Middle Iranian language and adopting
Parthian instead; secondly, after the fall of the Parthian Empire, Parthian speakers shifted to
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...
or
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
.
Philippines
In the
Philippines,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
-speaking families have gradually switched over to
English since the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, so Spanish has ceased to be a practical everyday language in the country.
Another example would be the gradual death of the
Kinaray-a
The Karay-a language ( krj, label=none, Kinaray-a, krj, label=none, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or krj, label=none, Hinaraya; en, Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique, I ...
language of Panay as many native speakers especially in the province of
Iloilo are switching to
Hiligaynon or mixing the two languages together.
Kinaray-a
The Karay-a language ( krj, label=none, Kinaray-a, krj, label=none, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or krj, label=none, Hinaraya; en, Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique, I ...
was once spoken in the towns outside the vicinity of
Iloílo City, while
Hiligaynon was limited to only the eastern coasts and the city proper. However, due to media and other factors such as urbanization, many younger speakers have switched from
Kinaray-a
The Karay-a language ( krj, label=none, Kinaray-a, krj, label=none, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or krj, label=none, Hinaraya; en, Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique, I ...
to
Hiligaynon, especially in the towns of
Cabatuan,
Santa Barbara,
Calinog
Calinog, officially the Municipality of Calinog ( hil, Banwa sang Calinog, krj, Banwa kang Calinog, tgl, Bayan ng Calinog), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population o ...
,
Miagao,
Passi City,
Guimbal
Guimbal, officially the Municipality of Guimbal ( krj, Banwa kang Guimbal; hil, Banwa sang Guimbal; tl, Bayan ng Guimbal), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population o ...
,
Tigbauan,
Tubungan, etc. Many towns, especially
Janiuay
Janiuay (), officially the Municipality of Janiuay ( hil, Banwa sang Janiuay, krj, Banwa kang Janiuay, tgl, Bayan ng Janiuay), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...
,
Lambunao
Lambunao, officially the Municipality of Lambunao ( hil, Banwa sang Lambunao, krj, Banwa kang Lambunao, tgl, Bayan ng Lambunao), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populat ...
, and
San Joaquin still have a sizeable
Kinaray-a
The Karay-a language ( krj, label=none, Kinaray-a, krj, label=none, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or krj, label=none, Hinaraya; en, Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique, I ...
-speaking population, with the standard accent being similar to that spoken in the predominantly
Karay-a province of
Antique. Even in the province of
Antique, "Hiligaynonization" is an issue to be confronted as the province, especially the capital town of
San José de Buenavista, undergoes urbanisation. Many investors from
Iloílo City bring with them
Hiligaynon-speaking workers who are reluctant to learn the local language.
One of the problems of
Kinaray-a
The Karay-a language ( krj, label=none, Kinaray-a, krj, label=none, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or krj, label=none, Hinaraya; en, Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique, I ...
is its written form, as its unique "schwa sound" is difficult to represent in orthography. As time goes by,
Kinaray-a
The Karay-a language ( krj, label=none, Kinaray-a, krj, label=none, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or krj, label=none, Hinaraya; en, Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique, I ...
has disappeared in many areas it was once spoken especially in the island of Mindoro and only remnants of the past remain in such towns as
Pinamalayan,
Bansud
Bansud, officially the Municipality of Bansud ( tgl, Bayan ng Bansud), is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 42,671 people.
Etymology
The name of the ...
,
Gloria,
Bongabong,
Roxas,
Mansalay, and
Bulalacao in Oriental Mindoro and
Sablayan,
Calintaan,
San Jose, and
Magsaysay in
Occidental Mindoro, as
Tagalog has become the standard and dominantly recognised official language of these areas.
Palawan has 52 local languages and dialects. Due to this diversity, internal migration and mass media, Tagalog has effectively taken over as the
lingua franca on the island. Same case what happened to
Mindanao, it has many native languages and dialects but due to internal migration which started during Spanish era until to this day from people of
Visayas and
Visayan languages
The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. M ...
suddenly became the widely spoken languages in the island and some of the local languages are getting influenced and slowly losing its original form.
In
Luzon, the regions of
Camarines Norte
Camarines Norte ( bcl, Amihanan na Camarines; fil, Hilagang Camarines), officially the Province of Camarines Norte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Bicol Region in Luzon. Its capital is Daet. The province borders Quezon to the w ...
and
Pampanga have seen a shift to
Tagalog.
Singapore
After Singapore's
independence in 1965, there was a general language shift in the country's interracial
lingua franca from
Malay to English, which was chosen as the first language for the country. Among the
Chinese community in Singapore, there was a language shift from the various dialects of Chinese to English and
Mandarin Chinese. Until the 1980s,
Singaporean Hokkien
Singaporean Hokkien is a local variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively in Singapore. Within Chinese linguistic academic circles, this dialect is known as Singaporean Ban-lam Gu. It bears similarities with the Amoy spoken in Amoy, now bet ...
was the
lingua franca of
Chinese community in Singapore, which has since been replaced with English and Mandarin today. There has been a general
language attrition in the use of Chinese other than Mandarin Chinese, especially amongst the younger segments of the Singaporean population.
Spain
The progressive dominion exerted by the
Kingdom of Castile over Spain in as much as it gained political power
throughout centuries, contributed to the expansion of
its language at the expenses of the rest. The accession of the Castilian
House of Trastamara to the
Crown of Aragon by mid-15th century saw the gradual displacement of the royal languages of the
Crown of Aragon,
Aragonese and
Catalan, despite the prolific Valencian literature in Catalan in this period. Nebrija's ''Gramatica castellana'' (1492), sponsored by the new Spanish monarch
Ferdinand II of Aragon, was meant to help expand
Castilian, "the companion of the Empire". As the Crown of Castile expanded, its different governmental officials at different levels required their subjects to use or understand Castilian and sideline other ''vulgar languages'', or vernaculars. It often meant the use of interpreters in lawsuits, which could tilt the outcome of the case, e.g. the
Basque witch trials
The Basque Witch Trials of the seventeenth century represent the last attempt at rooting out supposed witchcraft from Navarre by the Spanish Inquisition, after a series of episodes erupted during the sixteenth century following the end of milita ...
, and the increased use of Castilian in assemblies and decision-making bodies, and documents, despite not being the commonly understood language in a number of areas, like most of the
Basque districts (
Navarre,
Álava, etc.), Catalonia, Galicia, Asturias, parts of Aragon, etc.
As Aragonese retreated to the sub-Pyrenean valleys,
Arabic vanished by the early 17th century, when forced cultural assimilation of the
Moriscos
Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the ope ...
was coupled with expulsion (completed in 1614). The arrival of the Bourbons (1700) intensified the centralization of governmental structures and the imposition of Castilian as the only language for official purposes, replacing in 1716 Catalan as the language of Justice Administration in the relevant territories (
Nueva Planta Decrees). Unlike
Catalan,
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
was never a language written on official documents, but was equally affected. It lost ground to Castilian in all its buffer geographic areas, as well as main institutions as a communication language, after a number of decrees and orders established Castilian as "the national language of the Empire" during
Charles III's reign; printing in languages other than Spanish was forbidden (1766), and Castilian was the only language taught in school (1768).
The
Peninsular War was followed by the centralization of Spain (Constitutions of 1812, 1837, 1845, 1856, etc.), with only the Basque districts keeping a
separate status until 1876. Compulsory education in 1856 made the use of Castilian (Spanish) mandatory, as well as discouraging and forbidding the use of other languages in some social and institutional settings.
Franco and his nationalist dictatorship imposed Spanish as the only valid language for any formal social interaction (1937). By the early 21st century, Spanish was the overwhelmingly dominant language in Spain, with Basque, Catalan, and
Galician surviving and developing in their respective regions with different levels of recognition since 1980. Other minorized languages (
Asturian, Aragonese) have also seen some recognition in the early 21st century. Catalan, sharing with Basque a strong link between language and identity, enjoys a fairly sound status. Basque competence has risen during the last decades, but daily use has not risen accordingly. The Endangered Languages Project has classified Asturian as being at risk and Aragonese as endangered.
Taiwan
Taiwanese aborigines used only
Austronesian languages before other ethnic groups conquered Taiwan. After widespread migration of
Han people
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive var ...
s from the 17th to the 19th century, many
Taiwanese Plains Aborigines
Plains indigenous peoples (), previously called plain aborigines, are Taiwanese indigenous peoples originally residing in lowland regions, as opposed to Highland indigenous peoples. Plains indigenous peoples consist of anywhere from eight to twe ...
became
Sinicized
Sinicization, sinofication, sinification, or sinonization (from the prefix , 'Chinese, relating to China') is the process by which non-Chinese societies come under the influence of Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, cul ...
, and shifted their language use to other
Sinitic
The Sinitic languages (漢語族/汉语族), often synonymous with "Chinese languages", are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is ...
tongues, (mainly
Taiwanese Hokkien). Additionally, some
Hakka people
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
(a Han Chinese ethnic subgroup) also shifted from
Hakka Chinese to Hokkien (also called Hoklo). This happened especially in
Yongjing, Changhua,
Xiluo, Yunlin, etc. They are called ''Hoklo-Hakka'' (
Phak-fa-sṳ: ''Hok-ló-hak'',
Peh-oē-jī: ''Hô-ló-kheh'', Hanzi: ''
福佬客'').
[ ]
When Taiwan was
under Japanese rule, Japanese became the official language, with the Japanese government promoting Japanese language education. It also led to the creation of
Yilan Creole Japanese
Yilan Creole Japanese is a Japanese-based creole of Taiwan. It arose in the 1930s and 1940s, with contact between Japanese colonists and the native Atayal people of southern Yilan County, Taiwan. The vocabulary of a speaker born in 1974 was 70% ...
, a mixture of Japanese,
Atayal language
The Atayal language is spoken by the Atayal people of Taiwan. Squliq and C’uli’ (Ts’ole’) are two major dialects. Mayrinax and Pa’kuali’, two subdialects of C’uli’, are unique among Atayal dialects in having male and female regis ...
, and Hokkien in
Yilan County. In
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, under the
Japanification Movement,
Chinese was banned in newspapers and school lectures, and the usage of Japanese at home was encouraged, so many urban people turned to using Japanese. In 1941, 57% of Taiwanese could speak Japanese.
After the
ROC government established rule over Taiwan in 1945, it forbade the use of
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
in newspapers and schools, and promoted the
Guoyu movement () to popularize
Standard Mandarin, often through coercive means.
In the primary
education system
The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...
, people using local languages would be fined or forced to wear a
dialect card. In the mass media, local languages were also discouraged or banned, and some books on the
romanization of local languages (e.g. Bibles, lyrics books,
Peh-ōe-jī) were banned. In 1975, The Radio and Television Act () was adopted, restricting the usage of local languages on the radio or TV. In 1985, after the draft of the Language and Script Law () was released by the Ministry of Education, it received considerable opposition because it banned the use of Taiwanese unofficial languages in the public domain.
In response, some Hakka groups demonstrated to
save their language. After 1987 when
martial law was lifted, the Guoyu movement ceased.
The shift towards monolingual Mandarin was more pronounced among Hakka-speaking communities, attributed to Hakka's low social prestige. Before the KMT took over the island from Japan, the Hakka were expected to learn both Hokkien and Japanese. However, the lack of a significant Japanese-speaking base for gaining and then retaining Japanese fluency meant that most Hakka learned only Hokkien. When the
KMT fled to Taiwan from mainland China, most mainlanders settled mainly in northern Taiwan, close to Hakka-speaking areas, thus spurring a linguistic shift from Hokkien to Mandarin within the Taipei area. As the bulk of economic activity centered around patronage networks revolving around Mandarin-speaking KMT membership, most of the Hakka became Mandarin monolinguals, due to a shift in social mobility formerly centered around Hokkien. Elsewhere, although the Hokkien speech-community shrank within the population, most Hokkien-speaking households have retained fluency in Hokkien, helped by the liberalization of Taiwanese politics and the end of martial law.
Nevertheless,
Taiwanese Mandarin has become the most common language in Taiwan today, and the most common home language of Taiwanese youth.
In the population census of 2010, Mandarin is the most common home language in the
Taipei metropolitan area,
Taoyuan,
Matsu,
aboriginal areas, some Hakka-majority areas, as well as some urban areas of
Taichung and
Kaohsiung.
Conversely, the ability of Taiwanese to speak ethnic languages is strikingly on the decline.
Turkey
Studies have suggested an
elite cultural dominance-driven linguistic replacement model to explain the adoption of
Turkish by
Anatolian indigenous inhabitants.
/ref>
During the presidency of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, policy of turkification was heavily promoting thus leading to languages of Muhacir
Muhacir or Muhajir (from ar, مهاجر, translit=muhājir, lit=migrant) are the estimated 10 million Ottoman Muslim citizens, and their descendants born after the onset of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, mostly Turks but also Albanians ...
s disappearing.
United Kingdom
The island of Great Britain, located on the western fringes of Eurasia, has experienced a series of successive language changes and developments in the course of several invasions. Celtic languages predominated before the arrival of the Romans in 43 CE imposed a Latinate superstructure. Anglo-Saxon dialects then swamped much of the Romano-British speech from the 5th century, only to be challenged from the 9th century by the influx of Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
dialects in much of England and in parts of Scotland. Following the Norman invasion of the 11th century, Norman-French became the prestige tongue, with Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
re-asserting the Germanic linguistic heritage gradually in the course of the later Middle Ages.
;Cornwall
;Scottish Gaelic
Gaelic has long suffered from its lack of use in educational and administrative contexts, and was long suppressed. The shift from Gaelic to Scots and Scottish English has been ongoing since about 1200 CE; Gaelic has gone from being the dominant language in almost all areas of present-day Scotland to an endangered language spoken by only about 1% of the population.
With the advent of Scottish devolution
Devolution is the process in which the central British parliament grants administrative powers (excluding principally reserved matters) to the devolved Scottish Parliament. Prior to the advent of devolution, some had argued for a Scottish ...
, however, Scottish Gaelic has begun to receive greater attention, and it achieved a degree of official recognition when the Scottish Parliament enacted the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act on 21 April 2005. Gaelic-medium education in Scotland now enrolls more than 2000 students a year. Nevertheless, the number of Gaelic native speakers
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
continues to decline, and Scottish Gaelic is a minority language in most of the traditional Gàidhealtachd
The (; English: ''Gaeldom'') usually refers to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and especially the Scottish Gaelic-speaking culture of the area. The similar Irish language word refers, however, solely to Irish-speaking areas.
The term ...
, including all census areas outside of the Outer Hebrides.
;London
Predictions envisage the replacement of Cockney English
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...
(traditionally spoken by working-class London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
ers) by Multicultural London English (MLE) or "Jafaican" by about 2040 as Cockney
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...
s move out of London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. Researchers theorise that the new language emerged as new migrants spoke their own forms of English such as Nigerian and Pakistani English, and that it contains elements from "learners' varieties" as migrants learn English as a second language.
; Wales
United States
Although English has been the majority language in the United States since independence in 1776, hundreds of aboriginal languages were spoken before western European settlement. French was once the main language in Louisiana, Missouri, and areas along the border with Quebec, but the speaking has dwindled after new waves of migration and the rise of English as a lingua franca. Californio Spanish became a minority language during the California Gold Rush; it has largely been overtaken by English and Mexican Spanish, surviving mainly as a prestige dialect in Northern and Central California. German was once the main language in large areas of the Great Plains and Pennsylvania, but it was suppressed by anti-German sentiment
Anti-German sentiment (also known as Anti-Germanism, Germanophobia or Teutophobia) is opposition to or fear of Germany, its inhabitants, its culture, or its language. Its opposite is Germanophilia.
Anti-German sentiment largely began wit ...
during the First World War.
Vietnam
Since the fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, t ...
at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, French has declined heavily in Vietnam from being a government language and primary language of education in South Vietnam to being a minority language limited to the elite classes and elderly population. Today, French is spoken fluently by less than 1% of the Vietnamese population. The language shift from French to Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
occurred earlier in the north due to Viet Minh and later communist policies enforcing Vietnamese as the language of politics and education. However, since the late 1990s, there has been a minor revival of French in Vietnam.
Reversing
American linguist Joshua Fishman
Joshua Fishman (Yiddish: שיקל פֿישמאַן — Shikl Fishman; July 18, 1926 – March 1, 2015) was an American linguist who specialized in the sociology of language, language planning, bilingual education, and language and ethnicity.
...
has proposed a method of reversing language shift which involves assessing the degree to which a particular language is disrupted in order to determine the most appropriate method of revitalising.
See also
* Endangered language
* Extinct language
* Germanic substrate hypothesis
* Koiné language
* Language death
* Linguistic imperialism
Linguistic imperialism or language imperialism is occasionally defined as "the transfer of a dominant language to other people". This language "transfer" (or rather unilateral imposition) comes about because of imperialism. The transfer is consid ...
* Second language
* World Englishes
World Englishes is a term for emerging localised or indigenised varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United States. The study of World Englishes consists of identi ...
Notes
References
Sources
*
* Bastardas-Boada, Albert (2007)
"Linguistic sustainability for a multilingual humanity"
''Glossa. An Interdisciplinary Journal'' (on-line), vol. 2, n. 2.
* Bastardas-Boada, Albert (2002)
''Diverscité langues'', vol. VII, Analyses et réflexions (on-line)
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*
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Further reading
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*
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*Bastardas-Boada, Albert. ''From language shift to language revitalization and sustainability. A complexity approach to linguistic ecology''. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, 2019.
External links
SIL Bibliography: Language shift - Ethnologue.com
The Rate of Assimilation : Francophone Minorities: Assimilation and Community Vitality - Department of Canadian Heritage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Language Shift
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Cultural assimilation
Articles containing video clips