Abstract

Spanish speakers constitute the largest heritage language community in the US. The state of Florida is unusual in that, on one hand, it has one of the highest foreign-born resident rates in the country, most of whom originate from Latin America—but on the other hand, Florida has a comparatively low Spanish language vitality. In this exploratory study of attitudes toward Spanish as a heritage language in Florida, we analyzed two corpora (one English: 5,405,947 words, and one Spanish: 525,425 words) consisting of recent Twitter data. We examined frequencies, collocations, concordance lines, and larger text segments. The results indicate predominantly negative attitudes toward Spanish on the status dimension, but predominantly positive attitudes on the solidarity dimension. Despite the latter, transmission and use of Spanish were found to be affected by pressure to assimilate, and fear of negative societal repercussions. We also found Spanish to be used less frequently than English to tweet about attitudes; instead, Spanish was frequently used to attract Twitter users’ attention to specific links in the language. We discuss the implications of our findings (should they generalize) for the future of Spanish in Florida, and we provide directions for future research.

Highlights

  • Relocation of people as a result of globalization and migration almost inevitably leads to shifts in language use (Fishman 2001; United NationsND)

  • If they are not already speakers of the host society’s majority language, the first generation of newcomers tends to adapt the use of their heritage language, frequently restricting it to their home and their own social circles, with limited presence of the majority language (Stavans and Ashkenazi 2020)

  • There are some limitations to the work presented here

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Relocation of people as a result of globalization and (voluntary as well as involuntary) migration almost inevitably leads to shifts in language use (Fishman 2001; United NationsND). Relocation of people as a result of globalization and (voluntary as well as involuntary) migration almost inevitably leads to shifts in language use The first generation encounters circumstances that impact their access to education, integration into professional contexts, and upward mobility—which inevitably leads to socio-economic disadvantages. If they are not already speakers of the host society’s majority language, the first generation of newcomers tends to adapt the use of their heritage language, frequently restricting it to their home and their own social circles (i.e., minoritized contexts), with limited presence of the majority language (Stavans and Ashkenazi 2020)

Objectives
Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call