Abstract
This paper intends to investigate the role of demographic factors such as sex, age, education, ethnicity, intermarriage, migration and job status in the process of language shift among ethnic migrant groups in Khartoum, Sudan. The paper depends on structured questionnaires to collect data on language presidency, language use and language attitudes among fourteen ethnic groups living in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan. The main objective of the study is to investigate the role of these factors in accelerating or hindering the process of language shift among the groups under study. PSS was used in the process of data analysis using Qui square test to find correlation between demographic factors and language shift among the groups under investigation. Results showed a significant correlation between language shift and factors such as age, sex, and education among the Beja, the Darfurians and the Nuba Mountains ethnic groups. A less degree of significance between demographic factors and language shift was registered by the groups descending from Southern Sudan who showed a strong tendency to preserve their linguistic and cultural heritage during their stay in Khartoum.
Highlights
This paper intends to investigate the role of demographic factors such as sex, age, education, ethnicity, intermarriage, migration and job status in the process of language shift among ethnic migrant groups in Khartoum, Sudan
The paper depends on structured questionnaires to collect data on language presidency, language use and language attitudes among fourteen ethnic groups living in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan
A strong relationship was found between mastery of vernaculars natively and birth in the homeland. These findings suggest that migration from the country of origins to Khartoum plays a vital role in language shift
Summary
From a distant time in history to the nineteenth century efforts to create an artificial language to play the role of a universal language have been attempted. The prime objective was to find a language that would bind the linguistically diverse people of the world into a cohesive whole. With English on its way to assume such a position in recent decades, many people have been deeply concerned at the prospect. English is an imperial language that threatens the world’s rich linguistic and cultural heritage. Linguistic human right activities have begun countering this universalizing trend with language repair and maintenance programs. They stress the importance of diversity comparing the loss of a language to www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet
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