Minority Language Research Articles

Substance Use, Addiction and Support Services: Increased Risk and Service Inequity for Official Language Minority Communities in Canada

ABSTRACT Objectives: The increase in substance use and addictions within the Canadian population, illustrated by the current opioid crisis and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, urges the investigation of populations who may be particularly vulnerable to developing problematic substance use. Official language minority communities in Canada, both understudied and underserved, may be one such population. Methods: Through its tripartite design using scoping literature review, interview, and environmental scan methodologies, this study offers a snapshot of the current reality surrounding substance use, addictions, and related treatment services available to this linguistic minority population. Results: Results reveal significant gaps in knowledge and service provision for this population. Service provision and knowledge on this issue constitute a nationwide patchwork, leaving official language minority communities underserved. While enough is known to assert that their needs are different than those of their majority peers, much remains to be investigated, and efforts to ameliorate their social determinants of health, including cultural and linguistic competence on behalf of service providers, are urgently needed. Conclusions: Recommendations include networking, collaboration, financial support and active offer of services in both official languages to improve mental health and addictions services through a continuum of care. Systems navigators may facilitate promotion and referral to such services for official language minorities. Objectifs: La prévalence croissante de la consommation des substances et des dépendances au Canada, tel qu’illustrée par la crise actuelle des opioïdes et exacerbée par la pandémie de la COVID-19, exhorte à l’investigation de populations qui pourraient être particulièrement vulnérables à la consommation problématique de substances. Au Canada, les communautés de langue officielle en situation de minorité (CLOSM), une population à la fois peu étudiée et peu desservie, pourrait bien représenter une telle population. Méthodes: Au moyen de sa stratégie tripartite, employant les méthodologies d’étude de la portée, d’entrevues, et de scan environnemental, cette étude brosse un premier portrait de la réalité actuelle quant à la consommation de substances, aux dépendances et aux services qui y sont voués, parmi les CLOSM au Canada. Résultats: Les résultats révèlent une lacune importante aux niveaux des connaissances et des services desservant les CLOSM dans la majorité des provinces et territoires. Bien que l’état des lieux soit parcellaire en raison du manque d’études scientifiques sur la question, le portrait actuel suffit pour constater que les besoins des CLOSM différent de ceux de leurs pairs de langue majoritaire. Une amélioration des déterminants sociaux de la santé, tel la compétence culturelle et linguistique de la part des pourvoyeurs des services, représente un besoin pressant. Conclusions: Les recommandations, qui comprennent le réseautage, la collaboration, l’appui financier et l’offre active des services dans les deux langues officielles, visent à améliorer les services voués à la santé mentale et aux dépendances auprès des CLOSM au sein d’un continuum de soins. Les navigateurs.rices de systèmes pourraient faciliter l’aiguillage de membres des CLOSM vers ces services.

Linguistic diversity in media and state language proficiencies: evidence from Hungarian minority regions in central-Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT Can linguistic diversity in the media impede state language proficiency? In this paper, we test the extent to which the availability of minority languages in the media affects state language proficiency for ethnic minorities. We take advantage of an exogeneous development: The rapid expansion of Budapest-originating media outside Hungary in the mid-2000s transformed the media landscape in neighbouring states. Using an original survey data of ethnic Hungarians in minority regions in four Central-Eastern European states over two waves, we find (1) the availability of minority language media means minorities are consuming less media in the state language, which in turn induces low levels of state language proficiency – i.e. through an exogeneous exposure mechanism; and (2) minorities with weaker state language proficiency choose to consume minority language media – i.e. through an endogenous selection mechanism. The results suggest a strong relationship between the language of media consumption and linguistic proficiency.

Learning to write Scots: a school ethnography of Scots literacy development

ABSTRACT Scots is one of three indigenous languages in Scotland, alongside English and Gaelic, spoken by 1.5 million people (National Records of Scotland 2011). Historically, Scots was excluded from formal education, but since the launch of a Scots qualification in 2014, the language is now taught in a growing number of schools. Findings from a school-university research partnership into the use of Scots show that lack of a standardised orthography, lack of exposure to written Scots, teacher attitudes, and lack of confidence in writing Scots are factors that influence Scots literacy development. This research was undertaken in 2018–2019, at Banff Academy in North-East Scotland, where Scots is spoken by approximately 50% of pupils. I used Participatory Action Research and Linguistic Ethnography (Creese 2010; Shaw, Copland, and Snell 2015) as a method and theoretical framework to explore attitudes towards Scots, set within a broader language policy framework. Data from ethnographic interviews with pupils, teachers and Scots language experts suggests that innovative pedagogical approaches can stimulate students to develop positive language attitudes and language awareness and that improving language attitudes can influence linguistic behaviours. These approaches to creative language teaching could be applicable in other regional or minority language contexts.

Pronunciation teaching in minority languages: perspectives of elementary school teachers in a Chinese-English bilingual program in Canada

Pronunciation teaching in minority languages: perspectives of elementary school teachers in a Chinese-English bilingual program in Canada

Emergent bilingual children during the silent period: A scoping review of their communication strategies and classroom environments.

This scoping review aimed to investigate the communication strategies utilized by children who acquire a minority language (L1) and subsequently learn a community language (L2) during what is commonly referred to as the "silent period." Electronic database searches were conducted using keywords such as "silent period" and "bilingual children," resulting in the inclusion of 40 studies in the review. The findings revealed that emergent bilingual children utilize various communication strategies, including nonverbal communication, private speech, and their L1, to communicate within classroom environments. The findings shed light on the adaptability of emergent bilingual children during early stage of L2 acquisition. Furthermore, our review provides information about the classroom contexts such as teacher support and peer interactions where children develop their L2 skills. From a clinical perspective, recognizing these strategies and classroom contexts could significantly enhance the screening process for emergent bilingual children.

Second Language Attrition and The Savings Paradigm: An exploration of long-term retention of a minority language learned in an educational context.

Explorations of attrition attempt to gain insight into linguistic representations in the brain and to understand what supports the consolidation of information in memory so that language knowledge is retained, even after long periods of language disuse. In this study the role of extra-linguistic factors in influencing levels of knowledge retention over a long period of incubation is investigated along with the question if support for savings can be found, i.e., is seemingly forgotten knowledge in fact still intact and, therefore, may be accessed again. Four adults from Ireland currently living in Germany who had not had contact with the Irish language in approximately 30 years were tested on their knowledge of Irish lexical items and interviewed in depth on their experiences of learning Irish. Understanding language loss has important implications for the L2/FL education domain and pedagogy. If it can be established what impacts greater retention of knowledge, teaching curricula and methodologies can be revised accordingly to make them more effective with respect to long-term knowledge retention.

Comparing Individual and Community-level Characteristics of People with Ground Beef-associated Salmonellosis and Other Ground Beef Eaters: A Case-control Analysis

Salmonella is estimated to be the leading bacterial cause of U.S. domestically acquired foodborne illness. Large outbreaks of Salmonella attributed to ground beef have been reported in recent years. The demographic and sociodemographic characteristics of infected individuals linked to these outbreaks are poorly understood. We employed a retrospective case-control design; case-patients were people with laboratory-confirmed Salmonella infections linked to ground beef-associated outbreaks between 2012 and 2019, and controls were respondents to the 2018–2019 FoodNet Population Survey who reported eating ground beef and denied recent gastrointestinal illness. We used county-level CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to compare case-patient and controls. Case-patient status was regressed on county-level social vulnerability and individual-level demographic characteristics. We identified 376 case-patients and 1,321 controls in the FoodNet sites. Being a case-patient was associated with increased overall county-level social vulnerability (OR: 1.21 [95% CI: 1.07–1.36]) and socioeconomic vulnerability (OR: 1.24 [1.05–1.47]) when adjusted for individual-level demographics. Case-patient status was not strongly associated with the other SVI themes of household composition and disability, minority status and language, and housing type and transportation. Data on individual-level factors such as income, poverty, unemployment, and education could facilitate further analyses to understand this relationship.

Correction to: Ethnic Polarization and Human Development: The Conditional Effects of Minority Language Recognition

Correction to: Ethnic Polarization and Human Development: The Conditional Effects of Minority Language Recognition

Multilingualism as right and choice: A case study of Slovene speakers in Northeast Italy

Summary This article is based on a case study of Slovene speakers in north-western Italy and their attitudes towards language use and policy. Although the legal protection and support for the development of minority, regional, and non-dominant languages in Europe have made a remarkable progress, minority language communities still face many serious challenges. On the one hand, the level of their respective legal protection is often not efficient enough. On the other hand, legal protection provides only formal conditions for language maintenance, which has nothing to do with motivation, proficiency, or improvement. Today, most minority speakers in Europe are allowed and encouraged to use their home language in the public; but the question is whether they are motivated to do so. By studying the speakers of Slovene in Italy, my aim is to point at importance of colloquial local and non-local (koiné) varieties in maintaining minority language and bilingualism.

Language Ideologies and Dialect Shift in Helvécian Portuguese

Abstract Speakers from the Helvécian community in Bahia, Brazil, have been accommodating their language variety towards standard Brazilian Portuguese for the past 60 years. This article demonstrates that a complex web of socioeconomic events is tied to this phenomenon. It provides an overview of the most recent socioeconomic and political changes in the community, combined with a discourse analysis of the metalinguistic commentaries identified in narratives collected during my 2019 fieldwork in the community. The research demonstrates that speakers’ metalinguistic patterns are mediated by iconization, which sees younger speakers linguistically differentiate themselves from the traditional dialect. The findings support the theory that socioeconomic events cause direct linguistic change, especially among speakers of minority languages.

Shifts in digital media usage before and after the pandemic by Rusyns in Ukraine

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic touched every corner of the globe, even impacting the sphere of linguistics in terms of communication, lexis, and how linguists conduct their research. However, Rusyn, a minority language in Ukraine’s Transcarpathian region, took advantage of this period in a new attempt at revitalization. Rusyn is spoken in several European countries and has the privilege of being recognized and protected in most of them. Ukraine does not, however, consider Rusyn to be a language, and, therefore, does not protect it. There have been several movements for recognition and autonomy in the past, but all have been unsuccessful. The pandemic gave this small community of speakers a new chance to elevate their work towards boosting the language’s vitality and status through digital platforms such as YouTube and collective writing projects. This paper looks at the before-and-after of the pandemic in relation to Rusyn in Transcarpathia, focusing on the shift in digital approaches to protecting and promoting the language. It concludes that, in fact, a shift has occurred in terms of utilizing digital media in order to promote the language.

Migration through a language planning lens: a typology of Welsh speakers’ migration decisions

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to explain the migration decisions of minority language speakers by investigating motivating factors. Viewed through a language planning lens, the study pushes the parameters of some of the discipline's more recent agency concepts within the context of migration. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 Welsh speakers aged 18–40 who have stayed, left, or returned to the Welsh language ‘heartlands’ to create a typology representing the diversity in speakers’ priorities when deliberating migration decisions. The data shows that the Welsh language is a significant consideration in the migration decisions of some typology groups, however most groups prioritised other factors. It was found that, in some cases, employment was a means of sustaining speakers within the linguistic community or attracting them back, offering much-needed evidence to support key tenets of the Welsh Government's current language strategy. Furthermore, given the likelihood of minority language speakers’ decision to stay, leave or return to a language ‘stronghold’ to increase or limit opportunities to use the language, we argue that migration is an important context for probing the use of agency by minority language speakers at a micro level. Consequently, we contend that migration should receive greater attention from language planning scholars.

Child language brokering in Turkey: non-professional interpreting experiences from Kurdish, Arab, and Pomak ethnic minorities

ABSTRACT This research unveils retrospective child language brokering experiences within local ethnic minorities in Turkey. Employing a multiple-case study research design, the investigation delves into the brokering experiences of three adult participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds – Kurdish, Arab, and Pomak communities. The semi-structured interviews shed light on individual encounters, including primary motivations and settings for brokering, employed translation strategies, perceived impacts of brokering, and the normativity of child language brokering. They also illuminate the societal positioning of these ethnic minorities, especially minority women, within Turkey and the prevailing state policies affecting minority language rights. The findings obtained are discussed in connection with a nuanced exploration of the contextual and historical dimensions surrounding these ethnic minorities. In this sense, departing from the prevailing focus on child language brokering within immigrant families, this research redirects attention to brokering practices among local ethnic minorities. Beyond the preliminary exploration of child language brokering in Turkey, this study is an early investigation into non-professional interpreting activities among ethnic minorities residing in the country. The study also generates implications that intersect the domains of public service interpreting and politics.

Minority language happiness: The link between social inclusion, well-being, and speaking a regional language in the northern Netherlands

Belonging to groups is often based on shared features between members and is associated with higher levels of (social) well-being. One especially strong marker of one's group membership is language. In linguistics, most research about group membership and well-being focuses on migrants and refugees. However, very little research has focused on the link between speaking a regional language and well-being. This is surprising, as regional languages index a strong shared in-group identity that could lead to exclusion of those who do not speak them. As a first empirical step, this paper reports on the association between regional language use (specifically, of Frisian and Low Saxon) and social well-being. We distributed a language background questionnaire to participants of the Lifelines cohort, a multigenerational cohort study comprising data from 167,729 participants living in the north of the Netherlands. In both language contexts (Frisian in Fryslân, and Low Saxon in Groningen and Drenthe), those using the regional language half of the time or more were found to have significantly more social contacts. They also experienced higher levels of social embeddedness than those who did not know or did not frequently use the regional language. The higher degree of social embeddedness for frequent regional language users was most strongly present in rural areas. Furthermore, we found that frequent users of Frisian living in Fryslân had higher levels of social embeddedness in rural areas than frequent users of Low Saxon living in Groningen or Drenthe. No effect was found for more overt measures of social well-being such as loneliness or life satisfaction. While our results confirm an association between regional language speaking and some indices of social functioning on a large scale, they cannot uncover a causal relationship between the two. We discuss how longitudinal studies and interviews in future studies may inform us further about the relation between regional language use and social well-being.

THE FUNCTIONING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE WITHIN THE RAMEWORK OF THE LANGUAGE POLICY OF UZBEKISTAN

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of historical facts, the causes of the emergence, functioning and spread of the Russian language in Uzbekistan. A linguistic community is considered, where the dominant language and the minority language function simultaneously. The modern language situation of any state increases the importance of the communicative and political aspects of the language policy within the country. The policy pursued by the Republic of Uzbekistan testifies to the attitude towards both the state language and other languages. Therefore, the question of the possibility of the existence of the Russian language in the region becomes relevant. The author seeks to trace the process of changing its status and the evolution of distribution. The issue of the functioning of the Russian language in the region continues to be debatable.

Physical and Virtual Linguistic Landscapes in Dearborn, Michigan: Exploring the Function of the Arabic Language

Abstract: Using 440 images and a mixed methods approach, this study analyzed the physical linguistic landscape (PLL) and the virtual linguistic landscape (VLL) of Dearborn, Michigan, which is the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S. Findings revealed that in addition to its PLL, Dearborn possesses a comprehensive VLL. Arabic is the dominant minority language represented in both linguistic landscapes (LLs), but its presence serves distinct functions in each. Whereas the PLL primarily displays commercial content, Dearborn’s VLL is more oriented toward community events as well as advocacy regarding political, cultural, religious, health, and other social issues. Arabization, Muslimization, and Islamization are palpable across both linguistic landscapes (LLs) and at times have triggered xenophobic incidents. Our findings suggest that data from the PLL alone were insufficient to assess the linguistic landscape of Dearborn’s Arab community objectively and holistically. The inclusion of VLL data facilitated a more complete and precise assessment. This is critical because Dearborn’s VLL is used as a safe space to denounce and confront those who seek to silence or marginalize Arab American narratives and perspectives. The VLL also functions as a multilingual avenue to combat bigotry and institutional racism, as well as to build strong relationships and coalitions among Arab and non-Arab residents within Dearborn. Finally, the VLL serves as a tool to propagate the Muslim faith, maintain Islamic religious traditions, and preserve the Arabic language for future generations.

‘I like exploring other languages’: primary and lower secondary students’ attitudes towards plurilingual education

ABSTRACT While teachers’ beliefs about plurilingual education are widely studied, there is a gap in research exploring learners’ orientations. Drawing on a conceptualisation of plurilingual education distinguishing between three pluralistic approaches to languages and a transversal dimension focusing on learners’ language resources, the article investigates primary and lower secondary students’ attitudes towards plurilingual education in response to plurilingual education being implemented in the students’ language teaching. Based on interview data collected in a multiple-case study from majority and minority language students in Grades 1, 5 and 7, the analysis displays consistent learner positivity towards plurilingual education, especially emphasising the éveil aux langues approach whereas the integrated didactic approach as well as intercomprehension between related languages receive less attention. The findings indicate that the attitudes towards plurilingual education are linked to the learners’ language resources creating a framework for the students’ encounters and comparisons with other languages. Combining the findings and research literature on plurilingualism as a universal criterion for all learners in a modern, globalised world, the article suggests a continuum of the learner's plurilingualism. However, the findings reveal that experienced plurilingual education contexts do not only foster positive attitudes towards linguistic diversity, but that discriminating language-hierarchising attitudes co-exist.

Cross-cultural encounters of Italian travellers in the Malay world; A perspective on the languages spoken by the local populations

This paper describes the encounters that Italian travellers, explorers, and traders had with the peoples of the Malay world at the turn of the century. In particular, it focuses on the linguistic descriptions and observations made by Italian explorers of the languages spoken in the places they visited and included in their travel writings. In addition to the pioneering work of Pigafetta, the Italian scribe who followed Magellan on his voyage around the world and produced the first “Italian-Malay vocabulary” in 1521, other linguistic descriptions and observations were made by Giovanni Gaggino, a merchant who compiled an Italian-Malay dictionary in Singapore, Odoardo Beccari, a naturalist who offered reflections on the Malay spoken in Borneo, and Celso Cesare Moreno, a ship captain and adventurer. Elio Modigliani, in his travels to Nias, Enggano, Mentawai, and the Batak country, provided detailed information on the local languages spoken in these islands in North and West Sumatra, while Giovanni Battista Cerruti, an explorer and ship captain who visited Singapore, Batavia, and the Malay Peninsula, commented on the languages, as did Emilio Cerruti, who travelled to the Moluccas and Papua. This paper focuses on how these languages were described and perceived by these nineteenth-century Italian travellers. It concludes that these explorers were all united by a common necessity, namely the importance of speaking local languages in order to be able to interact with the people they met on their travels. Malay, in particular, was always viewed positively as an international language, a powerful tool for communicating, learning, and interacting with others, and a beautiful language. Conversely, the other minority languages were seen as poor and simple, but still a powerful tool to overcome barriers and lay the foundations for intercultural communication.

A case study of family language policy in interaction with mainstream and minority language education among Mongolian families

ABSTRACT In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (henceforth IMAR) of China, children of bilingual parents are increasingly becoming monolingual in the socially dominant language – Mandarin. Mongolian language, representing the unique culture and identity of Mongolian ethnic groups, is facing a decline in usage within the family setting. This case study investigates the Family Language Policy (henceforth FLP) and its interaction with mainstream and minority language education through observations, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires with two distinct groups. Group 1 demonstrates the contemporary implementations and challenges of FLP among 5 bilingual parents and Group 2 offers the historical perspectives of 9 bilingual adults with their retrospective account of childhood language experiences. Through comparing the two groups, we identified the critical role of FLP in supporting the development of children's minority languages. We also uncovered challenges and inconsistencies that parents encountered in implementing FLP. These issues stem from a variety of factors, including economic, sociocultural, and political influences, as well as individual factors, such as expectations and language experiences from both parents and children.

AI-translated poetry: Ivan Franko's poems in GPT-3.5-driven machine and human-produced translations

The article presents a detailed comparative analysis of translations of twelve great Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko's poems done by translator Percival Cundy and the GPT-3.5 AI language model. Using various manual and automatic analytical research methods and techniques, we analyzed the translations' merits, demerits, and eight essential qualitative and quantitative linguistic and poetic characteristics to verify a hypothesis that human and GPT-3.5-driven machine translations can be quite comparable in terms of their quality and poetic features. The results obtained sufficiently prove the hypothesis and suggest that developing AI translation potential for poetry translation can help build more capable, diversified, and nuanced large language models. The AI revolutionary breakthrough in translation makes it quite possible to acquaint satisfactorily the wider public with the poetic heritage of the world's nations, especially those using minor languages, whose poetry is evidently under-translated. A follow-up study is desirable to assess the progress made by GPT4.0 and its possible later versions in poetry translation, as compared with GPT-3.5.