Speakers Of Minority Languages Research Articles

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.

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.

Towards conceptualizing ‘demographic agency’ in Family Language Policy

This article investigates the success story of language maintenance in Arab families in Iran. Taking Fishman’s (1991) emphasis on micro face-to-face interactions in language maintenance processes as our point of departure, it argues that language maintenance requires that families live in a sociolinguistic milieu in which face-to-face interactions are facilitated by demographic patterns of settlement. Despite unfavorable institutional policies towards minority languages in Iran, the specific geographical makeup of the country has historically pushed speakers of minority languages to settle in certain regions (Katouzian, 2009). Drawing on Sealey and Carter’s (2004) concept of ‘demographic agency’, this article argues that such a demographic settlement of Arabs in southern cities and towns in Iran has given them a collective power to maintain their language, which takes the form of laissez-faire interactions in Arabic at home. The findings, based on interviews with families and recordings of interactions at home, suggest that, although parents express concern regarding their children’s academic achievement and socioeconomic mobility, which requires higher proficiency in Persian, this concern does not readily translate into language practices in Persian at home.

Contemporary Prevalence of Oral Clefts in the US: Geographic and Socioeconomic Considerations.

Background: Socio-economic status, living environments, and race have been implicated in the development of different congenital abnormalities. As orofacial clefting is the most common anomaly affecting the face, an understanding of its prevalence in the United States and its relationship with different determinants of health is paramount. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the modern prevalence of oral-facial clefting in the United States and its association with different social determinants of health. Methods: Utilizing Epic Cosmos, data from approximately 180 US institutions were queried. Patients born between November 2012 and November 2022 were included. Eight orofacial clefting (OC) cohorts were identified. The Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) was used to assess social determinants of health. Results: Of the 15,697,366 patients identified, 31,216 were diagnosed with OC, resulting in a prevalence of 19.9 (95% CI: 19.7-20.1) per 10,000 live births. OC prevalence was highest among Asian (27.5 CI: 26.2-28.8) and Native American (32.8 CI: 30.4-35.2) patients and lowest among Black patients (12.96 CI: 12.5-13.4). Male and Hispanic patients exhibited higher OC prevalence than female and non-Hispanic patients. No significant differences were found among metropolitan (20.23/10,000), micropolitan (20.18/10,000), and rural populations (20.02/10,000). SVI data demonstrated that OC prevalence was positively associated with the percentage of the population below the poverty line and negatively associated with the proportion of minority language speakers. Conclusions: This study examined the largest US cohort of OC patients to date to define contemporary US prevalence, reporting a marginally higher rate than previous estimates. Multiple social determinants of health were found to be associated with OC prevalence, underscoring the importance of holistic prenatal care. These data may inform clinicians about screening and counseling of expectant families based on socio-economic factors and direct future research as it identifies potential risk factors and provides prevalence data, both of which are useful in addressing common questions related to screening and counseling.

Effects of Mother Tongue Education and Multilingualism on Reading Skills in the Regional Language and English in India

AbstractIn a highly multilingual country like India, challenges and opportunities arise in education and language policy. Although multilingualism is often associated with developmental advantages, Indian primary school children generally show low learning outcomes, specifically on literacy. Here we examine the influence of mother tongue education and multilingualism on the reading skills and reading comprehension of 1272 Indian primary school children from low SES homes. The children performed the ASER literacy task in both the regional, majority language and in English, which was followed by newly developed reading comprehension questions. The results show that minority language speakers from monolingual households—who do not receive mother tongue education—underperform compared to majority language speakers when reading in the majority language. When reading in English, growing up in a multilingual household improves children's performance. Finally, in sites which have a larger proportion of mother tongue‐educated children, children perform better in literacy in the regional language and worse in English. Overall, these results provide insight into the influence of mother tongue education and multilingualism on reading abilities and show that more support is needed for minority language speakers to develop literacy in the majority language, and for all children to develop literacy in English.

Resilience through language? A case study of three minority communities in Georgia

ABSTRACT The concept of resilience has been employed as an analytical tool in a wide range of scientific disciplines and fields from the natural sciences to social sciences and humanities, but within linguistics it is a relatively new and so far, rarely applied concept. This paper is intended as a contribution to fill this gap through a sociolinguistic study of three minority language communities in Georgia - Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Chechens. The sociolinguistic conditions of the three communities in Georgia partially overlap, but also show interesting differences. In order to observe the impact that minority languages possibly have on forming resilient communities, we have interviewed members of these three minority groups using semi-structured questionnaires. We concentrate on two important domains of use, namely education and work, and also explore language attitudes and ideologies. The results of our study are mixed: minority language speakers occasionally benefit from their language knowledge, and their positive attitudes towards their own languages strengthen their linguistic and sociocultural identity. Nevertheless, linguistic discrimination is also part of their every-day experience in a majority society that highly values the national language Georgian.

A losing battle? Interrogating the importance of ‘minority’ languages in expressing symbols of national identity in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT This paper interrogates the importance of minority languages in expressing symbols of national identity in Zimbabwe where minority languages have been officially recognised since 2013. The national symbol of focus is the national anthem. Using critical sociolinguistics, the study analyses responses from speakers of selected minority languages in Zimbabwe with regard to their language preferences, choices and limitations as they express national symbols. Selected groups comprise speakers of Sotho, Kalanga, Nambya and Tonga. Language activists and scholars have lobbied for the use of minority languages in every sphere of Zimbabwean life. The extent to which ordinary citizens advocate similarly is less understood as speakers of minority languages have different concerns in terms of the role played by their languages in fostering a Zimbabwean identity, especially through identity markers such as national anthems. This study seeks to fill that lacuna in the literature. Findings indicate ambivalent positions among speakers of minority languages as not all of them subscribe to the activist thinking. The group which fully embraces activist advocacy is the Tonga speakers who have historically exercised autonomy. Other groups’ identities are shaped by the speakers’ protracted experience with dominant languages and consequent attitudes towards dominant and minority languages.

Morphophonological Innovations in New Speakers’ Kashubian

New Speakers of minority languages are a special case which gives us a unique glimpse into variation and change. In such cases, language change at an accelerated pace tends to lead to profound changes in the structure of the language. Such developments are observable in Kashubian, a minority Slavic language spoken in East Pomerania. For the purpose of this study, spoken data consisting of responses to video stimuli was collected from a group of Kashubian speakers. Chosen morphophonological developments were analysed, especially repatterning and vowel substitution in nouns and verbs, as well as phonemic mergers and their consequences for the morphological structure.

Experience speaks: The importance of linguistic security during a public health crisis in immigrant and minority-language speakers

Linguistic insecurity, as faced by minority-language (ML) and immigrant communities, affects public health across the globe. This literature review addresses challenges faced by immigrants and ML speakers since the start of the SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. These groups sometimes experience obstacles when accessing healthcare, such as language barriers, mistrust in government, and lack of access to healthcare and information. Circulating misinformation may underlie many of the healthcare struggles faced by minorities, making them especially vulnerable to health disparities.We discuss some of the factors that affect immigrant and ML speaker experiences of the public health crisis, which include compliance, perceived support, stressors, vaccine hesitancy and willingness, and anti-expert and conspiratorial thinking. We make recommendations to improve public health through targeted research and linguistic security.

Analysis of the situation and impact of german national minority language teaching in Gödöllő

The study analyses the situation of the German minority in Gödöllő and the possibilities of language education, the added value of teaching in the national minority language for children, the impact of national minority language education on attitudes towards language learning and further education, the feeling of belonging to the national minority, and the sense of national community. The impact of the socialisation environment at home, culture and family, language use, will also be analysed. Drawing on the literature, we will review the historical and legislative background, the language use of Germans in Hungary, and the guidelines for national minority schooling. The study is based on a presentation of the German national minority language teaching at the Petőfi Sándor Primary School in Gödöllő. Based on this, an online questionnaire survey was carried out, in which 105 pupils (36 national minority language speakers and 69 non-national minority language speakers) were interviewed, focusing on the links between language socialisation and mother tongue education. The results from the questionnaires were processed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel.

Assessing child development scores among minority and Indigenous language versus dominant language speakers: a cross-sectional analysis of national Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys

Multiple studies have highlighted the inequities minority and Indigenous children face when accessing health care. Health and wellbeing are positively impacted when Indigenous children are educated and receive care in their maternal language. However, less is known about the association between minority or Indigenous language use and child development risks and outcomes. In this study, we provide global estimates of development risks and assess the associations between minority or Indigenous language status and early child development using the ten-item Early Child Development Index (ECDI), a tool widely used for global population assessments in children aged 3-4 years. We did a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from 65 UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) containing the ECDI from 2009-19 (waves 4-6). We included individual-level data for children aged 2-4 years (23-60 months) from datasets with ECDI modules, for surveys that captured the language of the respondent, interview, or head of household. The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale was used to classify household languages as dominant versus minority or Indigenous at the country level. Our primary outcome was on-track overall development, defined per UNICEF's guidelines as development being on track for at least three of the four ECDI domains (literacy-numeracy, learning, physical, and socioemotional). We performed logistic regression of pooled, weighted ECDI scores, aggregated by language status and adjusting for the covariables of child sex, child nutritional status (stunting), household wealth, maternal education, developmental support by an adult caregiver, and country-level early child education proportion. Regression analyses were done for all children aged 3-4 years with ECDI results, and separately for children with functional disabilities and ECDI results. 65 MICS datasets were included. 186 393 children aged 3-4 years had ECDI and language data, corresponding to an estimated represented population of 34 714 992 individuals. Estimated prevalence of on-track overall development as measured by ECDI scores was 65·7% (95% CI 64·2-67·2) for children from a minority or Indigenous language-speaking household, and 76·6% (75·7-77·4) for those from a dominant language-speaking household. After adjustment, dominant language status was associated with increased odds of on-track overall development (adjusted OR 1·54, 95% CI 1·40-1·71), which appeared to be largely driven by significantly increased odds of on-track development in the literacy-numeracy and socioemotional domains. For the represented population aged 2-4 years (n=11 465 601), the estimated prevalence of family-reported functional disability was 3·6% (95% CI 3·0-4·4). For the represented population aged 3-4 years with a functional disability (n=292 691), language status was not associated with on-track overall development (adjusted OR 1·02, 95% CI 0·43-2·45). In a global dataset, children speaking a minority or Indigenous language were less likely to have on-track ECDI scores than those speaking a dominant language. Given the strong positive benefits of speaking an Indigenous language on the health and development of Indigenous children, this disparity is likely to reflect the sociolinguistic marginalisation faced by speakers of minority or Indigenous languages as well as differences in the performance of ECDI in these languages. Global efforts should consider performance of measures and monitor developmental data disaggregated by language status to stimulate efforts to address this disparity. None. For the Spanish, Kaqchikel and K'iche' translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Current situation and path of foreign minority language protection based on Internet of Things from the perspective of ethnic identity

Ethnic identity is an important reason for national unity. The formation of ethnic groups is mostly due to external and internal reasons, with a complex mechanism structure. When people’s environment is destroyed, this value identity will be stronger, national cohesion and solidarity will grow sharply, an unprecedented high. Minority languages are characterized by a wide variety, cultural generation, and dynamic evolution. The languages are complex and diverse, and are deeply influenced by their cultural heritage. This has led to the fact that for a long time, minority languages have been learned almost exclusively by people of their own ethnic group. This has led to a steady decline in the number of minority language speakers. However, the birth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has created an opportunity for the development of minority languages. Foreign minority languages have the following status (1) rapid decline (2) many endangered languages (3) low willingness to learn. In order to further investigate the current situation of minority language protection, the team conducted a survey in the minority cluster A. The results of the survey are as follows: most of the villagers are in love with the ethnic language and must inherit and promote the ethnic language, which is the wealth of a nation, but there are also a few residents who think that Mandarin should be used to replace the ethnic language. This reflects that most of the residents love the national language, but their young people as the inherited generation lose their love for the national language and are not willing to inherit and promote it. To solve this problem, an Internet of Things (IoT)-based ethnic language data system has been constructed so that the data system for ethnic minority language protection built through IoT technology can become the last line of defense for protecting ethnic languages, while allowing ethnic languages to be known and understood by more people through IoT technology, fostering the love and reverence of ethnic minority people for ethnic languages, and enhancing other ethnic groups’ sense of identity and support for ethnic languages. We propose to protect minority languages. Ultimately, we propose recommendations for the preservation of minority languages. (1) Increase publicity for minority language preservation. (2) Construct laws and regulations related to minority language protection. (3) Conduct in-depth research on minority language work and build an information base. (4) Promote minority language education.

African multilingual public sphere: a critical analysis of minority indigenous language(s) representation on Breeze FM talk radio in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT It is significant to note that the African public sphere has not been fully explored beyond Habermas or Mouffe’s theoretical lens. Relying on what we call the African multilingual public sphere, this article analyses talk shows on commercial radio to ascertain the marginalisation of minority ethnolinguistic groups in Zimbabwe. The study uses an ethnographic observation technique and in-depth interviews with radio hosts, and presenters to analyse participants' interaction within an indigenous multilingual context of Breeze FM talk shows. The article argues that the dominance of major indigenous language speakers on talk radio reflects the dominance of such languages in the African polity. The findings of the study shows the dominance of major indigenous languages and a lack of participants in minority languages on Breeze FM talk shows. This article argues that the African multilingual public sphere should reflect participation by all ethnolinguistic groups in their indigenous languages. We argue that both majority language speakers and minority language speakers should be accommodated in the public sphere and multilingualism should occur without switching to the language of the majority.

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Newspaper Coverage and Reader Response to Covid-19 Reports

Studies attest to the importance of official languages in health communication in multilingual societies. However, the challenge lies in using an official language in ways that enable both majority and minority language speakers to identify with their sociocultural orientations when using a lingua franca. With the emergence of Covid-19, this challenge has come to the forefront following surveys on citizen responses to health messages. The study examines the themes, narrative viewpoints, language modes of newspaper reports on Covid-19, and reader responses to these reports. We aim to determine the implications of reader response on the credibility, severity, and transmissibility of Covid-19. The contents of three Nigerian newspapers (The Guardian, Punch, and Premium Times) were analyzed using quantitative and discourse analysis. The results showed that the themes of newspaper reports focused on challenges, progress made, preparedness, and containment measures. The language mode was predominantly negative, using fear appeals. Audience responses followed the same themes as the newspapers but demonstrated a remarkable shift in narrative viewpoint and language mode, which in Nigerian style English indicated low source credibility, ethnic divisions, and the denial of the severity and transmissibility of Covid-19. Readers’ responses to newspaper coverage of Covid-19 reinforce the view among scholars that trust in information sources is linked to attitudes toward health risks.

The pervasiveness of language contact: Evidence from negative existentials in Romeyka/Turkish code-switching

This paper investigates the morpho-syntactic features of language contact in the endangered Greek dialect Romeyka with Turkish. We analyze the use of the borrowed negative existential jok to (a) determine its role in Romeyka’s negation patterns (b) examine the effects of contact in Romeyka through cross-linguistic comparisons of jok with Turkish and forms of the dialect as spoken in Greece and (c) apply the identified grammatical patterns of jok to Myers-Scotton’s linguistic explanations for the code switching phenomena in the Matrix Language Turnover Hypothesis. The analysis demonstrates the pervasive influence of Turkish on the morpho-syntax of Romeyka through the incorporation of Turkish grammatical structures. We observe changes in the fundamental predicate grammar that are aligned with Turkish and that are inconsistent with Pontic’s existential constructions where the verb indicating existence is used. The patterns of contact confirm the Matrix Language hypothesis and provide evidence that indicate that Romeyka may be undergoing language turnover. Our findings are relevant to further understanding code switching among speakers of minority languages and assessing the vitality of Romeyka in Turkey.

The Effect of Language on Access to Timely COVID-19 Vaccination of Solid Abdominal Organ Transplant Recipients.

In dynamic healthcare environments including the COVID-19 pandemic, it is paramount to communicate health recommendations expediently and clearly. Research has shown social determinants of health affect the impact of COVID-19 on abdominal transplant recipients, but there has been less research on the effect of language proficiency. This is a cohort study of time to first COVID-19 vaccination among abdominal organ transplant recipients in an academic medical center in Boston, MA between 18 December 2020, and 15 February 2021. Cox proportional hazards analysis of time to vaccination by preferred language were adjusted for race, age group, insurance, and transplanted organ. Among 3001 patients, 53% were vaccinated during the study period. Language preference other than English was independently associated with delay to vaccination (0.64, p = 0.001), on adjusted analysis. In addition, Black, Hispanic and other race patients were less likely to be vaccinated than white patients (0.58, 0.67, 0.68 vs. reference, all p < 0.03). Language preference other than English is an independent barrier to solid abdominal organ transplant recipients' access to timely COVID-19 vaccination. Equity in care should be improved by providing targeted services to minority language speakers.

Language and Globalization: A Critical Study on Language, Culture, and Power Dynamics

Since language is a mode of communication that enables individuals from many nations and cultures to understand one another, it plays a crucial part in globalization. Language variety has been significantly impacted by globalization, which has allowed the growth of international languages and their domination in the political, social, and economic realms. But regrettably, this has resulted in the decline and probable extinction of many endangered languages, especially those that are spoken by tiny, outlying populations. Several nations and international organizations have adopted English as their official language. It is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with an estimated 1.5 billion speakers. It frequently serves as the common language in international trade and diplomacy, which results in a decrease in the usage of other tongues. It predominately appears in media outlets and on social media platforms, which harms the usage of other languages. Because language may be a weapon for both expressing and resisting power dynamics, language and power become connected once again. By offering speakers of such languages an edge in the political, economic, and social realms, the development of global languages, especially those of dominating nations, has the potential to maintain current power relations. On the other hand, by giving speakers of different languages access to new opportunities and resources, the development of global languages can potentially undermine current power relations. The growth of international languages can, however, also have unfavorable effects on speakers of minority languages, such as language loss and cultural assimilation. Thus, globalization may eventually result in the loss of distinctive cultural knowledge and practices as well as the loss of linguistic variety. This article focuses on how language dissemination affects power relations and how urgent it is to take action to protect linguistic variety and promote multilingualism.

Design, Implementation, and Practical Evaluation of a Voice Recognition Based IoT Home Automation System for Low-Resource Languages and Resource-Constrained Edge IoT Devices: A System for Galician and Mobile Opportunistic Scenarios

Systems with voice control are an attractive option for increasing technological integration, not only for people with little knowledge on technology or constrained Internet access, but also for people with certain disabilities. In addition, devices based on Alexa or Google Home provide an interesting alternative for interacting with Internet of Things (IoT) devices, but they usually rely on an Internet connection to a cloud server for their full operation. Furthermore, many voice-recognition systems are only available in a limited number of languages, which tend to be those with the highest number of speakers, thus excluding minority-language speakers. To address the previously mentioned issues, this article presents a solution based on Edge Computing and voice commands that carries out offline voice processing and that is able to interact with IoT-based systems. The proposed system performs local speech inference, providing a communication interface with IoT devices in a Bluetooth mesh, all in a fast way and without the need for an Internet connection. In addition, the proposed solution can be adapted easily for voice recognition of languages with few resources. Such a feature is demonstrated with the Galician language, which is spoken by less than 3 million people worldwide. In particular, different Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models based on three of the most popular ASR development frameworks (wav2vec2, DistilHubert, Whisper) were developed to transcribe short speech and to translate it into IoT commands that perform specific home-automation actions. Such models were fine-tuned for Galician with a corpus of approximately 20 hours and were evaluated in static and mobile opportunistic scenarios in terms of accuracy, energy consumption and latency on an embedded platform (that acts as an edge device) and on a cloud server. The obtained results show that inference is performed in less than 2 seconds on a Raspberry Pi 4 for the two smallest models and in less than 500 ms on a high-end Android smartphone when processing all data locally with CPU-only inference (i.e., without hardware acceleration or external processing). The results of the transcriptions are accurate enough to be able to use simple text distance algorithms to detect keywords in the speech and perform commands on IoT devices. In particular, a maximum success rate of 92% was achieved for detecting the indicated commands when using models optimized for being executed on embedded devices. For selected home scenarios, command actions were sent via Bluetooth with average response times of up to 113 ms.

Linguistic Discrimination as a Social, Legal and Human Rights Phenomenon

Abstract This article explores the difference between equality and the absence of discrimination within the area of language use. It draws on examples of social practices of linguistic inequality in Slovakia, and analyses how these are regulated by Slovak law, international law and laws of countries of best practices. The article argues that these examples represent three different models of linguistic equality: formal equality, equality of opportunities and substantive linguistic equality. It will analyse how these approaches empower or disadvantage speakers of minority languages, and what normative guide they provide for linguistic equality.

Investigating the importance of interpreting services to improve patient care and access to health services for Aboriginal Australians, Indigenous global populations and minority language speakers

ABSTRACT English is not the first language for many Indigenous peoples, including Aboriginal Australians, and other minority groups. In Australia and many countries globally, health services are primarily delivered in English. Equity in health care can only be achieved if individuals are proficient in a language that they can understand. Interpreting services improves patient outcomes for minority language speakers. A comprehensive thematic analysis was used to identify key themes. When interpreter services were provided, patient care was improved for minority populations. The use of interpreters by Aboriginal Australians and the Aboriginal ‘voice’ in health care were missing. Language barriers are a major problem for minority language speakers in accessing health care, and inequitable treatment based on cultural, racial or ethnicity is common. In Australia, interpreter services for Aboriginal Australians in health care are under-utilised, and in many circumstances are unavailable. There is a severe lack of qualified interpreters globally in health care, particularly Aboriginal language interpreters, and there is a need for cultural competency training and cultural resources in health care settings. More Aboriginal interpreters are needed to provide a cultural lens and ‘two-way interpreting’ for Aboriginal Australians.