LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND LANGUAGE SHIFT
Language Maintenance and Language Shift in Crimean Immigrants Children in the United States of America
Abdureim I. Abdurashytov
Near East University
ELT- 516
18 January 2013
Nicosia
1. Introduction
1. 1 Background
Throughout history of Crimeans (or Crimeantatars) we can observe that immigrations to the United States began in the late 1950-s. Several Crimeans migrated to the U. S. with their families and children. However, nowadays the total population of the Crimean Diaspora in the U. S. about seven thousand (U. S. Census, 2010) many of them reside in the Brooklyn-Queens section of New York. Moreover, the percentage of Crimeans in the U. S. is increasing over the year.
The main focus of this research is Crimean immigrants language use within Crimean community with (family, relatives, and Crimean peers at school). Since, in Crimean peninsula Crimean (or Crimeantatar) language fatal underwent and still undergoing influence of Russian as a dominant language. Especially we observe this tendency among young generation. Although Crimeans readily admit that their mother tongue is Crimean, Russian remains the main language of communication. For instance, many Crimean children speak Russian among themselves.
1. 2 Literature Review
Holmes (2001) states that using a minority language in a predominantly monolingual culture and society could be shifted over a period of ten years. However, it should be mentioned that language shifting may differ for different individuals and different groups. Migrants families ar
Страницы: 1 | 2 | 3 > >>