Historical sociolinguistics and ‘language dominance’

• Joseph Salmons, Ph.D, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The notion of ‘dominance’ is ubiquitous in research on bilingualism and heritage language linguistics, but it is used in a remarkably wide range of very different meanings and contexts. I lay out a few of these here and begin to explore how they can fit together. Drawing on methods from historical sociolinguistics, I outline how these notions can be applied to historical settings. With several distinct kinds of mostly qualitative historical data, I show how these patterns are dynamic over time, and then sketch one kind of trajectory of change in the course of language shift, drawing on the verticalization model, and suggesting how it contrasts with the situations of many contemporary immigrants and refugees.

Structural parallels between endangered and heritage languages

• Maria Polinsky, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park

In this presentation, I investigate the link between indigenous endangered languages and immigrant heritage languages. An endangered language (EL) is a language that is at risk of falling out of use, due to the scarcity of surviving speakers and lack of intergenerational transmission. A heritage language (HL) is a minority language learned in the home by speakers who are more dominant in the majority societal language. Connections between the two types of languages, both minoritized, has not yet been investigated in a systematic and extensive way. Aside from letting us understand social and cultural pressures associated with language shift, focusing on structural parallels between ELs and HLs will allow us to conduct more inclusive research on minoritized languages.