Doctoral Dissertation Research: The role of children in driving language change in multi-ethnic communities

Language change is constant and may be used to document how populations have interacted with each other over time. How this arises varies across scenarios and are subject to cultural and political interventions concerned with language endangerment and revitalization. Yet, how terms like endangerment and revitalization are defined with respect to language in different cultural contexts remains poorly understood.

Moreover, scientists know relatively little about what role children play in enacting language preservation or endangerment. This project fills this gap by investigating how language endangerment versus vitality are measured and discussed in different contexts and how this correlates to the ways children use language across settings. In addition to contributing to training a doctoral student in scientific cultural anthropology, the project cements relationships among multiple institutions of higher education and disseminates findings broadly to academic and non-academic audiences.

The project focuses on aspects of language that are not considered to be endangered by international standards but are considered at risk among native speakers. Data is collected through participant observation with families and their children in homes and schools, as well as recordings made of everyday language use. Surveys and semi-structured interviews are used to investigate how linguistic practices have changed over time, and to elicit beliefs about language use.

The findings are complemented by analysis of linguistic practices and discussions about the status of languages online, on local television, and on the radio. The research provides a clearer understanding of language change at different stages of shift and the social factors influencing it.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.