Rosowsky, A. (2017) The Role of Muslim Devotional Practices in the Reversal of Language Shift. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38 (1). pp. 79-92. ISSN 1747-7557
Abstract
Fishman’s 1991 scale for evaluating language vitality proposes a stage in language shift where exclusively the older generation takes part in ‘rituals’, ‘concerts’ and ‘songfests’ in the minority language. Once this generation dies away, according to the scale, these cultural practices disappear with them. Within certain Muslim youth communities in the UK counter examples exist where the younger generation leads the way in reviving, performing and extending the repertoire of this religio-cultural heritage. Although this emerging expanded repertoire of song and poetry is clearly multilingual in nature, recitation and performance of the community heritage languages, Urdu and Punjabi, feature strongly. What remains to discover is whether such increasing familiarity with poetic language and form can impact positively on reversing the language shift these communities are experiencing in their third and fourth generations. Although there is evidence (Ostler & Lintinger 2015) that singing and reciting in other minority language settings, secular and religious, are not infrequent pursuits of youth, it is argued in this article that an accompanying religious revival provides an important extra, galvanising, boost to the process of possible reversing language shift. It is suggested that available scales for evaluating language vitality are inadequate in the face of complex diasporic minority language settings.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
Keywords: | Language; shift; song; poetry; Muslim; heritage |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Education (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 13 Apr 2016 08:41 |
Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2018 12:09 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2016.1177062 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/01434632.2016.1177062 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:98354 |
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