CHALLENGES OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: FATHER OR MOTHER LANGUAGE?
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2021-3-31-40
The article is focused on the transmission of native languages to the next generation among the population of the Mountainous-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, Tajikistan. The article is based on data collected during field research in Tajikistan and Russia, using observational methods and interviews, in particular focus groups. It also draws on monitoring of social media in the Pamir languages and on publications addressing the mother tongues and linguacultural identity of the Pamir ethnic groups. Particular attention is given to the areas where language contacts are especially active. First, the steadily shrinking fragmented zones of distribution of various minority Pamir languages (Wakhan, Ishkashim) mixed with the Tajik language; here, fragmentation of the population in the contact zones is aggravated by socio-cultural practices and intensified by specific marriage patterns, whereby men marry women from neighbouring villages speaking languages other than their own. Another area where language contact and linguistic shift are most apparent concerns members of these ethnic groups who undertake internal or external migration. The analysis of linguistic situations is based on Edwards’ typological model employing a set of sociolinguistic and demographic factors which affect the viability of a language group. We examine the ways in which mother tongues are transmitted to the next generation among members of these ethnic groups in conditions of compact residence; we consider their specific bilingual model, when the native language turns to be a father’s language. We also trace multilingual models in the context of increasing translocal and transnational migration, with its variety of approaches. It has been established how family life support strategies, such as the type of settlement and marriage patterns or the choice of a certain type of migration, influence the transfer of language skills to children, as well as the choice and preference of languages by parents, and later by children themselves. Among our outcomes, we reveal the types of bilingualism of certain groups (passive/early bilingualism, multilingualism), the reasons for this bilingualism and the specific means of its maintenance (such as settlement and marriage patterns). We reveal a recent development whereby a neutral attitude towards native (Pamir) languages has given way, among the younger generation, to linguistic activism, the promotion of these languages in the digital space and the creation of educational products on them.
Keywords: Pamir languages, Shughnani, Wakhi, Ishkashimi, Tajik, Western Pamir, Mountainous-Badakhshan Autonomous Region
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Issue: 3, 2021
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: LINGUISTICS
Pages: 31 — 40
Downloads: 513