Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T13:46:44.877Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Heritage Languages in Europe

from Part I - Heritage Languages around the World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2021

By
Tanja Kupisch
Edited by
Silvina Montrul  and
Maria Polinsky
Silvina Montrul
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Maria Polinsky
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Get access

Summary

Definitions of heritage languages include the languages of migrant, indigenous, and national minorities. This chapter is concerned with migrant minorities. The EU is generally pictured as valuing multilingualism, as reflected by EU policies and citizen’s attitudes. Nevertheless, when Europeans think and speak about protecting multilingualism, they do not necessarily have migrant languages in mind, although these are more numerous than other minorities in terms of both language diversity and number of speakers. The chapter summarizes linguistic research on HSs in Europe covering early childhood, primary school/adolescence, and adulthood, making reference to (morpho-)syntax, phonology, and vocabulary. The goal is to uncover common outcomes and missing links. The focus differs across these research areas but crosslinguistic influence is a common denominator, and the examples witness that research has gone beyond highlighting differences between monolinguals and HSs. Scenarios suggest that HSs may anticipate or resist language change, and that adult HSs often stay within the limits of what is possible in the baseline or related varieties. I conclude by pointing out the lack of comparisons across generations, an overrepresentation of specific languages families, and by suggesting that research drawing analogies with other situations of language contact and change are highly desirable.

Keywords

migrationsyntaxphonologyvocabularylanguage changecrosslinguistic influence
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics , pp. 45 - 68
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aalberse, S., Zou, Y., and Andringa, S.. 2017. Extended Use of Demonstrative Pronouns in Two Generations of Mandarin Chinese Speakers in the Netherlands: Evidence of Convergence? In Blom, E., Cornips, L., and Schaeffer, J. (eds.), Crosslinguistic Influence in Bilingualism: In Honor of Aafke Hulk. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 25–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anstatt, T. 2008. Aspects and Tense in Storytelling by Russian, German and Bilingual Children. Russian Linguistics 32, 1–26.Google Scholar
Backus, A., Doğruöz, A., and Heine, B.. 2011. Salient Stages in Contact-Induced Grammatical Change: Evidence from Synchronic vs. Diachronic Contact Situations. Language Sciences 33(5), 738–752.Google Scholar
Barton, D. 2016. Generische Nominalphrasen bei deutsch-französischer Zweisprachigkeit: Zur Verwendung des Definitartikels bei erwachsenen Herkunftssprechern. PhD Dissertation, University of Hamburg.Google Scholar
Benmamoun, E., Montrul, S., and Polinsky, M.. 2013. Heritage Languages and Their Speakers: Opportunities and Challenges for Linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics 39(3–4), 129–181.Google Scholar
Brehmer, B., and Rothweiler, M.. 2012. The Acquisition of Gender Agreement Marking in Polish: A Study of Bilinual Polish-German-Speaking Children. In Braunmueller, K. and Gabriel, C. (eds.), Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 81–100.Google Scholar
Brehmer, B., and Usanova, I.. 2015. Let’s Fix It? Cross-Linguistic Influence in Word Order Patterns of Russian Heritage Speakers in Germany. In Peukert, H. (ed.), Transfer Effects in Multilingual Language Development. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 161–190.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. 1987. The Principle of Contrast: A Constraint on Language Acquisition. Mechanisms of Language Acquisition 1, 33.Google Scholar
Council of Europe. 1992. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Retrieved from www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages/text-of-the-charter.Google Scholar
De Houwer, A. 1990. The Acquisition of Two Languages from Birth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
De Houwer, A. 2008. How Different Are Monolingual and Bilingual Acquisition? Ilha do Desterro 43, 127–148.Google Scholar
Doğruöz, A. S., and Backus, A.. 2009. Innovative Constructions in Dutch Turkish: An Assessment of Ongoing Contact-Induced Change. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12(1), 41–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eberhard, D. M., Simons, G. F., and Fennig, C. D.. 2019. Ethnologue: Languages of the World.Google Scholar
Egger, E., Hulk, A., and Tsimpli, I.. 2018. Crosslinguistic Influence in the Discovery of Gender: The Case of Greek-Dutch Bilingual Children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 21(4), 694–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einfeldt, M., van de Weijer, J., and Kupisch, T.. 2019. The Production of Geminates in Italian-Dominant Bilinguals and Heritage Speakers of Italian. Language, Interaction, and Acquisition 10(2), 177–203.Google Scholar
Europäische Komission 2012. Die europäischen Bürger und ihre Sprachen. Report. Special Eurobarometer 386. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_de.pdfGoogle Scholar
Extra, G. 2001. The Immigrant Minority Languages of Europe. In Kortmann, B. and van der Auwera, J. (eds.), The Languages and Linguistics of Europe: A Comprehensive Guide. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 467–481.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. A. 2001. 300-Plus Years of Heritage Language Education in the United States. In Payton, J. K., Ranard, D. A., and McGinnis, S. (eds.), Heritage Languages in America. Preserving a National Resource. Language in Education: Theory and Practice. McHenry, IL: Delta Systems Inc., 81–97.Google Scholar
Flores, C., Kupisch, T., and Rinke, E.. 2017. Linguistic Foundations of Heritage Language Development from the Perspective of Romance Languages in Germany. In Trifonas, P. and Aravossitas, T. (eds.), Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education. Champaign, IL: Springer, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38893-9_12-1Google Scholar
Fürstenau, S., Gogolin, I., and Yagmur, K.. 2003. Mehrsprachigkeit in Hamburg: Ergebnisse einer Sprachenerhebung an den Grundschulen in Hamburg. Münster/New York: Waxmann.Google Scholar
Gärtig, A. K., Plewnia, A., and Rothe, A.. 2010. Wie Menschen in Deutschland über Sprache denken: Ergebnisse einer bundesweiten Repräsentativerhebung zu aktuellen Spracheinstellungen. Arbeitspapiere und Materialien zur deutschen Sprache 40. Mannheim: Institut für Deutsche Sprache.Google Scholar
Gogolin, I. 2002. Linguistic Diversity and New Minorities in Europe. Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe: From Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education. Reference Study, Strasbourg: Council of Europe.Google Scholar
Hulk, A. and Van der Linden, E.. 2010. How Vulnerable Is Gender? In Guijarro-Fuentes, P. and Domínguez, L. (eds.), New Directions in Language Acquisition: Romance Languages in the Generative Perspective. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 107–132.Google Scholar
Kaltsa, M., Tsimpli, I. M., and Argyri, F.. 2019. The Development of Gender Assignment and Agreement in English-Greek and German-Greek Bilingual Children. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 9(2), 253–288.Google Scholar
Kehoe, M. 2002. Developing Vowel Systems as a Window to Bilingual Phonology. International Journal of Bilingualism 6, 315–334.Google Scholar
Kehoe, M. 2018. The Development of Rhotics: A Comparison of Monolingual and Bilingual Children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 21(4), 710–731.Google Scholar
Kehoe, M. M., Lleó, C., and Rakow, M.. 2004. Voice Onset Time in Bilingual German-Spanish Children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7(1), 71–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klassert, A., Gagarina, N., and Kauschke, C.. 2014. Object and Action Naming in Russian-and German-Speaking Monolingual and Bilingual Children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 17(1), 73–88.Google Scholar
Kuchenbrandt, I. 2005. Gender Acquisition in Bilingual Spanish. In Cohen, J., McAlister, K. T., Rolstad, K., and MacSwan, J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB4). Somerville: Cascadilla Press, 1252–1263.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T. 2007. Determiners in Bilingual German-Italian Children: What They Tell Us about the Relation between Language Influence and Language Dominance. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10(1), 57–78.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T. 2014. Adjective Placement in Simultaneous Bilinguals (German-Italian) and the Concept of Cross-Linguistic Overcorrection. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 17(1), 222–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kupisch, T. and Pierantozzi, C.. 2010. Interpreting Definite Plural Subjects: A Comparison of German and Italian Monolingual and Bilingual Children. In Franich, K., Iserman, M., and Keil, L. (eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 245–254.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., and Rothman, J.. 2016. Terminology Matters! Why Difference Is Not Incompleteness and How Early Child Bilinguals Are Heritage Speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism 22(5), 564–582. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006916654355Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., Lloyd-Smith, A., and Stangen, I.. 2020. Perceived Global Accent in Turkish Heritage Speakers in Germany: The Impact of Exposure and Use for Early Bilinguals. In Bayram, F. and Tat, D. (eds.), Studies in Turkish as a Heritage Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 207–228.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., Müller, N., and Cantone, K. F.. 2002. Gender in Monolingual and Bilingual First Language Acquisition: Comparing Italian and French. Lingue e Linguaggio 1, 107–150.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., Belikova, A., Özçelik, Ö., Stangen, I., and White, L.. 2017. Restrictions on Definiteness in the Grammars of German-Turkish Heritage Speakers. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 7(1), 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kupisch, T., Barton, D., Lein, T., Schröder, J., Stangen, I., and Stöhr, A.. 2014a. Acquisition Outcomes across Domain in Adult Heritage Speakers of French. Journal of French Language Studies 24(3), 347–376.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., Barton, D., Hailer, K., Lein, T., Stangen, I., and Van de Weijer, J.. 2014b. Foreign Accent in Adult Simultaneous Bilinguals? Heritage Language Journal 11(2), 123–150.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lanza, E. 1997. Language Contact in Bilingual Two-Year-Olds and Code-Switching: Language Encounters of a Different Kind? International Journal of Bilingualism 1(2), 135–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanza, E. 2001. Language Mixing and Language Dominance in Bilingual First Language Acquisition. In Clark, E. V. (ed.), The Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Child Language Research Forum. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language (CSLI), 197–280.Google Scholar
Lein, T., Kupisch, T., and Van de Weijer, J.. 2016. Voice Onset Time and Global Foreign Accent in German-French Simultaneous Bilinguals during Adulthood. International Journal of Bilingualism 20(6), 132–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lleó, C. 2002. The Role of Markedness in the Acquisition of Complex Prosodic Structures by German-Spanish Bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism 6(3), 291–313.Google Scholar
Lleó, C. 2018. Aspects of the Phonology of Spanish as a Heritage Language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 21(4), 732–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lleó, C., and Rakow, M.. 2005. Markedness Effects in Voiced Stop Spirantization in Bilingual German-Spanish Children. In Cohen, J., McAlister, K. T., Rolstad, K., and MacSwan, J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB4). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 1353–1371.Google Scholar
Lleó, C., and Rakow, M.. 2006. Nasalassimilation und Prosodische Hierarchie im monolingualen und bilingualen Erwerb des Spanischen und des Deutschen. In El Mogharbel, C., and Himstedt, K. (eds.), Phonetik und Nordistik. Festschrift für Magnús Pétursson zum 65. Geburtstag. Frankfurt am Main: Hector, 95–117.Google Scholar
Lleó, C., Kuchenbrandt, I., Kehoe, M., and Trujillo, C.. 2003. Syllable Final Consonants in Spanish and German Monolingual and Bilingual Acquisition. In Müller, N. (ed.), (Non)Vulnerable Domains in Bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 191–220.Google Scholar
Lloyd-Smith, A., Einfeldt, M., and Kupisch, T.. 2020. Italian-German Bilinguals: The Effects of Heritage Language Use on Accent in Early-Acquired Languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 24(2), 289–304. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006919826867CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, R., and Siddika, A.. 2018. Inter-Generational Transmission in a Minority Language Setting: Stop Consonant Production by Bangladeshi Heritage Children and Adults. International Journal of Bilingualism 22(3), 255–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meisel, J. 1989. Early Differentiation of Languages in Bilingual Children. In Hyltenstam, K. and Obler, L. (eds.), Bilingualism across the Lifespan: Aspects of Acquisition, Maturity and Loss. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 13–40.Google Scholar
Montanari, E. G., Abel, R., Graßer, B., and Tschudinovski, L.. 2018. Do Bilinguals Create Two Different Sets of Vocabulary for Two Domains? Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 8(4), 502–522.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. A. 2008. Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism: Re-examining the Age Factor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. A. 2016. The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moro, F. 2015. Aspectual Distinctions in Dutch-Ambon Malay Bilingual Heritage Speakers, International Journal of Bilingualism 31(1), 78–92.Google Scholar
Müller, N., and Hulk, A.. 2001. Crosslinguistic Influence in Bilingual Language Acquisition: Italian and French as Recipient Languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4, 1–21.Google Scholar
Pfaff, C. W. 1991. Turkish in Contact with German: Language Maintenance and Loss among Immigrant Children in Berlin (West). Journal of the Sociology of Language 90, 98–129.Google Scholar
Pfaff, C. W. 2000. Development and Use of et- and yap- by Turkish/German Bilingual Children. In Göksel, A. and Kerslake, C. (eds.), Studies on Turkish and Turkic languages. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 365–373.Google Scholar
Polinsky, M. 2018. Heritage Languages and Their Speakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Polinsky, M., and Scontras, G.. 2020. Understanding Heritage Languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 23(1), 4–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, M., Kupisch, T., and Cabo, D. P.. 2018. Different Situations, Similar Outcomes: Heritage Grammars across the Lifespan. In Aalberse, S., Backus, A., and Muysken, P. (eds.), Studies in Bilingualism 54. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 251–279.Google Scholar
Quay, S. 1995. The Bilingual Lexicon: Implications for Studies of Language Choice. Journal of Child Language 22(2), 369–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Queen, R. 2001. Bilingual Intonation Patterns. Evidence of Language Change from Turkish-German Bilingual Children. Language in Society 30(1), 55–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Queen, R. 2006. Phrase-Final Intonation in Narratives Told by Turkish-German Bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism 10(2), 153–178.Google Scholar
Redlinger, W. E., and Park, T. Z.. 1980. Language Mixing in Young Bilinguals. Journal of Child Language 7(2), 337–352.Google Scholar
Rinke, E., and Flores, C.. 2014. Morphosyntactic Knowledge of Clitics by Portuguese Heritage Bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 17(4), 681–699.Google Scholar
Rinke, E., Flores, C., and Barbosa, P.. 2017. Null Objects in the Spontaneous Speech of Monolingual and Bilingual Speakers of European Portuguese. Probus 30(1), 93–119.Google Scholar
Rothman, J. 2009. Understanding the Nature and Outcomes of Early Bilingualism: Romance Languages as Heritage Languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 13(2), 155–163.Google Scholar
Saer, D. J. 1923. The Effect of Bilingualism on Intelligence. British Journal of Psychology: General Section 14, 25–38.Google Scholar
Santos, A. L., and Flores, C.. 2016. Comparing Heritage Speakers and Late L2-Learners of European Portuguese: Verb Movement, VP Ellipsis and Adverb Placement. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 6(3), 308–340.Google Scholar
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A., Filiaci, F., and Baldo, M.. 2009. Bilingual Children’s Sensitivity to Specificity and Genericity: Evidence from Metalinguistic Awareness. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12(2), 239–257.Google Scholar
Tamburelli, M., Sanoudaki, E., Jones, G., and Sowinska, M.. 2015. Acceleration in the Bilingual Acquisition of Phonological Structure: Evidence from Polish–English Bilingual Children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 18(4), 713–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treffers-Daller, J., Daller, M., Furman, R., and Rothman, J.. 2016. Ultimate Attainment in the Use of Collocations among Heritage Speakers of Turkish in Germany and Turkish–German Returnees. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 19(3), 504–519.Google Scholar
Volterra, V. and Taeschner, T.. 1978. The Acquisition and Development of Language by Bilingual Children. Journal of Child Language 5(2), 311–326.Google Scholar
Woods, R. 2015. The Acquisition of Dative Alternation by German-English Bilingual and English Monolingual Children. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 5(2), 252–284.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×