LINGUIST List 30.2281
Fri May 31 2019
Diss: Catalan-Valencian-Balear; Spanish; Sociolinguistics: Farah Ali: ''Language Attitudes among Muslim Women in Barcelona''
Editor for this issue: Sarah Robinson <srobinsonlinguistlist.org>
Date: 31-May-2019
From: Farah Ali <farah636
gmail.com>
Subject: Language Attitudes among Muslim Women in Barcelona
E-mail this message to a friend Institution: University at Albany, State University of New York
Program: Spanish
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2019
Author: Farah Ali
Dissertation Title: Language Attitudes among Muslim Women in Barcelona
Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s):
Catalan-Valencian-Balear (cat) Spanish (spa) Dissertation Director:
Megan Solon
Dissertation Abstract:
Given the multilingual setting of Catalonia, Spain - a region that is not only home to a diverse immigrant population, but also one that officially recognizes and heavily promotes the use of Catalan - foreign immigrant populations are presented with the unique challenge of acculturating to two cultures and acquiring both Spanish and Catalan while simultaneously being faced with maintaining or losing their heritage language/culture. The objective of this study is primarily to examine reported language use and linguistic attitudes among first and second generation Muslim immigrant women in Barcelona, how these attitudes are shaped by transgenerational processes such as acculturation and language shift, and finally, how these attitudes relate to identity construction as reflected in reported language use and learning. In concentrating specifically on female informants, this study will also reflect on how language use is a gendered social practice that is realized through socio-cultural structures present in the target language (TL) and heritage communities. Data was collected from 34 informants, all of whom identified as first or second generation Muslim of either South Asian, North African or West African descent. Data consists of questionnaires that were designed to learn about informants’ background, including their attitudes towards their native/heritage language(s)/cultures, as well as their language use in various domains. Additionally, interviews were conducted to gain a better understanding of informants’ experiences with acculturation, linguistic attitudes, language use, and gendered identity.
Results indicate that first and second generation informants hold distinctive linguistic attitudes in the case of Spanish and Catalan, where first generation informants identified more strongly with the former and second generation informants identified more strongly with the latter. Heritage languages, on the other hand, were highly valued across both generations. These attitudes are also reflected in the domains of use, although domains were frequently assigned more than one language, suggesting that Spanish, Catalan and heritage languages are not necessarily used in a diglossic manner.
Page Updated: 31-May-2019