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19 - The Indian Diaspora: Language Maintenance and Loss

from Part Four - Language Vitality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

By
Surendra K. Gambhir
Edited by
Salikoko Mufwene  and
Anna Maria Escobar
Salikoko Mufwene
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Anna Maria Escobar
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
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Summary

This chapter is a historical overview of the maintenance and loss of heritage languages in ten waves of India's diaspora spread over six continents. Various factors that contributed to language maintenance and loss at the community level are discussed. The social and political conditions in the new homelands have played a significant role in preserving and losing the heritage languages. While some diasporic communities have held on to their heritage languages for generations, most of them lost them rapidly after relocating from their motherland. Fascination for western cultures has played havoc on immigrant languages. This chapter's discussion goes beyond the oft-debated factor of “attitude” and digs a little deeper to suggest that the real-life need for the language is the primary cause of language use and retention. If the need is lacking or even vague, the language gradually disappears. A real need for a language seems to be at the root of preventing language loss in immigrant communities. Toward the end, the paper presents a model of language advancement, language maintenance, and language revitalization.

Keywords

Indian diasporalanguage maintenancelanguage losslanguage needWestern cultures and immigrant languageslanguage revitalization model
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
Volume 2: Multilingualism in Population Structure
 , pp. 502 - 525
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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