A Sociolinguistic Study of Language Endangerment

Abstract

The grandparents’ wisdom is coded in language and transported to younger generations. However, this heritage dies out as few speakers keep on using it, or they leave it in favor of other languages. By this, intergenerational linguistic transmission and the number of speakers define the likelihood of language to be safeguarded or not. This study explores why words die, but it testes also if language users, be them old or young, are aware of erosion. Most importantly, it tackles language endangerment from a different perspective which is the speakers’ attitudes. To answer these questions, I compared between the responses of 25 elders (60-44 years) and responses of 25 youngers (16-35 years) from Sidi Ali, Mostaganem, using a new psychological tool (matched-guise test) to uncover individual attitudes. The mixed methods’ results revealed that youngers were alert of erosion as much as elders; giving by this a hope for lexicons’ survival. Also, elders claimed that new technologies increased the cultural gap between the two generations and finalized with a generation of youth ashamed of its origins, yet this argument is untrue as 12% elders opposed the cultural importance of old words. The study is limited by sample seize and research objectives. Future works need to increase respondents’ numbers and assess language preservation’s tools.