ERIC Number: EJ748120
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 24
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1367-0050
EISSN: N/A
Multiple Language Contact in Tallinn: Transfer B2[greater than]/A1 or B1[greater than]/A2?
Verschik, Anna
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, v10 n1 p80-103 2007
This paper describes multiple Estonian-Russian language contacts in Estonia. For synchronic microsociolinguistic research it is usual to concentrate on the impact of a sociolinguistically dominant language A on an immigrant/minority language B. In the Soviet setting, the dominant language was usually Russian (despite Russians being a minority). The situation in Estonia differs from both the above-mentioned cases. In bilingual Tallinn, speakers of Russian as L2 (R2) are still present, while more and more Russians are acquiring Estonian as L2 (E2), which has an impact on the local varieties of Russian. Due to sociohistorical and attitudinal reasons, the impact of Russian on Estonian was negligible in the Soviet era. On the whole, the situation is that of unidirectional convergence toward Estonian. The central claim of the paper is that copying E2[greater than]/R1 and E1[greatrer than]/R2 are both relevant for the spread of innovations in the local Russian. Certain convergent forms characteristic of both E2[greater than]/R1 and E1[greater than]/R2 are analysed. The "pool of non-monolingual utterances" is therefore bigger than in a situation where only one community is bilingual. Multilingual communication, both written and oral, is crucial for the further spread and habitualisation of innovations.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Multilingualism, Sociolinguistics, Language Dominance, Russian, Comparative Analysis, Bilingualism, Finno Ugric Languages, Language Minorities, Language Variation, Language Attitudes, Oral Language, Written Language
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Identifiers - Location: Estonia
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