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-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T09:18:52.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Heritage Languages in Southeastern Europe

from Part I - Heritage Languages around the World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2021

By
Natalia Pavlou  and
Kleanthes K. Grohmann
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

This chapter discusses the definition of heritage language and the sociolinguistic conditions on the language development of the speakers that are identified as belonging in such a community, by providing a comparison of different diagnostics and the contribution of those for our understanding of heritage language speakers particularly. It focuses more generally on language contact and the creation of heritage language conditions in southeastern Europe and more specifically gives a detailed description on historical facts characterizing particular populations in the case of Cyprus and the endangered, heritage Arabic variety of Sanna spoken on the island. This context is particularly interesting in that it provides very similar criteria for describing two rather different linguistic situations, diglossia and heritage languages. The chapter also provides a brief discussion on the grammar properties that characterize heritage languages by drawing data from speakers of Sanna. It contributes to the discussion of different social, cultural, and linguistic circumstances that may characterize a heritage language community.

Keywords

baselinecode-mixingCypriot GreekCypriot Maronite Arabic (Sanna)Cyprusendangeredheritagelanguage contactmorphologyprestige
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics , pp. 69 - 90
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, Suzanne, Backus, Ad, and Muysken, Pieter. 2019. Heritage Languages: A Language Contact Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Agouraki, Yoryia. 2001. The Position of Clitics in Cypriot Greek. In Ralli, Angeliki, Joseph, Brian D., and Janse, Mark (eds.), Proceedings of the First International Conference of Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory (Patras, Greece, Oct. 12–14, 2000). Patras: University of Patras, 1–17.Google Scholar
Albirini, Abdulkafi, Benmamoun, Elabbas, and Saadah, Eman. 2011. Grammatical Features of Egyptian and Palestinian Arabic Heritage Speakers Oral Production. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 33(2), 273–303.Google Scholar
Arvaniti, Amalia. 2010. Linguistic Practices in Cyprus and the Emergence of Cypriot Standard Greek. Mediterranean Language Review 17, 15–45.Google Scholar
Benmamoun, Elabbas, Montrul, Silvina A., and Polinsky, Maria. 2013. Heritage Languages and Their Speakers: Opportunities and Challenges for Linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics 39, 129–181.Google Scholar
Benmamoun, Elabbas, Albirini, Abdulkafi, Montrul, Silvina A., and Saadah, Eman. 2014. Arabic Plurals and Root and Pattern Morphology in Palestinian and Egyptian Heritage Speakers. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 4, 89–123.Google Scholar
Borg, Alexander. 1985. Cypriot Arabic: A Historical and Comparative Investigation into the Phonology and Morphology of the Arabic Vernacular Spoken by the Maronites of Kormakiti Village in the Kyrenia District of North-Western Cyprus. Stuttgart: Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft.Google Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah. 2013. English in Cyprus or Cyprus English: An Empirical Investigation of Variety Status. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Cummins, Jim. 1992. Heritage Language Teaching in Canadian Schools. Journal of Curriculum Studies 24, 281–286.Google Scholar
Friedman, Victor A. 2017. Languages of the Balkans: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Victor A. and Joseph, Brian D.. 2014. Lessons from Judezmo about the Balkan Sprachbund and Contact Linguistics. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2014(226), 3–23.Google Scholar
Grohmann, Kleanthes K. 2011. Some Directions for the Systematic Investigation of the Acquisition of Cypriot Greek: A New Perspective on Production Abilities from Object Clitic Placement. In Rinke, Esther and Kupisch, Tanja (eds.), The Development of Grammar: Language Acquisition and Diachronic Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 179–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grohmann, Kleanthes K. 2014. Towards Comparative Bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 4(3), 336–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grohmann, Kleanthes K. and Kambanaros, Maria. 2016. The Gradience of Multilingualism in Typical and Impaired Language Development: Positioning Bilectalism within Comparative Bilingualism. Frontiers in Psychology 7, 37.Google Scholar
Grohmann, Kleanthes K., Theodorou, Eleni, Pavlou, Natalia, Leivada, Evelina, Papadopoulou, Elena, and Martínez-Ferreiro, Silvia. 2010. The Development of Object Clitic Placement in Cypriot Greek and the Romance Connection. In Ferré, Sandrine, Prévost, Philippe, Tuller, Laurie, and Zebib, Rasha (eds.), Selected Proceedings of the Romance Turn IV Workshop on the Acquisition of Romance Languages. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 128–152.Google Scholar
Hadjilyra, Alexander-Michael. 2009. The Armenians of Cyprus. Nicosia: Kalaydjian Foundation.Google Scholar
Karoulla-Vrikki, Dimitra. 2001. English or Greek Language? State or Ethnic Identity? The Case of the Courts in Cyprus. Language Problems and Language Planning 25, 259–288.Google Scholar
Karyolemou, Marilena. 2010. The Demographics of the Cypriot Maronite Community and of Cypriot Arabic Speakers. In Bielenberg, Brian and Constantinou, Costas M. (eds.), The Sanna Project – Empowerment through Language Revival: Current Efforts and Recommendations for Cypriot Maronite Arabic. Oslo: International Peace Research Institute, 1–6.Google Scholar
Karyolemou, Marilena and Pavlou, Pavlos. 2001. Language Attitudes and Assessment of Salient Variables in a Bi-Dialectal Speech Community. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Language Variation in Europe. Barcelona: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 110–120.Google Scholar
Kerswill, Paul. 2013. Koineization. In Chambers, J. K. and Schilling, Natalie (eds.), Handbook of Language Variation and Change, 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 519–536.Google Scholar
Kupisch, Tanja. 2013. A New Term for a Better Distinction? A View from the Higher End of the Proficiency Scale. Theoretical Linguistics 39(3–4), 203–214.Google Scholar
Kupisch, Tanja, Lein, Tatjana, Barton, Dagmar, Schröder, Dawn Judith, Stangen, Ilse, and Stoehr, Antje. 2014. Acquisition Outcomes across Domains in Adult Simultaneous Bilinguals with French as Weaker and Stronger Language. Journal of French Language Studies 24, 347–376.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Leivada, Evelina, Papadopoulou, Elena, and Pavlou, Natalia. 2017. Functionally Equivalent Variants in a Non-Standard Variety and Their Implications for Universal Grammar: A Spontaneous Speech Corpus. Frontiers in Psychology 8, 1260.Google Scholar
Leivada, Evelina, Kambanaros, Maria, Taxitari, Loukia, and Grohmann, Kleanthes K.. 2020. (Meta)Linguistic Abilities of Bilectal Educators: The Case of Cyprus. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 23(8), 1003–1018.Google Scholar
Lindstedt, Jouko. 2000. Linguistic Balkanization: Contact-Induced Change by Mutual Reinforcement. Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics 28, 231–246.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. and Prince, Alan S.. 1990. Foot and Word in Prosodic Morphology: The Arabic Broken Plural. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 8, 209–283.Google Scholar
Mavrogiorgos, Marios. 2013. Enclisis at the Syntax–PF Interface. In Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg and Helland, Hans Petter (eds.), Challenging Clitics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 27–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montrul, Silvina A. 2008. Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism: Re-Examining the Age Factor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina A. 2010. Current Issues in Heritage Language Acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 30(3), 3–23.Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina A. and Polinsky, Maria. 2011. Why Not Heritage Speakers? Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 1(1), 58–62.Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina A. and Silvan-Corvalán, Carmen. 2019. The Social Context Contributes to the Incomplete Acquisition of Aspect of Heritage Languages. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41(2): 269–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newton, Brian. 1972. Cypriot Greek: Its Phonology and Inflections. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Papadopoulou, Elena, Leivada, Evelina, and Pavlou, Natalia. 2014. Acceptability Judgments in Bilectal Populations: Competition, Gradience and Socio-Syntax. Linguistic Variation 14, 109–128.Google Scholar
Pavlou, Natalia. 2018a. Alternations in Contexts of Code-Mixing: Allomorphy, Suppletion and Diminutives. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 24(1), 18.Google Scholar
Pavlou, Natalia. 2018b. Morphosyntactic Dependencies and Verb Movement in Cypriot Greek. PhD dissertation, The University of Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelekani, Chryso. 2018. Roma and Their Rights. Nicosia: Mediterranean Migration Network Activities.Google Scholar
Petinou, Kakia and Terzi, Arhonto. 2002. Clitic Misplacement among Normally Developing Children and Children with Specific Language Impairment and the Status of Infl Heads. Language Acquisition 10, 1–28.Google Scholar
Polinsky, Maria. 2008. Russian Gender under Incomplete Acquisition. The Heritage Language Journal 6(1), 40–71.Google Scholar
Polinsky, Maria. 2018. Heritage Languages and Their Speakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rothman, Jason. 2009. Understanding the Nature and Outcomes of Early Bilingualism: Romance Languages as Heritage Languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 13, 155–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, Charley and Grohmann, Kleanthes K.. 2013. Discrete Bilectalism: Towards Co-Overt Prestige and Diglossic Shift in Cyprus. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2013, 119–142.Google Scholar
Sorace, Antonella. 2004. Native Language Attrition and Developmental Instability at the Syntax–Discourse Interface: Data, Interpretations and Methods. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7, 143–145.Google Scholar
Suarez, Debra. 2002. The Paradox of Linguistic Hegemony and the Maintenance of Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 23, 512–530.Google Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina. 2011. Thank You, Sorry and Please in Cypriot Greek: What Happens to Politeness Markers When They Are Borrowed across Languages? Journal of Pragmatics 43, 218–235.Google Scholar
Terzi, Arhonto. 1999. Clitic Combinations, Their Hosts and Their Ordering. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 17, 85–121.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 1972. Sex, Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in the Urban British English of Norwich. Language in Society 1. 179–195.Google Scholar
Tsiplakou, Stavroula, Papapavlou, Andreas, Pavlou, Pavlos, and Katsoyannou, Marianna. 2006. Levelling, Koineization and Their Implications for Bidialectism. In Hinskens, Frans (ed.), Language Variation – European Perspectives. Selected Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 3), University of Amsterdam, 23–25 June 2005. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 265–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valdés, Guadalupe. 2001. Learning and Not Learning English: Latino Students in American Schools. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Watson, Janet C. E. 2006. Arabic Morphology: Diminutive Verbs and Diminutive Nouns in San’ani Arabic. Morphology 16(2), 189–204.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org 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
×