Diglossia, immigrant dialects and language maintenance in Australia: The case of limburgs and Swabian

Abstract

In this article two aspects of language maintenance are investigated. Firstly, the effect which the variable ‘language variety’, i.e. standard variety versus dialect variety, has on the language maintenance patterns of Dutch‐and German‐born immigrants in Australia, i.e. do German and Dutch standard speakers maintain their first language variety better than German (Swabian) and Dutch (Limburgs) dialect speakers? The investigation proved that the overall rate of language maintenance in the first generation was not greatly influenced by the fact that the informant was a dialect or a standard speaker. An analysis in terms of ‘language variety’ did, however, clarify certain patterns of language behaviour which were left unexplained in an analysis in terms of ‘language’. It also revealed that certain dialect speakers (here the Limburg dialect speakers) maintained only their dialect and not the standard variety which considerably reduced the group of speakers with whom they could converse in the mother tongue. Language loyalty for dialect speakers from Limburg was perceived only in terms of the dialect and not the standard variety or the Dutch language per se.

The second aspect of the investigation was concerned with the phenomenon of diglossia in immigrant societies. Besides Fishman's description of the language situation of immigrants in America as ‘bilingualism without diglossia’, the concept of diglossia has not been applied to an immigrant context. This investigation shows that the type of diglossia prevalent in the immigrant's home country or region bears a considerable impact on the language situation in the new environment. A plea is therefore made to create a typology of diglossic situations which would greatly enhance the study of language use patterns of immigrants from diglossic areas.

Notes

This article is based on Pauwels (1983). I wish to thank M. Clyne and E. M. Wilkinson for their helpful comments and stylistic suggestions.