Space and time in Vietnamese heritage language maintenance

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a qualitative account of Vietnamese language maintenance in Manchester. Through ethnographic observations of distinctly Vietnamese locations, Vietnamese language practices are shown to create spaces in which Vietnamese is the dominant language, and in which Vietnamese norms and expectations, or scales, are able to influence and contest other behavioural norms. These scales are viewed as social practices, and they are derived from interviews with Vietnamese speakers and observations of Vietnamese spaces, and special focus is given to the linguistic resources used to conduct them. The analysis reveals ideas of language competence and politeness which compete and interact with norms from outside the spaces, and non-linguistic behavioural norms which contribute to language maintenance. Vietnamese is shown to be maintained through micro-interactions which make the heritage language the norm, and business and religious practices are found to promote heritage language use by requiring heritage language practices to participate.

KEYWORDS:

• Heritage language
• language maintenance
• scale analysis
• language practices

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anh Khoi Nguyen

Anh Khoi Nguyen is a PhD student at the University of Manchester researching Heritage Language Maintenance and Language Shift in the context of Vietnamese speakers in the United Kingdom. He is particularly interested in practice-based approaches to Language Maintenance, micro-policies in businesses, religious institutions and families, and the influence of space and context on linguistic behaviour.