Language shift

Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived to be of higher-status stabilize or spread at the expense of other languages that are perceived—even by their own speakers—to have lower status. An example is the shift from Gaulish to Latin during the time of the Roman Empire.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Language assimilation may operate alongside other aspects of cultural assimilation when different cultures meet and merge.^[4]^[5]

^ Kandler, Anne; Steele, James (2017-05-09). "Modeling language shift". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (19): 4851–4853. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114.4851K. doi:10.1073/pnas.1703509114. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5441700. PMID 28428340.
^ Grenoble, Lenore A. (2021-03-25). "Language Shift". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.347. ISBN 978-0-19-938465-5. Retrieved 2022-06-06.
^ Gal, Susan (2008-07-14). "Language shift". Kontaktlinguistik. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 586–593. doi:10.1515/9783110132649.1.6.586. ISBN 978-3-11-019405-0.
^ Grenoble, Lenore A. (30 June 2022). "18: Contact and Shift: Colonization and Urbanization in the Arctic". In Mufwene, Salikoko; Escobar, Anna María (eds.). The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact. Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics. Vol. 2: Multilingualism in Population Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009115766. Retrieved 17 May 2025. There was often strict enforcement of use of the national majority language. [...] Cultural and linguistic assimilation was an open goal.
^ Chang-Soo Cho (1953). The Correlates of Cultural Assimilation of Two Groups of Issei Women. University of Washington. p. 40. Retrieved 17 May 2025. The importance of a knowledge of language in the process of assimilation can hardly be exaggerated. It is certainly a gate through which the alien can arrive at an understanding of [...] institutions and culture.

[1] Kandler, Anne; Steele, James (2017-05-09). "Modeling language shift". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (19): 4851–4853. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114.4851K. doi:10.1073/pnas.1703509114. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5441700. PMID 28428340.

[2] Grenoble, Lenore A. (2021-03-25). "Language Shift". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.347. ISBN 978-0-19-938465-5. Retrieved 2022-06-06.

[3] Gal, Susan (2008-07-14). "Language shift". Kontaktlinguistik. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 586–593. doi:10.1515/9783110132649.1.6.586. ISBN 978-3-11-019405-0.

[4] Grenoble, Lenore A. (30 June 2022). "18: Contact and Shift: Colonization and Urbanization in the Arctic". In Mufwene, Salikoko; Escobar, Anna María (eds.). The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact. Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics. Vol. 2: Multilingualism in Population Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009115766. Retrieved 17 May 2025. There was often strict enforcement of use of the national majority language. [...] Cultural and linguistic assimilation was an open goal.

[5] Chang-Soo Cho (1953). The Correlates of Cultural Assimilation of Two Groups of Issei Women. University of Washington. p. 40. Retrieved 17 May 2025. The importance of a knowledge of language in the process of assimilation can hardly be exaggerated. It is certainly a gate through which the alien can arrive at an understanding of [...] institutions and culture.

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