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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