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Between loss and salvage: Kabyles and Syrian Christians negotiate heritage, linguistic authenticity and identity in Europe

Between loss and salvage: Kabyles and Syrian Christians negotiate heritage, linguistic authenticity and identity in Europe
Between loss and salvage: Kabyles and Syrian Christians negotiate heritage, linguistic authenticity and identity in Europe
This paper brings together two different communities, Kabyles (Amazighs) and Syrian Christians, who are nevertheless marked by some commonalities: a strong diasporic dispersal as a historical experience, political, cultural and linguistic marginalization in their countries of origin, the deep association of collective identity with an “endangered” heritage language, a lived experience of multilingualism, and a post-emigration struggle of language maintenance and transmission. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria, and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa, with claims to cultural authenticity and indigeneity. This paper focuses on research conducted in the UK, a relatively new immigrant setting for this community. The Syrian Christians originate from Turkey and have dispersed across different European countries since the 1960s. They make strong identity claims to Aramaic, “the language of Jesus”, yet have also found its preservation and intergenerational transmission challenging. This paper focuses on research conducted in the German speaking context. Drawing on ethnographic research with these communities, we bring their post-migration language preservation activisms into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity, despite considerable language decline. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies
Diaspora, Endangered languages, Kabyles, Language maintenance, Multilingualism, Syrian Christians
2226-471X
Armbruster, Heidemarie
44560127-8f08-4969-8b47-e19f21f23c37
Belabbas, Souhila
012b0949-3844-47d8-b2f2-0f8001f3063e
Armbruster, Heidemarie
44560127-8f08-4969-8b47-e19f21f23c37
Belabbas, Souhila
012b0949-3844-47d8-b2f2-0f8001f3063e

Armbruster, Heidemarie and Belabbas, Souhila (2021) Between loss and salvage: Kabyles and Syrian Christians negotiate heritage, linguistic authenticity and identity in Europe. Languages, 6 (4), [175]. (doi:10.3390/languages6040175).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper brings together two different communities, Kabyles (Amazighs) and Syrian Christians, who are nevertheless marked by some commonalities: a strong diasporic dispersal as a historical experience, political, cultural and linguistic marginalization in their countries of origin, the deep association of collective identity with an “endangered” heritage language, a lived experience of multilingualism, and a post-emigration struggle of language maintenance and transmission. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria, and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa, with claims to cultural authenticity and indigeneity. This paper focuses on research conducted in the UK, a relatively new immigrant setting for this community. The Syrian Christians originate from Turkey and have dispersed across different European countries since the 1960s. They make strong identity claims to Aramaic, “the language of Jesus”, yet have also found its preservation and intergenerational transmission challenging. This paper focuses on research conducted in the German speaking context. Drawing on ethnographic research with these communities, we bring their post-migration language preservation activisms into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity, despite considerable language decline. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies

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Accepted/In Press date: 14 October 2021
Published date: 25 October 2021
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords: Diaspora, Endangered languages, Kabyles, Language maintenance, Multilingualism, Syrian Christians

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 453378
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/453378
ISSN: 2226-471X
PURE UUID: 58e8f1b2-f66a-408e-bd0c-278d03d5a99a

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Date deposited: 13 Jan 2022 18:17
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 14:31

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Author: Souhila Belabbas

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