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When Language Maintenance Means Language Shift: Tibetan as an Heritage Language in Amdo Families in France

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper explores the initial steps of transgenerational language change in exile by comparing the varieties of “Common” Tibetan as spoken by parents born in Amdo, Tibet, and by their teenager children, born in Tibet or in South Asia, who arrived in France at an early age and who have spent all or most of their schooling in France. In these families, the parents speak a variety of Amdo Tibetan as their first language, which does not allow for inter-comprehension with “Common” Tibetan. They have acquired “Common” Tibetan during their stay in South Asia before they moved to France. The paper follows a descriptive approach to analyze the structural (dis)similarities between the parents’ and the children’s varieties of “Common” Tibetan. It also documents intra-generational variation (1) within the parents’ generation, where we can observe a variable extent of retention for Amdo Tibetic features, and (2) within the children’s generation, where variation is usually due more to the (often contact-induced) linguistic changes than to the retention of some of their parents’ linguistic features.

Source: Languages

DOI: 10.3390/languages10110271

Author: Camille Simon

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale, Université de Picardie Jules Verne

Language: English

Topic: Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies

Subfield: Linguistics and Language

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,689

Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche