Diasporas and Language

The text “Diasporas and Language”, taken from Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities by Jaine Beswick in Kim Knott and Sean MacLoughlin, Eds., features in B.Ed. 1^st Year’s General English book (Tribhuvan University). The key takeaways from the text are as follows:

• ‘Diaspora’ – Greek word  (‘dia’ = across; ‘speirein’ = scattering)
• Modern meaning = a body of population migrated from a country of origin to another country of destination.
• Home country = country of origin; Host country = country of residence
• Non-resident Nepalis (NRN) = those that do not reside within the country of origin. Various Nepali diasporas: UK Nepali diaspora, US Nepali diaspora, Canadian Nepali diaspora, etc.
• The study of or about diaspora is called Diaspora Studies. This study starts with migration of people and follows their life in the host country.
• The diaspora are minority or marginal groups in the host country and they struggle for their identity and equal opportunities there. They don’t have pure culture, it is mixed with the culture of the host country, they don’t have pure language, it is mixed. This is called hybridity. Hybridity is the most common feature of a diasporic life.
• Language contact between the heritage language and the host language results in a hybrid language variety. In such varieties, the linguistic structures of both parent languages are drawn upon, often resulting in unusual linguistic combinations. A diasporic language is hybrid and mixed. It may give birth to pidgin or creole. Pidgin is structurally simplified trade language based largely on lexical interpretation, whereas, creole is a developed form of pidgin with more complex structures and used in more wide-ranging communications contexts.
• ‘No man’s land’ = displaced through migration and exile from the homeland, yet not belonging to the host land.
• Speaking their heritage language in out-group contexts provokes xenophobic reactions.
• Acquisition of the host language may be perceived as financially advantageous.
• Lexical borrowing = the incorporation of foreign features into group’s native language by speakers of that language.
• Code-switching = The practice of alternating between two or more languages or dialects within a conversation
• Inter-generational shift over time. Language shift often occurs over three generations, depending on the education of the children and grandchildren in the host language. The general use of heritage language in all contexts by the first generation gives way to the functional distribution of heritage language in the home and the host language elsewhere in the second generation, to the potential domination of the host language in all contexts in the third generation.