Article published in:
Germanic Heritage Languages in North America: Acquisition, attrition and change
Edited by Janne Bondi Johannessen † and Joseph C. Salmons
[Studies in Language Variation 18] 2015
► pp. 323–358

Coon Valley Norwegians Meet Norwegians from Norway

Language, Culture and Identity among Heritage Language Speakers in the U. S.

| University of Oslo
| University of Oslo
This article focuses on linguistic and cultural identity constructions in interactions between members of the last generation of a former heritage language speaking community and speakers from the homeland of their ancestors. The data come from fieldwork involving narratives of personal experience in a Norwegian heritage community in the U.S. that is currently undergoing a language shift. Results revealed that speakers negotiated various identities through their categorization strategies and positioning towards their heritage language and culture. Language is still esteemed as a marker of cultural identity; however, emphasis on cultural artifacts and traditions for accentuating ethnic identity in the U.S. is also made by those whose fluency in the heritage language was faltering. Narratives of personal experience provide a privileged site for investigating issues of language, culture and identity among heritage language speakers.
Keywords: identity constructions, language choice, language maintenance, language shift, narratives, Norwegian heritage community
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 20 August 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.18.15gol
Cited by

Cited by other publications

Hjelde, Arnstein
2015.  In Germanic Heritage Languages in North America [Studies in Language Variation, 18], ► pp. 283 ff. Crossref logo
Johannessen, Janne Bondi
2018. Factors of variation, maintenance and change in Scandinavian heritage languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 22:4 ► pp. 447 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 december 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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