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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 [email protected].

Published online: 20 August 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.18.15gol
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Johannessen, Janne Bondi
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Kjelsvik, Bjørghild, Pia Lane & Annika Bøstein Myhr
2022. Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Spoken, Written and Material Narratives. In Negotiating Identities in Nordic Migrant Narratives, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Lane, Pia
2022. “It Feels like Now This Is in Our Own Language”: Religion, Authenticity and Belonging. In Negotiating Identities in Nordic Migrant Narratives, ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo

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