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Identity, Language Use, and Attitudes

Some Sylheti-Bangladeshi Data from London, UK

Cardiff University

Itesh Sachdev

Birkbeck College, University of London

Two studies examined the trilingual behavior, attitudes, and perceptions of secondgeneration teenagers of Sylheti-Bangladeshi origin studying Bengali at school. Language diaries and questionnaires were used to obtain data about Sylheti, English, Bengali, and code mixing. Reports of the use of English dominated in the public domains, though it was clear that Bengali also constituted an equally important part of participants’ sociolinguistic repertoire (for use in private domains) and their sociolinguistic identifications. Identification with the diglossically "low" variety Sylheti was relatively high, though significantly lower than English and Bengali. Code mixing, though low, was reported consistently across domains and was associated with intragroup communication. Overall, the outcomes of the multivariate statistical analyses were supportive of previous research in that participants’ use of each language was predicted by competence, vitality, contact, and identity factors associated with that language. Evidence for the additive role of minority languages in predicting multilingual communication was also obtained.

Key Words: Sylheti-Bangladeshi • multilingual communication • additive multilingualism • ethnolinguistic vitality • ethnolinguistic identity

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