Un espace pour la langue : les institutions religieuses et le maintien des langues d’héritage à Montréal
Language shift from heritage languages to dominant, national languages among immigrant communities has been an important object of study in the sociology of language (Fishman 2006, 1968). The institutionally stabilized and ideologically sanctioned hegemony of the national language inevitably affects the use of all other languages, including those of allophone immigrant communities. Heritage language programs attempt to stay language shift by explicit language instruction often itself focused on a standard variety of the heritage language. However, explicit language socialization does not always foster a positive attitude towards heritage languages, since learners are solicited to “perform” linguistic competence, rather than use them as a means of emergent quotidian communication (Meek 2010, Das 2008).  My study focuses on the role of religious institutions in maintaining heritage languages in Montreal. I show that places of worship founded by and linked to an immigrant community generate spaces where the relationship between language and identity is not over-determined, allowing for flexible and heterogeneous engagements with the heritage language. The focus of activities in religious settings is geared towards fostering a sacred community, not language instruction per se. Such settings, in which language is not the goal but the medium of collective activity, provide conditions favourable to interactions in heritage language. This thesis is based on our ethnographic field research in five churches in Montreal, each characterized by a different conceptualization of the relationship between language and religion, and each linked to a distinct allophone immigrant community. My research shows the importance of institutions that emerge from immigrant communities in language maintenance.
language maintenance language shift heritage language language and religion indexicality