Researchers from Chicago discover distinctive destinations: from Israeli digs to Greenlandic villages

The new language spread quickly, as noted by linguist Nicolas Grenoble. There is a noticeable influx of English, with current immigrants and short-term workers mostly working with the language. In addition, young folks discover English by means of a variety of media such as films, video games, social media and YouTube. Grenoble’s analysis aims to comprehend the dynamics of this scenario each linguistically and sociolinguistically. Particularly, he desires to know who speaks which language, when and with whom. He is also interested in how Greenlanders discover English and how it impacts their expertise and use of their native language, Kalaallisut.

To collect data and answer these inquiries, Grenoble and project postdoc Džesika Kantarović carried out observations in Nuuk, Greenland. A single certain region of ​​interest to them was the reports that Kalalisut was receiving shorter. Kalaallisut is a polysynthetic language, exactly where suffixes take more than the function of words in languages ​​such as English. Grenoble offers an instance, explaining that the word “kujanak” indicates “thank you”. By adding the suffix “-rsuak”, which indicates “major”, the word becomes “kujanarsuak”, which translates as “thank you incredibly substantially” or “thank you incredibly substantially”. The researchers carried out interviews in Kalaallisut to figure out if and how words are receiving shorter. They also studied each day language use.

In their analysis, Grenoble and Kantarovich also engage in participant observation. They commit time in public areas, such as shops and restaurants, to observe language use. They spend consideration to who makes use of which language in casual and short interactions. A single certain concentrate for scholars is the idea of speaker switching, which refers to young folks in their household nation who cease studying the minority language of their parents and switch to the majority language. This phenomenon is of fantastic interest to Grenoble and his group.