Preliminary communication
The Definitions of a Mother Tongue and Some Related Questions
Andrina Pavlinić-Wolf
; Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The problem of determining a mother tongue in view of the kind of bilingualism as observed in Yugoslav migrant children residing in the countries of Western Europe is in the focus of the author's interest.
In the first part of this work, several definitions of a mother tongue as could be found in linguistic and non-linguistic articles and documents that have been published in the past thirty years or so are examined. Some related concepts and relations are also touched upon, e.g. the relationship between the concepts of language and nation, bilingualism, diglossia and semilingualism. The criteria that might be used to define a mother tongue are also enumerated and commented on.
In the condensed final section, the effects (potential and actual) of Yugoslav supplementary education in the countries of immigration are mentioned.
Keywords
mother tongue; children of migrants; bilingualism; Western Europe
Hrčak ID:
128938
URI
Publication date:
31.12.1985.
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