Multilingualism, maintenance or shift among migrant Arabic-Turkish speaking families

International audienceMultilingualism, maintenance or shift among migrant Arabic-Turkish speaking familiesS. ISTANBULLU & I. LÉGLISE (SEDYL: CNRS, INALCO)Previous literature on language transmission among migrant families in Europe focuses mainly on the transmission of home languages vs. the official language of the host country (Akinci et al., 2004, de Ruiter 2008, Haque 2010). Quantitative studies often show that, due to an aggressive linguistic policy towards integration, a language shift phenomenon towards the official language of the host country is generally completed within three generations (Héran et al. 2002). The families we are working with are already bilingual (home language – national language) when they migrate, adding then a third language (the host country language) to their bilingual repertoire. This paper raises the issue of home languages maintenance in a migration context when two languages (ancestral language and previous national language) are already competing for transmission.As a case in point, we will look at Arabic-Turkish speaking families from Antioch (South Turkey) and living in Paris and Berlin. Data come from a multi-sited ethno-graphic approach (Marcus 1995) in Paris, Berlin and Antioch. 80 members belonging to 11 families were individually interviewed (open questions, recordings of narratives and language biographies). Immersion within 2 families led to the recordings of multilingual language practices in the family context. To date our results are based on the analysis of the language ideologies from the interviews and on qualitative and quantitative analysis of 4 family interactions. Before migrating, these families were already in a situation of language shift between Arabic, their home language, and Turkish, the national language (Smith 2003). Con-sidering the numeric importance of Arabic language in France (4 million of speakers), we would like to rethink the language shift situation towards Turkish and show how it may turn towards French and Arabic. Whereas, considering the importance of Turkish language in Germany, acting also as a lingua franca (Dirim & Auer 2012), we will show that the home language of these families tends to be Turkish.In this paper, after presenting some context and methodology, we will focus on the multilingual linguistic practices, language ideology and identity construction of second and third generations (the first generations being born in Paris or Berlin). We will show how home languages are maintained due to affective factors but also how various conflicts are actually at stage among the third generation, finally, we will illustrate the development of new speakers (O’Rourke & Ramallo 2011) of two home languages, Arabic and Turkish.Dirim I. & Auer P. (2004). Türkisch sprechen nicht nur die Türken: über die Unschärfebezie-hung zwischen Sprache und Ethnie in Deutschland. Berlin: de Gruyter.Héran F., Filhon A. & Deprez C. (2002). La dynamique des langues en France au fil du XXè Siècle. Population et Sociétés 376: 1–4.Smith J. (2003). Language choice, code-switching and language shift in Antakya, Turkey. University of Canterbury. O’Rourke B. & Fernando R. (2011). The native-non-native dichotomy in minority language. Comparisons between Irish and Galician. Language Problems & Language Planning, 35(2), pp.139-159