Heritage Language Events at the HCIAS

Heritage languages are minority languages acquired in early childhood, usually at home, in a bilingual or multilingual social context. However, due to the fact that schooling, peer group interactions, and work are usually done in the dominant language of the wider society, heritage language speakers lack sufficient input and practice to develop the full range of linguistic competencies associated with other native speakers. If we look closely, we can find heritage language speakers all around us. They are a feature of any society where individuals and families cross language borders, and they always have been. Despite their ubiquity, and the interesting peculiarities we can find in their linguistic repertoires and social profiles, the study of hertiage languages and their speakers is still an emerging field in academia. This April, The Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS) had the pleasure of hosting a visit from one of the world’s leading scholars in the field of heritage language linguistics, Dr. Maria Polinsky.

Dr. Polinsky is received her doctorate in Linguistics from the Institute for Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1986. She is currently Professor of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research spans several areas of linguistics, including the study of the structural properties of heritage languages and their implications for grammatical theories. She has conducted primary fieldwork with a diverse range of languages across the globe, including studies on the languages of the the Caucasus, Austronesian languages, and Mayan languages.

Maria Polinsky

As a highly international research institute dedicated to studying Ibero-American societies, cultures, and languages located in, it’s no surprise that there’s considerable interest in heritage languages at the HCIAS. As such, Dr. Polinsky’s visit was marked by a series of popular events dedicated to exploring the structure, preservation, and sociolinguistic context of heritage languages and their speakers.

On April 17th, Dr. Polinsky spoke at the inaugural HCIAS Wednesday Colloquium of the Summer Semester 2024. Her talk, titled Structural Parallels Between Endangered and Heritage Languages, drew a large audience eager to learn about the similarities in linguistic features between indigenous languages at risk of extinction and those maintained by minority communities as heritage languages in the context of migration. Dr. Polinsky’s was able to illustrate the common structural phenomena these languages exhibit, such as a low tolerance for optionality, and problems with ambiguity and vagueness, as well as the remarkable ability of their speakers to innovate and adapt, with examples from a variety of language contact scenarios.

Another highlight of Dr. Polinsky’s visit was the HCIAS Workshop on Heritage Languages and Multilingualism, held on April 16th, 2024. This workshop brought together researchers and scholars to discuss various aspects of heritage languages and their role in multilingual societies. Dr. Polinsky contributed to the session by speaking about Multiple Grammars in the Bilingual Input and Intake, considering how the linguistic behavior of bilingual individuals is shaped by their experience of integrating diverse grammatical systems. Dr. Angélica Prediger from Heidelberg University’s Institute for German as a Foreign Language presented research on 200 Jahre deutsch-portugiesischer Sprachkontakt in Brasilien: Variation und Wandel des Deutschen als Minderheitensprache, examining the sizeable and longstanding German minority language community in Brazil. Dr. Lena Sowada of the Faculty of Romance Languages spoke about her project ConTactoBalear – Multilingualism and Language Contact on the Balearic Islands, which explores the complex linguistic situation in the Balearics where speakers of the islands’ two official languages, Spanish and Catalan, mix with the sizeable population of speakers of other languages, principally German and English, present due to tourism and migration. Two doctoral researchers at the HCIAS, Ana Gómez-Pavón Durán and Charlotte Blattner, discussed their investigations into the ways family composition and language policy affect Spanish as a heritage language in Germany (if you are interested in hearing more about Ana and Charlotte’s projects, check out the latest HCIAS podcast and blogcast). Finally, Dr. Héctor Álvarez Mella, HCIAS research associate and director of the Observatory of Spanish in Europe, outlined plans for a new line of investigation into Dialect Variation and Intergenerational Transmission of Spanish as Heritage Language in Europe based on interviews with Spanish speakers who live in several different European countries where Spanish is not the majority language. Beyond the presenters, who between them covered a wide range of topics, contributing to a deeper understanding of how heritage languages are maintained, transformed, and perceived within different cultural contexts, the workshop also gathered a broad audience of attendees from the HCIAS and beyond, who contributed to the lively discussions which followed each talk.

Divisions between majority and minority language communities reflect and perpetuate other forms of social inequality. During Dr. Polinsky’s visit to Germany, she and Dr. Álvarez Mella also participated in the In_equality Conference 2024 held between April 10-12 at the Bodenseeforum in Konstanz, the largest conference dedicated to inequality in Europe.

On April 11th, Dr. Polinsky delivered a keynote speech on the Language of (In)equality and (In)equality of Languages, highlighting the critical role language plays in various aspects of human activity, including health, education, and conflict zones. With seven thousand languages spoken globally, the issue of inequality in language rights is both urgent and widespread. Dr. Polinsky examined the disparities in language rights across regions such as Central America, the Caucasus, North America, and Oceania, and proposed concrete strategies to address these imbalances, emphasizing the significance of minority languages in promoting equality.

Dr. Héctor Álvarez Mella presented a paper co-written with HCIAS Junior Prof. Dr. Alejandro Ecker on the Urban Ecology of Bilingual Education: Exploring Inequalities in the Distribution of Linguistic Capital. Their study focused on the way Germany’s monolingual ideology affects the educational opportunities available to minority language speakers and its impact on multilingualism. They distinguish between elite multilingualism, associated with languages like English and French, and migrant multilingualism, often linked with migrant communities such as Turkish speakers. By mapping early education programs for non-German languages in Berlin, they explored whether the spatial distribution of these programs correlates with the distribution of bilingual speakers and how this reflects the tension between elite and migrant multilingualism.

These events highlighted the growing interest in heritage languages and their importance for understanding the full range of linguistic diversity present in our world. The ideas shared during these sessions surely lead to new and exciting research into the field, as well as initiatives aimed at appreciating and preserving minority languages. If you would like to stay informed about what’s taking place at the HCIAS, you can check the full program of public events on our webpage.

David Chapman, B.A., is a student in the HCIAS’ Master’s program Communication and Society in Ibero-America