Language Shift, Maintenance, and Death: A Study of Minority Languages in Singapore

Running head: ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
English Language and Linguistics
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1ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Executive Summary:
This paper takes a look at the features and fates of minority languages spoken by specific
ethnic groups while existing in a multi-lingual environment dominated by one or more
language that holds hegemony by virtue of it being prestigious or officially recognized. It
looks at the phenomena of language shift, maintenance and death by the way of referring to
the experiences of two individuals from an ethnic group that is a minority within Singapore,
that is, non-Tamil Indian people speaking an Indian language that is not Tamil. Through their
experiences, the paper tries to critically analyse certain aspects of language and linguistics
and it concludes that language should be seen as a tool of social relations and that it should be
analysed through the lens of modern times.

2ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Premise...................................................................................................................................4
Language and Existence.........................................................................................................6
Observations...........................................................................................................................8
A Critique on the Available Literature.................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................14

3ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Introduction
Language and linguistics are an important aspect of the cultural and social life of any
group (Hodge, 2014). In fact, language can said to be the repository and vehicle through
which the culture of a particular group is transmitted from one generation to the next (Snow,
Owens & Tan, 2014). The study of language is important to understand the dynamics within
a particular group, which helps us to understand the phenomena of culture formation and
social organization within the context of that particular group (Kockelman, 2014). With such
an importance, language can said to be the life-blood of any ethnic group.
As far as Singapore is concerned, it has become one of the most ethnically and
linguistically diverse countries in the world (Jain & Wee, 2015). Rapid development and
better employment opportunities provided an incentive for foreign nationals to immigrate into
Singapore, whose consequence is the multi-cultural nature of the city’s populace and peaceful
co-existence between various ethnic groups (Rubdy & McKay, 2014). The official languages
of Singapore include Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil, owing to the fact that throughout
its colonial history, the country has had enjoyed an overwhelmingly Chinese and Malay
population (Bolton & Ng, 2014) while the ancestors of the Indian population were brought in
by the colonial administration to re-enforce the workforce employed in the plantations
(Pande, 2013).
Although the official language is Tamil, representative of the Tamil ethnic group from
India, there are a plethora of other Indian ethnic groups who reside in Singapore and speak
various Indian languages apart from Tamil (Rajan, 2014). However, the cosmopolitan nature
of Singapore tends to affect the way in which non-Tamil Indian languages are spoken and
used (Cleveland, Laroche & Papandopoulos, 2015). Therefore the paper shall examine the
phenomena of language shift, language maintenance and language death from the perspective