Cover not available

In:Investigating West Germanic Languages: Studies in honor of Robert B. Howell
Edited by Jennifer Hendriks and B. Richard Page
[Studies in Germanic Linguistics 8] 2024
► pp. 276–300

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Exploring past and present layers of multilingualism in Flemish-emigrant writing

 | Vrije Universiteit Brussel | Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen
 | Vrije Universiteit Brussel
 | Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Published online: 16 May 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sigl.8.13cro
Abstract
This article aims to contribute to the study of Belgian Dutch as an immigrant language in North America. It does so with the specific hypothesis that the pre-migration sociolinguistic and language political context in migrants’ home countries plays an important role, in particular with regard to societal multilingualism, as underlying layers of multilingualism can have an impact on the post-migration contact situation. Using the diary of a Flemish missionary who moved to Canada in 1886 as our main source, both Dutch-French and Dutch-English language contact are charted over a 25-year time span, with specific attention to lexical borrowing. We discuss the impact of a number of mostly language-internal variables on the relative frequency of lexical borrowing from each source language (e.g., semantic field, part of speech, level of integration in the target language, luxury versus necessary loans), revealing highly divergent borrowing profiles for French and English. The article rounds off by assessing the explanatory value of the pre-migration sociolinguistic context of Belgian Dutch, for the language patterns observed in this specific ego-document, discussing the interaction between past and present layers of language contact.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Belgian migration to North America
  • 3.Heritage languages and sociolinguistics: Theoretical preliminaries
  • 4.Belgian Dutch in the New and Old World
    • 4.1Belgian Dutch in the New World
    • 4.2The historical sociolinguistics of Belgian Dutch in the Old World
    • 4.3Implications for the study of Belgian Dutch as a heritage language
  • 5.Primary sources and writing context
    • 5.1Ego-documents
    • 5.2The life of brother John
    • 5.3The Canadian diary
  • 6.Methodology
    • 6.1Analysis
  • 7.Results
  • 8.Discussion
  • 9.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (50)
References
Aalberse, Suzanne Pauline, Ad Backus & Pieter Muysken. 2019. Heritage languages: A language contact approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arnbjörnsdóttir, Birna. 2015. Reexamining Icelandic as a heritage language in North America. In Johannessen, Janne Bondi & Joseph C. Salmons (eds.), Germanic heritage languages in North America: Acquisition, attrition and change (Studies in Language Variation 18), 72–93. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Betz, Werner. 1959. Lehnwörter und Lehnprägungen im Vor- und Frühdeutschen. In Maurer, Friedrich & Friedrich Stroh (eds.), Deutsche Wortgeschichte, 127–147. Berlin: Schmidt. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blainey, Darcie. 2017. Sociolinguistic research with endangered varieties: The case of Louisiana French. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 62(4). 576–595. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Joshua R. 2017. Language maintenance among the Hutterites. Yearbook of German-American Studies 52. 151–168.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.). 2019. Historical heritage language ego-documents: From home, from away, and from below. Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics. 5(2). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Joshua R. & Joshua Bousquette. 2018. Heritage languages in North America: Sociolinguistic approaches. Journal of Language Contact 11(2). 201–207. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caestecker, Frank. 2014. Hoe het Meetjesland Amerika vond. In Stynen, Andreas (ed.), Boer vindt land: Vlaamse migranten en Noord-Amerika, 58–66. Leuven: Davidfonds Uitgeverij.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cohn, Raymond L. 2008. Mass migration under sail: European immigration to the antebellum United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collet, Tanja. 2016. Language controversies in the Gazette van Detroit (1916–1918). In Fenoulhet, Jane, Gerdi Quist & Ulrich Tiedau (eds.), Discord and Consensus in the Low Countries, 1700–2000, 1st edn., vol. 1, 81–101. London: UCL Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna. 2014. Language and identities in US communities of Italian origin. Forum Italicum 48(2). 253–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deprez, Kas & Guido Geerts. 1977. Closure to French influence in the Flemish speech community. Lingua 43(2–3). 199–228. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eggermont-Molenaar, Mary & Paul Callens. 2007. Missionaries among miners, migrants and Blackfoot. The Van Tighem brother diaries, Alberta 1875–1917. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elspaß, Stephan. 2007. A twofold view ‘from below’: New perspectives on language histories and language historiographies. In Elspaß, Stephan, Nils Langer, Joachim Scharloth & Wim Vandenbussche (eds.), Germanic language histories ‘from below’(1700–2000), 3–9. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. The use of private letters and diaries in sociolinguistic investigation. In Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel & Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre (eds.), The handbook of historical sociolinguistics, 156–169. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. 1964. Language maintenance and shift as a field of inquiry. Linguistics 9. 32–70.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. 2001. 300-plus years of heritage language education in the United States. In Peyton, Joy Kreeft, Donald Ranard & Scott McGinnis (eds.), Heritage languages in America: Preserving a national resource, 81–97. Washington D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics & Delta Systems.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geeraerts, Dirk & Stefan Grondelaers. 2000. Purism and fashion: French influence on Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 13(1). 53–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grosjean, François. 1982. Life with two languages: An introduction to bilingualism. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar. 1953. The Norwegian language in America: A study in bilingual behavior. Vol. 2: The American dialects of Norwegian. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickey, Raymond (ed.). 2019. Keeping in touch: Emigrant letters across the English-speaking world (Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 10). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hipsman, Faye & Doris Meissner. 2013. Immigration in the United States: New economic, social, political landscapes with legislative reform on the horizon. Migration Policy Institute 16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johannessen, Janne Bondi. 2015. Attrition in an American Norwegian heritage language speaker. In Johannessen, Janne Bondi & Joseph C. Salmons (eds.), Germanic heritage languages in North America: acquisition, attrition and change (Studies in Language Variation 18), 46–71. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johannessen, Janne Bondi & Joseph C. Salmons (eds.). 2015. Germanic heritage languages in North America: acquisition, attrition and change (Studies in Language Variation 18). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kasstan, Jonathan R., Anita Auer & Joseph Salmons. 2018. Heritage-language speakers: Theoretical and empirical challenges on sociolinguistic attitudes and prestige. International Journal of Bilingualism 22(4). 387–394. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Llewellyn, Evan Clifford. 1936. The influence of Low Dutch on the English vocabulary. Vol. 12. Oxford University Press Oxford.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matras, Yaron. 2009. Language contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Musschoot, Dirk. 2002. Wij gaan naar Amerika: Vlaamse landverhuizers naar de nieuwe wereld 1850–1930. Tielt: Lannoo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nauwelaerts, Mandy & Frank Caestecker. 2008. Red Star Line: People on the move. Schoten: BAI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ostyn, Paul. 1973. American Flemish: A study in language loss and linguistic interference.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinsky, Maria. 2008. Gender under incomplete acquisition: Heritage speakers’ knowledge of noun categorization. Heritage Language Journal 6. 40–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana. 2018. Borrowing: Loanwords in the speech community and in the grammar. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prince, John, D. 1910. The Jersey Dutch Dialect. Dialect Notes 8. 459–484.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quintyn, Willy & Marc Van Ooteghem. 2014. Hansbeekse emigratie naar Amerika, een opmerkelijk verhaal. In Stynen, Andreas (ed.), Boer vindt land: Vlaamse migranten en Noord-Amerika, 67–71. Leuven: Davidsfonds Uitgeverij.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rothman, Jason. 2009. Understanding the nature and outcomes of early bilingualism: Romance languages as heritage languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 13(2). 155–163. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rutten, Gijsbert & Rik Vosters. 2010. Chaos and standards: Orthography in the southern Netherlands (1720–1830). Multilingua 29(3/4). 417–438. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rutten, Gijsbert, Rik Vosters & Marijke van der Wal. 2015. Frenchification in discourse and practice: Loan morphology in Dutch private letters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In Catharina Peersman, Gijsbert Rutten & Rik Vosters (eds.), Past, Present and Future of a Language Border: Germanic-Romance Encounters in the Low Countries, 143–169. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smits, Caroline & Jaap van Marle. 2015. On the decrease of language norms in a disintegrating language. In Johannessen, Janne Bondi & Joseph C. Salmons (eds.), Germanic heritage languages in North America: Acquisition, attrition and change (Studies in Language Variation 18), 389–405. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stynen, Andreas (ed.). 2014. Boer vindt land: Vlaamse migranten en Noord-Amerika. Leuven: Davidsfonds Uitgeverij.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valdés, Guadalupe. 2000. The teaching of heritage languages: An introduction for Slavic-teaching professionals. In Kagan, Olga & Benjamin Rifkin (eds.), The learning and teaching of Slavic languages and cultures, 375–403. Bloomington: Slavica Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van der Wal, Marijke & Gijsbert Rutten. 2013. Ego-documents in a historical-sociolinguistic perspective. In van der Wal, Marijke & Gijsbert Rutten (eds.), Touching the past: Studies in the historical sociolinguistics of ego-documents (Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 1), 1–18. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Hoof, S. & J. Jaspers. 2012. Hyperstandaardisering. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal-en Letterkunde 128(2). 97–125.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Landschoot, Hans. 2014. Emigratie uit Maldegem. In Stynen, Andreas (ed.), Boer vindt land: Vlaamse migranten en Noord-Amerika, 72–75. Leuven: Davidsfonds Uitgeverij.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vandenbussche, Wim. 2009. Historical language planning in nineteenth-century Flanders: Standardisation as a means of language survival. In Omdal, Helge (ed.), Språknormering. I tide og utide?, 255–268. Oslo: Novus Forlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vanhecke, Eline & Jetje De Groof. 2007. New data on language policy and language choice in 19th-century Flemish city administrations. In Elspaß, Stephan, Nils Langer, Joachim Scharloth & Wim Vandenbussche (eds.), Germanic language histories from below (1700–2000), 449–465. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vosters, Rik. 2013. Dutch, Flemish or Hollandic? Social and ideological aspects of linguistic convergence and divergence during the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830). In Barát, Erzsébet & Patrick Studer (eds.), Ideological conceptualisations of language in discourses of linguistic diversity (Prague Papers on Language, Society and Interaction 3), 35–54. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vosters, Rik, Gijsbert Rutten & Marijke Van der Wal. 2010. Mythes op de pijnbank. Naar een herwaardering van de taalsituatie in de Nederlanden in de achttiende en negentiende eeuw. Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 120(1). 93–112.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vosters, Rik, Gijsbert Rutten, Marijke Van der Wal & Wim Vandenbussche. 2012. Spelling and identity in the Southern Netherlands (1750–1830). In Jaffe, Alexandra, Jannis Androutsopoulos, Mark Sebba & Sally Johnson (eds.), Orthography as social action. Scripts, spelling, identity and power (Language and Social Processes 3), 135–160. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel. 1953. Languages in contact: Findings and problems. New York: Linguistic circle of New York.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Willemyns, Roland. 2013. Dutch: Biography of a language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Aalberse, Suzanne & Robert A. Cloutier
2025. Variation and stability in variants of heritage Dutch. In Dutch and Contact Linguistics [IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society, 55], ► pp. 502 ff. DOI logo
Crombez, Yasmin
2025. Newspapers as a window into language beliefs of the past. In Dutch and Contact Linguistics [IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society, 55], ► pp. 427 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue