Cover not available

In:Germanic Heritage Languages in North America: Acquisition, attrition and change
Edited by Janne Bondi Johannessen † and Joseph C. Salmons
[Studies in Language Variation 18] 2015
► pp. 323–358

Get fulltext
PDF logo with download linkDownload Chapter PDF

Coon Valley Norwegians Meet Norwegians from Norway

Language, Culture and Identity among Heritage Language Speakers in the U. S.

 | University of Oslo
 | University of Oslo
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 20 August 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.18.15gol
This article focuses on linguistic and cultural identity constructions in interactions between members of the last generation of a former heritage language speaking community and speakers from the homeland of their ancestors. The data come from fieldwork involving narratives of personal experience in a Norwegian heritage community in the U.S. that is currently undergoing a language shift. Results revealed that speakers negotiated various identities through their categorization strategies and positioning towards their heritage language and culture. Language is still esteemed as a marker of cultural identity; however, emphasis on cultural artifacts and traditions for accentuating ethnic identity in the U.S. is also made by those whose fluency in the heritage language was faltering. Narratives of personal experience provide a privileged site for investigating issues of language, culture and identity among heritage language speakers.
References (47)
Ahearn, Laura M. 2001. “Language and Agency.” Annual Review of Anthropology 30: 109–137. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Al Zidjaly, Najma. 2009. “Agency as an Interactive Achievement.” Language in Society 38: 177–200. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auer, Peter (ed). 1998. Code-Switching in Conversation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benwell, Bethan and Elizabeth Stokoe. 2006. Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2005. Discourse: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brockmeir, Jens and Donald A. Carbaugh (eds). 2001. Narrative and Identity. Studies in Autobiography, Self and Culture. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruner, Jerome. 2001. “Self-Making and World-Making.” In Narrative and Identity. Studies in Autobiography, Self and Culture, ed. by Jens Brockmeir and Donald A. Carbaugh, 25–37. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Narrative, Culture and Mind.” In Telling Stories. Language, Narrative and Social Life, ed. by Deborah Schiffrin, Anna De Fina and Anastassia Nylund, 45–49. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary and Kira Hall. 2005. “Identity and Interaction: A Sociocultural Linguistic Approach.” Discourse Studies 7(4/5): 585–614. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Bot, Kees and Robert W. Schrauf (eds). 2009. Language Development Over the Lifespan. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna and Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2012. Analyzing Narrative. Discourse and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna, Deborah Schiffrin and Michael G.W. Bamberg. 2006. Discourse and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra. 2007. Small Stories, Interaction and Identity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W. 1994. The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language and Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Golden, Anne and Elizabeth Lanza. 2012. “Narratives on Literacy: Adult Migrants’ Identity Construction in Interaction.” In Literacy Practices in Transition. Perspectives from the Nordic Countries, ed. by Anne Pitkänen and Lars Holm, 27–53. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Metaphors of Culture: Identity Construction in Migrants’ Narrative Discourse.” Intercultural Pragmatics. Special issue on “Metaphor and Culture: A Relationship at a Crossroads” 10(2): 295–314.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harré, Rom and Luk van Langenhove (eds). 1999. Positioning Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar. 1953. The Norwegian Language in America: A Study of Bilingual Behavior. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hjelde, Arnstein. 2000. The Norwegian Language in America. [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ibarra, Robert A. 1976. Ethnicity Genuine and Spurious: A Study of a Norwegian Community in Rural Wisconsin.” Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Joseph, John E. 2004. Language and Identity. National, Ethnic, Religious. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
King, Kendall. 2001. Language Revitalization Processes and Prospects. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Zoltan. 2002. Metaphor. A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Language, Mind, and Culture. A Practical Introduction. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krueger, Richard A. 1994. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. Language in the Inner City. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William and Joshua Waletsky. 1967. “Narrative Analysis.” In Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, ed. by June Helm, 12–44. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Reprinted in Narrative and Life History 7: 1–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1993. “Contemporary Theory of Metaphor.” In Metaphor and Thought. 2nd edition, ed. by Andrew Ortony, 202–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lane, Pia. 2009. “Identities in Action: A Nexus Analysis of Identity Construction and Language Shift.” Visual Communication 8(4): 449–468. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lantolf, James P. and Steven L. Thorne. 2006. Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lanza, Eilzabeth. 2012. “Empowering a Migrant Identity: Agency in Narratives of a Work Experience in Norway.” Sociolinguistic Studies. Special issue on “Agency and Power in Multilingual Practices” 6(2): 285–307.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lanza, Elizabeth and Bente A. Svendsen. 2007. “Tell Me Who Your Friends Are and I Might Be Able to Tell You What Language(s) You Speak: Social Network Analysis, Multilingualism, and Identity.” International Journal of Bilingualism 11(3): 275–300. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lovoll, Odd S. 2006. Norwegians on the Prairie. Ethnicity and the Development of the Country Town. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mills, Jean. 2004. “Mothers and Mother Tongue: Perspectives on Self-Construction by Mothers of Pakistani Heritage.” In Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts, ed. by Aneta Pavlenko and Adrian Blackledge, 161–191. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mukherjee, Dipika. 2003. “Role of Women in Language Maintenance and Language Shift: Focus on the Bengali Community in Malaysia.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 161: 103–120.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munch, Peter A. 1954. “Segregation and Assimilation of Norwegian Settlements in Wisconsin.” In Norwegian-American Studies and Records 18: 102–140. [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor and Lisa Capps. 2001. Living Narrative: Creating Lives in Everyday Storytelling. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta and Adrian Blackledge. 2004. Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riessman, Catherine K. 1993. Narrative Analysis. Newbury Park: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Skjåk, Knut K. and Bjug Bøyum. 1995. Intervjuundersøking om nasjonal identitet [Interview investigation of national identity]. NSD Rapporter, Nr. 103. Bergen: Norsk samfunnsvitenskapelig datatjeneste.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smolicz, Jerzy J. 1981. “Core Values and Cultural Identity.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 4(1): 75–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilkerson, Miranda E. and Joseph Salmons. 2008. “‘Good Old Immigrants of Yesteryear’ Who Didn’t Learn English: Germans in Wisconsin.” American Speech 83(3): 259–283. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Kjelsvik, Bjørghild, Pia Lane & Annika Bøstein Myhr
2022. Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Spoken, Written and Material Narratives. In Negotiating Identities in Nordic Migrant Narratives, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Lane, Pia
2022. “It Feels like Now This Is in Our Own Language”: Religion, Authenticity and Belonging. In Negotiating Identities in Nordic Migrant Narratives, ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
Johannessen, Janne Bondi
2018. Factors of variation, maintenance and change in Scandinavian heritage languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 22:4 ► pp. 447 ff. DOI logo
Hjelde, Arnstein
2015. Changes in a Norwegian Dialect in America. In Germanic Heritage Languages in North America [Studies in Language Variation, 18], ► pp. 283 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 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