Maya Abtahian
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Rochester. I received my PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. My dissertation, Language Shift and the Speech Community: Sociolinguistic Change in a Garifuna Community in Belize, was advised by Gillian Sankoff, David Embick, and William Labov. I am a sociolinguist, and my research focuses on language variation and change in the context of language shift and other social changes. Please see my research page for more information about my projects and my teaching: mayaabtahian.com
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Papers by Maya Abtahian
languages and a shift towards national and official languages. But the
processes that link urbanization with language shift have not been
adequately documented. In this paper we consider the relationship
between cities and language shift from a sociolinguistic perspective,
focusing our attention on the issue of language use and language shift
in Indonesia – a large, ethnically and linguistically diverse, rapidly
urbanising country. We use census data to examine how ethnic
diversity shapes language shift in the context of urbanicity. We find that
in ethnically homogenous regions, urbanicity itself has little relationship
with language shift. By contrast, ethnic diversity is consistently
associated with a greater probability of speaking Indonesian both
among urban and rural Indonesians and in urban and rural areas. These
findings contribute to our understanding of language shift and
linguistic vitality in diverse, urbanising societies, and highlight the need
to distinguish between the process of urbanization and the state of
being urban.
communities in Belize. It situates these findings on the social evaluation of
Garifuna and Kriol socio-historically by examining them alongside the recent history of language planning for Garifuna and Kriol in Belize.
languages and a shift towards national and official languages. But the
processes that link urbanization with language shift have not been
adequately documented. In this paper we consider the relationship
between cities and language shift from a sociolinguistic perspective,
focusing our attention on the issue of language use and language shift
in Indonesia – a large, ethnically and linguistically diverse, rapidly
urbanising country. We use census data to examine how ethnic
diversity shapes language shift in the context of urbanicity. We find that
in ethnically homogenous regions, urbanicity itself has little relationship
with language shift. By contrast, ethnic diversity is consistently
associated with a greater probability of speaking Indonesian both
among urban and rural Indonesians and in urban and rural areas. These
findings contribute to our understanding of language shift and
linguistic vitality in diverse, urbanising societies, and highlight the need
to distinguish between the process of urbanization and the state of
being urban.
communities in Belize. It situates these findings on the social evaluation of
Garifuna and Kriol socio-historically by examining them alongside the recent history of language planning for Garifuna and Kriol in Belize.