Southern California has one of the most diverse linguistic populations in the world. The widespread Spanish speaking communities from Central and South America, the Vietnamese community in Orange County, the Armenian community in Glendale, the largest Korean diaspora in Koreatown Los Angeles, people speaking various Chinese languages in the San Bernardino valley, several South Asian language communities in Artesia, Russian, Polish, Thai communities in West LA, and many more. Your task is to select one linguistic community of Southern California, other than CHINESE, and write a report about it.
The report will be divided in 4 sections:
Section I: Survey and Statistics (25 points)
In this section you will report surveys and statistics that provide quantitative information about the linguistic community of your choice. First you will provide information about the area(s) where the community is concentrated in Southern California. Next, you will report the number of speakers there are for the linguistic community in US as well as in Southern California. You should look for recent US and California census reports. If you find graphs and figures, include them in your report.

Section II: History of immigration (10 points)
In brief this section you will report the history of the linguistic community. Specifically, you will try to report (but not limited to): When did the community begin to immigrate to the USA? Was there any mass immigration that took place? Were there any specific factors due to which the community immigrated to the USA? Feel free to include any interesting information about the linguistic community that you may uncover in your research.
Section III: Linguistic features (25 points)
In this section you will report some of the linguistic information and features about the language:
– The primary language family and the sub-family the selected language belongs to
– Some cognates of the selected language
– The word order of the language along with some sample sentences.
– Number of consonant and vowels of the language, and the basic syllable structure.
– Some unique properties and concepts in the language that you think are not found in other
languages or are not directly translatable. (See unit on linguistic relativity- color terms, number system, concepts, etc.)
Section IV: Language use and Language Maintenance (40 points)
In this section you will report the extent of the use of the selected language in within the linguistic community and in Southern California. Some of the points you will cover include (but not limited to) are:
– To what extent the speakers of the language continue using it within the community.
– To what extent the young generation speakers of the language are using the language and
trying to maintain it.
– Is the language being used in the modern day pop culture of Southern California by the
younger generations? If yes, provide some examples.
– Is the language taught at the public schools in Southern California? Are there after school
language programs for the young people to learn the language, and is the community
interested in sending their children to learn and maintain the heritage language?
– Are there restaurants in the community and/or outside the community with menus in the
heritage language? Are there newspapers, magazines, radio/ tv channels, or other resources
available in the selected language? Please include pictures if you can.
– Are there public/government documents available or translated in the selected language? Just for example, check DMV instructions; can a native speaker of the selected language
take a driving test in the heritage language?
– To what extent the speakers of the language code-switch. If yes, provide some code-
switching examples in that language. Are there positive or negative attitudes towards code switching in the community? Further, explore the reasons behind the positive or negative attitudes towards code-switching.
– What attitudes do the younger as well as the older generations have towards their language and linguistic community? Is the attitude positive or negative? If negative, try to explore the factors behind the negative attitude.
– Do the speakers of the community think that the use of the language is declining? If yes, what are the primary reasons for the decline in the language use? If no, what factors are playing a key role in the maintenance of the language?
– Along with discussing these issues with a native speaker, you may look for sociolinguistic studies that try to explore issues related to language maintenance among immigrant communities in the US for more ideas.
Do you want your assignment written by the best essay experts? Order now, for an amazing discount.