Language heritage gets lost in three generations

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    A linguist explains how the “three generation pattern” could wipe out Spanish in the US


    Quote from QZ

    If one looks only at immigration patterns over the past half-century, it is true that the US has been gaining Spanish-speakers. [...] While new immigrants bring Spanish with them, research shows that their children tend to become bilinguals who overwhelmingly prefer English. As a result, the same immigrants’ grandchildren likely speak English only.

    Linguists call this phenomenon “the three-generation pattern.” In essence, it means that non-English languages in the US are lost by or during the third generation.


    It matches my experience. What's yours?

    Language is like a muscle, if you don't exercise it, you lose it.

    My husband's grandparents moved to the U.S., speaking only French for the rest of their lives. Their children were bilingual, and translated for them. My husband's generation was discouraged from learning any French at all.


    This lines up with the immigration pattern you quote.

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    Seems inevitable to me and even if the second generation kids go to an English speaking school here in BA, their preferred language is Spanish and they simply stop speaking English on a day to day basis.

    You get rusty and comparing language to a muscle is pretty much spot-on.

    In fact, a Brit friend of mine has two daughters, both of whom went to bilingual schools, yet their English is practically non existent now. It's a shame, since English for a foreigner is such a useful tool.

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    My husband's half-brother was born in Italy to an Argentinian mother and an Italian father.

    The father did not want him to learn Spanish, although at home Spanish was used daily (being the mother and the other two siblings Argentinians).


    So now he speaks some Spanish, cannot write it correctly (still he writes like most Argentines, with random c, s, z and h) and has a thick Italian accent. I wonder what's the point of hiring an au-pair to raise your kid in a bi- or tri-lingual environment if then it is worth very little if not maintained over time.


    Researchers have found out that you can even lose a native language.

    This issue depends on which language are you referring.


    In Argentina, Anglo-saxons, French and German inmigrants still keeps in good form their forefathers Language. I know 4th generation argentines descendants of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France and Germany where they still speak those languages and of course Spanish, curiously with a slight foreign accent.

    I my opinion, I think they are proud of their ancestor´s culture and they think that their culture is superior than the Mediterranean european countries. (Spain & Italy, i.e.)

    I have just visited an estancia of French stock owners who before meals they pray in French. I warned them that I understand French as well, in a funny way, just to prevent any hidden criticism to me.

    The main thing is the prestige of a Nation. This helps to keep the original language in good shape.

    Spanish and Italian inmigrants do not think the same.

    It is umcomfortable to me to say that from the XIX Century until now, Spain and Italy, mainly speaking, have had a poor performance in matters of technological issues, due that they arrived late to the Industrial Revolution.

    No wonder that the mexican americans will forget their Spanish very quickly.

    Quote from Carlos

    No wonder that the mexican americans will forget their Spanish very quickly.

    It's worse than that, even.


    I lived and worked in Mexico some decades ago with my family. My wife and I were in our twenties, and the three kids ranged from two to seven years on arrival. They, of course, were speaking colloquial local Spanish in weeks, and even I learned some in the six years we were there. A depressingly sad scene that played out many times was this: a Mexican-American family from California, Arizona, etc., decided to take a vacation in the Motherland. Tired of the crap they had to take from the Anglos, they wanted to immerse themselves in their true culture and become as one with their southern brothers and sisters.


    Right.


    The Mexicans preyed on them like lions on lambs - they were even easier to skin than the real Anglos! The worst part: many of these Chicano parents had purposely withheld Spanish from their kids - to speed up assimilation? I was never sure. But the result was heartbreaking: the little Chicanos couldn't play with the local kids. Mine could, and they looked like me (see photo), but the visitors had to rely on my kids for translation. I've never understood why someone would do that to their families.


    But it happened again, just last week. Took my car in for an oil change. Roberto Hernandez greeted me and took the car in, and we chatted a bit. He asked what that language was he'd heard my wife and I speaking. I laughed and said, "it probably sounds a bit strange to you - it's Argentine Spanish." "It all sounds strange to me," he responded, "my folks wouldn't teach us any Spanish at home. I don't speak a word."

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    I have a Finnish acquaintance living nearby Florence, she was married to an Italian and had a girl. For some unknown reason, she never taught her girl Finnish. She said her daughter can understand something, but does not speak it. My acquaintance did not had any relationship with her native Finnish family, so the child never had anybody else to speak Finnish to, and had no reason to learn Finnish as they were living in Italy.


    Still, I believe that being able to be exposed to another language -- moreover if a distant language from your native like is Finnish to Italian -- is a great asset and a privilege not to be wasted.


    And I am also surprise to hear that there are mothers who can keep themselves from speaking to their children in their mother tongue.