Language Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth

Most studies on the language use of Malaysian Tamils focus on the upkeep of the Tamil language. There is, however, a dearth of investigations into language use in a multilingual context among the younger generation of speakers. The present study aims to fill this gap by using Fishman’s (1972) domain...

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Autores principales:	Nalliannan Pawathy, Perumal Thanalachime, Pillai Stefanie
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	DE EN ES FR LT
Publicado:	Sciendo 2021
Materias:	language choice language domains language use malaysian tamil youth Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3d87c7d441f245dda1af62ba47610571
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:3d87c7d441f245dda1af62ba47610571
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3d87c7d441f245dda1af62ba476105712021-12-05T14:11:11ZLanguage Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth2335-202710.2478/sm-2021-0014https://doaj.org/article/3d87c7d441f245dda1af62ba476105712021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.2478/sm-2021-0014https://doaj.org/toc/2335-2027Most studies on the language use of Malaysian Tamils focus on the upkeep of the Tamil language. There is, however, a dearth of investigations into language use in a multilingual context among the younger generation of speakers. The present study aims to fill this gap by using Fishman’s (1972) domain model to examine the language used by Tamil youth in intra-group communication in seven domains. Data were collected from 109 questionnaires, 42 audio-recordings of natural conversations and 40 interviews. The findings revealed that in four domains, which were the family, friendship, religion, and neighbourhood, Tamil is used more frequently. The highest usage of the language is predominantly among friends. However, there was a decreasing use of Tamil in the family domain among the younger generations with many married participants claiming to use English rather than Tamil as the home language. This does not bode well for the maintenance of Tamil as a first language in the future. The findings show how participants’ use of Tamil, English and Malay is linked to concepts of identity, solidarity, and their perceptions of these languages. The findings also point to the development of a localised variety of Tamil reflective of the Malaysian cultural landscape.Nalliannan PawathyPerumal ThanalachimePillai StefanieSciendoarticlelanguage choicelanguage domainslanguage usemalaysian tamil youthSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Geography. Anthropology. RecreationGDEENESFRLTDarnioji daugiakalbystė, Vol 19, Iss 1, Pp 69-93 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	DE EN ES FR LT
topic	language choice language domains language use malaysian tamil youth Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G
spellingShingle	language choice language domains language use malaysian tamil youth Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Nalliannan Pawathy Perumal Thanalachime Pillai Stefanie Language Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth
description	Most studies on the language use of Malaysian Tamils focus on the upkeep of the Tamil language. There is, however, a dearth of investigations into language use in a multilingual context among the younger generation of speakers. The present study aims to fill this gap by using Fishman’s (1972) domain model to examine the language used by Tamil youth in intra-group communication in seven domains. Data were collected from 109 questionnaires, 42 audio-recordings of natural conversations and 40 interviews. The findings revealed that in four domains, which were the family, friendship, religion, and neighbourhood, Tamil is used more frequently. The highest usage of the language is predominantly among friends. However, there was a decreasing use of Tamil in the family domain among the younger generations with many married participants claiming to use English rather than Tamil as the home language. This does not bode well for the maintenance of Tamil as a first language in the future. The findings show how participants’ use of Tamil, English and Malay is linked to concepts of identity, solidarity, and their perceptions of these languages. The findings also point to the development of a localised variety of Tamil reflective of the Malaysian cultural landscape.
format	article
author	Nalliannan Pawathy Perumal Thanalachime Pillai Stefanie
author_facet	Nalliannan Pawathy Perumal Thanalachime Pillai Stefanie
author_sort	Nalliannan Pawathy
title	Language Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth
title_short	Language Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth
title_full	Language Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth
title_fullStr	Language Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth
title_full_unstemmed	Language Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth
title_sort	language use among malaysian tamil youth
publisher	Sciendo
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/3d87c7d441f245dda1af62ba47610571
work_keys_str_mv	AT nalliannanpawathy languageuseamongmalaysiantamilyouth AT perumalthanalachime languageuseamongmalaysiantamilyouth AT pillaistefanie languageuseamongmalaysiantamilyouth
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Language Use Among Malaysian Tamil Youth

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