Your family heritage is something that you
lack, but it is really there deep inside says a
14-year-old bilingual adolescent. This book gives an
insight into the controversial processes involved in
the intergenerational transmission of a heritage
language at the family and community levels. It is
based on ethnographic observations of a Russian-
speaking community in Israel and on individual tape-
recorded interviews with seven siblings and their
parents. The children report their rebellion against
the home language, periods of enthusiastic
linguistic rebirth, or detached appreciation of
Russian. Their parents analyze painful arguments
about family language management. The book proposes
a detailed typology of Hebrew-induced changes,
including codeswitching and grammatical convergence,
in the Russian contact variety sustained by the
second generation, and their distribution in
individual speech samples. The research deals with
current theories, such as Reversing Language Shift
(Fishman, 2001); Language Management (Spolsky,
2009); Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998), Contact
Linguistics (Myers-Scotton, 2002).
lack, but it is really there deep inside says a
14-year-old bilingual adolescent. This book gives an
insight into the controversial processes involved in
the intergenerational transmission of a heritage
language at the family and community levels. It is
based on ethnographic observations of a Russian-
speaking community in Israel and on individual tape-
recorded interviews with seven siblings and their
parents. The children report their rebellion against
the home language, periods of enthusiastic
linguistic rebirth, or detached appreciation of
Russian. Their parents analyze painful arguments
about family language management. The book proposes
a detailed typology of Hebrew-induced changes,
including codeswitching and grammatical convergence,
in the Russian contact variety sustained by the
second generation, and their distribution in
individual speech samples. The research deals with
current theories, such as Reversing Language Shift
(Fishman, 2001); Language Management (Spolsky,
2009); Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998), Contact
Linguistics (Myers-Scotton, 2002).