THE DISCOURSES OF HERITAGE LANGUAGES: DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE WITHIN TRANSNATIONAL MOROCCAN FAMILIES IN SPAIN. FROM LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES TO RESISTANCE

Abstract

In a context of mobility, transnationality, and the resulting multiplication of minority groups, the study of Heritage Languages (hereinafter HLs), multilingualism and Family Language Policy (hereinafter FLP) reveals the conflicting relations between the private family and the public spheres in the management of linguistic and multilingual resources. In this sense, greater attention should be given to families’ diverse experiences, parental actions and practices as well as the language policies and discourses used to tackle the challenges of passing on and maintaining their HLs in a transnational and minority context. This paper examines the discourses of HLs, as well as their evolution and maintenance within transnational Moroccan families, by combining critical sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. The analysis focusses on Moroccan families’ views on the discursive construction of Arabic and Amazigh (Berber) as capitalized and accommodated resources and the parents’ perceptions of the role their cultural heritage plays in their children’s language socialization. The results reveal that families deploy a range of strategies, actions, decisions and linguistic practices in order to promote the intergenerational transmission and use of Arabic and Amazigh, on the one hand, and to face and resist linguistic hegemony in the diaspora, on the other hand. The data analysed in this paper are the results of a qualitative research project conducted by means of semistructured interviews, group discussions and linguistic biographies involving fathers and mothers of Moroccan origin. The paper attempts to further the understanding of HL development and maintenance in transnational and multilingual Moroccan families in Spain.