Talking in the temple: a case study of language use and attitudes in the Shree Raam Mandir in Wijchen, The Netherlands
Issue: Vol 5 No. 2 (2011)
Journal: Sociolinguistic Studies
Subject Areas: Gender Studies Linguistics
Abstract:
This paper presents a case study of the Hindustani community attending the Shree Raam Mandir in Wijchen, the largest Hindu temple in the Netherlands. On the basis of a questionnaire, in-depth interviews and observations, data were gathered about oral and written use of and attitudes towards the three main languages of the community, i.e., Dutch, Sarnami and Hindi. Our findings reveal that Dutch is the high-status and main public language of the Hindustani community in Wijchen, both in spoken and in written form. Sarnami, an informal and mainly oral language, has a rather low status and is still used in the community by the older generation. Hindi, the language of Hinduism, however, is highly valued by the community, although it is hardly known and therefore hardly used by its members. These outcomes, all showing Dutch steadily gaining ground on Sarnami and Hindi, are discussed within the wider framework of the double migration history of the Hindustani community, and of religion and identity.
Author: Sjaak Kroon, Jeanne Kurvers, Renate Remie
References :
Aarts, R., Extra, G. and Yağmur, K. (2004) Multilingualism in The Hague. In G. Extra and K. Yağmur (eds) Urban multilingualism in Europe: Immigrant minority languages at home and at school 194–220. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Asfaha, Y., Kurvers, J. and Kroon, S. (2008) Literacy and script attitudes in multilingual Eritrea. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(2): 223–240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00355.x
Baumann, M. (2007) Templeisation and learning to be a Hindu in the diaspora. Paper presented at expert seminar Hindus today: re-creating identity through ritual. Tilburg University, 8 May 2007.
Baumann, M. (2009) Templeisation: continuity and change of Hindu traditions in diaspora. Journal of Religion in Europe 2(2): 149–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/
187489209X437026
Blommaert, J. and Dong, J. (2010) Ethnographic fieldwork: A beginner’s guide. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Broeder, P. and Extra, G. (1995) Minderheidsgroepen en minderheidstalen. Den Haag: VNG Uitgeverij.
Fishman, J. A. (1972) The relationship between micro and macro sociolinguistics in the study of who speaks what language to whom and when. In J. B. Pride and J. Holmes (eds) Sociolinguistics: Selected Readings 15–32. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Kress, G. (2005) English in urban classrooms: A multimodal perspective on teaching and learning. London and New York: Routledge Falmer.
Kroon, S. and Sturm, J. (2007) International comparative case study research in education: Key incident analysis and international triangulation. In W. Herrlitz, S. Ongstad and P. H. van de Ven (eds) Research on MTE in a comparative international perspective: Theoretical and methodological issues 99–118. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Nugteren, A. (2009). Home is where the Murties are: A Hindustani community and its temple in Wijchen, the Netherlands. Journal of Religion in Europe 2(2): 115-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/187489209X437017
Shohamy, E. and Gorter, D. (eds) (2009) Linguistic landscape: expanding the scenery. New York and London: Routledge.
van der Avoird, T. (2001) Determining language vitality: The language use of Hindu communities in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Tilburg: Printing office of Tilburg University.