Heritage language acquisition: Contributions from Romanian children
Heritage language acquisition: Contributions from Romanian children

Summary/Abstract: The last thirty years have seen the emergence and burgeoning of the field of heritage languages and linguistics (Montrul & Polinsky 2021, Polinsky 2018, Rao 2024) and, naturally, the acquisition of heritage languages (Montrul 2008, 2016, Rinke et al. 2019). Heritage languages are socio-politically minority languages that are acquired in a bilingual and multilingual context, simultaneously or as a first language (sequential bilingualism), under pressure from the socio-politically majority language. Immigrant languages in the diaspora, minority historical languages in diverse territories, and aboriginal languages in America, Australia, Northern Europe and Asia can be heritage languages, depending on their circumstances. A significant body of linguistic research on heritage languages has focused on major standard languages in the diaspora, such as Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and Arabic, to name just a few, and on the language of second-generation immigrants, also known as heritage speakers.

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