“Zviedrija ne ēd pīrāgi”: A case study of heritage Latvian in Sweden : Heritage language exposure and language change in preadolescent heritage speakers

Sammanfattning: Heritage languages are increasingly seen as a source of important insight in linguistics. Latvian has a long and under-researched history as a heritage language, with a heterogenous community of heritage speakers from two waves of migration in many countries including Sweden. A qualitative case study of a small written corpus identifies and analyses the key divergences in heritage Latvian in texts by nine preadolescent children that attend the complementary Latvian community school in Stockholm. Self-reported background information on language practices by study participants and their parents is used to estimate and compare their heritage language exposure level. This composite measure helps to evaluate the vulnerability of various areas of grammar to reduced language input. The observed language changes are analysed in the context of a recent study on Latvian language change in second-generation post-war immigrants to Sweden, earlier findings of contact-induced change in heritage Latvian in the USA as well as common features identified in other heritage languages. Changes attested in texts by several study participants and in previous studies are likely to point to common features of heritage Latvian. Recognition of their language as a heritage variety of Latvian can facilitate language maintenance efforts in the language community.