Intergenerational transmission of Japanese in Argentina

December 4, 2017 2 Comments latl

Intergenerational transmission of Japanese in Argentina

Julieta Murata Missagh

Universidad de Buenos Aires

Cite as: Murata Missagh, J. (2017, December). Intergenerational transmission of Japanese in Argentina. Paper presented at the Third UC Intergenerational Transmission of Minority Languages Symposium: Challenges and Benefits. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5661916

CLICK to download poster – Julieta Murata – _Poster

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Migration movements are the driving force behind language contact situations, which in turn may produce a change in linguistic behavior, oftentimes towards language shift. In point, the intergenerational transmission of language offers itself as a critical aspect in the ethnolinguistic vitality of immigrant languages. As Haque (2010) suggests, language transmission and language practices are often subjected to issues related to national, family and local language(s) policies.

This communication presents a number of aspects affecting the intergenerational transmission of Japanese as an immigrant language in Argentina, namely the role of family language planning, language ideologies in the host country and educational language policies. Following Onaha (2012), a distinction is made between Pre-war and Post-war period in the history of the community, WW2 being a crucial event as from permanent settling in South America became the norm and, with it, a relative loosening of the immigrant language transmission practices. Through sociolinguistic and ethnographic research, an outline of the results of in-depth interviews, and archive resources consulting is offered.

COMMENTS (2)

Amy Budrikis 6 years ago

Hi Julieta,
Really interesting topic! Forgive my ignorance as I don’t really know anything about the Japanese diaspora – do you know how the intergenerational transmission of Japanese in Argentina would compare to the transmission of Japanese in other countries that the Japanese migrated to – or to the transmission of other minority languages in Argentina? Would they be roughly similar, or do you think there are particular factors at play in Japanese-Argentinian communities?

Julieta Murata 6 years ago

Dear Amy,

Thank you very much for your comment – I’m very sorry for the belated reply!

You touch on a critical aspect regarding the intergenerational transmission of Japanese. I believe that the Japanese community in Argentina remained as a tight-closed community for many generations, with a marked tendency to intermarriage and linguistic endogamy. This pattern differs at some point from the Japanese communities in Brazil or Bolivia, these being spots where -according to the sources I’ve consulted- a great deal of ethnic mixture took place. Unfortunately, I can’t provide quantitative data regarding the proportion of Japanese heritage speakers in countries other than Argentina. However, it does seem like transmission is inevitably set at the crossroads of language ideologies and symbolic status as well as migration policies. In Bolivia, for example, Japanese transmission was lower and this in turn may be due to low intermarriage rates and an overall positive cultural stereotype regarding the Japanese, thus creating proper conditions for them to advance socially and politically over the years, and in order to do so, proper Spanish (and not Japanese!) was the key to success. I would most definitely like to explore this issue in the future.

Thank you once again for your question – and best wishes for the upcoming year!

Julieta

Intergenerational transmission of Japanese in Argentina

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