A new language has been swiftly spreading, as observed by linguist Nicholas Grenoble. The influx of English has been noticeable, with current immigrants and short-term workers mainly applying the language. Moreover, young men and women are finding out English via a variety of mediums such as motion pictures, video games, social media, and YouTube. Grenoble’s study aims to have an understanding of the dynamics of this circumstance each linguistically and sociolinguistically. Especially, he desires to know who speaks which language, when, and with whom. He is also interested in how Greenlanders are finding out English and how it impacts their expertise and use of their mother tongue, Kalaallisut.

To collect info and answer these concerns, Grenoble and project postdoc Jessica Kantarovich performed observations in Nuuk, Greenland. A single unique location of interest for them was the reports of Kalaallisut receiving shorter. Kalaallisut is a polysynthetic language, exactly where suffixes take on the part of words in languages like English. Grenoble offers an instance, explaining that the word “qujanaq” signifies “thank you.” By adding the suffix “-rsuaq,” which means “big,” the word becomes “qujanarsuaq,” which translates to “big thanks” or “thank you incredibly significantly.” The researchers performed interviews in Kalaallisut to decide if and how words had been receiving shorter. They also studied the each day use of the language.

In their study, Grenoble and Kantarovich also engage in participant-observation perform. They devote time in public locations, such as shops and restaurants, to observe the language usage. They spend consideration to who is applying which language in casual and short interactions. A single unique concentrate for the scholars is the idea of shifting speakers, which refers to young men and women in their homeland who cease finding out their parents’ minority language and shift to the majority language. This phenomenon is of good interest to Grenoble and his group.