Language maintenance and language shift among second generation Tigrinya-speaking Eritrean immigrants in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper addresses the language maintenance and language shift among the young Tigrinya-speaking Eritrean immigrants in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Sixty-four Tigrinya-speaking teenager immigrants in Riyadh participated in this study. Forty of them are females and twenty-four are males. These respondents are students enrolled in the Eritrean International School in Riyadh. The results reveal that respondents have a limited ability to understand, speak, read, write, and translate orally Tigrinya into Arabic and vice-versa. In comparing the level of their proficiency in both Tigrinya and Arabic, it is found that they have a lower proficiency in Tigrinya than in Arabic. The use of Tigrinya is seemingly decreasing and the use of Arabic is increasing. Therefore, there is evidence from this study that second-generation Tigrinya teenagers' proficiency is shifting toward Arabic rather than maintaining the native language. © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.