Greek-Spanish Community: The Maintenance of the Spanish Language in Mixed Families

Abstract

The present chapter focuses on the language maintenance of Spanish in the context of Greek-Spanish families. It explores the thoughts, perceptions and attitudes of Spanish parents of Greek-Spanish families, regarding their language and their bilingualism, the language ability and use of Spanish in the family, as well as the use of any reinforcement practices of Spanish. To study these issues, qualitative research was conducted, using semi-structured interviews that were administered to seven Greek-Spanish families living in Thessaloniki, Greece. In general, language shift towards Greek was observed, due to the fact that the practices and efforts to reinforce Spanish become weaker over the years.