Resumen de Selected factors in bilingualism: The case of Galicia
Robert C. Williamson, Virginia L. Williamson
This study must be viewed in the context of the decline of the ML (minority language) in a number of Western nations. The authors’ previous research on the social factors in several ML areas (Friulan, Romansh, Breton, Welsh, Gaelic, and Pennsylvania German) pointed to the effects of given ‘subcultures’ such as age and social class.
Interviews with both open‐ended and standardised items on usage of the ML and OL as well as attitudes toward bilingualism, were largely carried out in the homes of 104 subjects in representative areas of Galicia. The sample was notably younger and more poorly educated than in the other ML areas studied by the authors, largely because of the years of underdevelopment in Spain and especially Galicia.
The findings revealed that as with the other ML areas, upper age, low social status, and rural residence were associated with ML code choice. Particularly during adolescence, language commitment shifted from the ML to the OL (official language). Still, since most Galicians are bilingual, age was not as sharp a determinant as in the other ML areas. On the other hand, because of the reward system in Spain during most of this century, the social class variable was more important than in the other ML areas. Nor were all factors affected by social class, as for instance the code choice for speaking to a teacher (as with the church, communication in the school has almost always been in the OL). Finally, there was a curvilinear effect; if the younger, middle class, and the urban subjects preferred the OL, they were also more aware than older, lower class, and rural subjects of the need to protect the ML with increased attention in the school and the mass media.
