Use of Croatian across domains: language maintenance and shift amongst Croatian-speakers in Australia Jim Hlavac Monash University, Melbourne

Aims of paper Statistical overview of Croatian speakers Language use according to domains – second generation Croatian and English? Where? With whom? Language maintenance/shift  3 rd generation

English + most widely spoken 15 languages Australia English 15,581,333 Italian 316,895 Greek 252,226 Cantonese 244,553 Arabic 243,662 Mandarin 220,600 Vietnamese 194,854 Spanish 98,001 German 75,634 Hindi 70,011 Macedonian 67,835 Croatian 63,612 Korean 54,623 Turkish 53,857 Polish 53,389 Tagalog 53,283 Melbourne English 2,447,490 Italian 120,038 Greek 114,210 Vietnamese 71,121 Cantonese 65,496 Mandarin 62,462 Arabic 53,871 Macedonian 29,060 Turkish 27,857 Spanish 23,373 Croatian 19,444 Maltese 17,961 Hindi 17,670 Sinhalese 16,599 Polish 16,282 German 15,509

Informants 100 Croatian-English bilinguals – 50 ♀, 50 ♂ 2 nd generation (87 born in Aust., 13 arrived < 5 yrs old) All speakers of Štokavski dialect of Croatian Children of endogamous marriages Parents arrived in Australia as adults Resident in Melbourne or Geelong Taped interviews and written questionnaires

Sociolinguistic domains Home/family Personal/intimate Leisure/social life/religion Media Workplace/shopping/neighbourhood Education Spouse/partner (Future) Children

Home / Family

Self-reported proficiency in Croatian

 Language/s I speak to mother/father  Mother / father speaks to me in

Language choice with older siblings 1 st older sibling 2 nd older sibling 3 rd older sibling Average age26 years 25 years Which language do you speak with him/her? Croatian Cro. with some Eng. words Eng. with some Cro. words English 3 (5%) 2 (3%) 21 (34%) 35 (58%) 2 (9%) 1 (4%) 6 (26%) 14 (61%) 0 2 (40%) 3 (60%) Which language does s/he speak with you? Croatian Cro. with some Eng. words Eng. with some Cro. words English 3 (5%) 1 (2%) 20 (33%) 37 (60%) 3 (13%) 0 5 (22%) 15 (65%) 0 2 (40%) 3 (60%)

Language choice with younger siblings 1 st younger sibling 2 nd younger sibling 3 rd younger sibling Average age17 years15 years Which language do you speak with him/her? Croatian Cro. with some Eng. words Eng. with some Cro. words English 1 (2%) 2 (3%) 24 (39%) 34 (56%) 0 1 (4%) 4 (14%) 23 (82%) 0 2 (20%) 8 (80%) Which language does s/he speak with you? Croatian Cro. with some Eng. words Eng. with some Cro. words English 1 (3%) 3 (5%) 20 (33%) 37 (60%) 0 4 (14%) 24 (86%) 0 2 (20%) 8 (80%)

Personal / intimate

Ethnic-specific leisure events

Social life - Ethnic background of friends Language spoken with Croatian friends

Church attendees – 72/100

Prayer

Media

Workplace If you work, do you use Croatian at your workplace? Yes : 37%No: 63% If yes, with whom? Customers / Clients57% Workmates54% Employer / Boss30%

Shopping / Neighbourhood Use of Croatian when shopping or using a service (eg. bank, tradesperson). Yes: 1No: 99 Neighbours with whom you speak Croatian? Yes: 41No: 59

Education Attendance at Croatian Saturday morning school? Yes: 85No: 15 Why do students attend Croatian school? Because their parents want/force them to go 33 So that they can learn the language20 Extra marks in year 1213 Keep the parents happy9 Socialise with other Croats8 Because they like Croatian school6 Other11

Spouse / Partner Is your spouse/partner of Croatian origin? Yes: 15 (79%)No: 4 (21%) If yes, was the fact s/he is Croatian: Important: 10 (67%) Convenient: 3 (20%) A coincidence: 2 (13%) If no, does s/he know any Croatian? Yes: 2 (50%)No: 2 (50%)

Language with Cro. spouse/partner – 15/100 I speak: S/he speaks:

With children – 7/100 Which language/s do you speak with your child/ren? Croatian: 1Cro. & Eng.: 5English: 1 Which language/s does your child speak with you? Croatian: 0 Cro. & Eng.: 4English: 2 Not able to speak yet: 1

Language choice – why? Croatian Because if feels natural and I want my child to know and speak Croatian Cro. & Eng Being able to understand/communicate with parents, relatives etc. in Croatian English Less confusion

Without children – 93/100

Croatian and English – 2 nd generation interlocutors Swearing68% Soccer matches, nightclubs, discos45% Croatian-origin friends45% Spouse/partner45% Dream in, think in35% Siblings30% (Eng. with some Cro. words / Cro. with some Eng. Words) Same-age parishioners28% Prayer25% Younger parishioners22% Croatian and English – 3 rd generation interlocutors Children80% Future children75%

Croatian with English embeddings Ima pet, pet ispod mene, tri casuals i two koji rade part-time. There are five, five under me, three casuals and two who work part-time Croatian / English alternations Nah, bilo je kada su bili young and when they were growing up, i što su radili, it was about girls, teenage girls. Nah, it was when they were young and when they were growing up, and what they did, it was about girls, teenage girls.

English with Croatian embeddings I’m not sure what he does there – mechanical work, maintenance, painting, takve stvari.... things like that. English with Cro. emblematic embeddings Svekrve are bad news. Mothers-in-law... Australian-Croatian ethnolect Yeah, same to you mate, hope your legs dry up!... neka ti se noge isuše!

Language maintenance – Reversing language shift 1. Education, mass media – state, national  ? 2. Mass media + govt. services – local, state ? 3. Work spheres  ? 4a. Croatian-English bilingual mainstream schools  4b. Croatian taught in mainstream schools  5. Croatian supplementary schools ? 6. Daily intergenerational and concentrated home-family-neighbourhood-community links ? 7. Interaction in Croatian mainly amongst older gen. 8. Reconstructing Croatian and adult SLA of it.N/A