The Language of Intimacy

Abstract

How can linguistic minorities retain their mother tongues so as to stop a language shift towards the dominant linguistic majority? One of the answers to the question has been that if minorities keep on using the mother tongue at home and in the sphere of intimacy, a stable bilingualism, or a diglossic situation, can be created and maintained (Fishman 1991).

Research done in Denmark and Germany on the language usage amongst immigrants points to the difficulties of this hypothesis. On the one hand, several studies show that the language of the majority (in this case Danish) becomes the language of communication between not only the second-generation immigrants, but also partly between the first-generation parents and their children. This being the case, the question is if the schools or other agents should and can intervene in this process.

On the other hand, research done on the sexual and emotional lives of young Turks in Germany show that they shift to German when they speak about sexuality, even if their dominant language is Turkish. A close focus on their sexual and emotional lives shows that this very intimate sphere takes place mostly in German.

In this paper I attempt to discuss why the immigrants tend to shift language even at home and in the sphere of intimacy. One of my points is that when Turkish culture and North European societies collide, it is not only a confrontation between Turkish and the local languages, but, maybe even more important, a collision between traditional and modern values and forms of life.