A new language has been swiftly spreading, as observed by linguist Nicholas Grenoble. The influx of English has been noticeable, with current immigrants and short-term workers mainly applying the language. Furthermore, young men and women are finding out English via different mediums such as films, video games, social media, and YouTube. Grenoble’s analysis aims to comprehend the dynamics of this circumstance each linguistically and sociolinguistically. Particularly, he desires to know who speaks which language, when, and with whom. He is also interested in how Greenlanders are finding out English and how it impacts their know-how and use of their mother tongue, Kalaallisut.

To collect information and facts and answer these concerns, Grenoble and project postdoc Jessica Kantarovich carried out observations in Nuuk, Greenland. A single specific region of interest for them was the reports of Kalaallisut receiving shorter. Kalaallisut is a polysynthetic language, exactly where suffixes take on the part of words in languages like English. Grenoble supplies an instance, explaining that the word “qujanaq” suggests “thank you.” By adding the suffix “-rsuaq,” which means “big,” the word becomes “qujanarsuaq,” which translates to “big thanks” or “thank you really significantly.” The researchers carried out interviews in Kalaallisut to decide if and how words have been receiving shorter. They also studied the each day use of the language.

In their analysis, Grenoble and Kantarovich also engage in participant-observation perform. They invest time in public areas, such as shops and restaurants, to observe the language usage. They spend focus to who is applying which language in casual and short interactions. A single specific concentrate for the scholars is the notion of shifting speakers, which refers to young men and women in their homeland who cease finding out their parents’ minority language and shift to the majority language. This phenomenon is of fantastic interest to Grenoble and his group.