A Sociolinguistic Investigation of The Status of Shelha : An Endangered Language in Chlef- Algeria

Authors

  • Hanane Sekhal PhD student in Linguistics and Contact Languages, Department of English Language, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Mohamed Ben Ahmed University Oran 2, Algeria.
  • Lotfi Abdelkader BENHATTAB Professor of Department of English Language, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Mohamed Ben Ahmed University Oran 2 , Algeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22046/LA.2023.17

Keywords:

Chlef, ethnic group, language endangerment, minority language, moribund language, Shelha

Abstract

The world witnessed the disappearance of a considerable number of languages. The present article explores the phenomenon of language endangerment and language death among Shelha speakers in Chlef (Algeria). Its main purpose is to measure the degree of endangerment of this minority language which is spoken by an ethnic group in Chlef, as well as to gain insight into the extent of language use and language proficiency among its speakers. The data were elicited by means of a questionnaire, and both unstructured and semi-structured in depth interviews. The findings have revealed that Shelha is a moribund language in Chlef which is not used by its speakers as their only means of communication in their daily conversations, but they still use it in very limitted settings.

References

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Tasaku, T. (2005). Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization: An Introduction. Mouton de Gruyter.

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Published

2023-09-01

How to Cite

Sekhal, H., & Lotfi , A. B. (2023). A Sociolinguistic Investigation of The Status of Shelha : An Endangered Language in Chlef- Algeria. LANGUAGE ART, 8(3), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.22046/LA.2023.17

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 3 (2023): Coming soon!

Section

Article

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Hanane Sekhal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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