Ansah, G. N. (2021). Negotiating Linguistic Disruptions and Connections in Migratory Contexts: Language Practices among Child Migrants in an Urban Market in Ghana. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.

Employing ethnographic methods, I investigated communicative practices that shape the linguistic repertoires of child migrants in Agbogbloshie, an urban market in Ghana. While similar studies have often discussed the relationship between language and migration by focusing on language shift and loss among migrants, I argue in this article that migrants in complex linguistically diverse spaces such are found in many African contexts are motivated by both social and economic dynamics of their space to make linguistic choices, while negotiating their daily lives, that lead to the development of complex, heterogeneous linguistic repertoires and practices. Gathering data from interactions at childcare centers and migrant homes in Agbogbloshie, the analysis revealed that while migrant parents negotiate their own multilingual practices with their migrant children, child migrants expand their linguistic repertoires through relationships and interactions with caregivers and peers in childcare centers and neighborhoods, leading to the development of heterogeneous language practices that neither their parents nor caregivers necessarily possess. The article therefore concludes that migration may lead to complex linguistic diversity. The study contributes to Indigenous perspectives on linguistic diversity and our understanding of the structure and nature of superdiversification.

 

Author Name
Dr. Gladys Nyarko Ansah
Department of English
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