TALK: L. Grenoble / Linguistic diversity in Greenland (06.04.2026, 18:00, online)
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Egor Kashkin
Mar 12, 2026, 6:00:50 AMMar 12
to mos...@googlegroups.com
Дорогие коллеги,
6 апреля 2026 года в 18:00 (московское время) состоится заседание
семинара по языковым контактам ИРЯ РАН. Выступит Ленора Гренобль (The
University of Chicago / Северо-Восточный федеральный университет имени
М.К. Аммосова, Якутск) с докладом «Linguistic diversity in Greenland:
Nuuk as the hub of contact and change».
Семинар пройдет онлайн. За получением ссылки следует обращаться к
Егору Владимировичу Кашкину (egork...@gmail.com).
Английская версия объявления доступна наряду с русской на
https://ruslang.ru/news/seminar-po-yazykovym-kontaktam-06042026
Аннотация:
Greenland, although home to less than 57,000 people, is a place of
high linguistic diversity and language contact. The official language
of the country is Kalaallisut, a standardized variety of West
Greenlandic, an Inuit language belonging to the Inuit-Yupik-Unangan
family. Due to both Greenland’s colonial history and current status as
part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Danish is widely known and used by
many residents as a second language, and by some as a primary
language. It plays an important role in education and government. For
a long time, Danish-Kalaallisut bilingualism has been prevalent across
much of the population, but that status is in flux now due to
immigrant languages and the rise of English.
The present study focuses on the dynamics of language usage in Nuuk,
the capital city and home to approximately one third of the country’s
entire population. Nuuk is a leader in ongoing change in the rest of
the country in a movement away from Danish-Kalaallisut (Greenlandic)
bilingualism to the use of English as a lingua franca for the country.
There are two key entry points for English: (1) immigrants and
short-term visitors (such as tourists and trade partners), who use
neither Danish nor Kalaallisut, and (2) from the Greenland population
itself, who acquire English independently, often via internet culture
(social media, online gaming, music and movies). The spread of English
further represents a strongly held belief that outsiders cannot learn
Kalaallisut because it is too difficult, and so accommodating them in
an “easier” language is an accepted and expected norm. The overall
result is a shift in language attitudes and ideologies and increasing
moves toward language mixing as a daily practice among youth.
English holds a prominent place in the multilingual repertoires of
residents of Nuuk, with one result being frequent code-mixing (in 2 or
3 languages). Selection of languages (Danish or English and
Kalaallisut, or Danish-English-Kalaallisut) varies with peer groups,
suggesting communities of practice influence linguistic repertoires
and code-mixing. Despite the high levels of multilingualism, we find
scant evidence of contact-induced change in Kalaallisut other than
lexical borrowings from Danish and English. Change in urban
Kalaallisut, in particular across younger speakers, is rapidly taking
place, but appears to be largely language-internal.
Research was conducted in Nuuk in 2023-2025 using a mixed methods
approach, combining an analysis of linguistic landscapes in Nuuk,
language snapshots taken during service encounters in Danish, English
and Kalaallisut, in-depth sociolinguistic interviews, and
conversational data.
Research on this project was conducted in collaboration with Jessica
Kantarovich, Camilla Kleemann-Andersen, Ivaana Kleemann-Andersen, and
Tikaajaat Gerae Kristensen.
6 апреля 2026 года в 18:00 (московское время) состоится заседание
семинара по языковым контактам ИРЯ РАН. Выступит Ленора Гренобль (The
University of Chicago / Северо-Восточный федеральный университет имени
М.К. Аммосова, Якутск) с докладом «Linguistic diversity in Greenland:
Nuuk as the hub of contact and change».
Семинар пройдет онлайн. За получением ссылки следует обращаться к
Егору Владимировичу Кашкину (egork...@gmail.com).
Английская версия объявления доступна наряду с русской на
https://ruslang.ru/news/seminar-po-yazykovym-kontaktam-06042026
Аннотация:
Greenland, although home to less than 57,000 people, is a place of
high linguistic diversity and language contact. The official language
of the country is Kalaallisut, a standardized variety of West
Greenlandic, an Inuit language belonging to the Inuit-Yupik-Unangan
family. Due to both Greenland’s colonial history and current status as
part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Danish is widely known and used by
many residents as a second language, and by some as a primary
language. It plays an important role in education and government. For
a long time, Danish-Kalaallisut bilingualism has been prevalent across
much of the population, but that status is in flux now due to
immigrant languages and the rise of English.
The present study focuses on the dynamics of language usage in Nuuk,
the capital city and home to approximately one third of the country’s
entire population. Nuuk is a leader in ongoing change in the rest of
the country in a movement away from Danish-Kalaallisut (Greenlandic)
bilingualism to the use of English as a lingua franca for the country.
There are two key entry points for English: (1) immigrants and
short-term visitors (such as tourists and trade partners), who use
neither Danish nor Kalaallisut, and (2) from the Greenland population
itself, who acquire English independently, often via internet culture
(social media, online gaming, music and movies). The spread of English
further represents a strongly held belief that outsiders cannot learn
Kalaallisut because it is too difficult, and so accommodating them in
an “easier” language is an accepted and expected norm. The overall
result is a shift in language attitudes and ideologies and increasing
moves toward language mixing as a daily practice among youth.
English holds a prominent place in the multilingual repertoires of
residents of Nuuk, with one result being frequent code-mixing (in 2 or
3 languages). Selection of languages (Danish or English and
Kalaallisut, or Danish-English-Kalaallisut) varies with peer groups,
suggesting communities of practice influence linguistic repertoires
and code-mixing. Despite the high levels of multilingualism, we find
scant evidence of contact-induced change in Kalaallisut other than
lexical borrowings from Danish and English. Change in urban
Kalaallisut, in particular across younger speakers, is rapidly taking
place, but appears to be largely language-internal.
Research was conducted in Nuuk in 2023-2025 using a mixed methods
approach, combining an analysis of linguistic landscapes in Nuuk,
language snapshots taken during service encounters in Danish, English
and Kalaallisut, in-depth sociolinguistic interviews, and
conversational data.
Research on this project was conducted in collaboration with Jessica
Kantarovich, Camilla Kleemann-Andersen, Ivaana Kleemann-Andersen, and
Tikaajaat Gerae Kristensen.
Egor Kashkin
3:48 PM (8 hours ago) 3:48 PM
to mos...@googlegroups.com
Дорогие коллеги,
Напоминаю о докладе Леноры Гренобль «Linguistic diversity in
Greenland: Nuuk as the hub of contact and change» 6 апреля 2026 года в
18:00 мск онлайн. Аннотация в цитируемом ниже письме. За ссылкой
пишите, пожалуйста, мне
чт, 12 мар. 2026 г. в 15:00, Egor Kashkin <egork...@gmail.com>:
Напоминаю о докладе Леноры Гренобль «Linguistic diversity in
Greenland: Nuuk as the hub of contact and change» 6 апреля 2026 года в
18:00 мск онлайн. Аннотация в цитируемом ниже письме. За ссылкой
пишите, пожалуйста, мне
чт, 12 мар. 2026 г. в 15:00, Egor Kashkin <egork...@gmail.com>:
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