Japanese language maintenance and shift within the Nikkei communities in Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analysis aspects of language maintenance and language shift among three generations of Japanese Brazilians in two different rural communities, Aliança and Fukuhaku Mura (city of Suzano), the first in the interior of Brazil and the second in the surroundings of an urban center. As for bilingualism among the second generation speakers, the research showed that these speakers are indeed bilingual in the Aliança community. However, in Fukuhaku Mura, bilingualism is already observed among first generation speakers who immigrated in an early age, while a tendency to be monolingual is observed among second generation speakers. As Portuguese is the major language in Brazilian society, folk bilingualism is observed in both communities and, for instance, language shift often occurs.