Heritage language ideologies :|speakers’ perspectives

Abstract

The present thesis study aims to investigate the language ideologies held by speakers of Western Armenian, one of the heritage languages of Turkey, by means of data obtained through online interviews. Analysis of the data obtained from interview interactions reveals heritage language speakers’ lived experiences with and perspectives of their heritage language in respect to the past, present and future of Western Armenian as a heritage language. The language ideology framework sheds light on the ideations of heritage language speakers in relation to their heritage language situated within interview interactions. The findings of the study reveal multiple and diverse language ideologies that span across different time periods, which are in a two-way relationship with the social and linguistic contexts and practices.