I study the linguistic and social causes and outcomes of language shift in minoritized language communities from a variationist perspective. My dissertation focused on language shift and language change in a Garifuna community in Belize.
Students who have worked with me recently on Garifuna are Manasvi Chaturvedi and Cameron Greenop.
Publications:
Abtahian, Maya R. 2020. Style, identity, and language shift. Language Ecology. 4(1): 17-38
Abtahian, Maya R. 2017. Language shift, endangerment and prestige: Kriol and Garifuna in Hopkins, Belize. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 32(2): 339-364
Ravindranath, Maya. 2009. Language Shift and the Speech Community: Sociolinguistic Change in a Garifuna Community in Belize. Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 33.
Maya Ravindranath Abtahian 