Oldal 109 [109]
THE HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITIES IN NORTH CAROLINA
Table 17: Media-related language use in GI vs. G2 groups
What language do you use when ...? Hungarian | English Mixed
reading books (G1) 2.2 2.5 N/A
reading books (G2) 1 3 N/A
reading internet sites (Gl) 1.9 2.7 0.2
reading internet sites (G2) 1.2 2.8 0.2
exchanging emails with Hungarians in
the US (G1) 2.8 1 0.3
exchanging emails with Hungarians in
the US (G2) 1.8 1.8 0.7
writing notes (shopping lists, to do lists) 21 19 1
(G1)
writing notes (shopping lists, to do lists) 09 2.6 02
(G2)
talking on the phone with Hungarians
in the US (G1) 3.4 0.6 0.7
talking on the phone with Hungarians
in the US (G2) 2.6 1.6 0.9
writing birthday cards (G1) 2.2 2 0.5
writing birthday cards (G2) 1 2.6 0.5
The second generation is markedly younger than the first generation. The ma¬
jority of second-generation subjects (47%) are younger than 20 years, while
the majority of first-generation subjects (40%) are aged between 21 and 40.
The concept of mother tongue is also different for G1 and G2 speakers. Only
29% of G2 subjects claim Hungarian as their mother tongue as opposed to the
overwhelming majority (97%) of G1 speakers. Parallel to other bilingual im¬
migrant communities?°, the perceived competence of the heritage language,
that is, Hungarian, also significantly declines among G2 speakers. While the
majority of Gl speakers claim (62%) to have stronger Hungarian competence
than English, no G2 speaker has stated so. Claimed ethnic identity is also
256 Jim Hlavac, Second-generation Speech: Lexicon, Code-switching, and Morpho-syntax of
Croatian-English Bilinguals, Peter Lang, Bern, 2003; Kutlay Yagmur — Mehmet Ali Akinci,
Language use, choice, maintenance, and ethnolinguistic vitality of Turkish speakers in
France: intergenerational differences, International Journal of the Sociology of Language
164 (2003), 107-128; Penelope Gardner-Chloros — Lisa McEntee-Atalianis — Katerina Finnis,
Language attitudes and use in transplanted setting: Greek Cypriots in London, International
Journal of Multilingualism 2 (2) (2005), 52-80; Morad AlSahafi — Gary Barkhuizen, Language
use in an immigrant context: The case of Arabic in Auckland, New Zealand Studies in Applied
Linguistics, 12 (1) (2006), 51-69;
* 107 +