What happen: Language socialization and language persistence in a Panamanian Creole village

This dissertation is a study of small language persistence in the village of Old Bank on the Panamanian island of Bastimentos in the Western Caribbean Sea. Spanish has been the official language in Panama for more than 100 years yet a resilient variety of Panamanian Creole English continues to thrive in Old Bank. This research ecologically examines residents' participation in and within everyday activities on the island and considers how their participation in these activities contributes to the vitality of Bastimentos Creole English. This dissertation links micro-level language use in Old Bank to the macro-level phenomenon of language persistence. The study discursively analyzes a corpus of audio and video-recorded spontaneous interactions involving the members of one extended family, other residents, and visitors. After establishing the context of the contact situation, three aspects of language use that contribute to the enduring coexistence of Spanish and Creole in the community are examined in detail. First, this work considers the important role grandmothers play in the socialization of language-acquiring children. Another chapter examines language choice and economic activity in a community where tourism is fast supplanting the banana industry as the major source of income for residents. A third chapter examines language use and the maintenance of social solidarity through a consideration of assessments and the co-construction of identity during storytelling activities. Together, the data presented in these chapters support the perspective that participation in ordinary activities is a collaborative---yet collectively unconscious---process of language maintenance. The study broadens our understanding of language change by linking the processes of language socialization and language persistence and by documenting the ways in which daily participation in everyday interactions contributes to the anomalous survival of a minority language.