Divergence in heritage Ambon Malay in the Netherlands: The role of social-psychological factors

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: This article examines the role of
social-psychological factors in the development of heritage Ambon Malay in the Netherlands.
More specifically, it aims to answer this question: Can social-psychological factors account for the
different frequency of Dutch-like structures among heritage speakers?
Design/Methodology/Approach: Data from 32 Ambon Malay heritage speakers and 27 Ambon
Malay homeland speakers were collected by means of video stimuli and a sociolinguistic interview.
Data and Analysis: The database provides six linguistic variables and three social-psychological
factors. The linguistic variables are as follows: the pre-verbal marker ada; the definite marker
=nya; the double object construction; the prepositional phrase and adjectival phrase in resultative
constructions; the pre-nominal order for the demonstrative itu and the numeral satu ‘one’. The
social-psychological factors are where the speaker lives, onset of Dutch bilingualism and attitude.
The effect of the social-psychological factors on the linguistic variables was assessed using a
multivariate general linear model.
Findings/Conclusions: The results show that place where the speaker lives is the best predictor.
Heritage speakers living outside a Moluccan ward have a higher rate of Dutch-like features than
speakers living inside a Moluccan ward. In some cases, sequential bilinguals are more innovative
than simultaneous bilinguals. Finally, speakers with only a mild positive attitude towards the
heritage language have a higher rate of Dutch-like features.
Originality: Unlike previous studies, this article does not test the role of social-psychological
factors against self-ratings of heritage language proficiency, but it uses real language data.
Significance/Implications: The theoretical significance of this study is to bridge the gap
between the sphere of language structure and the sphere of language use and language attitude.
An additional value lies in its findings that frequent use of the heritage language means not only a
higher rate of maintenance but also accelerated change.