Identity through linguistic practices: the early Lithuanian immigrants and their descendants in Scotland

ENThe paper will draw on the data gathered as part of an ongoing sociolinguistic research into the language behaviour and its role in the formation of the identity at both the individual and group levels within the Lithuanian immigrant community in Scotland. A short account will be presented on issues such as the language maintenance and shift (LMLS), bilingualism and language choice of the ethnic group in the intergenerational context. Tite study will also seek to identify the determinant factors of the above linguistic phenomena which set trends of sociolinguistic change thus threatening the survival of the Lithuanian identity within the community in concern. It is hoped that a careful description of the situation in the intergenerational context will lead to significant insights into problems related to multilingual or multiethnic minority communities in general.