language maintenance

A term used in SOCIOLINGUISTICS, referring to the extent to which people continue to use a language once they are part of a community in which another language has a dominant position. For example, immigrant groups may maintain their language, out of a sense of LANGUAGE LOYALTY, despite the dominance of the language of their host country (as has often happened in the USA); or a community may continue with its language successfully despite the presence of a conquering nation (as happened with English after the Norman Conquest).