Heritage Russian in contact with Hebrew and German: A cross-linguistic study of requests

Purpose: This study examined request production by heritage language (HL) speakers of Russian dominant in different societal languages (SLs), such as SL-Hebrew and SL-German. By comparing request strategies in Russian, Hebrew, and German, the study investigated the effect of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) from the SL on the HL, as well as the effect of diminished HL input. Methodology: Request production in both formal and informal contexts was compared among three groups of Russian speakers: monolingual L1-Russian speakers (n = 26), HL-Russian speakers dominant in SL-Hebrew (n = 26), and HL-Russian speakers dominant in SL-German (n = 26) via an elicitation task. Data and analysis: Analysis involved comparing request production across groups using statistical methods to identify differences and similarities in strategies related to (a) address forms; (b) morphosyntactic realization, including clause type (declarative, interrogative, and imperative), the presence of the Russian negation particle “ne,” and the subjunctive particle “by”; and (c) lexical strategies. Findings: The study identified differences between HL-speakers and monolingual controls, as well as variations between the two bilingual groups. Divergence in HL-speakers was attributed to CLI and reduced input. Originality: Unlike previous studies that compare two L1s, this study focused on HLs, suggesting a new area of research due to their indeterminate status as neither L1 nor L2. The study provides additional evidence on how cross-linguistic factors impact pragmatic development in HL-speakers, contributing to understanding bilingual communication and language acquisition processes. Significance: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to date that compared requests in HL-speakers of typologically different SLs.