This article is a reflection on the notion of linguistic prestige related to the transmission of languages among the immigrant families in Europe, in diverse spatial and temporal contexts. The data comes from a prolonged field survey on four Indian families living in Europe (France, Sweden, Norway and Finland). The languages of prestige for the families of the Indian diaspora are mainly English and, in some cases, the language of the host country. Parents cultivate a new pride in transmitting to their children the prestigious languages that are connoted as languages of success, sometimes to the detriment of Indian languages. What arguments are invoked to assign value to a language? Interviews and ethnographic tools used in the field show that the answers to these questions vary depending on the context and the language repertoire concerned but that the English-centric approach proves crucial as a phenomenon of chronotope in order to allow the children to benefit from a promising future.
Key words:
linguistic prestige, Indian immigrant families in Europe, chronotope, English
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