Abstract

This study examines the possible correlation between the sociolinguistic concept of ethnolinguistic vitality and the notion of well-being. French, English, mixed Aboriginal, and Chinese university students in Montreal participated in this research. One issue explored is whether the groups perceived their ethnolinguistic vitality and their well-being differently from those of other groups Also, a new concept, norm-referenced ethnolinguistic vitality, is introduced to explore the subjects' perceptions of the fair and just treatment of their ethnolinguistic groups. Furthermore, two components within ethnolinguistic vitality, one having to do with language and the other with group recognition, are isolated and investigated as to their correlation with well-being. It was found that each group did perceive its ethnolinguistic vitality different from of the other groups in the study. Also, all measurements of ethnolinguistic vitality and its major components positively correlated with measurements of well-being, and many of these correlations were found to be statistically significant