Heritage Language Maintenance, Shift, and Revitalisation of Arabic in Nigerian Diaspora Communities in the United Kingdom

Nigerian communities in the United Kingdom that identify Arabic as a heritage language, whether through direct Arab ancestry, Islamic scholarly family backgrounds, or strong Arabic educational investment, navigate complex heritage language dynamics across generations in a multilingual diaspora context that differs fundamentally from the Nigerian environment where Arabic was acquired. This study investigates heritage language maintenance, shift, and revitalisation of Arabic across three generations of Nigerian diaspora families in the UK, contributing original theoretical and empirical insights to the fields of heritage language studies, diaspora linguistics, and Arabic sociolinguistics. Using a three-generation longitudinal sociolinguistic methodology across 25 Nigerian diaspora families in London, Birmingham, and Manchester, the research combines language use diaries, oral proficiency assessments at three time points over 18 months, ethnographic family observation, and semi-structured life history interviews. Heritage language ecology theory, translanguaging frameworks, and language vitality assessment models provide the theoretical scaffolding. The study finds that Arabic heritage language vitality is significantly higher in families with active mosque community networks and transnational ties to Nigerian Arabic learning institutions, while inter-generational proficiency shift is most severe in families where Arabic serves only devotional functions without broader communicative or academic roles. An original Heritage Arabic Vitality Index for Diaspora Families is developed and validated. Keywords: Heritage language, Arabic, Nigerian diaspora, United Kingdom, language revitalisation.