The research field of heritage languages: structure, geography, themes, and key development vectors

Abstract

The article examines the current state and developmental trends of heritage language research through a bibliometric analysis of publication activity. The work explores key aspects of scholarly communication, geographic distribution, and thematic focuses in the field from 2000 to 2025. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the systematization of the evolving research landscape of heritage languages over this relevant period. The aim of the study is to evaluate the current status and development trends of heritage language studies using a comprehensive bibliometric analysis based on the systematization of 3,679 publications from the OpenAlex database. The results demonstrate an exponential growth in the number of publications. The structure of publication sources indicates the formation of a multi-level system of scholarly communication dominated by prestigious publishing houses and high-impact journals. The analysis of geographic localization reveals an asymmetry, with a predominance of research from the USA and other English-speaking countries. The thematic analysis identifies a prevalence of linguodidactic issues.

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About this article

Publication history

• Received: December 25, 2025.
• Published: January 30, 2026.

Keywords

• эритажный язык
• билингвизм
• публикационная активность
• научный дискурс
• предметное поле науки
• heritage language
• bilingualism
• publication activity
• scholarly discourse
• disciplinary field

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© 2026 The Author(s)
© 2026 Gramota Publishing, LLC

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)