Language shift and autobiographical remembering among Aoluguya Ewenki speakers: a critical integrative framework

Community language shift changes when, where and with whom a language is used. This critical integrative review asks how those changes might affect autobiographical remembering among Aoluguya Ewenki speakers who also use Mandarin. It separates event selection, retrieval time, the experience of recollection, narration and later circulation in family and community talk. Studies in other bilingual populations show that cue and interview language can change event selection, retrieval speed and reported internal language. Effects on vividness, emotion, specificity and narrative detail vary across tasks and samples. Neuroscience supplies candidate accounts of autobiographical construction, neural reinstatement, language control and retrieval-related updating; none has been directly tested in Aoluguya Ewenki remembering. Ethnographic accounts locate the question in relocation, schooling, reindeer work and household language practice. Five propositions specify behavioural predictions, alternatives and disconfirmation conditions. The framework provides an agenda for community-designed research, rather than evidence that language shift has altered this community's memories. Behavioural contrasts should be established before any separately agreed neural study.