Competing ideologies of linguistic authority amongst new speakers in contemporary Galicia

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette O'Rourke ◽  
Fernando Ramallo
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Northwestern Spain ◽  
New Speakers ◽  
Indigenous Minority

AbstractWhile in many indigenous minority-language situations traditional native speaker communities are in decline, new speakers are emerging in the context of revitalization policies. Such policies, however, can have unforeseen consequences and lead to tensions between newcomers and existing speakers over questions of ownership, legitimacy, and authenticity. This article examines these tensions in the case of Galician in northwestern Spain, where “new speakers” have emerged in the context of revitalization policies since the 1980s. The subsequent spread of the language outside traditional Galician strongholds and into what were predominantly Spanish spaces complicates the traditional ideology about sociolinguistic authenticity and ownership and raises questions about who are the legitimate speakers of Galician, who has authority, and the potential tensions that such questions generate. To illustrate the tensions and paradoxes thatnewandnativespeakers face in this postrevitalization context, we draw on three discussion groups consisting of sixteen young Galicians. (New speakers, authority, authenticity, minority languages, Galician)*

scholarly journals New speakers, new language: on being a legitimate speaker of a minority language in Provence

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (231) ◽  
pp. 127-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Costa
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Class Membership ◽  
Southern France ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Artificial Languages ◽  
New Speakers

Abstract This article looks at the “new speaker” concept and the questions it raises in terms of legitimacy from the point of view of several types of social actors, namely language advocates, academics and school pupils (that is to say, “new speakers” themselves). The aim of this article is to show that this notion is not a purely descriptive one, but also carries a strong prescriptive loading – which in turns requires that minority language learners negotiate their participation in linguistic markets. Based on fieldwork in Provence, I look at how “new speakers” are often construed as speakers of “new languages”, “standard” or “artificial” languages that tend to index youth, urbanity, modernity and middle class membership – all qualities which may be seen as undesirable in parts of minority language movements. I then turn to pupils of an Occitan bilingual primary school in Provence and analyse how they reframe the new speaker debate in order for themselves to fit in the broader picture of Occitan speakers. All the viewpoints I analyse tend to emphasise the weight that the traditional, monolingual speaker still holds among speakers of minority languages in southern France.

‘New’ Scottish Gaelic speakers in Glasgow: A phonetic study of language revitalisation

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Nance
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Scottish Gaelic ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
New Speakers ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Language Revitalisation ◽  
Phonetic Study

AbstractThis article analyses phonetic variation among young people who have learned a minority language in immersion schooling as part of revitalisation measures. Such speakers are increasingly referred to as ‘new speakers’ in an expanding body of literature. The variable phonetic features analysed are vowels, laterals, and intonation in the speech of new Gaelic speakers from Glasgow and the Isle of Lewis. Results support previous work suggesting that new speakers will sound different from ‘traditional speakers’. These results are discussed in terms of language contact, modes of acquisition in revitalisation situations, and the differing perceptions and ideologies surrounding how new speakers use Gaelic. The data also necessitate an examination of some of the assumptions in sociolinguistic models of change and their applicability to contexts of rapid social evolution. (New speakers, language revitalisation, minority languages, Scottish Gaelic, laterals, vowels, intonation)*

English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (271) ◽  
pp. 35-64
Author(s):  
Alexandra Grey ◽  
Gegentuul Baioud
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Academic Discourses ◽  
East West

Abstract Socially constructed and globally propagated East-West binaries have influenced language ideologies about English in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but they are not hegemonic. This essay explores how East-West language ideologies are reformed in mergers with Mandarin-minority language ideologies. It discusses two separate but similar recent studies of minority language speakers and language ideologies in the PRC, respectively by Grey and Baioud. Each study reveals aspects of how Mandarin and English are being socially constructed as on the same side of a dichotomous and hierarchic linguistic and social order, in contradistinction to minority languages. The essay thus problematizes the construction of English as a Western language and Mandarin as an Eastern language; both in academic discourses and in wider social and political discourses. The essay uses Asif Agha’s theory of “enregisterment” to unify the points drawn from each study. It concludes that the language ideologies and practices/discourses under examination reproduce the displacement of a subaltern status; we describe this process as dynamic, internal Orientalism and “recursive” Orientalism, drawing on foundational theory of language ideologies. This essay paves the way for further studies of recursive Orientalism.

scholarly journals Standardising Cornish

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave Sayers
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
New Public ◽  
Different Orthographies ◽  
Single Standard ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages

The last recorded native speaker of the Cornish language died in 1777. Since the nineteenth century, amateur scholars have made separate attempts to reconstruct its written remains, each creating a different orthography. Later, following recognition under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2002, Cornish gained new status. However, with government support came the governmental framework of “New Public Management”, which emphasises quantifiable outcomes to measure performance. This built implicit pressure towards finding a single standard orthography, for greatest efficiency. There followed a six-year debate among supporters of the different orthographies, usually quite heated, about which should prevail. This debate exemplified the importance of standardisation for minority languages, but its ultimate conclusion saw all sides giving way, and expediency, not ideology, prevailing. It also showed that standardisation was not imposed explicitly within language policy, but emerged during the language planning process.

Facts and transformations in European minority language media systems amid digitalization and economic crisis

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iñaki Zabaleta ◽  
Arantza Gutierrez ◽  
Carme Ferré-Pavia ◽  
Itxaso Fernandez ◽  
Nikolas Xamardo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Media Type ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Systems ◽  
Comparative Nature

This article investigates the reality and variations of the European minority language media systems between 2009 and 2016, a period of serious economic crisis and accelerated digitalization process. To that aim, several parameters were measured: structure of the media systems and changes during that period along the variables of media type, ownership and reach; presence and relevance of major media in each of the communities; number and variation of full-time journalists; and the density or relative weight of the media systems with regard to the speaking population. The 10 minority languages under analysis (Basque, Catalan, Galician, Corsican, Breton, Frisian, Irish, Welsh, Scottish-Gaelic and Sámi) represent a wide range of communities. The relevance of the study lies in its direct comparative nature and in the fact that it thoroughly updates previous scholarly literature, measuring the changes which occurred within the 10 media systems.

scholarly journals Poeticizing the economy: The Corsican language in a nexus of pride and profit

Multilingua ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-27
Author(s):  
Alexandra Jaffe
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Social Actor ◽  
Qr Codes ◽  
Communicative Practice ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
The Village ◽  
Musical Heritage

Abstract This article explores the carefully managed semiotic complex found in the Corsican village of Pigna with respect to the themes of pride and profit in the valuation of minority languages. This complex includes the careful coordination of color, graphics, the use of the Corsican language, as well as high-tech soundscaping of place through QR codes that tie specific locales to Corsican music and multilingual texts. This display, labeled the “poeticizing of the economy” by a key social actor, is directed both at the many tourists who visit the village as well as Corsican visitors and locals. It is linked to an effort to embed Corsican linguistic and musical heritage in new practices that both create place and integrate tradition and modernity. On the one hand, these practices can be linked to discourses of both “pride” and “profit” (Duchêne and Heller 2012) attested in many minority language contexts. On the other hand, I argue that the Pigna esthetic indexes a shift in the framework for cultural and linguistic revitalization from one that emphasizes a return to past native speaker communicative practice to one that focuses on the collective agency and identity associated with style and stylization and “transactional,” or situated authenticities.

scholarly journals Doing Content and Language Integrated Learning With a Minority Language: A Teacher Development Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Marcella Menegale ◽  
Ada Bier
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Development ◽  
New Teacher ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Teacher Autonomy ◽  
Development Model ◽  
Teaching Skills ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Educational Goal ◽  
Functional Literacy

Recent research suggests that minority languages cannot be lastingly revitalised unless related functional literacy skills become an explicit educational goal. Focussing on the Friulian minority language in Italy, this paper discusses the importance of developing literacy skills in the minority language. In line with this, a new teacher development model in CLIL has been conceived and piloted with a small group of teachers of Friulian. The findings of the study suggest that the model was effective in relation to both the development of teaching skills in CLIL and in literacy related issues and, more in general, to the promotion of teacher autonomy.

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