scholarly journals Continuity and hybridity in language revival: The case of Manx

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Christopher Lewin
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
L1 Norm ◽  
Language Revival ◽  
Revival Movement ◽  
Linguistic Purism ◽  
Prototypical Model

Abstract This article presents a typology of phonological, morphosyntactic, and lexical features illustrative of factors conditioning the usage of speakers and writers of Revived Manx, including substratal influence from English; language ideologies prevalent within the revival movement, especially forms of linguistic purism; and language-specific features of Manx and its orthography. Evidence is taken primarily from a corpus of Revived Manx speech and writing. The observed features of Revived Manx are situated within Zuckermann's (2009, 2020) framework of ‘hybridization’ and ‘revival linguistics’, which takes Israeli Hebrew as the prototypical model of revernacularization of a non-L1 language. However, Manx arguably provides a more typical example of what to expect when a revived minority language remains predominantly an L2 for an indefinite period, with each new cohort of speakers able to reshape the target variety in the absence of a firmly established L1 norm. (Manx, Celtic, language revival, language ideology, language shift, language contact)*

Speaking beauties: Linguistic posturing, language inequality, and the construction of a Tanzanian beauty queen

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
SABRINA BILLINGS
Keyword(s):  
Glass Ceiling ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Beauty Pageants ◽  
The Common ◽  
Hierarchical Nature

ABSTRACTThis article considers language use in Tanzanian beauty pageants, where contestants’ onstage speech is the focus of explicit and implicit critique. In particular, contestants who speak English are far more likely to win than are their Swahili-speaking counterparts. But because English has limited circulation and is restricted to the educated elite, speaking English is, for most contestants, possible only through memorization. Local ideologies that give preference to purity over standardness mean that, while contestants’ speeches are often full of grammatical oddities, their linguistic posturing is typically well received. Yet once a contestant reaches the pinnacle of competition, expectations for language use rise, and once-successful contestants find themselves at a glass ceiling. Findings presented here point to the local and hierarchical nature of language ideologies, and to the need to account for the common practice in multilingual communities of successfully employing “incomplete” linguistic knowledge for indexical and referential effect. (Language ideology, multilingualism, Swahili, English, language purity, beauty pageants, education)*

ELF and migrant categorization at family clinics in Finland

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-123
Author(s):  
Päivi Iikkanen
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Working Life ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Membership Categorization Analysis ◽  
Membership Categorization ◽  
Standard Language Ideology

Abstract The aim of this paper is to examine how nurses in family clinics use language, and clients’ perceived English proficiency in particular, when categorizing their non-Finnish-speaking clients in their talk. Through membership categorization analysis (Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. A tutorial on membership categorization. Journal of Pragmatics 39(3). 462–482), this study shows that perceived proficiency in English, along with migration status and reliance on the native English speaker norm, seemed to be the most decisive elements in how the nurses categorized their migrant clients. The findings demonstrate the power of categorization as an instrument in institutional decision-making and highlight the role language plays in these categorizations. In particular, the study shows how influential perceived English language proficiency and the native speaker norm are in how nurses categorize their migrant clients. The findings suggest that being able to interact with clients in English is becoming a more and more important skill in working life in Finland, also in the health care sector. It would be important to understand how influential perceived language proficiency is in the way nurses conceptualize their clients, and to what extent this relates to the standard language ideology (Milroy, James. 2001. Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5. 530–555).

The social consequences of writing Louisiana French

1993 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Becky Brown
Keyword(s):  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Language Revival ◽  
The Social ◽  
Louisiana French ◽  
Revival Movement ◽  
Revival Movements ◽  
Written Word

ABSTRACTStudies on language shift often refer to the demise of the ousted variety by detailing various stages of language decay and extinction. Problematic for these accounts are well-documented cases of intervening social phenomena, such as language revival movements, which can alter in some way the stages of decline. French Louisiana's situation illustrates language shift interacting with a strong revival movement. In the wake of the revival and in spite of continued shift, another trend is apparent – the writing of Louisiana French. Whereas shift clearly represents a stage of language decline, the creation of a written code functions as a key ingredient for language maintenance. A sociolinguistic analysis of these forces reveals the complexity and the conflict involved in the choice of the written word. (Sociolinguistics, Louisiana French, Cajun, Louisiana French Creole, variation in writing, ethnography, literacy, language maintenance)

scholarly journals Names, Varieties and Ideologies in Revived Cornish

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
Merryn Davies-Deacon
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Language Revival ◽  
Significant Process ◽  
Revival Movement ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract The attribution of names is a significant process that often highlights concerns over identity, ideology and ownership. Within the fields of minority languages and Celtic Studies, such concerns are especially pertinent given that the identities in question are frequently perceived as under threat from dominant cultures. The effect of concerns caused by this can be examined with reference to revived Cornish, which became divided into three major varieties in the later twentieth century; by examining the names of these varieties, we can draw conclusions about how they are perceived, or we are invited to perceive them. The motivations of those involved in the Cornish language revival are equally reflected in the names of the organisations and bodies they have formed, which equally contribute to the legitimation of revived Cornish. This paper examines both these categories of name, as well as the phenomenon of Kernowisation, a term coined by Harasta (2013) to refer to the adoption of Cornish personal names, and here extended to the use of Cornish names in otherwise English-language contexts. Examining the names that have been implemented during the Cornish language revival, and the ways in which they are used or indeed refused by those involved, gives us an insight into the various ideologies that steer the revival process. Within the context of the precarious nature of Cornish and Celtic identity, we can identify the concerns of those involved in the Cornish revival movement and highlight the role of naming as an activity of legitimation, showing how the diversity of names that occur reflects an equally diverse range of motivations and influences.

scholarly journals Language Attitudes And Gender: Descriptors And Nationalistic Ideologies

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 113-127
Author(s):  
John W Schweiter
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
And Gender

The present study explores language attitudes among 23 English language learners of Spanish enrolled in elementary Spanish. The data elicited from these participants were analyzed to see whether females used more positive adjectives to describe the Spanish language than their male counterparts (as shown in previous studies). The data were also analyzed to see whether the participants’ adjectives and comments supported evidence of nationalistic language ideology. The results mirrored those of past studies: females were more likely to describe Spanish with positive adjectives. Additionally, there was a great amount of nationalistic language ideology and ethnocentrism among the participants who felt negatively toward Spanish. The researcher argues that this may have contributed towards negative language ideologies reported by the participants.

scholarly journals Scholarship and Language Revival: Language Ideologies in Corpus Development for Revived Manx

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-118
Author(s):  
Christopher Lewin
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideologies ◽  
The Body ◽  
Language Death ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language Revival ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Revival Movement ◽  
Traditional Language ◽  
Native Resources

Abstract In this article the role of different ideological viewpoints concerning corpus development within the Manx revival movement in the second half of the twentieth century is explored. In particular, the work of two prominent figures is examined: the Celtic scholar Robert L. Thomson, who published extensively especially on Manx language and literature, and also contributed to the revival, particularly as editor of several pedagogical resources and as a member of the translation committee Coonceil ny Gaelgey, and Douglas Fargher, a tireless activist and compiler of an English-Manx Dictionary (1979). Broadly speaking, Thomson was of a more preservationist bent, cautious in adapting the native resources of the language and wary of straying too far from attested usage of the traditional language, while Fargher was more radical and open especially to borrowing from Irish and Scottish sources. Both were concerned, in somewhat different ways, to remove perceived impurities or corruptions from the language, and were influenced by the assumptions of existing scholarship. A close reading of the work of these scholar-activists sheds light on the tensions within the revival movement regarding its response to the trauma of language death and the questions of legitimacy and authenticity in the revived variety. Particular space is devoted to an analysis of the preface of Fargher’s dictionary, as well as certain features of the body of the work itself, since this volume is probably the most widely consulted guide to the use of the language today. Finally, it is argued that the Manx language movement today would benefit from a reassessment and discussion of the ideological currents of the past and present, and a judicious evaluation of both the strengths and weaknesses of existing reference works.

Purism vs. compromise in language revitalization and language revival

1994 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy C. Dorian
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Severe Problem ◽  
Pennsylvania German ◽  
Language Revival ◽  
Revival Movement

ABSTRACTConservative attitudes toward loanwords and toward change in grammar often hamper efforts to revitalize endangered languages (Tiwi, Australia); and incompatible conservatisms can separate educated revitalizers, interested in historicity, from remaining speakers interested in locally authentic idiomaticity (Irish). Native-speaker conservatism is likely to constitute a barrier to coinage (Gaelic, Scotland), and unrealistically severe older-speaker purism can discourage younger speakers where education in a minority language is unavailable (Nahuatl, Mexico). Even in the case of a once entirely extinct language, rival authenticities can prove a severe problem (the Cornish revival movement in Britain). Evidence from obsolescent Arvanitika (Greece), from Pennsylvania German (US), and from Irish in Northern Ireland (the successful Shaw's Road community in Belfast) suggests that structural compromise may enhance survival chances; and the case of English in the post-Norman period indicates that restructuring by intense language contact can leave a language both viable and versatile, with full potential for future expansion. (Revival, purism, attitudes, norms, endangered languages, minority languages, contact)

World Englishes and Language Ideologies

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh M. Bhatt
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
Simple Question

This chapter analyzes language ideologies within the context of world Englishes, focusing mainly on language ideological debates that have shaped the field of the study of world Englishes. These debates highlight the importance of language ideological analysis for a proper understanding of the social stratification of English language variation; to answer, ultimately, the important sociolinguistic question: why does language vary in the ways that it does? The answer to this rather simple question is inextricably tied to the complicated notion of power, or how power works. Building on the work of J. Irvine and S. Gal’s ‘Language Ideology and Linguistic Differentiation’, this chapter shows how certain ideological strategies are continually manipulated to legitimize and rationalize the power of ‘standard’ (English) language.

scholarly journals Comic performance and the articulation of hybrid identity

Pragmatics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Jaffe
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Hybrid Identity ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mixed Codes ◽  
Do So

This article describes how comedians and radio professionals in Corsica draw on a bilingual linguistic and metalinguistic cultural repertoire. In the context of Corsica’s history of language domination, language shift, and linguistic revitalization efforts, many of the products of language contact - mixed codes and compentences - are socially stigmatized. In the logic of dominant language ideologies, these mixed codes do not ‘count as’ language and depreciate individual speakers and collective identitities. Comic performances, it is argued, derive part of their tension and effect from the dominant view of languages as fixed and bounded codes which index single identities. Yet at the same time, performers make use of bilingual repertoires in ways that validate mixed language practices and identities. They do so by making maximal use of fluidity and indeterminacy in speaker stances towards mixed codes and identities. Bilingual comic performance also validates mixed codes and identities by evoking an ‘expert’ bilingual audience.

English ants are digging holes in the Chinese levee

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Xi
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Chinese Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Linguistic Purism ◽  
Standard Language Ideology

The media have become a key site for the production and reproduction of language ideologies in modern societies. This is typically reflected in language ideological debates in 2010 in the Chinese media. In 2009, an article entitled “English ants are digging holes in the Chinese levee” got wide media coverage and aroused much controversy in the Chinese media in the following year. The crusade for linguistic purism ended with the promulgation of new regulations banning China’s media organizations and publishers from randomly mixing foreign languages with Chinese in publications. The present study aims to explore the inherent language ideologies naturalized in the debates of Chinese linguistic purism and various strategies adopted for the construction of the ideologies. The findings reveal that the ideology of “one nation and one language” and standard language ideology play an important role in the sociolinguistic imagination of a homogeneous Chinese society and protection of “pure” Chinese against English invasion. It is hoped that the present study will contribute to language ideology studies and shed new light on Chinese sociolinguistic studies.

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