Minority Languages and Social Media

2018 ◽  
pp. 451-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Cunliffe
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Minority Languages

The Role of Social Media in Maintaining Minority Languages: A Case Study of Chechen Language in Jordan

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Amani Juma Abu-Irmies ◽  
Rajai Rasheed Al-Khanji
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Ethnic Language

This study investigates factors motivating the Chechen people in Jordan to use their indigenous language in social media such as WhatsApp and Facebook. It also explores their attitudes towards using the Chechen language in social media. In order to achieve the aims of this study, the researchers have selected a sample that consists of 340 Chechen people who reside in the Jordanian cities and towns: Al-Suknah, Sweileh and Az zarqa. The instruments of the study were a sociolinguistic questionnaire and an open-ended interview. The findings reveal that Chechens use social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp to preserve the Chechen language and their culture. Also, Chechens of Jordan use their ethnic language to communicate with their friends who understand the Chechen language. Besides, the Chechen language has been used in whatsApp and Facebook to promote unity among family members. Moreover, many Chechen people use social media to communicate with other Chechen speakers regardless of familial ties. Results also indicate that Chechens of Jordan have a high positive attitude towards including the Chechen language in social media.

Language ideologies in social media

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachelle Vessey
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Discourse Studies

When inspectors from the Office québécois de la langue francçaise (OQLF) objected to the use of the word “pasta” in a Montreal restaurant in February 2013, a backlash in news and social media erupted internationally. Ensuing pressure led to the resignation of the OQLF head and a revision of OQLF language complaint procedures; the Pastagate story also contributed to mounting negativity towards the province and its language. Social media have been credited with playing a role in the proliferation of the story and its impact. Drawing on a corpus of Tweets containing PASTAGATE, this paper uses corpus-assisted discourse studies to explore language ideologies in English and French Tweets. Findings reveal divergent language ideologies and representations of the Pastagate affair. The paper concludes by suggesting that language ideological debates in a superdiverse online world may have implications for minority languages in the offline world of nation-states.

scholarly journals FinUgRevita: Developing Language Technology Tools for Udmurt and Mansi

2015 ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Veronika Vincze ◽  
Ágoston Nagy ◽  
Csilla Horváth ◽  
Norbert Szilágyi ◽  
István Kozmács ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Digital Space ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Language Technology ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Digital Language

Nowadays, digital language use such as reading and writing e-mails, chats, messages, weblogs and comments on websites and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter has increased the amount of written language production for most of the users. Thus, it is primarily important for speakers of minority languages to have the possibility of using their own languages in the digital world too. The FinUgRevita project aims at providing computational language tools for endangered indigenous Finno-Ugric languages in Russia, assisting the speakers of these languages in using the indigenous languages in the digital space. Currently, we are working on two Finno-Ugric minority languages, namely, Udmurt and Mansi. In the project, we have been developing electronic dictionaries for both languages, besides, we have been creating corpora with a substantial number of texts collected, among other sources like literature, newspaper articles and social media. We have been also implementing morphological analyzers for both languages, exploiting the lexical entries of our dictionaries. We believe that the results achieved by the FinUgRevita project will contribute to the revitalization of Udmurt and Mansi and the tools to be developed will help these languages establish their existence in the digital space as well.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND MINORITY LANGUAGES IN EVERYDAY LIFE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TWO TWITTER CAMPAIGNS PROMOTING THE IRISH LANGUAGE

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh Ní Bhroin ◽  
Sarah McMonagle
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Irish Language ◽  
Twitter Users

The Irish language (‘Gaeilge’), although the first official language of the Republic of Ireland, is a minority language in public life. In recent years, social media campaigns have been organised to promote the use of Irish online. In this paper, we analyse two such campaigns (#EDL #Gaeilge; and #TrasnaNadTonnta) and explore how participation in them is connected to everyday practices of media use and meaning making, and how this in turn influences minority language promotion in social media. Drawing on sociolinguistics and media and communication studies, we address the following research question: How can everyday life and media use influence participation in Twitter campaigns that aim to promote the Irish language? We find that the success of each campaign was dependent on the participants identifying connections between the campaigns and their everyday lives. #TrasnaNadTonnta found particular salience among the Irish diaspora, for whom the language is a marker of a unique cultural identity. This Twitter campaign provided a platform for Irish-language users to connect with others across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia – places where the Irish language has not been traditionally spoken. Although the same platform was provided in #EDL2017 #Gaeilge, Irish-language Twitter users did not identify with this campaign to the same extent. We further surmise that the unique hashtag created for #TrasnaNadTonnta, reminiscent of a song sung in childhood, had particular semiotic appeal when compared with the more policy-oriented approach of #EDL2017.

scholarly journals REVIEW: Carving a niche for minority language media studies not so easy

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 247
Author(s):  
Philippa Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Mainstream Media

Book review of: Social Media and Minority Languages: Convergence and the Creative Industries, edited by Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones and Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed. Bristol, UK: Multilinguial Matters, 2013, 267pp. ISBN 9781847699046Whenever a new field of research emerges a lot of shuffling and sorting of knowledge is required to establish a niche, to define its boundaries, to encourage acknowledgement of the area and to stimulate debate concerning the application of various methodologies and theoretical frameworks. This is the case with Social Media and Minority Languages: Convergence and the Creative Industries. The catalyst for the book’s production, as implied by the title, is the technological advancement of social media, the resulting convergence of media in the digital age, and perhaps most importantly the positive and negative effects these have on minority or minoritised languages. Yet in reviewing its 17 chapters by more than 30 authors, it is clear the overall objective appears to be strongly focused on the reinforcement of Minority Language Media (MLM) as a field of study distinct from mainstream media studies because of its specific concern with ‘how media can be used to help languages’ (p. 255).

scholarly journals Music video covers, minoritised languages, and affective investments in the space of YouTube

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Dlaske
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
New Media ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Music Video ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
The Social ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
Colonial Histories

AbstractWhile interest in affective processes has led to an affective turn in cultural studies, in sociolinguistics this perspective has been given less attention. This study takes up the ‘lens of affect’ and directs it on two cases exemplifying the circulation of minoritised languages in new media spaces: music video covers from two minority-language contexts, Irish and Sámi, uploaded on YouTube. Combining recent theorising on affect with insights from sociolinguistic research, the study investigates how the YouTube users’ affective investments contribute to a (re)evaluation of the two minoritised languages, their speakers, and the related ethnic/national belongings, and how these investments are expressions of more or less banal nationalism, connected to the colonial histories of Ireland and Finland. The study illustrates how the social media operate as a catalyst of affective investments involved in an ethnolinguistic (re)ordering of languages and their speakers, at the intersection of ‘banal globalisation’ and ‘everyday nationalism’. (Minority languages, affect, discourse, social media, nationalism)*

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