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.

Defining the new speaker: theoretical perspectives and learner trajectories

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (231) ◽  
pp. 21-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Jaffe
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Planning Strategies ◽  
Social Use ◽  
Analytical Category ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

Abstract This article addresses the concept of the new speaker from both a theoretical/definitional perspective and from the standpoint of a situated, ethnographic analysis. The more general and theoretical focus addresses some of the presuppositions and entailments of the new speaker concept, both as an “on-the-ground” concept that gets operationalized by social actors and as an analytical category used by researchers. In particular, it considers how the new speaker concept elucidates criteria in relation to which minority language-speaking communities of practice are conceptualized and enacted. The ethnographic focus, on Corsican adult language classrooms, explores how new-speakerness is invoked implicitly in Corsica, where the term “new speaker” itself is not in circulation, but is a target of language planning strategies. This ethnographic research reveals complex identity and language ideological issues that are raised about the legitimacy, authority and authenticity of Corsican language learners in a sociolinguistic context in which both formal/institutional and informal/social use of the minority language is quite restricted.

‘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)*

scholarly journals “HOW CAN WE EVEN TALK ABOUT ACCENTS WHEN IT COMES TO PRESERVING A LANGUAGE?”: ATTITUDES TOWARDS PARTIAL LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (49) ◽  
pp. 11-29
Author(s):  
Vlada V. Baranova ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Language Knowledge ◽  
New Speakers

The paper focuses on discussions of partial linguistic competence and on sources of language knowledge among both Kalmyk language activists and the community of native speakers. Recent revivalist initiatives lead to the emergence of “new speakers” of minority languages whose language command is widely discussed within the community. The native speakers of a minority language may create some barriers for new speakers and evaluate their way of speaking as an inauthentic, “wrong” code. The paper deals with different sources of competence in Kalmyk: projects for teaching and learning Kalmyk, attempts to popularize it and the ethnic culture, and online communities for mothers who make the conscious decision to adopt native language practices with their children. These new sources of non-traditional knowledge are compared with other modes of language acquisition. The paper aims to analyze attitudes to a language by “new speakers”. From this point of view, the Kalmyk-speaking community displays ambiguous attitudes: there are negative attitudes toward the accents of new speakers, as well as toward the linguistic competence of the younger generation in a family. That said, there exist strongly positive evaluations of different activist initiatives, including treating the instances of mixed language as a kind of humor. The data shows that there is no strong demarcation between language acquisition in the family and other ways of learning Kalmyk.

The dilemmas of ‘saving’ a dying language

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-286
Author(s):  
Silvia Dal Negro
Keyword(s):  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Standard Variety ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Funding Support ◽  
Italian Context ◽  
Administrative Domains

Abstract Walser German is a prototypical example of ‘extreme’ minority language, the survival of which appears at present extremely critical, at least in the Italian context. From a sociolinguistic point of view, Walser German is dispersed in a discontinuous territory and subject to language shift, language attrition and demographic shrinkage. Linguistically, it is part of a dialect continuum that stretches north of the Alps; yet, the dialects spoken in Italy have developed independently from each other and from their Swiss counterparts, with the result that they are now mutually unintelligible, and structurally too distant from Standard Modern German for this variety to be eligible as their Dachsprache. Given this background, the effects of a law protecting and promoting minority languages were foreseeable: Walser German is not a language under any sociolinguistic respect and could neither be protected or promoted by encouraging its use in administrative domains or developing a standard variety. However, what actually happened was not foreseeable either. Legal and funding support fostered documentation activities creating or enhancing local expertise in various domains; in addition, communities started to feel legitimised of a cultural and linguistic ‘otherness’ that could be exploited as a commodity, especially in the domain of tourism.

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 Language Learners or New Speakers: The Transfer of the Breton Diwan Immersion Education Model to the Lower Sorbian Witaj Project

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Educational Models ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
Different Types ◽  
New Speakers ◽  
Education Model

Abstract The paper discusses several aspects of immersion and bilingual education systems in Brittany, France and in Lower Lusatia, Germany. Their role in the process of becoming a new speaker of a minority language is exemplified by the Diwan immersion education model in Brittany and the Witaj project in Lower Lusatia concerning the Sorbian people. Taking into consideration the different sociolinguistic situation of both groups, the level and reasons for language shift, the existing language policy in France and in Germany, both educational models are presented. I analyze some factors that influence the possible success or failure of these two models, such as: the linguistic environments, teaching systems, the roles of teachers, the minority language attitudes of pupils, their language practices, the availability of extracurricular activities in the minority language, and the existence of different types of communities of practice. All these factors influence pupils’ language choices and practices. Not all language learners will use a minority language in the future, since it depends on the conscious decision of each person. The distinction between language learners and minority language new speakers can thus be justified.

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.

Amalgamated territorial hromadas as new local communities in Ukraine: mechanisms of social cohesion formation

2021 ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
O. Deineko
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Social Communities ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Legislative Procedure

The article is dedicated to the systematic analysis of the peculiarities of the formation and functioning of amalgamated territorial communities in Ukraine as new local social communities. Analyzing the legislative procedure of amalgamation, the author distinguishes the essential features of amalgamated territorial communities that are different from other settlement communities. Within the framework of this investigation, the newly amalgamated hromadas appear as a “second-order” phenomenon, which is a socio-legal construct that is formed in a consensual manner and on a voluntary reciprocal basis. Basing on the analysis of qualitative sociological research data the author demonstrates the importance of the functioning of reciprocity mechanisms at the level of orientations and practices of all social actors involved in the procedure of territorial communities amalgamation. It is illustrated that the "failure" of reciprocity mechanisms contributes to the change of merger scenarios, causes the postponement of this process and the emergence of conflict situations. The paper substantiates that the legislative procedure of territorial communities amalgamation intensifies the formation of social capital and the establishment of a new civic social order. The special, different social status of amalgamated territorial communities in comparison with other settlement communities is explained by the emergence of the phenomenon of social cohesion, the mechanisms of activation of which are contained in the legislative order of territorial communities amalgamation. It is concluded that an important theoretical basis for the sociological conceptualization of ATC is the concept of reciprocity, which explains the mechanism of successful amalgamation, which is facilitated by the attitudes and practices of reciprocity of all involved social actors. According to the author’s point of view, the sociological synthesis of spatial and activity approaches to the analysis of social communities within the framework of sociological conceptualization of united territorial communities is considered heuristic. The synthesis of these approaches emphasizes both the importance of the spatial context of interactions emergence and reproduction, and their essential functionality in the formation and reproduction of hromada social order.

scholarly journals Phraseographie

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (36) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Erla Hallsteinsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Methodological Basis ◽  
Multiword Expressions ◽  
Interesting Part ◽  
Corpus Data

Multiword expressions – i.e. phraseological units – like idioms and collocations are one of the most interesting part of every language. In this article, I investigate phraseological units from a lexicographical point of view. I discuss the theoretical and methodological basis of phraseography as a discipline that includes aspects of lexicography, phraseology, corpus linguistics and theories of language learning. I demonstrate the importance of corpora as a source for the lexicographer and the use of corpus data. I also discuss the requirements for the lexicographical treatment of phraseological units by the compilation of a phraseological database for language learners in relation to their assumed needs that have already been described in detail.

scholarly journals Educational Impact of Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (97) ◽  
pp. 233-240
Author(s):  
Marcelo de Souza Bispo ◽  
Eduardo Paes Barreto Davel
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Educational Impact ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Educational Vision ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common

Abstract To think about the impacts of academic research on education is to think dynamically: education affects the ways of doing research (from the point of view of formal education) and is affected by research results that are little predictable and perceived due to constant negotiations among social actors in their daily socializations in different contexts. Management education (formal, non-formal and informal) affects and is affected by conflicting views of the world, which are produced within the field of management itself and whose impact as “beneficial” is not just a matter oriented primarily by economic, instrumental and financial aspects, but also for a negotiated understanding of the world that moves towards the common good. All research must be concerned with its power to affect educational vision and practice, directly or indirectly. How can this concern become perennial and central to the practice of academic research?

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