Borderlands, minority language revitalization and resilience thinking

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-151
Author(s):  
Juha Ridanpää
Keyword(s):  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Resilience Thinking

Must We Save the Language? Children’s Discourse on Language and Community in Provençal and Scottish Language Revitalization Movements

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Costa Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Revitalization Movements ◽  
The One

This chapter proposes a critical analysis of the types of discourse articulated by children involved in language revitalization programmes in two Western European contexts: Provence (south-eastern France) and southern Scotland. It focuses on how the minority language (Occitan and Scots) is described and what this means for how children categorize the language and speech communities within which they are being socialized. Of all the social actors involved in language revitalization programmes, and despite the central part they play, children are the only ones whose opinion on participation is never required. Children occupy a very ambiguous place in language revitalization movements. On the one hand, they are perceived as the embodiment of the future of the language, while, on the other hand, they are often accused of not speaking the language properly or of mixing minority and dominant languages. This seems to be a fairly widespread pattern in Europe, where ‘neo-speakers’ are generally viewed with mistrust.

Myaamiaataweenki

2018 ◽  
pp. 552-570
Author(s):  
Daryl Baldwin ◽  
David J. Costa
Keyword(s):  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Community Based ◽  
External Resources ◽  
Indigenous Language Revitalization ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
Dominant Society

The discussion around indigenous language revitalization must include languages “reawakening” after a period of dormancy. New paradigms are needed to describe the developing role of reawakening languages, their impact on community and individual identity, and the necessary capacity-building to support their reconstruction and reintroduction into tribal society. If sleeping languages are excluded from the conversation, much will be lost in understanding minority language development and vitality for contemporary life within a larger dominant society. This chapter describes the development of a recently “reawakened” language that ceased to be spoken in the mid-twentieth century, and attempts to capture its developmental trajectory in the context of an evolving community-based educational system. The Myaamia language is emerging in new domains. It is driven by a collaborative effort of internal and external resources that demonstrate what is possible for a reclaimed language.

scholarly journals Why save a minority language? Meänkieli and rationales of language revitalization

2018 ◽  
Vol 196 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-203
Author(s):  
Juha Ridanpää
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Local History ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Northern Sweden ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
History Of

This article examines the rationales for language revitalization and their materialization on a local scale. The starting premise is that, due to specific social, cultural, as well as spatial circumstances, there exists a wide variety of rationalizations for why saving endangered languages is important. The complexity of the matter is discussed with regard to Meänkieli, a minority language spoken in northern Sweden, which has a long and unique history of marginalization. The article bases on group discussions conducted with Meänkieli speaking cultural activists in northern Sweden during the fall of 2015 and the spring of 2016. The present examination of the group discussions reveals how the rationales of saving the language are inherently interrelated with questions concerning identity formation, educational principles and the sovereignty of minority groups. The analysis also reveals how, due to the complex nature of local history, there is no consensus on whether the recent progress in language revitalization is unanimously a positive change or not.

scholarly journals Attitudes and Language Use of (Potential) New Speakers of a Minoritized Language: The Case of Adults Learning West Frisian in Formal Courses

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
Guillem Belmar
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
New Speakers

Summary Adults learning a minoritized language are potential new speakers, that is “adults who acquire a socially and communicatively consequential level of competence and practice in a minority language” (Jaffe, 2015; see also O’Rourke, Pujolar, & Ramallo, 2015). New speakers’ research has become quite common recently, marking a shift from traditional notions of speakerness in minority contexts, built around the Fishmanian discourse of reversing language shift (see Kubota, 2009). The new speaker—actually neo-speaker—is one of the seven categories put forward by Grinevald and Bert (2011), who considered them central to language revitalization. Answering the call for more data on new speakers of minoritized languages in O’Rourke, Pujolar, & Ramallo, 2015, this research aims to start the debate on the new speakers of Frisian (see Belmar, 2018; Belmar, Eikens, Jong, Miedema, & Pinho, 2018; and Belmar, Boven, & Pinho, 2019) by means of a questionnaire filled in by adults learning the language in the evening courses offered by Afûk. This article presents an analysis of their backgrounds, their attitudes towards the language, and their language use.

Ideology, affect, and socialization in language shift and revitalization: The experiences of adults learning Gaelic in the Western Isles of Scotland

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILY McEWAN-FUJITA
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Socialization ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Scottish Gaelic ◽  
Micro Level

ABSTRACTThe intertwined role of language ideologies and affect in language shift and revitalization can be understood by taking a language socialization perspective on local micro-level interaction between adult Gaelic learners and fluent Gaelic-English bilinguals. Seven adults living in the Western Isles were interviewed about their efforts to learn and speak Scottish Gaelic, a minority language spoken by 1–2% of Scotland’s population. Their negative affective stances in describing their interactions with local Gaelic-English bilinguals indicate that they were being socialized into an ideology of local Gaelic-English sociolinguistic boundaries: an “etiquette of accommodation” to English speakers and wariness about public Gaelic speaking. This socialized combination of ideology and negative affect reduces opportunities for Gaelic speaking, hindering both Gaelic learners’ efforts to become fluent speakers and their potential contribution to language revitalization. In contrast, however, the interviewees described “sociolinguistic mentors” who socialized them into a more inclusive vision of Gaelic speaking laden with positive affect.1

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