Minority Language Revitalization Research Articles

Novel approaches to contemporary minority language revitalization

The challenges faced by minority languages in the contemporary linguistic landscape have been a relevant topic for several years. With global languages claiming an increasing share of speakers, smaller, community-based languages have been neglected in favor of a lingua
 franca. The paper aims to present a few possible ways in which this linguistic exposure can be transformed into a potential boon for language education and maintenance in smaller language communities, rather than this being a hindrance. The research relies on methods
 of scrutiny present in all forms of the media-oriented towards achieving an increased usage and recognition of apparently neglected languages.

The governance of Basque language revitalisation in the Basque Autonomous Community: from confrontation toward collaboration

ABSTRACT In recent decades, language revitalisation policies, programmes and initiatives have had to develop in an environment of major social, political, economic, or technological changes that have had an extraordinary impact on the governance of minority language revitalisation. In this context, we have studied the changes that have taken place in the governance of the revitalisation of the Basque language in the Basque Autonomous Community during the first two decades of the twenty-first century: from open antagonism to a common commitment to collaborative governance. We present an analysis of the models of governance confronted in the field of the revitalisation of the Basque language, of the rationalities that inform them or provide them with resources of meaning and legitimation, and of the process by which a model of collaborative governance has been arrived at.

Place identity and authenticity in minority language revitalisation: Scottish Gaelic in Glasgow

Aims and objectives: This paper first aims to examine how young Gaelic-English bilinguals in immersion education produce aspects of Gaelic phonology. We second consider the extent to which they acquire aspects of a traditional dialect. Third, we investigate how young new speakers outside of a traditional community negotiate place identity and authenticity. Methodology: Our methodology first consists of quantitative acoustic and auditory phonetic analysis of word list production data, accompanied by mixed effects regression. Second, we employ qualitative analysis of interview data from the same participants. Data and analysis: Data are presented from 22 speakers aged 13–14 in Gaelic Medium Education in Glasgow and 15 speakers aged 13–14 in GME on the Isle of Lewis. For comparison with a traditional dialect, we also include three speakers from Lewis aged 65–80. Our quantitative analysis considers 3,605 tokens in total and the qualitative analysis considers interview data with all speakers. Conclusions: Our findings show that young speakers reproduce traditional aspects of Gaelic phonology, though generally to a lesser extent that older speakers. Young new speakers in Glasgow recognise that they do not speak a traditional dialect of the language. They are beginning to create a new authenticity associated with belonging to Glasgow, which represents a new acquisition setting. Originality: This study is the first to explore acquisition of dialect and phonology among young new speakers of Gaelic. We explore perceptions of dialect and the implications of not coming from a traditional Gaelic-speaking area for the first time in young people. Implications: Revitalisation settings can lead to successful language acquisition but may also contribute to dialect levelling. However, institutional support structures can lead to increased confidence and new place identities emerging in young speakers.

Minority Language Revitalization and Social Media through the Lens of Covid-19 in Yunnan and Gansu, western China

ABSTRACT The language vitality of non-dominant communities has gained increasing attention worldwide with international declarations and national legislation enacted to protect the right of non-dominant language use and development. As information and communication technology (ICT) has spread, extending ICT to ethnic or indigenous languages has lagged. Nevertheless, their use on social media and other platforms has been growing rapidly, raising the question of their role in supporting non-dominant language vitality. In 2020 in China, non-dominant languages were used on various social media platforms to communicate anti-COVID messages. Drawing on language revitalisation frameworks, the investigators explore how the global pandemic has provided minority nationalities in west China the opportunity to increase recognition of their cultures and languages. We explore how minority communities in Yunnan and Gansu provinces in western China participated in China’s anti-Covid-19 campaign through the creation and dissemination of multilingual materials of different forms, genres, and modes on ICT social media platforms. We argue that using multilingual and multimodal ICT platforms to publicise countermeasures against Covid-19 has the potential to contribute to recognition and use of languages of non-dominant ethnic communities and revitalisation of heritage languages and cultures.

Minority language education: Reconciling the tensions of language revitalisation and the benefits of bilingualism

AbstractResearch has highlighted the significance of the family and community in minority language revitalisation, whilst raising concern for efforts solely focused at the school level. This article draws upon research with children in Gaelic Medium Education, in Scotland, to explore their experiences and perceptions of their language use. The findings illustrate the dominance of English language across multiple aspects of children's lives and highlight the opportunities/threats of recent revitalisation efforts to push the bilingual benefits of language learning. The findings suggest the need for a more considered approach, such as translanguaging pedagogies, in order to effectively revitalise Gaelic language.

Locals’ perspectives on the role of tourism in the preservation of a diaspora language: the case of Veneto in Mexico

ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been growing research interest in the role of tourism for the preservation and revitalization of minority languages. However, scant attention has been given to the diaspora language, a different type of minority language spoken by people dispersed from their place of origin. The present study aims to address this gap by exploring through 17 semistructured interviews, the perspectives of local people from the Italian community of Chipilo in Mexico regarding the potential use of tourism for the maintenance of Veneto. Findings reveal that tourism is relevant for preserving the diaspora language due to its potential to strengthen local pride and sense of identity through promoting the language to tourists and fostering cultural bonds between the community and its historic homeland.

Upper Sorbian language education: when community language maintenance practices disregard top-down revitalisation strategies

ABSTRACT The article studies minority language policy in the situation of an internal division within a speech community. It is based on the example of the Upper Sorbs – a Slavic minority in Germany. The division within this community is based on language use, the level of assimilation and religion. The Catholic Upper Sorbs have maintained intergenerational transmission of the language, and have a strong identity based on language use and participation in religious life. Most of the Upper Sorbian Protestants have shifted to German. Hence, the Catholic Upper Sorbs perceive themselves as ‘real’ Sorbs and – despite the decreasing number of speakers in their community – their strategy of language maintenance is through isolating themselves from German speakers. The official Sorbian language policy includes language revitalisation to increase the number of Sorbian speakers by creating new speakers of this language through bilingual education. We discuss the conflicting situation when the institutional minority language revitalisation strategy does not fit the internal ‘core’ community's language maintenance policy. The research was carried out at one of the Upper Sorbian schools with sociolinguistic observations and interviews with pupils from Sorbian-speaking families and with Sorbian learners, and on Sorbian language research revitalisation efforts.

Language competence assessment in minoritised language revitalisation contexts. The case of Basque

ABSTRACTIn minority language revitalisation contexts, the determination of proficiency in the minoritised language is a sensitive social issue that affects citizens regardless of their linguistic background. From a psychometric perspective, since the target population is heterogeneous, competence assessment instruments must ensure score validity for each linguistic subgroup. Focused on the Basque Autonomous Community (Spain), in this paper, we introduce the Basque Competence Assessment examination (known by its acronym EGA) and assess the factorial invariance of the writing section using a structural equation modelling approach. Data were collected from 2554 candidates classified into three groups according to mother tongue: Spanish, Basque, and Basque/Spanish. The results show the near invariance of the writing section of the EGA and that the highest performance was found in the Basque mother-tongue examinees. Results also reinforce the importance of validation analysis in language diversity contexts to guarantee fairness in test-based decisions.

Kaikki on vinksin vonksin

The Kiännä! project (2015 2018, UEF/Kone Foundation) organizes translation seminars for Karelian language activists living on both sides of the Russian border. The first seminar took place during the academic year 2015-2016, and this article reports the experiences collected during it. Compared to traditional university training of translation professionals, the set-up is completely different. These differences are described, and lessons learned are discussed. The conclusions emphasise the role of empowerment in minority language revitalisation, both in terms of empowering the speakers to translate and in empowering the trainers to overcome the differences.

Immersion education outcomes and the Gaelic community: identities and language ideologies among Gaelic medium-educated adults in Scotland

ABSTRACTScholars have consistently theorised that language ideologies can influence the ways in which bilingual speakers in minority language settings identify and engage with the linguistic varieties available to them. Research conducted by the author examined the interplay of language use and ideologies among a purposive sample of adults who started in Gaelic medium education during the first years of its availability. Crucially, the majority of participants’ Gaelic use today is limited, although notable exceptions were found among individuals who were substantially socialised in the language at home during childhood, and a small number of new speakers. In this paper, I draw attention to some of the language ideologies that interviewees conveyed when describing their cultural identifications with Gaelic. I argue that the ideologies that informants express seem to militate against their more frequent use of the language and their association with the wider Gaelic community. In particular, I discuss interviewees’ negative perceptions of the traditionally defined, ethnolinguistic identity category ‘Gael(s)’ in their expression of language ideologies and identities, and the implications of this finding for other contexts of minority language revitalisation.

Minority language revitalization and educational assessment: Do language‐related factors impact performance?

In contexts of minority language revitalization, educational assessment should consider the effect of language‐related factors on performance. Student score comparisons might be unfair if assessment does not take into account the student's language background, language of instruction or the level of minority language standardization. Including language‐related variables in assessment may improve validity, reduce sociolinguistic bias, and make it possible to monitor the progress of the revitalization plans. In this study, we present research conducted in the Basque Autonomous Community, where Spanish and Basque co‐exist. Based on population data (N = 16,270) from a study of fourth‐grade students, results show a positive relationship between the percentage of minority language speakers in the school catchment area and mathematical competence. Results also highlight differences in performance as a function of sociolinguistic groups based on the combination of family language and instruction language, showing better average performance for the Basque‐Basque group.

Intonational variation and change in Scottish Gaelic

This paper investigates intonational variation and change in Scottish Gaelic (henceforth ‘Gaelic’), a minority endangered language undergoing revitalisation. In particular I focus on bilingual speakers aged 13–14 who are attending immersion education in the Isle of Lewis, a Gaelic-heartland area, and in the city of Glasgow where Gaelic has no community history. The young people are compared to older Gaelic-dominant speakers in Lewis. Results suggest a substantial difference in Gaelic prosodic structure between the older and younger speakers, with older speakers speaking Gaelic as a language with contrastive word accents (prosodically similar to Swedish), and young people speaking Gaelic as an intonation language (prosodically similar to English). Further analysis of the young people's intonation suggests cross-language influence from Glaswegian English on the realisation of pitch accents and boundary tones in Glasgow Gaelic. These results are discussed in terms of the impact of language contact and bilingualism on intonational structure, and language change in this context of minority language revitalisation.

In the Name of Language: School-Based Language Revitalization, Strategic Solidarities, and State Power in the French Basque Country

This article explores the mobilization dynamics of a school-based minority language revitalization initiative in the French Basque Country, known as the Ikastola Movement. Bringing the study of language revitalization into dialogue with social movement theory, I discuss how the solidarity of Basque language activists was influenced by state-level structures of power. Focusing on an early phase of mobilization from 1975 to 1981, I consider how political opposition to the Ikastola Movement created a series of ideological and institutional struggles for activists. I then examine how these experiences of struggle strengthened the solidarity of activists in the long run. Ultimately, I argue that the discursive and organizational solidarities mobilized by activists were crucial in allowing them to realize important political gains during the 1980s to 1990s. By way of conclusion I suggest avenues for future research on school-based revitalization movements that draw attention to the horizontal and vertical dynamics of collective action.

Can majority support save an endangered language? A case study of language attitudes in Guernsey

Many studies of minority language revitalisation focus on the attitudes and perceptions of minorities, but not on those of majority group members. This paper discusses the implications of this and presents research into majority and minority attitudes towards the endangered indigenous vernacular of Guernsey, Channel Islands. The research uses a multimethod approach (questionnaire and interview) to obtain attitudinal data from a representative sample of the population that includes politicians and civil servants (209 participants). The findings suggest a shift in language ideology away from the post-Second World War ‘culture of modernisation’ and a monolingual ideal, towards recognition of the value of a bilingual or trilingual linguistic heritage. Public rhetoric in Guernsey now seems to support the maintenance of the indigenous language, which has resulted in a degree of official support. The paper then discusses to what extent this ‘attitude shift’ is reflected in linguistic behaviour and in concrete language-planning measures.

Language revitalization discourses as metaculture: Gaelic in Scotland from the 18th to 20th centuries

Discourses of Gaelic language revitalization in Scotland are analyzed as examples of Greg Urban’s ‘metaculture’ in order to gain a better understanding of how people attempt sociolinguistic change through minority language revitalization efforts. After describing the 18th-century emergence of ‘discourses of revitalization and redemption’ about Gaelic, this paper analyzes seven different themes or predications about Gaelic made in the 18th through 20th centuries to justify its salvation. I demonstrate how the discourses constitute metacultural and meta-linguistic commentaries on cultural and linguistic practices, and how previously circulating elements of culture, including language ideologies and affective stances, are dialogically contained within each creative revitalizing response and facilitate its circulation.

'Our languages are equally important': struggles for the revitalisation of the minority languages in Zimbabwe

The revitalisation of endangered minority languages is a subject that has recently caught the attention of a cross-section of people concerned with the sociology of language. This article focuses on the efforts regarding the revitalisation of minority languages in Zimbabwe. The article discusses the initiatives of civil society organisations, which, together with grassroots organisations formed by speakers of the endoglossic minority languages, have established collaborative networks to collectively mobilise for the revitalisation of the minority languages in Zimbabwe. Drawing on the analytic framework for language revitalisation efforts advanced by Fishman (1991, 2001), this article argues that in the prevailing political and economic environment, the minority language revitalisation efforts in Zimbabwe, which targeted the education and media domains, have met with a significant measure of success. This article discusses the strategies for language revitalisation employed by these organisations and suggests that such strategies may be useful for similar efforts in other contexts.

Can Language Politics Ensure Languages Survival? Evidence from Italy

AbstractIn light of the minority language revitalization trend, which has spread throughout Europe, encouraged by International and European legislation, at the end of the last century, an Italian law was approved to give a national framework to minority language preservation and renaissance. The status and prestige of minority languages thus appeared to be strengthened, though several theoretical and practical problems continue to impede national implementation of the law. Some of these problems – the different language minorities present in Italy, the linguistic variety that should be used in public settings and the nature of the language that is the object of the national language policy – are examined in this article. The purpose of this article is to consider the pros and cons of Italian language policies and politics through case studies representative of Italian sociolinguistic diversity, thus highlighting the roadblocks to protecting minority languages.

From the Roots to the Shoots: A Hawaiian Case Study of Language Revitalization and Modes of Communication

Throughout history, multiple indigenous groups have had their cultural, linguistic, and communicative identities supplanted by the norms of dominant groups. Nonetheless, the communication discipline has given minimal attention to the preservation and revitalization of minority languages. This article begins to redress this oversight by means of a case study of the Hawaiian language. In the last 200 years, the Hawaiian Islands have been significantly affected by Western influence, a process that has severely endangered the Hawaiian language. Beginning in the 1980s, scholars and community activists developed language immersion education programs to reverse this decline. In light of globalization forces and interview data, and drawing on the ethnolinguistic vitality framework, our integrative analysis uniquely assesses the history and status of the Hawaiian language as it is currently being revitalized through demographic support, media, and educational immersion programs. In addition to discussing future challenges to these efforts, we offer an agenda for research across an array of communication domains.

Language and Ethnic Identity of Minorities in Post-Soviet Russia: The Buryat Case Study

While the global ethnic revival, starting in the late 1960s, resulted in minorities' movements to maintain their ethnic identity closely connected with the revitalization of minority languages, the other ethnic identity pattern in relation to language can be identified from the perspective of a rarely discussed minority group-the Buryats.This article has found that within the Buryat minority group the assimilation strategy, widespread during the Soviet period, has been replaced by the integration strategy and a combination of strategies. In the latter case, linguistic integration is combined with the economic assimilation and marital separation. Two options have been identified regarding the language and identity link among Buryats. First, the native language is considered a salient feature of the Buryat ethnic identity, and it is actually used and maintained. However, more powerful is the trend to abandon the language as an irrelevant ethnocultural identity marker. In general, the native language has for Buryats a rather symbolic, unifying value and its abandoning does not affect the ethnic identity itself. Finally, the article explores external and internal determining factors, which have formed this identity pattern. As external factors we consider the ethnic and language policy of the Soviet Union, modernization, the Russian-dominated majority-minority configuration, and insufficient institutional support of the Buryat language restoration and development. The internal factor is the widespread attitude among the Buryats themselves consisting of a negative evaluation of the Buryat language and unwillingness to learn it and to transfer it to the next generations. The Buryat case shows that ethnic identity, in fact, can survive the loss of the indigenous group language, which has been sacrificed to the historical pressures of the last two centuries. It was the only possible ethnic identity pattern not only for the Buryat ethnic group, but also for many other minorities in Russia.

04/00625 Captive particle imaging and structural change on combustion of petroleum cokes containing ash: Yokota, M. et al. Kagaku Kogaku Ronbunshu, 2003, 29, (1), 140–143. (In Japanese)

Discourses of Gaelic language revitalization in Scotland are analyzed as examples of Greg Urban’s ‘metaculture’ in order to gain a better understanding of how people attempt sociolinguistic change through minority language revitalization efforts. After describing the 18th-century emergence of ‘discourses of revitalization and redemption’ about Gaelic, this paper analyzes seven different themes or predications about Gaelic made in the 18th through 20th centuries to justify its salvation. I demonstrate how the discourses constitute metacultural and meta-linguistic commentaries on cultural and linguistic practices, and how previously circulating elements of culture, including language ideologies and affective stances, are dialogically contained within each creative revitalizing response and facilitate its circulation.