Deficitandnewvaluesinthelinguis2cmarketforsmalllanguages

JuliaSallabankSOASUniversityofLondon

JonathanKasstanQueenMaryUniversityLondon

COSTNewSpeakersWAC2016,UniversitätHamburg,12-14May

DRAFT–PLEASEDONOTCITEWITHOUTPERMISSIONToappearinpress.

Presenta2onoutline

•  Comparisonofcontexts•  IdeologicalchallengesfacedbynewspeakersofGiernesieiandFrancoprovençal

•  Tradi2onalvs.newlinguis2cmarkets•  Towardsanewanaly2calframework

•  Guernsey(ChannelIs.)•  Semi-autonomousBri2shdependency

•  Indigenouslanguage:Giernesiei(Norman,oïl)

•  Only100-200fluentna2vespeakers?Mainlyaged80+

•  Only6proficientspeakersunder60?(youngest48)

Twosmall,‘severelyendangered’languages:Giernesiei

3

Francoprovençal

(Bert et al. 2009: 14) (Hall 1949: 2)

Francoprovençal

‘Le francoprovençal tout court n’existe pas’ (Helmut Lüdtke 1971: 69). [In short, Francoprovençal does not exist].

‘Le nouveau groupe proposé [...] n'offre aucune unité géographique’ (Meyer 1875: 295). [This newly proposed dialect grouping […] does not form a discrete unit].

i) Does it actually exist?

‘Ce nom est […] un peu trompeur, car il semble suggérer qu’il s’agit d’une langue mixte’ (Walter 2003: vii). [This name is somewhat misleading, for it seems to suggest a hybrid language].

iii) A confusing name

‘Le francoprovençal existe-t-il?’ (Tuaillon 2007: 9) [Does Francoprovençal exist?]

‘[Le francoprovençal n’a] jamais fait l’objet d’une conscience linguistique commune’ (Matthey and Meune 2012: 108) [Francoprovençal has never been associated with a coherent linguistic identity]

ii) No linguistic identity?

Linguis2cmarkets

•  Bourdieudevelopedtheconceptoffieldsormarkets(e.g.1991)–  Notonlywithregardtolanguage

•  Economiccapital:money,assets•  Culturalcapital:knowledge,skills,educa2on,tastes•  Symboliccapital:pres2ge,creden2als•  Oneformofcapitalmaybeconvertedintoanother

–  e.g.pres2gewaysofspeakingfacilitateknowledgeacquisi2onandeconomicadvantage

•  Fundamentallinkbetweenac2onsandinterests

Damnediftheydo,anddamnediftheydon’t

•  Newspeakersofsmall,highlyendangeredlanguagesfindthemselvesinadouble-bind

•  Older/na2vespeakersexpressadesireforyoungerpeopletolearnsuchlanguages

•  Thereisincreasingdesireamongyoungerpeopleforlanguagerevitalisa2on

•  Butnewspeakersaremarginalisedbyself-appointedgate-keeperstotradi2onallinguis2cmarkets– Na2vespeakersactasgate-keeperstolinguis2cmarketswhere‘authen2clanguage’(Coupland2003:419)iscarefullymonitoredandmaintained

Commonissuesre:GiernesieiandFrancoprovençal

•  Ownership(powerinthelinguis2cmarket)– Newspeakersbeingrobbedoflanguageopportuni2es

•  Authen2city,legi2macy•  Status(language~dialect?)andglohonyms•  Cri2cismanddiscouragement•  Mythofnoearliernewspeakers•  Lackofopportuni2estoprac2se•  Insufficientaccesstoinput•  Differentstrategiesamongnewspeakers-acceptauthorityorrebel?

Legi2macy,authen2cityandauthorityinsmalllanguages

•  Na2ve-speakerism–  “languageguardians”upholdtradi2onalwaysofspeaking–  maintenanceoftradi2onalpower(elders=authori2es)–  “LotsofpeopleseeGiernesieiasanostalgicthingandalmostasasecretsocietyorclubwithanaudiblemembershipcardtobelongtothecommunity”–prospec)venewspeaker,M,40s(SallabankandMarquisinpress)

•  Linguis2cvariantsproducedbynewspeakersarecri2cised(delegi2mised)andrejected–  “Wedon’tlikepeoplewhospeakourpatoisbadlyweprefertospeakwithrealpatoisspeakersandtospeakeitherFrenchorourrealpatois,butnottomassacrethepatois”–Swissna2vespeaker,M,80+(Kasstaninpress)

Tradi2onallinguis2cmarketsforsmalllanguages

•  Tradi2onal(na2ve)speakershaveaccesstoheritagelanguagesassymboliccapital

•  InGuernsey,Englishwasusedforu2litarianeventssuchascommercialandofficialtransac2ons;Frenchwasusedforreligion,hashighstatus;Giernesieifulfilledapha2coraffec2verole;nowanostalgicone.Francoprovençalasa“languedelaterre”

•  Impactonlanguagedevelopment– Giernesiei/Francoprovençalassociatedwiththepast–  lexicalmodernisa2onetc.isnotfelttobeapriority

‘Alterna2ve’marketvalues

•  Therehavebeensomeahemptsto(re)definemarketvalueswhichvaloriseminority/heritagelanguages:

1.  Schiffman:‘asortoflinguis2cblack-market’(2002:98)

–  waysthatofficialmarketsareunderminedorresisted–  analogoustoLabov’s(1972)‘covertpres2ge’orsolidarity-

drivenvaluesinlinguis2cpsychology–  nofurtherdetails/developmentontheidea

2.  ‘Linguis2cEmancipa2on’(Huss&Lindgreneds.2011)–  ‘condi2onsthatmustbepresentforagivenunderprivileged

languagetomoveupwardsonanimaginedhierarchicalscaleoflanguages’(Bull2013:33)

–  ‘toimaginedifferent,moreorlessparallellinguis2cmarkets,e.g.global…,na2onal…and,inaddi2on,severallinguis2csubmarkets’(Bull2013:44)

‘Linguis2csub-markets’

•  Partofminoritysociolinguis2chabitusisthetradi2onaldeficitideologyaboutminoritylanguages

•  Blackmarketvaluesandemancipa2onexplainrevalorisa2onandmaintenanceoflow-statusvarie2es

•  Buttheydonotcaterforthedifferingvalue-systemsoftradi2onalvs.newspeakers

•  Inourcontexts,anotherpartofhabitusisideologiesoflegi2macyandthedominanceofna2ve-speakermodels

‘Linguis2csub-markets’

•  Ineffectnewspeakersarecrea2ngasub-marketofalinguis2csub-market:–  revitalisa2on(Giernesiei);–  reclama2on(Francoprovençal);– Parallelwithmarke2ngtheory:micro-marketsforlocaleconomies

•  Whileprospec2venewspeakersaresocialisedintotheseideologies,somearealsowillingtochallengeassump2onsinordertomakethelanguagestheirown

Newmarketvalues?•  Refusinggate-keeper‘authen2city’•  Alterna2veglohonyms•  Symboliclanguageuseisbecominganincreasinglyimportantforumfor‘preserving’GuernesiaisandFrancoprovencal–  Performance,song,‘heritage’/‘cultural’events

•  Iden2ty-construc2on(personalandpoli2cal)–  Indexicality(Silverstein2003)

•  Commodifica2onoflocallanguage–  Placebrandingandpoli2calagendas–  Linguis2clandscape

•  Most(ifnotall)ofthesearearguablyexamplesofpost-vernacularlanguageuse(orconcepts)

Challengingauthorityinlinguis2cmarkets

•  Post-vernacularlanguageusedoesnotchallengena2ve-speakerism–  Itreproducesandperpetuatestheno2onthatnewspeakerswillnever/can’tbecomelegi2mate(fullyfluent/accurate)speakers

•  Mudeshavebeeniden2fiedasafeatureofnewspeakers–  ‘acri2caljunctureinthelifecyclewhereaspeakerchangeslinguis2cprac2ceinfavourofthetargetlanguage’(Walsh&O’Rourke2014:68)

–  Commitmenttospeakingthelanguage–  Newspeakersadoptlanguageasanewcurrency

•  ‘ac2velydefiningthesociolinguis2clandscapeintheirownterms’(Jaffe2015:38)

Poten2alsourcesofauthority(power)ina‘newlinguis2cmarket’

•  Languageknowledgethroughformallessons•  Exper2segainedthroughlinguis2cstudiesandlanguage

documenta2on•  Involvementinlanguagepolicyandplanning

–  Bothtop-downandbohom-uparenas•  Commitmentdemonstratedthroughac2vism(linguis2c,

poli2cal?)•  Neworthographicproposalsandprac2ces•  Languagedevelopment:terminology,newspeakervarie2es•  ‘wecanunderstandthenewcommunica2veorderasa

future-orientedflexible,vacilla2ngandchangeablephenomenonratherthanasta2c,frozenandrigidstatebasedonheritageonly’(WalshandO’Rourke2015:2)

Someconclusions…

•  Lookingforpoten2alnewmarketvalues–  to‘havelocallanguagesandculturescon2nueinwhateverformtheymaytake’(Goodfellow2009:21)

•  OvercomingideologicalchallengesfacedbynewspeakersofRMLs:–  authen2city,ownership,(il)legi2macy

•  Challenging‘post-vernacularity’asagoal–  Impliesterminaldecline–  Pessimis2candinsul2ngviewofnewspeakerabili2es

•  Newkindsofmarketvalues,‘currencies’orlinguis2ccapitalfor‘newspeakercommuni2es’–whatmighttheselooklike?

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