‘I'm not dead yet': a comparative study of indigenous language revitalization in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey

Abstract

At the outset of the twenty-first century, the survival of many minority and indigenous languages is threatened by globalization and the ubiquity of dominant languages such as English in the worlds of communication and commerce. In a number of cases, these negative trends are being resisted by grassroots activists and governments. Indeed, there are many examples of activists and governments working together in this manner to preserve and revitalize indigenous languages and cultures. Such coordinated efforts are vital to the success of language revitalization. This article compares the work of language activists and governments in three small island jurisdictions in the British Isles: the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. Comparison between these cases is greatly facilitated by similarities in their political, economic and demographic circumstances. The cases, however, reveal important differences in the way that activists and governments have responded to the challenges of language revitalization, as well as some interesting insights on the future prospects of the indigenous languages of these small island jurisdictions.

New speakers: Challenges and opportunities for variationist sociolinguistics

“…Indeed, in recent years, an increasing number of papers in typologically dissimilar contexts have revealed many common themes and findings. New‐speaker studies are now available on Baseldytsch (Del Percio, ), Belarusian (Woolhiser, ), Catalan (Frekko, ; Pujolar & Puigdevall, ), Cornish (Sayers, ; Sayers & Renkó‐Michelsén, ), Corsican (Jaffe, ), Francoprovençal (Bichurina, ; Kasstan, ; Kasstan & Müller, ), Galician (O'Rourke & Ramallo, ; Tomé Lourido and Evans, ; ), Giernesiei and Jèrriais (Sallabank & Marquis, ; Wilson, Johnson, & Sallabank, ), Irish (Walsh, , O'Rourke & Walsh, ), Lemko (Hornsby, ), Louisiana Creole (Mayeux, ), Manx (Ó hIfearnáin, ), Occitan (Costa, ), Scottish Gaelic (McLeod & O'Rourke, ; Nance, ; Nance et al, ), Welsh (Morris, ; Robert, ), Western Armenian (Manoukian, ), and Yiddish (Hornsby, ). Owing to the observations set out above that new speakers are frequently characterised as employing linguistic variants that differ from traditional norms, it is surprising that so few studies have made use of quantitative variationist methods to better understand the social significance of this variation, or to connect variation in production with broader questions of linguistic diffusion and change.…”

La solidaridad vasca en la revitalización lingüística mapuche y quechua

“…Dentro del campo de la revitalización lingüística, la transición posmaterialista es un fenómeno menos estudiado, quizás por el hecho de ser un proceso más reciente. Wilson (2011) explica este proceso a través del ejemplo de la Isla de Man, argumentando que, como resultado de la seguridad económica en Europa desde los años 50, las generaciones que han crecido bajo estas condiciones priorizan "necesidades" en el ámbito de lo cultural, estético e intelectual. En las comunidades de idiomas amenazados, una de estas necesidades es la revitaliza-ción lingüística.…”

Rhetoric and Reality: A Critical Review of Language Policy and Legislation Governing Official Minority Language Use in Health and Social Care in Wales

“…Moreover, definitions of language planning themselves have often highlighted, "the marginalisation of micro-level language planning" (Liddicoat & Baldauf, 2008, p. 3) in favour of macro, power-orientated understandings of language. However, there are increasing calls to consider the implementation of micro-level language planning initiatives within a variety of contexts (Sallabank, 2010;Wilson, Johnson, & Sallabank, 2014). Furthermore, Barakos (2016), among others, recognizes the role that power and agency play in the lives of social actors and how vital a consideration these elements are in constantly reshaping language policy implementation worldwide.…”