Language Attitudes and Minority Rights

Language attitudes as predictors of morphosyntactic variation: Evidence from Catalan speakers in southern France

“…This experiment was originally developed to ascertain the extent to which language attitudes function as predictors of phonetic variation in Northern Catalan, by examining four phonetic variables, each with local (Northern) and supralocal (influenced by Central Catalan) variants. The present study is thus an extension of Hawkey () in that it seeks to ascertain the extent to which the same attitudinal measurements correlate with analogous patterns of morphosyntactic variation. Language attitude scores emerged as significant predictors of phonetic variation in three of the four variables studied (as opposed to just two in the above morphosyntactic data).…”

“…Language attitude scores emerged as significant predictors of phonetic variation in three of the four variables studied (as opposed to just two in the above morphosyntactic data). The full phonetic analysis can be found in Hawkey (: 115–148), but a brief comparative summary is given in Table .…”

“…While attempts were made to ensure the independence of variables (e.g. the selection of comparable cohorts at both fieldwork sites), there are indeed correlations between certain social and attitudinal variables, and these are explored in full (using an expanded version of the present data set) in Hawkey (: 79–114). However, testing confirmed the independence of the relevant social and attitudinal variables in the only case below where both were shown to be significant (the (MEU) variable).…”

“…However, such efforts remain marginal, and demand for services in Catalan has been shown to far outstrip supply (cf. Hawkey, : 196–201). Demographically, the Pyrénées‐Orientales is dominated by the city of Perpignan, with the wider metropolitan area of the city comprising approximately 70% of the region's population.…”

“…While Northern Catalan and Central Catalan are typologically similar, there are clear differences in phonetics and phonology, morphology, and lexis. Hawkey (: 115–148) provides a full account of how local Northern Catalan features coexist with supralocal Central Catalan traits in present‐day Northern Catalonia, through the examination of phonetic variables. The current work extends this analysis to encompass morphosyntactic variation.…”