Reconstructing the past? Low German and the creating of regional identity in public language display

Reershemius, Gertrud

doi:10.1080/01434632.2010.536238

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Small and medium-sized farms are increasingly forced to make room for large agricultural enterprises ("super-productivism"). Tourism has become a new and important part of the local economy in a region that is reinventing itself in order to fit consumer requirements and notions of country life (see, e.g., Reershemius, 2011).…”

Section: Map 1: Krummhörnmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some villagers have moved there only recently, whereas many tourists come year after year to the same places, talk to villagers, and gain access to the local narratives. name and a gothic typeface to indicate tradition and "authenticity" (Reershemius, 2011). This particular restaurant caters mainly to tourists, according to interviews conducted in the village.…”

Section: Economic Transactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For some time, Low German has been in the process of shift towards German due to an increasing loss of communicative domains and decreasing transmission across generations in the family. Although Low German is in steady decline as a vernacular of day-to-day communication, it has become increasingly popular and more visible in public space in recent years(Reershemius 2011). Low German is often drawn on to establish proximity and closeness in communication and it connects the individual speakers to a concept of place, even if they do not live in the Low German-speaking regions any more.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Semiotic rural landscapes and the performance of community in villages

Reershemius

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article analyses the semiotic landscapes of 19 villages in Low German-speaking northern Germany, thus contributing to the growing body of research in the field of semiotic landscapes in rural settings. Drawing from Blokland’s (2017) typology of community, it analyses the semiotic landscapes of the villages as material manifestations of communicative practices and performances which create fluid, flexible configurations of community. The analysis reveals that signage in this particular rural context reflects social processes by which individuals and communities have constructed new images of themselves by using elements of local tradition, culture, language, and history. In doing so, they have also carved out a specific approach to tourism for themselves, which is opposed to mass and package tourism.

show abstract

Section: Map 1: Krummhörnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Economic Transactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Semiotic rural landscapes and the performance of community in villages

Reershemius

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Gorter et al 2012) or dialects (cf. Long/Nakai 2014, Reershemius 2011, Ziegler et al 2017 in linguistic landscapes, others analyze specific places and functional buildings, such as train stations and airports (cf. Domke 2014), or typographical aspects of signs (cf.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Crowdsourcing the linguistic landscape of a multilingual country. Introducing Lingscape in Luxembourg

Purschke

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper introduces the citizen science mobile application Lingscape. This free research tool for Android and iOS smartphones uses a crowdsourcing approach for research on linguistic landscapes. The paper discusses the use of mobile applications and crowdsourcing in linguistics, methodological requirements and problems of an app-based approach to the study of linguistic landscapes, and the key features of the app Lingscape. It considers the Luxembourgish cultural super-diversity as well as existing studies about the Luxembourgish linguistic landscape to set the background for the pilotstudy.

show abstract

“…Linguistic landscape (public signage) research is a recent development within the field of LPP and a domain which can illuminate the dominant and marginalized discourses on language (Puzey, 2012;Reershemius, 2011). The linguistic landscape in Tabriz is investigated here to shed light on "how authorities wish to portray a local linguistic situation," and whether, if at all, that particular portrayal is accepted by the general population (Puzey, 2012, p. 141).…”

Section: Ecology Of Language and Lppmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Policy, Language Practices and Language Shift in Tabriz

Mirvahedi¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

<p>This thesis examines how Azeri, a minority language with the largest number of speakers in Iran, is marginalized by de facto monolingual language policies of the state favoring Farsi, the only official language, over Azeri in the three selected domains. The research provides insights into how family language policies, i.e. attitudes, ideologies and practices in the home, are influenced by macro policies of multilingual nation-states, leading to language maintenance/shift among minority groups. The investigation adopted and integrated a number of complementary theoretical frameworks and paradigms. An ecology of language paradigm (Haugen, 1972; Hornberger & Hult, 2008; Mühlhäusler, 1996) was used to situate the research within a broader sociopolitical, historical and economic context. The ethnolinguistic vitality model (Giles, Bourhis, & Taylor, 1977), and language policy and planning (LPP) frameworks proposed by Shohamy (2006) and Lo Bianco (2005, 2008c, 2012a; 2013) were utilized to explore the complex interaction between macro level LPP activities and micro level attitudes and practices. The integrated model demonstrates how language policies implemented within state-run domains and institutions produce particular Discourses. The proposed framework further illustrates how such Discourses may influence people at the grass roots level which in turn could lead to language maintenance/shift in different communities and groups. The data base for the study comprised two phases: the first phase involved ethnographic observations of the public sphere (linguistic landscape data), language use in the home (three case studies), and the local channel for Azeris (media data), interviews with fifty children, and authorities of ten kindergartens and preschools. A focus-group interview was also conducted in this phase to assist with designing an attitude questionnaire which was administered in the second phase to 150 parents of young children. The empirical data suggests that family language policies among Azeris in Tabriz are constantly and increasingly influenced by monolingual policies of the state. The institutionalization and legitimization of Farsi through de facto LPP activities has resulted in formation of uncommitted, if not negative, attitudes among Azeri parents regarding their ethnic language. The analysis shows how a Farsi-only education system cajoles kindergarten principals into favoring Farsi over Azeri, leading them to suggest that parents and children speak Farsi in the home to ease their integration into the education system. The linguistic landscape data demonstrates the absence of Azeri both in top-down governmental and private individual signage indicating its low status compared to Farsi and English, the two prevalent languages in public signage in Tabriz. Exploring the broadcasting media suggests Azeris' inclination towards Farsi, and then in a second place, Turkish channels. As a result, having attracted only one percent of Azeri audience, the only available channel provided by the government for Azeris, Sahand TV, provides arguably no institutional support for Azeri. The findings suggest that although family members may be viewed as free agents to choose a particular language to speak in the home, in reality such choices are highly constrained by the ecology surrounding the home which is shaped by LPP decisions and activities. Overall, this thesis sheds light on the complex nature of language policy and planning in multilingual nation-states, and how they impact on language maintenance/shift processes among minority groups, whilst also illuminating how language ecologies are manipulated by nation-states to achieve particular non-linguistic goals.</p>

show abstract

Reconstructing the past? Low German and the creating of regional identity in public language display

Cited by 14 publications

References 20 publications

Semiotic rural landscapes and the performance of community in villages

Semiotic rural landscapes and the performance of community in villages

Crowdsourcing the linguistic landscape of a multilingual country. Introducing Lingscape in Luxembourg

Language Policy, Language Practices and Language Shift in Tabriz

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About