Towards a parental muda for new Basque speakers: Assessing emotional factors and language ideologies

Abstract

The concept of muda refers to how specific biographical moments can precipitate changes in the speaker's linguistic repertoire (Pujolar & Gonzàlez, 2012). In recent years, more inclusive or participatory approaches to intergenerational transmission in language revitalization contexts have been encouraging all parents, including those with low proficiency in the minority language, to participate in their child's language acquisition. This article examines a Basque‐ language campaign that instructs low‐proficiency parents to adopt child‐directed speech in Basque to mould affective orientations in the home environment. Drawing on a case study, I explore the complications of new speakerhood, especially the difficulties of bringing about a parental muda. I demonstrate how mudas are traversed by competing ideologies of language and language socialization. In disrupting monolingual ideologies, participatory approaches which aim at increasing the symbolic value of the language clash with the attitudes of speakers who view these mudas as inconsequential for achieving normalization.

Emotion in multivarietal family language policy in Flanders

“…The multivarietal Belgian Dutch setting thus seems to engender similar positive, negative, and indifferent emotional stances toward certain language practices in FLP as multilingual situations (cf. Obojska, 2018 and del Puy Ciriza, 2019) and hence seems to be a critical site where policies are negotiated, as suggested by Curdt-Christiansen and Gao (2021). These similarities can be linked up with caregivers’ description of the Belgian Dutch context in diglossic rather than diaglossic terms.…”

“…Piller herself has, for instance, examined the strategies caregivers devise to ensure that their children become bi- or multilingual, and how their relative success in that endeavor is influenced by societal ideas about bi- and multilingualism. Likewise, King et al (2008), Curdt-Christiansen (2009), Van Mensel (2016), Obojska (2018), and del Puy Ciriza (2019) examine strategies for bi- and multilingual FLPs and how community and societal pressures influence FLPs. In their editorial to a special issue on the matter, Curdt-Christiansen and Gao (2021) propose that the family should even be considered a critical site where the negotiation between various levels of language policies are negotiated.…”

“…In their editorial to a special issue on the matter, Curdt-Christiansen and Gao (2021) propose that the family should even be considered a critical site where the negotiation between various levels of language policies are negotiated. Obojska (2018) and del Puy Ciriza (2019), and several chapters in Schalley and Eisenchlas (2020) in particular, additionally pay closer attention to the influence that emotions have on FLP, examining the complex, often contradictory and overlapping ways speakers feel about maintaining heritage languages. Studying emotions in FLP can in this sense help better understand how such policies operate.…”

Ideologías Lingüísticas Como Sistemas De Representaciones Sociales: Una Propuesta Teórica Interdisciplinaria

“…La evidencia acumulada por estas investigaciones muestra la relevancia de las ideologías lingüísticas en diversos procesos, tales como el desplazamiento lingüístico (Kroskrity, 2010;Bouchard, 2019), la revitalización (Armstrong, 2012;Smagulova, 2019;Bennett, 2020), la planificación (Sallabank, 2019;Newman, 2021) y el aprendizaje de la lengua (King y Hermes, 2014; Ciriza, 2019). En consecuencia, un mejor entendimiento del fenómeno de las ideologías lingüísticas conducirá, a su vez, a una comprensión más clara de una serie de procesos sociolingüísticos.…”