Transmitting Minority Languages

Transmitting Minority Languages
Author: Michael Hornsby
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2022-04-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3030879100

This book gives fresh insight into the diverse ways in which the transmission of minority and heritage languages is carried out in a range of sociolinguistic contexts. When traditional modes of intergenerational transmission begin to break down, minority language and diaspora communities resort to other modes of transmission, out of necessity, to complement traditional mechanisms and secure language maintenance. This volume brings together a broad range of studies of these alternative modes of transmission, examining the complex and diverse practical, ideological and personal challenges that arise in different settings. Beyond addressing the dynamics of language use within the home and family, the book also emphasises the importance of the participation of the minority community itself in language and cultural transmission. These mechanisms and initiatives, sometimes overlooked or dismissed in the academic literature, will prove to be essential in maintaining and ensuring the survival of minority and heritage languages into the 21st century and beyond. The twelve chapters in the book are divided into four sections (intergenerational transmission; transmission in post-traditional families; alternatives to ‘traditional’ transmission; and transmission in diasporic contexts), and the language contexts, both minoritised and diasporic, which are discussed include Basque, Breton, Galician, Guernesais, Irish, Māori, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Sorbian and Spanish. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociolinguistics, language acquisition, heritage language maintenance and revitalization, and language policy and planning.

New Speakers of Minority Languages

New Speakers of Minority Languages
Author: Cassie Smith-Christmas
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2017-11-29
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1137575581

This book represents the first collection specifically devoted to New Speaker Studies, focusing on language ideologies and practices of speakers in a variety of minority language communities. Over thirteen chapters, it uses the new speaker lens to investigate not only linguistic issues, such as language variation and change, phonetics, morphosyntax, language acquisition, code-switching, but also sociolinguistic issues, such as legitimacy, integration, and motivation in language learning and use. Besides covering a range of languages - Basque, Breton, Galician, Giernesiei, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh - and their different sociolinguistic situations, the chapters also encompass a series of interactional settings: institutional settings, media and the home domain, as well as different contexts for becoming a new speaker of a minority language, such as by migration or through education. This collection represents an output by a lively network of researchers: it will appeal to postgraduate students, researchers and academics working in the field of sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, language policy and those working within minority language communities.

Minority Languages and Multilingual Education

Minority Languages and Multilingual Education
Author: Durk Gorter
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2013-11-04
Genre: Education
ISBN: 940077317X

​This book presents research on the situation minority language schoolchildren face when they need to learn languages of international communication, in particular English. The book takes minority languages as a starting point and it bridges local and global perspectives in the analysis of multilingual education contexts. It examines the interaction of minority languages and cultures, majority languages and lingua franca-s in a variety of settings across different regions and countries on all continents. Even though all chapters in this book involve minority languages, the issues discussed are relevant to any context in which more than language is used in education. The book reveals challenges and opportunities of multilingual education by discussing issues such as Northern and Southern concepts, language education policies, language diversity, interethnic understanding, multimodal language practices, power, conflict, identity and prestige, among many others. “This is the volume that finally accounts for multilingual education from a truly multilingual perspective by involving proposals and research from a variety of multilingual speech communities in the world. The (linguistically) rich Ethiopia and Mexico can teach the poor Europe and other Northern countries about multilingual education. CLIL promoters may learn from Finnish Sámi and Canadian Innu and Mi’gmaq indigenous communities as well as from Basque results. Speakers and teachers of minority and international languages will certainly be glad to hear the news. There is no need for a monolingual bias or tunnel vision in acquiring English in non-English speaking communities. This volume includes new challenging pedagogical perspectives while pointing to interesting conclusions for worldwide educational authorities”. Maria Pilar Safont Jordà, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain

Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages

Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages
Author: Willem Fase
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1992
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027241015

The papers in this volume describe a wide variety of language contact settings in which one or more languages are in a process of shift. In the first part of the book theoretical perspectives are presented, followed by linguistic, sociological and descriptive studies of languages and countries that have attracted the interest of researchers before, as well as less well known examples. Data are presented from: the Philippines, Korea, Japan, Israel, The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Morocco, Finland, Malaysia, Germany, USA, Ireland, India, Tanzania and Australia.

Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape

Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape
Author: D. Gorter
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2011-12-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0230360238

Providing an innovative approach to the written displays of minority languages in public space this volume explores minority language situations through the lens of linguistic landscape research. Based on very tangible data it explores the 'same old issues' of language contact and language conflict in new ways.

Minority Language Broadcasting

Minority Language Broadcasting
Author: Helen Kelly-Holmes
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2001
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781853595684

This volume examines the historical context, current state of and future prospects for broadcasting in minority languages, taking Irish and Breton as case studies. Practitioners and academics from a variety of disciplines come together to identify and debate the key issues that will mean success or failure for minority language broadcasting in the new millennium.

The State of Minority Languages

The State of Minority Languages
Author: W. Fase
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2013-12-19
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1134379420

Many regional languages across the world are threatened by modernization and urbanization whilst the universal and rapid rise of migration has created new and unprecedented forms of multilingualism. Aspects of education, national policies and attitudes towards minority languages are documented.

Language Revitalisation and Social Transformation

Language Revitalisation and Social Transformation
Author: Huw Lewis
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2021-09-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3030801896

This book brings together an interdisciplinary group of academic researchers in order to examine how and to what extent the challenge of language revitalisation should be reassessed and reconceptualised to take account of our fast-changing social context. The period of four decades between 1980 and 2020 that straddled the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first is widely regarded as one that witnessed a series of fundamental social, economic and political transformations. Many societies have become increasingly individualistic, mobile and diverse in terms of ethnicity and identity; their economies have become increasingly interconnected; and their governance structures have become increasingly complex, incorporating a growing number of different levels and actors. In addition, rapid advancements with regard to automated, digital and communication technology have had a far-reaching impact on how people interact with each other and participate in society. The chapters in this book aim to advance an agenda of key questions that should concern those working in the field of language revitalisation over the coming years, and the volume will be of interest to students, scholars and policy-makers in related areas including sociolinguistics, education, sociology, geography, political science, law, economics, Celtic studies, and communication technology.

Household Perspectives on Minority Language Maintenance and Loss

Household Perspectives on Minority Language Maintenance and Loss
Author: Dept of Modern Languages and Literatures Isabel Velázquez
Publisher: Multilingual Matters Limited
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2025-01-14
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9781788928687

This book examines minority language maintenance and loss in Spanish-speaking families in communities in the US with a low ethnolinguistic vitality for Spanish. It offers an account of the gendered nature of linguistic transmission and compares the self-perceptions, motivations and attitudes of members of two generations in the same household.

Revitalizing Minority Languages

Revitalizing Minority Languages
Author: Michael Hornsby
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2015-10-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137498803

New speakers are an increasingly important aspect of the revitalization of minority languages since, in some cases, they can make up the majority of the language community in question. This volume examines this phenomenon from the viewpoint of three minority languages: Breton, Yiddish and Lemko.