Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T11:29:05.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

28 - Renegotiating Language Norms in Minority Contexts

from Part V - Standardization in Late Modernity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2021

By
Noel Ó Murchadha
Edited by
Wendy Ayres-Bennett  and
John Bellamy
Wendy Ayres-Bennett
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
John Bellamy
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

This chapter considers language standardization from a minority language perspective. Processes and underlying principles of evaluative frameworks in minoritized languages are described from a historical and contemporary perspective. Trends in the standardization of minority languages are outlined, focusing on the case of the Irish language. It is contended that models of language excellence in many minority situations are being restructured. This is due to the opportunities for engagement with, and evaluation of, new forms of variation that have resulted from generations of language shift and revitalization. It is also due to the changing relationship between self and society in the context of Late Modernity, where social actors are increasingly agentive in deciding what is right and wrong for themselves. Using Irish as an illustrative example, it is shown that models of legitimate, authoritative and authentic language usage are constantly available for renegotiation, and perhaps especially in minority contexts. Results are described from two attitudinal projects with users of Irish, one with teenagers from the Irish-speaking communities of the Gaeltacht and the other with prospective ‘New Speaker’ teachers of Irish. Ultimately, the chapter speaks to shifting language evaluative dynamics in minority languages as communities adapt to their minoritized status within the fluid sociolinguistic arrangements that characterize Late Modernity.

Keywords

minority languagesprestigeIrishLate Modernity
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Language Standardization , pp. 741 - 764
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bauman, Z. (2004). Identity. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Beck, U. (1992). Risk Society. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bentahila, A. & Davies, E. (1993). Language revival: restoration or transformation? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 14(5), 355–73.Google Scholar
Blackwood, R. (2011). Language beliefs and the polynomic model for Corsican. Language Awareness, 20(1), 17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell-Kibler, K. & Bauer, M. K. (2015). Competing reflexive models of regional speech in northern Ohio. Journal of English Linguistics, 43(2), 95–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camps, D. (2018). Legitimating Limburgish. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. London: Routledge, pp. 99–110.Google Scholar
Cook, V. (2015). Where is the native speaker now? TESOL Quarterly, 50(1), 186–9.Google Scholar
Costa, J. (2018). On the pros and cons of standardizing Scots: notes from the north of a small island. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. London: Routledge, pp. 82–109.Google Scholar
Costa, J., De Korne, H. & Lane, P. (2018). Standardising minority languages: reinventing peripheral languages in the 21st century. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. London: Routledge, pp. 1–36.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. (2010). Introduction. In Coupland, N., ed., The Handbook of Language and Globalization. London: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. & Kristiansen, T. (2011). Critical perspectives on language standardisation. In Kristiansen, T. & Coupland, N., eds., Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe. Oslo: Novus, pp. 11–38.Google Scholar
Cutler, C. (2009). Yorkville crossing. In Coupland, N. & Jaworski, A., eds., The New Sociolinguistics Reader. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 299–310.Google Scholar
Darquennes, J. (2012). Language standardization and language identity issues in European language minority settings. In Studer, P. & Werlen, I., eds., Linguistic Diversity in Europe. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 69–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darquennes, J. & Vandenbussche, W. (2015). The standardisation of minority languages – introductory remarks. Sociolinguistica, 29(1), 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, A. (2000). What second language learners can tell us about the native speakers. In Cooper, R., Shohamy, E. & Walters, J., eds., New Perspectives and Issues in Educational Language Policy. Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins, pp. 91–112.Google Scholar
Davies-Deacon, M. (2017). Names, varieties and ideologies in revived Cornish. Studia Celtica Posnaniensia, 2, 81–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deumert, A. & Vandenbussche, W. (2003). Standard languages: taxonomies and histories. In Deumert, A. & Vandenbussche, W., eds., Germanic Standardisations: Past to Present. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duchêne, A. & Heller, M. (2012). Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Evans, B. Benson, E. & Stanford, J. (2018). Introduction. In Evans, B., Benson, E. & Stanford, J., eds., Language Regard. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–15.Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and Power. Harlow: Pearson.Google Scholar
Frekko, S. (2009). ‘Normal’ in Catalonia. Language in Society, 38(1), 71–93.Google Scholar
Gal, S. (2018). Visions and revisions of minority languages: standardization and its dilemmas. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery. London: Routledge, pp. 301–30.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. (2010). Attitudes to Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (2002) Runaway World. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Grenoble, L. & Bulatova, N. J. (2018). Language standardization in the aftermath of the Soviet language empire. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. London: Routledge, pp. 157–83.Google Scholar
Grenoble, L. & Whaley, L. (2006). Saving Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haugen, E. (1966). Dialect, language, nation. American Anthropologist, 68(4), 922–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornsby, M. (2017). Finding an ideological niche for New Speakers in a minoritized language community. Language Culture and Curriculum, 30(1), 91–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irvine, J. T. & Gal, S. (2009). Language ideological processes. In Coupland, N. & Jaworski, A., eds., The New Sociolinguistic Reader. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 374–77.Google Scholar
Jaffe, A. (2003). Misrecognition unmasked? Pragmatics, 13(3/4), 515–38.Google Scholar
Jenkins, J. (2016). English as a lingua franca in the expanding circle. In Filppula, M., Klemola, J. & Sharma, D., eds., The Oxford Handbook of World Englishes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 549–66.Google Scholar
Jones, M. C. & Mooney, D. (2017). Creating orthographies for endangered languages. In Jones, M. C. & Mooney, D., eds., Creating Orthographies for Endangered Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–35.Google Scholar
Joseph, J. E. (1987) Eloquence and Power: The Rise of Language Standards and Standard Languages. London: Frances Pinter.Google Scholar
Kammacher, L., Stæhr, A. & Jørgensen, J. N. (2011). Attitudinal and sociostructural factors and their role in dialect change. Language Variation and Change, 22(1), 87–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karan, E. (2014). Standardization: what’s the hurry? In Cahill, M. & Rice, K., eds., Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages. Dallas, TX: SIL International, pp. 107–38.Google Scholar
Kasstan, J. (2018). Exploring contested authenticity among speakers of a contested language: the case of ‘Francoprovençal’. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 39(5), 382–93.Google Scholar
Kramsch, C. (1997). The privilege of the nonnative speaker. PMLA, 112(3), 359–69.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, T. (2009). The macro level social meaning of Late-Modern Danish accents. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia, 41(1), 167–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lane, P. (2018). Language standardization as frozen mediated action. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. London: Routledge, pp. 136–57.Google Scholar
Lenoach, C. (2014). Sealbhu´ Neamhiomla´n na Gaeilge mar Chéad Teanga sa Da´theangachas Dealaitheach. Doctoral thesis. National University of Ireland, Galway.Google Scholar
Leonard, S. & Árnason, K. (2011). Language ideology and standardisation in Iceland. In Kristiansen, T. & Coupland, N., eds., Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe. Oslo: Novus, pp. 91–6.Google Scholar
Lippi-Green, R. (2012). English with an Accent. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lodge, R.A. (2010). The sources of standardisation in French. In Ingham, R., ed., Anglo-Norman Language and Its Contexts. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, pp. 26–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maegaard, M. (2009). How many standards? In Maegaard, M., Gregersen, F., Quist, P. & Jørggensen, J. N., eds., Language Attitudes, Standardization and Language Change. Oslo: Novus, pp. 131–47.Google Scholar
Maguire, G. (1991). Our Own Language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
McGuigan, C. (2016). A Comparative Analysis of Noun and Verbal Morphology in the Speech of Irish Speakers in the Donegal Gaeltacht and Belfast. Doctoral thesis. Queen’s University Belfast.Google Scholar
McKenzie, R. M., Kitikanan, P. & Boriboon, P. (2016). The competence and warmth of Thai students’ attitudes towards varieties of English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 37(4), 536–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, J. & Milroy, L. (1999). Authority in Language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moal, S., ó Murchadha, N. & Walsh, J. (2018). New speakers and language in the media. In Smith-Christmas, C., ó Murchadha, N., Hornsby, M. & Moriarty, M., eds., New Speakers of Minority Languages. London: Palgrave, pp. 189–212.Google Scholar
Montoya-Abat, B. (2009). Phonological features of attrition. In Stanford, J. & Preston, D., eds., Variation in Indigenous Minority Languages. Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins, pp. 211–27.Google Scholar
Mugglestone, L. (2003). Talking Proper. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nance, C. (2015). ‘New’ Scottish Gaelic speakers in Glasgow. Language in Society, 44(4), 533–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nic Fhlannchadha, S. & Hickey, T. M. (2017). Acquiring an opaque gender system in Irish. First Language, 37(5), 475–99.Google Scholar
Niedzielski, N. & Preston, D. (2010). Folk Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
ó Curnáin, B. (2007). The Irish of Iorras Aithneach, Co. Galway. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.Google Scholar
ó Duibhir, P. (2018). Immersion Education: Lessons from a Minority Language Context. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
ó hIfearnáin, T. (2008). Endangering language vitality through institutional development. In King, K. A., Schilling-Estes, N., Fogle, L., Lou, J. J. & Soukup, B., eds., Sustaining Linguistic Diversity. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, pp. 113–28.Google Scholar
ó hIfearnáin, T. (2015). Sociolinguistic vitality of Manx after extreme language shift. International Journal for the Sociology of Language, 231, 45–62.Google Scholar
ó hIfearnáin, T. & ó Murchadha, N. (2011). The perception of Standard Irish as a prestige target variety. In Kristiansen, T. & Coupland, N., eds., Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe. Oslo: Novus, pp. 97–104.Google Scholar
ó Murchadha, N. (2013). Authority and innovation in language variation. In Kristiansen, T. & Grondelaers, S., eds., Language (De)Standardisation in Late Modern Europe. Oslo: Novus, pp. 71–96.Google Scholar
ó Murchadha, N. (2016). The efficacy of unitary and polynomic models of codification in minority language contexts. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 37(2), 199–215.Google Scholar
ó Murchadha, N. & Flynn, C. J. (2018a). Educators’ target language varieties for language learners. Modern Language Journal, 102(4), 797–813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ó Murchadha, N. & Flynn, C. J. (2018b). Language educators’ regard for variation in Late Modernity: perceptions of linguistic variation in minority contexts. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 22(3), 288–311.Google Scholar
ó Murchadha, N. & Migge, B. (2017). Support, transmission, education and target varieties in the Celtic languages, Language, Culture and Curriculum, 30(1), 1–12.Google Scholar
ó Murchadha, N. & ó hIfearnáin, T. (2018). Converging and diverging stances on target varieties in collateral languages. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(5), 458–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ó Murchadha, N., Hornsby, M., Smith-Christmas, C. & Moriarty, M. (2018). ‘New’ speakers, familiar concepts? In Smith-Christmas, C., ó Murchadha, N., Hornsby, M. & Moriarty, M., eds., New Speakers of Minority Languages: Linguistic Ideologies and Practices. London: Palgrave, pp. 1–12.Google Scholar
O’Rahilly, T. F. (1932). Irish Dialects Past and Present. Dublin: Browne and Nolan.Google Scholar
O’Rourke, B. (2018). Negotiating the standard in contemporary Galicia. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. London: Routledge, pp. 121–46.Google Scholar
Patrick, D., Murasugi, K. & Palluq-Cloutier, J. (2018). Standardization of Inuit languages in Canada. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. London: Routledge, pp. 182–208.Google Scholar
Peery, C. (2012). New Deal Navajo linguistics. Language and Communication, 32(2), 114–23.Google Scholar
Pétervary, T, ó Curnáin, B., ó Giollagáin, C. & Sheahan, J. (2014). Analysis of Bilingual Competence. Dublin: COGG.Google Scholar
Priest, K. (2008) Oc-lite: why aren’t the Occitans more like the Catalans? Sociolinguistica, 22, 140–56.Google Scholar
Rannóg an Aistriúcháin (1958). Gramadach na Gaeilge agus Litriu´ na Gaeilge: An Caighdean Oifigiu´il. Dublin: Oifig an tSoláthair.Google Scholar
Rice, K. & Cahill, M. (2014). Introduction. In Cahill, M. & Rice, K., eds., Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages. Dallas, TX: SIL International, pp. 1–6.Google Scholar
Romaine, S. (2007). Preserving endangered languages. Language and Linguistic Compass, 1(1–2), 115–32.Google Scholar
Røyneland, U. (2016). Revision of the Nynorsk standard: deliberation, decision and legitimisation. Sociolinguistica, 30(1), 83–104.Google Scholar
Sallabank, J. (2013). Attitudes to Endangered Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schlieben-Lange, B. (1993). Occitan: French. In Posner, R. & Green, J. N., eds., Trends in Romance Linguistics and Philology, Vol. V. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 209–30.Google Scholar
Spolsky, B. (2004). Language Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stanford, J. & Preston, D. (2009). The lure of a distant horizon. In Stanford, J. & Preston, D., eds., Variation in Indigenous Minority Languages. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, pp. 1–20.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1974). The Social Differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Urla, J., Amorrortu, E., Ortega, A. & Goirigolzarri, J. (2018). Basque standardization and the New Speaker: political praxis and the dynamics of authority and value. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. London: Routledge, pp. 48–81.Google Scholar
Vaicekauskiene, L. (2011). Language ‘nationalisation’. In Kristiansen, T. & Coupland, N., eds., Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe. Oslo: Novus, pp. 105–12.Google Scholar
Wright, S. (2016). Peuple, langue, territoire. Sociolinguistica, 30(1) 45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×