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Promoting minority language use to foster revitalisation: Insights from new speakers of West Frisian
Preprint   Open access

Promoting minority language use to foster revitalisation: Insights from new speakers of West Frisian

Ruth Kircher, Ethan Kutlu and Mirjam Vellinga
PsyArXiv
The Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science
08/05/2022
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/m6ej3
url
https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/m6ej3View
Preprint (Author's original)This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

Policy makers are increasingly aware of the importance of new speakers (i.e. individuals acquiring a language outside the home, typically later-on in life) for the revitalisation of minority languages. Consequently, in many contexts, new speakers’ acquisition of the local minority language is now promoted through the education system. Yet, knowledge of a language does not automatically entail its use, and little is known about the activation of new speakers (i.e. the process by which they become active and habitual minority language users). This article presents a questionnaire-based study conducted in the Dutch province of Fryslân, which investigates new speakers’ (n=264) use of the local minority language – West Frisian – and the role that traditional speakers play in new speakers’ activation. Qualitative and quantitative data show that new speakers use West Frisian only very rarely; and when they do use it, it is mainly in the classroom. Minority language interactions outside the classroom, with traditional speakers, consist mostly of a few tokenistic words or phrases. The results highlight how the complex relationship between traditional and new speakers (in which questions of legitimacy and linguistic insecurity are highly pertinent) is hindering revitalisation efforts. The study provides nuanced insights into the dynamics of new speakers’ activation by showing to what extent different behaviours on the part of traditional speakers discourage and/or encourage new speakers’ minority language use. The article discusses the implications of these results for language policy and planning in Fryslân, and potentially also in other minority language communities.
 language attitudes language contact language ideologies language planning language policy language use linguistic insecurity minorities multilingualism

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