Book Chapters by Guillem Belmar Viernes
El Procés: Identity and Nation in 21st Century Catalonia, 2021
This chapter analyses the effect of glocalization on the conceptualisation of the Catalan languag... more This chapter analyses the effect of glocalization on the conceptualisation of the Catalan language and identity. Firstly, the tight link between nation-state formation and the one-state-one-language ideology is introduced from a theoretical perspective to then be applied to present-day Catalonia as a stateless nation. From there, the concept of minorization is explored through its effects on identity and language ideologies in Catalonia in general. Once this has been established, the chapter focuses on four aspects of glocalization that have had a very visible impact on Catalonia: the de-territorialisation of Catalan; the de-ethnicization of the language; the need to embrace sustainable multilingualism; and the contestation of markedness in minority media. Finally, the chapter concludes with a short commentary on how these forces may have fuelled the drive for independence of Catalonia and a conclusion outlining the main topics of discussion and future lines of research.
Belmar, Guillem. 2021. Glocalization, (un)markedness and sustainable multilingualism: Catalonia, the de-territorialisation and de-ethnicization of Catalan. In Steven Byrne (ed.), El Procés: Identity and Nation in 21st Century Catalonia, 265-283. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Belmar, Guillem. 2020. A five-language island: (un)sustainable multilingualism in Sardinia. In Ju... more Belmar, Guillem. 2020. A five-language island: (un)sustainable multilingualism in Sardinia. In Juan Jiménez-Salcedo, Christine Hélot & Antoinette Camilleri-Grima (eds.), Small is Multilingual: Language and identity in micro-territories. Berlin: P.I.E. - Peter Lang.
Belmar, Guillem. 2020. Digital Presence and Language Revitalization: Attitudes Towards and Use of... more Belmar, Guillem. 2020. Digital Presence and Language Revitalization: Attitudes Towards and Use of Minority Languages on Social Media. In Lydia Sciriha (Ed.), Comparative Studies in Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, 201-218. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Journal Articles by Guillem Belmar Viernes
Proceedings of the 20th Meeting Texas Linguistic Society, 2021
Highly frequent bound pronouns are very likely to undergo segmental erosion (Heine & Song 2011). ... more Highly frequent bound pronouns are very likely to undergo segmental erosion (Heine & Song 2011). These processes may, in turn, lead to the emergence of inflectional tone in tonal languages. To illustrate these processes, this paper analyzes allomorphy in dependent pronouns in Sà'án Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ. Among Mixtec languages, Sà'án Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ presents a particularly complex pronominal system: it distinguishes different degrees of formality, shows considerable allomorphy, and presents distinct sets of subject and object enclitics. This paper focuses on the grammaticalization processes of personal pronouns in Sà'án Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ, the extent to which they undergo segmental erosion and the use of tone as a person marking strategy. We note how the distribution of segmental erosion among personal pronouns in Sà'án Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ mirrors Silverstein's (1976) agent hierarchy.
Belmar, Guillem, Alonso Vásquez-Aguilar & Jeremías Salazar. 2021. Agent hierarchy and pronominal allomorphy in Sàꞌán Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ. In Caitie Coons, Gabriella Chronis, Sofia Pierson, Venkat Govindarajan (eds.) Proceedings of the 20th Meeting Texas Linguistic Society, 21-38. Austin: University of Texas at Austin, Department of linguistics.
Language Documentation and Conservation, 2021
Social networking sites have become ubiquitous in our daily communicative exchanges, which has br... more Social networking sites have become ubiquitous in our daily communicative exchanges, which has brought about new platforms of identification and opened possibilities that were out of reach for many minoritized communities. As they represent an increasing percentage of the media we consume, these sites have been considered crucial for revitalization processes. However, the growing importance of social media may also pose a problem for minoritized languages, as the need for communication with a wider audience seems to require the use of a language of wider communication. One way in which this apparent need for a global language can be avoided is by creating virtual communities where the minoritized languages can be used without competition, a virtual breathing space.
This study analyzes language practices of eight communities: four North Frisian and four West Frisian virtual communities. The analysis focuses on the languages used in each community, the topics discussed, as well as the status of the minoritized language in the community. A total of 1,127 posts are analyzed to determine whether these communities function as breathing spaces, the factors that may foster or prevent the emergence of these spaces, and the similarities and differences between these two sociolinguistic contexts.
Revista de Llengua i Dret / Journal of Language and Law, 2020
Translation is widely known to have had a positive impact on the revitalization of the Basque lan... more Translation is widely known to have had a positive impact on the revitalization of the Basque language (Mendiguren Bereziartu, 1995), as it is one of the main means of creation, consolidation and spreading of the standard model of the language (Belmar, 2017). This paper will analyse how issues surrounding the revitalization of a minoritized language-such as the tension between standardization and variation; or the pressures of language contact on notions of authenticity (see Wong, 1999)-may affect the use of expressive verbal forms said to be disappearing from the spoken language due to both contact with Spanish and pressure from the standard, register-neutral, language (Alberdi, 2018). A corpus study of the use of allocutive agreement in both original and translated works of literature will illustrate these issues in practice. The data, in fact, suggests that a planned effort may be in place to revitalize the use of allocutive markers.
Resum
És àmpliament conegut que la traducció ha tingut un impacte positiu en la revitalització de la llengua basca (Mendiguren Bereziartu, 1995), ja que és un dels mitjans principals de creació, consolidació i extensió del model estàndard de la llengua (Belmar, 2017). Aquest article analitza els problemes que envolten la revitalització d'una llengua minoritzada: com ara la tensió entre estandardització i variació; o bé les maneres en què la pressió del contacte lingüístic pot afectar l'ús de formes verbals expressives que estan desapareixent de la llengua parlada, ja sigui com a causa del contacte amb l'espanyol o per la pressió del registre estàndar (Alberdi, 2018). Un estudi de corpus de l'ús de la concordança al·locutiva en obres de literatura tant originals com traduïdes il·lustrarà aquestes qüestions a la pràctica. De fet, les dades suggereixen que hi pot haver un esforç planificat per revitalitzar l'ús de marcadors al·locutius.
Paraules clau: revitalització de la llengua; estandardització de la llengua; llengua minoritzada; traducció; planificació lingüística; basc.
Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2020
West Frisian is a minoritized language spoken in the province of Fryslân, in the Netherlands. It ... more West Frisian is a minoritized language spoken in the province of Fryslân, in the Netherlands. It has been said to be converging with Standard Dutch (see De Haan, 1997; Nerbonne, 2001), and it has been found to be largely intelligible for speakers of regional language varieties in the Netherlands, such as Low Saxon or Limburgish for example (see, for instance, De Vries, 2010). In this research, we tested how much Frisian native speakers of Dutch can actually understand, as well as the degree of difficulty of each type of task. An online test was designed (N = 225) to measure the intelligibility of both written and spoken Frisian. The results seem to indicate that West Frisian is highly intelligible for Dutch native speakers, which we argue should be used to enrich the school curriculum and foster receptive skills in the minoritized language (see Fonseca, 2012; Belmar, 2019b), which could in turn boost its use.
La presencia de una lengua minorizada en el ámbito digital es esencial para proyectos de revitali... more La presencia de una lengua minorizada en el ámbito digital es esencial para proyectos de revitalización y mantenimiento lingüístico (Soria 2016). Entre otros, se ha postulado que la presencia digital de una lengua la asocia a la modernidad, eleva el prestigio de la lengua, anima a los hablantes a usarla y aumenta el cono-cimiento de la diversidad lingüística. Las redes sociales, en concreto, constituyen un cambio radical en la construcción de espacios de comunicación, abriendo la posibilidad de que hablantes de lenguas minorizadas creen espacios sin depender de mediación o financiación gubernamental (Belmar & Glass 2019). En este artículo exploraremos las posibilidades de las comunidades virtuales como refugios de uso para lenguas minorizadas tomando como ejemplo el grupo de Facebook para hablantes de aragonés Aragonés: charrar ragonar parlar fablar tafalar chilar mormostiar recontar. Para ello analizaremos 72 publicaciones compartidas entre marzo y junio de 2019, las lenguas que se usan y los temas de los que se habla.
Can Minoritized Languages Breathe in Social Media? The Role of Virtual Communities as Breathing Spaces through the Observation of a Facebook Group for Speakers of Aragonese
The presence of a minoritized language online is essential for revitalization and language maintenance projects (Soria 2016). Among others, it has been suggested that digital presence of a language associates it with modernity, boosts the prestige of the language, encourages speakers to use it and raises awareness of linguistic diversity. Social Media, in particular, constitutes a radical change in the construction of communicative spaces, opening the possibility for speakers of minoritized languages to create their own spaces without depending on government mediation or funding (Belmar & Glass 2019). In this article, the possibilities of virtual communities as breathing spaces for Minoritized languages will be analyzed, taking as an example the Facebook group for speakers of Aragonese Aragonés: charrar ragonar parlar fablar tafalar ÉTuDES ROMANES DE BRNO 41 / 2020 / 1 https://doi.
Neste artigo sugerimos a inclusão de estratégias de assertividade linguística e práticas de multi... more Neste artigo sugerimos a inclusão de estratégias de assertividade linguística e práticas de multilinguismo receptivo nos projectos de revitalização de línguas menorizadas. Em concreto, comparámos as situações do frísio ocidental e do mirandês, e basando-nos nas semelhanças-a) as duas línguas têm uma falta de prestígio evidente embora sejam reconhecidas oficialmente pelos governos respectivos, e b) as duas línguas estão estreitamente relacionadas com a língua dominante respectiva-vamos propor uma estratégia para projectos de revitalização da língua mirandesa. Esta proposta, no entanto, pode também ser aplicável noutros contextos semelhantes, como, por exemplo, os das outras línguas românicas da península ibérica.
Receptive Multilingualism: an Ally of Minoritized Languages. What Can Mirandese Learn from the Frisian Experience?
In this article we will suggest the inclusion of linguistic assertiveness strategies and receptive multilingualism practices in the revitalization projects of minoritized languages. In particular, we compared the situations of West Frisian and Mirandese, and based off the similarities between them-a) both languages suffer from an evident lack of prestige even when they are officially recognized by their respective governments, and b) both languages are closely related with the respective dominant language-we will suggest a strategy for the revitalization projects of Mirandese. This proposal, however, can also be applicable in other similar contexts, such as the situations of other Romance languages in the Iberian Peninsula.
Les xarxes virtuals han esdevingut eines de comunicació gairebé imprescindibles, i la comunicació... more Les xarxes virtuals han esdevingut eines de comunicació gairebé imprescindibles, i la comunicació virtual (Computer-Mediated Communication) representa un percentatge cada cop més elevat dels nostres intercanvis comunicatius. És per això que aquest article pretén estudiar les actituds i els usos del català a les xarxes socials a través d'un qüestionari i de l'anàlisi de dues comunitats virtuals: un grup de Facebook i l'etiqueta #català a Twitter.
Social media has become an almost indispensable tool of communication, and computer Mediated Communication makes up an increasingly large percentage of our communicative exchanges. This is why this article intends to study the attitudes and uses of Catalan on social media via a questionnaire and the analysis of two virtual communities: one Facebook group and the hashtag #català on Twitter.
Adeptus, 2019
Considering that social media is increasingly present in our daily communicative exchanges, digit... more Considering that social media is increasingly present in our daily communicative exchanges, digital presence is an essential component of language revitalization and maintenance. Online communication has modified our language use in various ways. In fact, language use online is often described as hybrid, and boundaries across languages tend to blur. These are also
characteristics of translanguaging approaches, which see language as fluid codes of communication. “Breathing spaces” are needed in order to achieve “sustainable translanguaging” practices for minority languages. The establishment of communities of performing minority language speakers in a digital environment raises the question whether these emerging virtual communities can take up the role of breathing spaces for minority languages.
Adults learning a minoritized language are potential new speakers, that is “adults who acquire a ... more Adults learning a minoritized language are potential new speakers, that is “adults who acquire a socially and communicatively consequential level of competence and practice in a minority language” (Jaffe, 2015; see also O'Rourke, Pujolar, & Ramallo, 2015). New speakers’ research has become quite common recently, marking a shift from traditional notions of speakerness in minority contexts, built around the Fishmanian discourse of reversing language shift (see Kubota, 2009). The new speaker —actually neo-speaker— is one of the seven categories put forward by Grinevald and Bert (2011), who considered them central to language revitalization. Answering the call for more data on new speakers of minoritized languages in O'Rourke, Pujolar, & Ramallo, 2015, this research aims to start the debate on the new speakers of Frisian (see Belmar, 2018; Belmar, Eikens, Jong, Miedema, & Pinho, 2018; and Belmar, Boven, & Pinho, 2019) by means of a questionnaire filled in by adults learning the language in the evening courses offered by Afûk. This article presents an analysis of their backgrounds, their attitudes towards the language, and their language use.
This study focuses on the motivation of adults learning a minority language, based on a tripartit... more This study focuses on the motivation of adults learning a minority language, based on a tripartite model: integrative and instrumental (Gardner & Lambert, 1959; 1972) and personal (see Benson, 1991) motivation. Adults learning a minority language are potential new speakers, a group that has been described as central to language revitalisation (see Pujolar & O’Rourke, 2018). Since the motivation to learn these languages does not seem to be linked to economic success or wider job opportunities, researchers have taken interest in knowing what drives people to learn a minority
language (e.g., O’Rourke & DePalma, 2016). In this study, (potential) new speaker motivations were investigated by means of ten open-ended interviews with adult learners of West Frisian—a minority language spoken in the Netherlands—in two different settings: Afûk Frisian courses (a more traditional learning setting) and Bernlef Frisian
courses (a student association that offers informal courses for their members).
The results show a predominance of integrative and personal motivation (also found in O’Rourke & DePalma, 2016), but not exclusively (as suggested by Jaffe, 2015) since the language appears to be tightly linked to the province and it is deemed beneficial—to a certain extent—for socioeconomic success in the province.
All literature reflects existing discourse in a given community, and translation —as a process of... more All literature reflects existing discourse in a given community, and translation —as a process of rewriting texts— is a readily accessible tool which linguistic minorities can use to shift power dynamics in their society or, at least, suggest new paradigms and new discourses. In this paper we analyze the key role which translation plays in the cultural systems of minority languages and how translation helps revitalize these languages. The aim of the paper is to defend this key role of translation in the revitalization processes of all minority languages and, at the same time, to highlight the main obstacles one may come across and to try and establish some basic guidelines which may be applied throughout all these processes to maximize their results. Therefore, this paper deals with language standardization, language planning, choice of texts to translate, source languages of the translations, target audience of the translations, diglossia, actual bilingualism, language orientation in translations and the dichotomy between originals written in the language and translations. In order to do so, we will first picture the theoretical frame upon which this paper is based and we will go on to discuss translation into Basque. Finally, we will establish a set of guidelines for other minority languages.
Full article: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/sm.2017.10.issue-1/sm-2017-0002/sm-2017-0002.xml?format=INT
Invited Talks by Guillem Belmar Viernes
Guest Lecture at LING101 - Basic Elements of Linguistic Analysis (University of California, Santa... more Guest Lecture at LING101 - Basic Elements of Linguistic Analysis (University of California, Santa Barbara)
WAIL, 2021
This presentation analyzes the syntactic and pragmatic uses of the discourse marker ñàà in Yucuna... more This presentation analyzes the syntactic and pragmatic uses of the discourse marker ñàà in Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ. Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ is a Mixtec language spoken in the village of Yucunani, in Oaxaca, Mexico, by about 87 speakers (INEGI 2010). The language is also spoken in diaspora communities elsewhere in Mexico and the US, but the number of speakers in these communities is unknown and dwindling. The data for this presentation come from a 3.51-minute personal narrative by Jeremías Salazar, recorded by the authors on January 14th, 2020 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, during the Field Methods class 2019/2020.
The discourse marker ñàà in Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ seems to originate from the word ñà'a ‘thing’, which also gave rise to the classifier ñà. A grammaticalization path from lexical nouns such as ñà'a to classifiers/determiners (see de León 1988; Small 1990; De Hollenbach, 1995; Macaulay 1996) and later to subordinators has been suggested by Ventayol-Boada (2020) for a neighboring Mixtec variety. This grammaticalization path suggests that it was only when classifiers began combining with demonstratives that they acquired the anaphoric properties necessary to fulfill clause combining and discourse functions.
Previous literature reports different uses of ñà in other Mixtec languages, namely: a) independent pronoun (example 1), b) dependent pronoun (examples 1, 2, 3 and 4), c) a classifier (example 1), d) a nominalizer (De Hollenbach 1995) that may function as a relativizer for headed and headless relative clauses (example 2), and d) a subordinator in complement clauses (example 2) and adverbial clauses. These functions —except for adverbial subordination— are covered by ñà/ñàà in Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ (see examples) but can only explain 20 of the 73 occurrences of ñà/ñàà in the data.
In this presentation we will argue that ñàà can also function as a discourse marker which is used as a strategy to package events into larger units, a marker of hesitation over a lexical choice, as well as a floor-holding device.
(1) Ñà-ka kúu-ñà tá nìkìtsáà-yù yo'o ra síin luu ntsìo rì ñàà tsà'ǎ ñà síin sà'án ká'àn-nà síin sà'án ká'àn-yù ra ñàà.
ñà=ka kúu=ñà tá nìkìtsáà=yù yó'o ra síin
CLF.THING=ANA COP=3GNR when PFV.arrive=1SG PROX ? different
luu ntsìo rì ñàà tsà'ǎ ñà síin
little PFV.exist because DISC because CLF.THING different
sà'án ká'àn=nà síin sà'án ká'àn=yù ñàà.
language IPFV.speak=3PL.HUM different language IPFV.speak=1SG DISC
‘This is what was different when I arrived here because, because they speak a language different from the one I speak’.
(2) Ñàà ná'â kúu-ñà ñàà ñoǒ-ka nìkeê tsi ñanì-yù tsi má-yù.
ñàà ná'a=L kúu=ñà ñàà ñuù=kó=ka nìkee=L
REL IPFV.remember=1SG COP=3GNR COMP village=1PL.INCL=ANA PFV.leave=1SG
tsi ñanì=yù tsi máá=yù.
COM brother.of.a.male=1SG COM mother=1SG
‘What I remember is that I left our village with my brother and my mother’.
(3) Ntsàtsî ñàà késù tsi ñàà á pepínò kúu-ñà vàà ínkáà tìtsi hamburguesa-ka.
ntsàtsi=L ñàà késù tsi ñàà á pepínò kúu=ñà
PFV.eat=1SG DISC cheese and DISC or cucumber COP=3GNR
vàà ínkáà tìtsi hamburguesa=ka.
maybe IPFV.stay inside hamburguer=ANA
‘I ate cheese and… or it was cucumber what was inside that burger’.
(4) Kuě và'a xeé-ni tsátsí-à xina ñú'u ntsàtsî-àn.
kuě và'a xeé=ni tsátsí=ñà xina ñú'u
NEG good very=EMPH IPFV.eat=3GNR first time
ntsàtsi=L=ñà.
PFV.eat=1SG.A=3GNR.P
‘It wasn’t very good the first time I tried it’.
Abbreviations
A agent INCL inclusive
ANA anaphoric IPFV imperfective
CLF classifier NEG negation
COM comitative P patient
COMP complementizer PFV perfective
COP copula PL plural
DISC discourse marker PROX proximal
EMPH emphasis REL relativizer
GNR generic SG singular
HUM human
References:
de Hollenbach, Elena E. 1995. Cuatro Morfemas Funcionales en las Lenguas Mixtecanas.” In Ramón Arzápalo Marín & Yolanda Lastra, Vitalidad e Influencia de Las Lenguas Indígenas En Latinoamérica: II Coloqui Mauricio Swadesh, 284-293. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
INEGI. 2010. Censo de Población y Vivenda 2010. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2010/default.html.
León, Lourdes de. 1988. Noun and numeral classifiers in Mixtec and Tzotzil: A referential view. UK: University of Sussex PhD Thesis.
Macaulay, Monica. 1996. A Grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec. Berkeley / Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Small, Priscilla. 1990. A syntactic sketch of Coatzospan Mixtec. In Henry Bradley & Barbara Hollenbach (eds.), Studies in the syntax of Mixtecan languages (Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 90), vol. 2. Arlington: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics.
Ventayol-Boada, Albert. 2020. From classifiers to subordination: Nominal origins of relativizers and subordinators in Tù’un na Ñuu Sá Mátxíí Ntxè’è (Mixtec). Manuscript in preparation.
Catalán y Cataluña Catalán: ~10M hablantes Cataluña: 7.5M habitantes • 16.1% de la población Espa... more Catalán y Cataluña Catalán: ~10M hablantes Cataluña: 7.5M habitantes • 16.1% de la población Española • 20% del PIB • 6.03M hablantes de catalán en Cataluña • 36.38% de la población tiene el catalán como lengua principal de identif icación
¿Cuántas lenguas se hablan en la Unión Europea? Lenguas en Europa • + Aproximadamente 80 lenguas ... more ¿Cuántas lenguas se hablan en la Unión Europea? Lenguas en Europa • + Aproximadamente 80 lenguas minorizadas • Al menos 13 de estas lenguas cuentan hoy en día con menos de 1,000 hablantes: córnico, minderico, guerneseyés, sami kolt, greko de Calabria, sami inari, livonio, tsakonio, karaim, vilamoviciano, sercquiais, sami pite y sami ume. • 14% de la población de la Unión Europea (72M) habla una lengua minorizada no oficial Unas 104 lenguas 'tradicionales' + 45 Lenguas de Signos + 300-400 lenguas habladas por inmigrantes = 449-549 lenguas.
The general negative attitude towards the Frisian language (see Gorter & Jonkman, 1995; Hilton & ... more The general negative attitude towards the Frisian language (see Gorter & Jonkman, 1995; Hilton & Gooskens, 2013; Ytsma, 1995; 2007) has had a negative effect on the use of the language, especially in the city of Leeuwarden (Belmar, Eikens, De Jong, Miedema & Pinho, 2018; see also Belmar, 2019; Belmar, van Boven & Pinho, 20019). Negative attitudes tend to be associated with notions of difficulty to learn the language in question, which in turn feeds into the negative attitudes of those who do not speak it (Giles & Niedzielski, 1998; Wolff, 1959). Previous studies show that non-Frisian speakers in Fryslân often claim that Frisian is a very difficult language to learn (see Belmar 2018; 2019; Ytsma, 1995; 2007; Swarte, 2011). In addition, most Frisian speakers tend to swiftly accommodate to Dutch whenever their interlocutor does not answer in Frisian or shows a bit of discomfort in doing so (see Belmar, 2019; Belmar et al. 2019; Wolf, 2013).
However, both Frisian and Dutch are very closely related, and the results of previous studies on the intelligibility of Frisian for Dutch native speakers (such as, for instance, Gooskens, 2007; De Vries, 2010) suggest that speakers of other minoritized Germanic varieties in the Netherlands can understand Frisian to a fairly high degree. None of these studies, however, included participants who claimed to ‘only’ speak Standard Dutch. We set up a series of exercises to test how much Frisian Dutch speakers can actually understand (Belmar & Pinho, 2020a) and the results show that bilingual conversations not only are possible, but they are the key to boost the use of Frisian in Fryslân. I will argue for the inclusion of linguistic assertiveness strategies (Suay, 2016) and receptive multilingualism practices (see Blees, Mak & ten Thije) in the revitalization projects of minoritized languages, especially those closely related with the dominant language(s) of the area (Belmar & Pinho, 2020b).
Invited talk at the Laz Institute, February 13th 2021
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Book Chapters by Guillem Belmar Viernes
Belmar, Guillem. 2021. Glocalization, (un)markedness and sustainable multilingualism: Catalonia, the de-territorialisation and de-ethnicization of Catalan. In Steven Byrne (ed.), El Procés: Identity and Nation in 21st Century Catalonia, 265-283. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Journal Articles by Guillem Belmar Viernes
Belmar, Guillem, Alonso Vásquez-Aguilar & Jeremías Salazar. 2021. Agent hierarchy and pronominal allomorphy in Sàꞌán Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ. In Caitie Coons, Gabriella Chronis, Sofia Pierson, Venkat Govindarajan (eds.) Proceedings of the 20th Meeting Texas Linguistic Society, 21-38. Austin: University of Texas at Austin, Department of linguistics.
This study analyzes language practices of eight communities: four North Frisian and four West Frisian virtual communities. The analysis focuses on the languages used in each community, the topics discussed, as well as the status of the minoritized language in the community. A total of 1,127 posts are analyzed to determine whether these communities function as breathing spaces, the factors that may foster or prevent the emergence of these spaces, and the similarities and differences between these two sociolinguistic contexts.
Resum
És àmpliament conegut que la traducció ha tingut un impacte positiu en la revitalització de la llengua basca (Mendiguren Bereziartu, 1995), ja que és un dels mitjans principals de creació, consolidació i extensió del model estàndard de la llengua (Belmar, 2017). Aquest article analitza els problemes que envolten la revitalització d'una llengua minoritzada: com ara la tensió entre estandardització i variació; o bé les maneres en què la pressió del contacte lingüístic pot afectar l'ús de formes verbals expressives que estan desapareixent de la llengua parlada, ja sigui com a causa del contacte amb l'espanyol o per la pressió del registre estàndar (Alberdi, 2018). Un estudi de corpus de l'ús de la concordança al·locutiva en obres de literatura tant originals com traduïdes il·lustrarà aquestes qüestions a la pràctica. De fet, les dades suggereixen que hi pot haver un esforç planificat per revitalitzar l'ús de marcadors al·locutius.
Paraules clau: revitalització de la llengua; estandardització de la llengua; llengua minoritzada; traducció; planificació lingüística; basc.
Can Minoritized Languages Breathe in Social Media? The Role of Virtual Communities as Breathing Spaces through the Observation of a Facebook Group for Speakers of Aragonese
The presence of a minoritized language online is essential for revitalization and language maintenance projects (Soria 2016). Among others, it has been suggested that digital presence of a language associates it with modernity, boosts the prestige of the language, encourages speakers to use it and raises awareness of linguistic diversity. Social Media, in particular, constitutes a radical change in the construction of communicative spaces, opening the possibility for speakers of minoritized languages to create their own spaces without depending on government mediation or funding (Belmar & Glass 2019). In this article, the possibilities of virtual communities as breathing spaces for Minoritized languages will be analyzed, taking as an example the Facebook group for speakers of Aragonese Aragonés: charrar ragonar parlar fablar tafalar ÉTuDES ROMANES DE BRNO 41 / 2020 / 1 https://doi.
Receptive Multilingualism: an Ally of Minoritized Languages. What Can Mirandese Learn from the Frisian Experience?
In this article we will suggest the inclusion of linguistic assertiveness strategies and receptive multilingualism practices in the revitalization projects of minoritized languages. In particular, we compared the situations of West Frisian and Mirandese, and based off the similarities between them-a) both languages suffer from an evident lack of prestige even when they are officially recognized by their respective governments, and b) both languages are closely related with the respective dominant language-we will suggest a strategy for the revitalization projects of Mirandese. This proposal, however, can also be applicable in other similar contexts, such as the situations of other Romance languages in the Iberian Peninsula.
Social media has become an almost indispensable tool of communication, and computer Mediated Communication makes up an increasingly large percentage of our communicative exchanges. This is why this article intends to study the attitudes and uses of Catalan on social media via a questionnaire and the analysis of two virtual communities: one Facebook group and the hashtag #català on Twitter.
characteristics of translanguaging approaches, which see language as fluid codes of communication. “Breathing spaces” are needed in order to achieve “sustainable translanguaging” practices for minority languages. The establishment of communities of performing minority language speakers in a digital environment raises the question whether these emerging virtual communities can take up the role of breathing spaces for minority languages.
language (e.g., O’Rourke & DePalma, 2016). In this study, (potential) new speaker motivations were investigated by means of ten open-ended interviews with adult learners of West Frisian—a minority language spoken in the Netherlands—in two different settings: Afûk Frisian courses (a more traditional learning setting) and Bernlef Frisian
courses (a student association that offers informal courses for their members).
The results show a predominance of integrative and personal motivation (also found in O’Rourke & DePalma, 2016), but not exclusively (as suggested by Jaffe, 2015) since the language appears to be tightly linked to the province and it is deemed beneficial—to a certain extent—for socioeconomic success in the province.
Full article: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/sm.2017.10.issue-1/sm-2017-0002/sm-2017-0002.xml?format=INT
Invited Talks by Guillem Belmar Viernes
The discourse marker ñàà in Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ seems to originate from the word ñà'a ‘thing’, which also gave rise to the classifier ñà. A grammaticalization path from lexical nouns such as ñà'a to classifiers/determiners (see de León 1988; Small 1990; De Hollenbach, 1995; Macaulay 1996) and later to subordinators has been suggested by Ventayol-Boada (2020) for a neighboring Mixtec variety. This grammaticalization path suggests that it was only when classifiers began combining with demonstratives that they acquired the anaphoric properties necessary to fulfill clause combining and discourse functions.
Previous literature reports different uses of ñà in other Mixtec languages, namely: a) independent pronoun (example 1), b) dependent pronoun (examples 1, 2, 3 and 4), c) a classifier (example 1), d) a nominalizer (De Hollenbach 1995) that may function as a relativizer for headed and headless relative clauses (example 2), and d) a subordinator in complement clauses (example 2) and adverbial clauses. These functions —except for adverbial subordination— are covered by ñà/ñàà in Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ (see examples) but can only explain 20 of the 73 occurrences of ñà/ñàà in the data.
In this presentation we will argue that ñàà can also function as a discourse marker which is used as a strategy to package events into larger units, a marker of hesitation over a lexical choice, as well as a floor-holding device.
(1) Ñà-ka kúu-ñà tá nìkìtsáà-yù yo'o ra síin luu ntsìo rì ñàà tsà'ǎ ñà síin sà'án ká'àn-nà síin sà'án ká'àn-yù ra ñàà.
ñà=ka kúu=ñà tá nìkìtsáà=yù yó'o ra síin
CLF.THING=ANA COP=3GNR when PFV.arrive=1SG PROX ? different
luu ntsìo rì ñàà tsà'ǎ ñà síin
little PFV.exist because DISC because CLF.THING different
sà'án ká'àn=nà síin sà'án ká'àn=yù ñàà.
language IPFV.speak=3PL.HUM different language IPFV.speak=1SG DISC
‘This is what was different when I arrived here because, because they speak a language different from the one I speak’.
(2) Ñàà ná'â kúu-ñà ñàà ñoǒ-ka nìkeê tsi ñanì-yù tsi má-yù.
ñàà ná'a=L kúu=ñà ñàà ñuù=kó=ka nìkee=L
REL IPFV.remember=1SG COP=3GNR COMP village=1PL.INCL=ANA PFV.leave=1SG
tsi ñanì=yù tsi máá=yù.
COM brother.of.a.male=1SG COM mother=1SG
‘What I remember is that I left our village with my brother and my mother’.
(3) Ntsàtsî ñàà késù tsi ñàà á pepínò kúu-ñà vàà ínkáà tìtsi hamburguesa-ka.
ntsàtsi=L ñàà késù tsi ñàà á pepínò kúu=ñà
PFV.eat=1SG DISC cheese and DISC or cucumber COP=3GNR
vàà ínkáà tìtsi hamburguesa=ka.
maybe IPFV.stay inside hamburguer=ANA
‘I ate cheese and… or it was cucumber what was inside that burger’.
(4) Kuě và'a xeé-ni tsátsí-à xina ñú'u ntsàtsî-àn.
kuě và'a xeé=ni tsátsí=ñà xina ñú'u
NEG good very=EMPH IPFV.eat=3GNR first time
ntsàtsi=L=ñà.
PFV.eat=1SG.A=3GNR.P
‘It wasn’t very good the first time I tried it’.
Abbreviations
A agent INCL inclusive
ANA anaphoric IPFV imperfective
CLF classifier NEG negation
COM comitative P patient
COMP complementizer PFV perfective
COP copula PL plural
DISC discourse marker PROX proximal
EMPH emphasis REL relativizer
GNR generic SG singular
HUM human
References:
de Hollenbach, Elena E. 1995. Cuatro Morfemas Funcionales en las Lenguas Mixtecanas.” In Ramón Arzápalo Marín & Yolanda Lastra, Vitalidad e Influencia de Las Lenguas Indígenas En Latinoamérica: II Coloqui Mauricio Swadesh, 284-293. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
INEGI. 2010. Censo de Población y Vivenda 2010. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2010/default.html.
León, Lourdes de. 1988. Noun and numeral classifiers in Mixtec and Tzotzil: A referential view. UK: University of Sussex PhD Thesis.
Macaulay, Monica. 1996. A Grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec. Berkeley / Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Small, Priscilla. 1990. A syntactic sketch of Coatzospan Mixtec. In Henry Bradley & Barbara Hollenbach (eds.), Studies in the syntax of Mixtecan languages (Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 90), vol. 2. Arlington: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics.
Ventayol-Boada, Albert. 2020. From classifiers to subordination: Nominal origins of relativizers and subordinators in Tù’un na Ñuu Sá Mátxíí Ntxè’è (Mixtec). Manuscript in preparation.
However, both Frisian and Dutch are very closely related, and the results of previous studies on the intelligibility of Frisian for Dutch native speakers (such as, for instance, Gooskens, 2007; De Vries, 2010) suggest that speakers of other minoritized Germanic varieties in the Netherlands can understand Frisian to a fairly high degree. None of these studies, however, included participants who claimed to ‘only’ speak Standard Dutch. We set up a series of exercises to test how much Frisian Dutch speakers can actually understand (Belmar & Pinho, 2020a) and the results show that bilingual conversations not only are possible, but they are the key to boost the use of Frisian in Fryslân. I will argue for the inclusion of linguistic assertiveness strategies (Suay, 2016) and receptive multilingualism practices (see Blees, Mak & ten Thije) in the revitalization projects of minoritized languages, especially those closely related with the dominant language(s) of the area (Belmar & Pinho, 2020b).
Belmar, Guillem. 2021. Glocalization, (un)markedness and sustainable multilingualism: Catalonia, the de-territorialisation and de-ethnicization of Catalan. In Steven Byrne (ed.), El Procés: Identity and Nation in 21st Century Catalonia, 265-283. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Belmar, Guillem, Alonso Vásquez-Aguilar & Jeremías Salazar. 2021. Agent hierarchy and pronominal allomorphy in Sàꞌán Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ. In Caitie Coons, Gabriella Chronis, Sofia Pierson, Venkat Govindarajan (eds.) Proceedings of the 20th Meeting Texas Linguistic Society, 21-38. Austin: University of Texas at Austin, Department of linguistics.
This study analyzes language practices of eight communities: four North Frisian and four West Frisian virtual communities. The analysis focuses on the languages used in each community, the topics discussed, as well as the status of the minoritized language in the community. A total of 1,127 posts are analyzed to determine whether these communities function as breathing spaces, the factors that may foster or prevent the emergence of these spaces, and the similarities and differences between these two sociolinguistic contexts.
Resum
És àmpliament conegut que la traducció ha tingut un impacte positiu en la revitalització de la llengua basca (Mendiguren Bereziartu, 1995), ja que és un dels mitjans principals de creació, consolidació i extensió del model estàndard de la llengua (Belmar, 2017). Aquest article analitza els problemes que envolten la revitalització d'una llengua minoritzada: com ara la tensió entre estandardització i variació; o bé les maneres en què la pressió del contacte lingüístic pot afectar l'ús de formes verbals expressives que estan desapareixent de la llengua parlada, ja sigui com a causa del contacte amb l'espanyol o per la pressió del registre estàndar (Alberdi, 2018). Un estudi de corpus de l'ús de la concordança al·locutiva en obres de literatura tant originals com traduïdes il·lustrarà aquestes qüestions a la pràctica. De fet, les dades suggereixen que hi pot haver un esforç planificat per revitalitzar l'ús de marcadors al·locutius.
Paraules clau: revitalització de la llengua; estandardització de la llengua; llengua minoritzada; traducció; planificació lingüística; basc.
Can Minoritized Languages Breathe in Social Media? The Role of Virtual Communities as Breathing Spaces through the Observation of a Facebook Group for Speakers of Aragonese
The presence of a minoritized language online is essential for revitalization and language maintenance projects (Soria 2016). Among others, it has been suggested that digital presence of a language associates it with modernity, boosts the prestige of the language, encourages speakers to use it and raises awareness of linguistic diversity. Social Media, in particular, constitutes a radical change in the construction of communicative spaces, opening the possibility for speakers of minoritized languages to create their own spaces without depending on government mediation or funding (Belmar & Glass 2019). In this article, the possibilities of virtual communities as breathing spaces for Minoritized languages will be analyzed, taking as an example the Facebook group for speakers of Aragonese Aragonés: charrar ragonar parlar fablar tafalar ÉTuDES ROMANES DE BRNO 41 / 2020 / 1 https://doi.
Receptive Multilingualism: an Ally of Minoritized Languages. What Can Mirandese Learn from the Frisian Experience?
In this article we will suggest the inclusion of linguistic assertiveness strategies and receptive multilingualism practices in the revitalization projects of minoritized languages. In particular, we compared the situations of West Frisian and Mirandese, and based off the similarities between them-a) both languages suffer from an evident lack of prestige even when they are officially recognized by their respective governments, and b) both languages are closely related with the respective dominant language-we will suggest a strategy for the revitalization projects of Mirandese. This proposal, however, can also be applicable in other similar contexts, such as the situations of other Romance languages in the Iberian Peninsula.
Social media has become an almost indispensable tool of communication, and computer Mediated Communication makes up an increasingly large percentage of our communicative exchanges. This is why this article intends to study the attitudes and uses of Catalan on social media via a questionnaire and the analysis of two virtual communities: one Facebook group and the hashtag #català on Twitter.
characteristics of translanguaging approaches, which see language as fluid codes of communication. “Breathing spaces” are needed in order to achieve “sustainable translanguaging” practices for minority languages. The establishment of communities of performing minority language speakers in a digital environment raises the question whether these emerging virtual communities can take up the role of breathing spaces for minority languages.
language (e.g., O’Rourke & DePalma, 2016). In this study, (potential) new speaker motivations were investigated by means of ten open-ended interviews with adult learners of West Frisian—a minority language spoken in the Netherlands—in two different settings: Afûk Frisian courses (a more traditional learning setting) and Bernlef Frisian
courses (a student association that offers informal courses for their members).
The results show a predominance of integrative and personal motivation (also found in O’Rourke & DePalma, 2016), but not exclusively (as suggested by Jaffe, 2015) since the language appears to be tightly linked to the province and it is deemed beneficial—to a certain extent—for socioeconomic success in the province.
Full article: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/sm.2017.10.issue-1/sm-2017-0002/sm-2017-0002.xml?format=INT
The discourse marker ñàà in Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ seems to originate from the word ñà'a ‘thing’, which also gave rise to the classifier ñà. A grammaticalization path from lexical nouns such as ñà'a to classifiers/determiners (see de León 1988; Small 1990; De Hollenbach, 1995; Macaulay 1996) and later to subordinators has been suggested by Ventayol-Boada (2020) for a neighboring Mixtec variety. This grammaticalization path suggests that it was only when classifiers began combining with demonstratives that they acquired the anaphoric properties necessary to fulfill clause combining and discourse functions.
Previous literature reports different uses of ñà in other Mixtec languages, namely: a) independent pronoun (example 1), b) dependent pronoun (examples 1, 2, 3 and 4), c) a classifier (example 1), d) a nominalizer (De Hollenbach 1995) that may function as a relativizer for headed and headless relative clauses (example 2), and d) a subordinator in complement clauses (example 2) and adverbial clauses. These functions —except for adverbial subordination— are covered by ñà/ñàà in Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ (see examples) but can only explain 20 of the 73 occurrences of ñà/ñàà in the data.
In this presentation we will argue that ñàà can also function as a discourse marker which is used as a strategy to package events into larger units, a marker of hesitation over a lexical choice, as well as a floor-holding device.
(1) Ñà-ka kúu-ñà tá nìkìtsáà-yù yo'o ra síin luu ntsìo rì ñàà tsà'ǎ ñà síin sà'án ká'àn-nà síin sà'án ká'àn-yù ra ñàà.
ñà=ka kúu=ñà tá nìkìtsáà=yù yó'o ra síin
CLF.THING=ANA COP=3GNR when PFV.arrive=1SG PROX ? different
luu ntsìo rì ñàà tsà'ǎ ñà síin
little PFV.exist because DISC because CLF.THING different
sà'án ká'àn=nà síin sà'án ká'àn=yù ñàà.
language IPFV.speak=3PL.HUM different language IPFV.speak=1SG DISC
‘This is what was different when I arrived here because, because they speak a language different from the one I speak’.
(2) Ñàà ná'â kúu-ñà ñàà ñoǒ-ka nìkeê tsi ñanì-yù tsi má-yù.
ñàà ná'a=L kúu=ñà ñàà ñuù=kó=ka nìkee=L
REL IPFV.remember=1SG COP=3GNR COMP village=1PL.INCL=ANA PFV.leave=1SG
tsi ñanì=yù tsi máá=yù.
COM brother.of.a.male=1SG COM mother=1SG
‘What I remember is that I left our village with my brother and my mother’.
(3) Ntsàtsî ñàà késù tsi ñàà á pepínò kúu-ñà vàà ínkáà tìtsi hamburguesa-ka.
ntsàtsi=L ñàà késù tsi ñàà á pepínò kúu=ñà
PFV.eat=1SG DISC cheese and DISC or cucumber COP=3GNR
vàà ínkáà tìtsi hamburguesa=ka.
maybe IPFV.stay inside hamburguer=ANA
‘I ate cheese and… or it was cucumber what was inside that burger’.
(4) Kuě và'a xeé-ni tsátsí-à xina ñú'u ntsàtsî-àn.
kuě và'a xeé=ni tsátsí=ñà xina ñú'u
NEG good very=EMPH IPFV.eat=3GNR first time
ntsàtsi=L=ñà.
PFV.eat=1SG.A=3GNR.P
‘It wasn’t very good the first time I tried it’.
Abbreviations
A agent INCL inclusive
ANA anaphoric IPFV imperfective
CLF classifier NEG negation
COM comitative P patient
COMP complementizer PFV perfective
COP copula PL plural
DISC discourse marker PROX proximal
EMPH emphasis REL relativizer
GNR generic SG singular
HUM human
References:
de Hollenbach, Elena E. 1995. Cuatro Morfemas Funcionales en las Lenguas Mixtecanas.” In Ramón Arzápalo Marín & Yolanda Lastra, Vitalidad e Influencia de Las Lenguas Indígenas En Latinoamérica: II Coloqui Mauricio Swadesh, 284-293. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
INEGI. 2010. Censo de Población y Vivenda 2010. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2010/default.html.
León, Lourdes de. 1988. Noun and numeral classifiers in Mixtec and Tzotzil: A referential view. UK: University of Sussex PhD Thesis.
Macaulay, Monica. 1996. A Grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec. Berkeley / Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Small, Priscilla. 1990. A syntactic sketch of Coatzospan Mixtec. In Henry Bradley & Barbara Hollenbach (eds.), Studies in the syntax of Mixtecan languages (Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 90), vol. 2. Arlington: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics.
Ventayol-Boada, Albert. 2020. From classifiers to subordination: Nominal origins of relativizers and subordinators in Tù’un na Ñuu Sá Mátxíí Ntxè’è (Mixtec). Manuscript in preparation.
However, both Frisian and Dutch are very closely related, and the results of previous studies on the intelligibility of Frisian for Dutch native speakers (such as, for instance, Gooskens, 2007; De Vries, 2010) suggest that speakers of other minoritized Germanic varieties in the Netherlands can understand Frisian to a fairly high degree. None of these studies, however, included participants who claimed to ‘only’ speak Standard Dutch. We set up a series of exercises to test how much Frisian Dutch speakers can actually understand (Belmar & Pinho, 2020a) and the results show that bilingual conversations not only are possible, but they are the key to boost the use of Frisian in Fryslân. I will argue for the inclusion of linguistic assertiveness strategies (Suay, 2016) and receptive multilingualism practices (see Blees, Mak & ten Thije) in the revitalization projects of minoritized languages, especially those closely related with the dominant language(s) of the area (Belmar & Pinho, 2020b).
In this study, new speaker motivations were investigated by means of open-ended interviews with adult learners of West Frisian —a minority language spoken in the Netherlands—, as well as a questionnaire filled in by adult learners of the language. The results show a predominance of integrative and personal motivation (also found in O’Rourke & De Palma, 2016), but not exclusively (as suggested by Jaffe, 2015). In addition, results seem to suggest that issues of legitimacy and authenticity are key at the debate around Frisian speakerness.
9th Cambridge Conference on Language Revitalisation: New speakers, new challenges, new linguistic forms. Cambridge
June 6th, 2019.
The project won the prize in the Master's category of the awards.
European Bureau for Small Languages, Mercator European Research Center and the University of Groningen (Department of Minorities and Multilingualism)
Tryater, Leeuwarden, November 2017.
Mixtec speakers in California are coming together in a wider Mixtec community (Reyes Basurto et al. 2021), and language advocates have been involved in several efforts to maintain and reclaim Mexican Indigenous languages in the diaspora (Bax 2020; Hernández Martínez et al. 2021). And during this global pandemic, it has become all too apparent that communication barriers in public health are a rampant issue. This paper presents a discussion on how linguistic community work is necessary and desirable in any documentation project.
The almost exclusive reliance on standard written versions of global languages, such as English or Spanish, has inevitably excluded big chunks of the population from the dissemination of necessary information in these times of crisis. It is therefore necessary to establish platforms where speakers of minoritized and indigenous languages can create the materials they need to make sure that everyone in their communities gets access to the relevant information about the pandemic.
Two such platforms are the COVID-19 Multilingual (Translation Commons) and the COVID-19 Myth Busters in World Languages (Lee & Won 2020). This presentation will outline the process of multimodal translation of these materials from English/Spanish into Yucunani Sàꞌán Sàvǐ, as well as discussing the role of speakers and researcher throughout this process. We will emphasize the need of linguistics to partake in community-driven efforts, and we will highlight and provide examples of the ways in which undertaking these projects helped us move forward with our goal of documenting Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ.
References:
Bax, Anna. 2020. Language ideology, linguistic differentiation, and language maintenance in the California Mixtec diaspora. Unpublished PhD. Dissertation, Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Hernández Martínez, Carmen, Griselda Reyes Basurto & Eric W. Campbell. 2021. MILPA (Mexican Indigenous Language Promotion and Advocacy): A Community-Centered Linguistic Collaboration Supporting Indigenous Mexican Languages in California. In Justyna Olko & Julia Sallabank (eds.), Revitalizing endangered languages: A practical guide, 216-217. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
INEGI. 2010. Censo de Población y Vivenda 2010. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. Online version: https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2010/default.html
Josserand, Judy Kathryn. 1983. Mixtec dialect history. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation. Tulane University.
Lee, Seunghun J. & Daehan Won (2020) COVID-19 Myth Busters from WHO in World Languages. URL: https://covid-no-mb.org. Retrieved on [DATE].
Mines, R., Nichols, S., Garcia, A., Runsten, D. et al. (2010). Mines, R., Nichols, S., & Runsten, D. (2010). California’s indigenous farmworkers: Final report of the Indigenous Farmworker Study. The California Endowment. Retrieved from: http://www.indigenousfarmworkers.org/IFS%20Full%20Report%20_Jan2010.pdf
Reyes Basurto, Griselda, Carmen Hernández Martínez & Eric W. Campbell. 2021. What is community? Perspectives from the Mixtec diaspora in California. In Justyna Olko & Julia Sallabank (eds.), Revitalizing endangered languages: A practical guide, 100-102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
For minority languages, the rise of virtual communities gives a solution to the decreasing opportunities to practice the language in a geographically bound area. These ‘virtual communities’ (Belmar & Glass, 2019) are no longer restricted by traditional geographical boundaries of language, emerging into the cyber-sphere and allowing people to perform in such communities regardless of their physical location (Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson, 2017). In this presentation we will analyze the concept of ‘virtual community’ as breathing spaces for minority languages (Belmar & Glass, 2019) with the analysis of online communities of practice of North and West Frisian.
Works cited:
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.
Belmar, G., & Glass, M. (2019). Virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages: Re-framing minority language use in social media. Adeptus, 14, 1-24.
Eisenlohr, P. (2004). Language revitalization and new technologies: Cultures of electronic mediation and the refiguring of communities. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33, 21-45.
Kavoura, A. (2014). Social media, online imagined communities and communication research. Library Review, 63(6-7), 490-504.
Kelly-Holmes, H., & Atkinson, D. (2017). Perspectives on language sustainability in a performance era: Discourses, policies, and practices in a digital and social media campaign to revitalize Irish. Open Linguistics, 3(1), 236-250.
Moriarty, M. (2015). Globalizing language policy and planning: An Irish language perspective. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Zappavinga, M. (2012). Discourse of Twitter and social media: How we use language to create affiliation on the web. London: Continuum.
Among Mixtec languages, Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ presents a particularly complex pronominal system: it distinguishes different degrees of formality, shows considerable allomorphy, and presents distinct sets of agent-like and patient-like enclitics. This presentation focuses on the segmental erosion processes of these person marking clitics.
The first-person singular presents a case of grammaticalized segmental erosion. This person marker =yù is systematically reduced to a floating low tone =L (Paster & Beam de Azcona 2004; Paster 2010) when it modifies an element that ends with a tone other than Low or Falling (2). Meanwhile, the first-person plural inclusive marker =kó may undergo segmental erosion, often changing the quality of the last vowel of the element it modifies and even to the point of being reduced to a high tone in fast speech (3). Similarly, the second-person singular marker =kú may also change the quality of the last vowel or be realized as a high tone if the modified element ends with /u/ (4).
Despite the considerable allomorphy observed in the first and second person clitics, only the generic =ñà (5) and the feminine =ñá (6) clitics shows any allomorphy among the eleven third person clitics documented so far (Belmar et al. 2020). We suggest that this illustrates Silverstein’s agent hierarchy (1976). That is, the first-person singular cliticized earlier on, followed by the second person singular, the first-person inclusive plural, and finally the generic third person clitic =ñà. The segmental erosion of the feminine clitic =ñá may be explained by analogy with the generic form =ñà. In fact, the main difference between the sets of agent-like and patient-like enclitics is that the latter does not present any case of segmental erosion (7).
Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ, with approximately 87 speakers (INEGI 2010), is a variety of Mixtec (Eastern Otomanguean) spoken in the village of Yucunani and in diaspora in other parts of Mexico and the US (Kresge 2007). This variety of Mixtec is largely undocumented, with the exception of some work mostly on its phonology and morphophonology (Paster 2005; Paster 2010; Paster & Beam de Azcona 2004a; Paster & Beam de Azcona 2004b). The data used in this paper were collected from narratives, conversations and elicitation sessions, both face-to-face and remote.
(1) Ñà-tsàán-ka kù kue lapìs-ñà. [Elicitation]
ñà=tsàán=ka ku kue=lapìs=ñà
CLASS.THING=MED=ANA COP
PLZ=pencil=3S.NFORM
‘Those are the pencils of that one’
(2) Àhǎ tísaán kuàâ doce á trece kuìà ínkáà-yù tá ntsìtsà'àn-yù ntsìsáchuùn. [Text 3, 01:14]
Àhǎ tísaán kuàâ doce á trece kuìà ínkáà=yù tá
yes maybe approximately twelve or thirteen year IPFV.have=1SG when
ntsìtsà'àn=yù ntsìsáchuun=L.
HAB.PFV.go=1SG HAB.PFV.work=1SG
‘Yes, maybe I was like twelve or thirteen years old when I went to work.’
(3) Sua'a sua'a-ni kú sǎ'á suaà... suaà kú nkòo nùú kú nkò'ǒn ra ñàà. [Text 11, 01:17]
sua'a sua'a=ni kú sǎ'a=kó suaà,
this this=and FUT POT.do=1PL.INCL this.way
suaà kú nkòo nùú kú nkù'ùn=kó ra ñàà
this.way FUT POT.exist
where FUT POT.go=1PL.INCL DISC FILL
‘This and this we are going to do like this… this is going to be where we go.’
(4) Và'a nchuà'a vídà yéǔ rì meú ra kuě tsíní-ñú'ú sáchuún táná sáchuùn ra ñàà, ne'ǔ ñàà kátsǔ kàchâ. [Text 4, 01:05]
và'a nchuà'a vídà yéè=kú rì meé=kú ra kuě
good very life IPFV.exist=2SG.NFORM because
TOP=2SG.NFORM DISC NEG
tsíní-ñú'u=kú sáchuun=kú táná sáchuun=kú ra ñàà，
IPFV.need=2SG.NFORM IPFV.work=2SG.NFORM like
IPFV.work=1SG DISC FILL
ne'e=kú ñàà kátsí=kú kàchi=ñà.
PURP.get-2SG.NFORM thing
PURP.eat=2SG.NFORM PFV.say=3SG.NFORM
‘You have a very good life because you don't have to work like I work to get food, he said.’
(5) Nìkìtsáá-kuê táná snúu-kuê saꞌmǎ táná tá nìkìtsáì nùú. [Text 3, 03:58]
nìkìtsáá=kue=L táná snúu-kue=L saꞌmǎ tána tá
PFV.start=PLZ=1SG like
IPFV.CAUS.get.down=PLZ=1SG clothes like when
nìkìtsáá=ñà nùú.
PFV.start=3SG.NFORM there
‘We started like taking the clothes down like when they arrived there’.
(6) Ntàtsàìí rà ñàà sáná nìkìtsi-kuê tsi-án. [Text 11, 00:59]
ntàtsàà=ñá rà ñàà sáná nìkìtsi=kue=L tsi=ñá.
PFV.come.back=3S.F.FORM DISC FILL then
PFV.come=PLZ=1S COM=3S.F.FORM
‘She came back, and then we went back with her.’
(7) Táni inì tienda kàani ntsìkìtsáà kue sa'mǎ ra ntsìsǎ' acomodar-kuê-ñà. [Text 3, 04:59]
táni inì tienda kàa=ni ntsìkìtsáà kue=sa'mǎ ra
like in shop only=EMPH HAB.PFV.arrive PLZ=clothes DISC
ntsìsǎ'-acomodar=kue=L=ñà.
HAB.PFV.CAUS-put.away=PLZ=1SG.A=3SG.NFORM.P
‘Only inside the shop clothes would arrive and then we would put them away’.
Abbreviations:
A agent INCL inclusive
ANA anaphoric MED medial
CAUS causative NEG negation
CLASS classifier NFORM non-formal
COM comitative P patient
COP copula PFV perfective
EMPH emphatic PL plural
F feminine PLZ pluralizer
FILL filler POT potential
FORM formal PURP purposive
FUT future SG singular
HAB habitual TOP topicalizer
IPFV imperfective
References:
Belmar, Guillem, Alonso Vásquez-Aguilar, Jeremías Salazar. 2020. Overview of (grammatical) tone in Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ. Presented at the Workshop on the Languages of Mesoamerica, at the Department of Linguistics of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
INEGI. 2010. Censo de Población y Vivenda 2010. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2010/default.html.
Kresge, Lisa. 2007. Indigenous Oaxacan communities in California: An overview. California Institute for Rural Studies.
León, Lourdes de. 1988. Noun and numeral classifiers in Mixtec and Tzotzil: A referential view. UK: University of Sussex PhD Thesis.
Macaulay, Monica. 1996. A Grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec. Berkeley / Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Paster, Mary. 2005. Tone rules and representations in Yucunany Mixtepec Mixtec. In SSILA meeting. Oakland, CA.
Paster, Mary. 2010. The role of homophony avoidance in morphology: a case study from Mixtec. Santa Barbara Papers in Linguistics 21. 29–39.
Paster, Mary & Rosemary Beam de Azcona. 2004a. A phonological sketch of the Yucunany dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec. In Proceedings of Workshop on American Indigenous Languages. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California, Santa Barbara.
Paster, Mary & Rosemary Beam de Azcona. 2004b. Aspects of tone in the Yucunany dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec. In Conference on Oto-Manguean and Oaxacan Languages.
Silverstein, Michael. 1976. Hierarchy of features and ergativity. In R. M.W. Dixon (ed.), Grammatical categories in Australian languages, 112-171. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Small, Priscilla. 1990. A syntactic sketch of Coatzospan Mixtec. In Henry Bradley & Barbara Hollenbach (eds.), Studies in the syntax of Mixtecan languages (Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 90), vol. 2. Arlington: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics.
Ventayol-Boada, Albert. 2020. From classifiers to subordination: Nominal origins of relativizers and subordinators in Tù’un na Ñuu Sá Mátxíí Ntxè’è (Mixtec). Manuscript in preparation.
For minority languages, the rise of virtual communities gives a solution to the decreasing opportunities to practice the language in a geographically bound area, a criterion often found at the basis of the concept of the “community of practice” (Wenger, 1998). These ‘virtual communities’ (Belmar & Glass, 2019) are no longer restricted by traditional geographical boundaries of language, emerging into the cyber-sphere and allowing people to perform in such communities regardless of their physical location (Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson, 2017).
Language use online, however, is often described as hybrid, and boundaries across languages often blur. Following up on Cenoz and Gorter’s claim (2017) that in order to achieve ‘sustainable translanguaging’ practices, minority languages need ‘breathing spaces’, in this presentation I will analyze the concept of ‘virtual community’ as breathing spaces for minority languages (Belmar & Glass, 2019) with the analysis of online communities of practice of North and West Frisian (Belmar & Heyen, 2021), Aragonese (Belmar, to appear) and Catalan (Belmar, 2020).
En 2018 el gobierno regional aprobó las Normas para la protección, oficialización y promoción de la lengua sarda y de las otras variedades lingüísticas de Cerdeña. Esta ley reconoce al sardo, al catalán, al galurés, al sasarés y al tabarquino como patrimonio inmaterial de la región que debe ser protegido, valorizado y promovido (Consiglio Regionale della Sardegna, 2018). En esta presentación reflexionaremos sobre las implicaciones de esta nueva ley para la preservación de las lenguas minorizadas de Cerdeña. Para ello usaremos el concepto de plurilingüismo en micro-territorios (Jiménez-Salcedo, Hélot, & Camilleri-Grima, 2020) y nos basaremos en los datos de encuestas sociolingüísticas de 2007 (Lupinu et al., 2007) y 2017 (EULAL, 2017). Asimismo, a partir de comparaciones con otros casos similares analizaremos cómo el uso de estrategias de translenguaje, multilingüismo receptivo y asertividad lingüística podría incentivar el multilingüismo en esta isla.
_______
Sardinian is the largest recognised linguistic minority in Italy (Governo della Reppublica Italiana, 1999), and it is actually made up of fairly distinct varieties which has created some controversy around the standardisation of the language and its use in the public sphere. Sardinian is not the only language on the island of Sardinia, since Gallurese (classified as a Corsican variety), Algherese (a Catalan variety), Sassarese (which some see as a dialect of Sardinian, while others consider it a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian) and Tabarchino (a Ligurian variety) are also spoken and enjoy some sort of recognition by the Sardinian Autonomous Government. Sardinian and Catalan are taught at some schools as an optional subject, but Italian is still the dominant language on the island and attitudes towards the linguistic minorities remain negative.
In 2018, the regional government passed the Norms for the protection, officialization and promotion of the Sardinian language and of the other linguistic varieties of Sardinia, which recognizes Sardinian, Catalan, Gallurese, Sassarese and Tabarchino as immaterial heritage of the Region to be protected, valorized and promoted (Consiglio Regionale della Sardegna, 2018). In this presentation, we will discuss the implications of the new law for the preservation of the minority languages on the island, as well as the use of translanguaging and receptive multilingualism strategies to boost multilingualism on the island.
Just like the rise of print capitalism gave place to the rise of broader group identities and nationalism (Anderson 1983), the rise of computer-mediated communication seems to have given rise to a new concept of group identity based on shared experiences or interests, and on increasing individual agency in group membership performance (Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson 2017). And among these interests, a common minority language has become a distinct marker of group affiliation (Eisenlohr 2004; Zappavinga 2012). Internet users can easily contribute to social media platforms, blogs and forums, creating new communities of practice (Wenger 1998), facilitating linguistic developments, bridging learner difficulties, supporting activism and, simply, using one’s language of choice across spatial and temporal limitations.
For language revitalization, the rise of virtual communities gives a solution to the decreasing opportunities to practice the language in a geographically bound area. These ‘virtual communities’ are no longer restricted by traditional geographical boundaries of language (Moriarty 2015; Author & Glass 2019), emerging into the cyber-sphere and allowing people to perform in such communities regardless of their physical location (Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson 2017).
In the era of COVID-19, virtual communities have become more important than ever as we rely on them more than ever for everyday interaction. These online interactions have often been described as a place of intense translanguaging practices (Blommaert 2019), which speakers of endangered languages have long been suspicious of (Cenoz & Gorter 2017). Since ‘sustainable translanguaging’ (Cenoz & Gorter 2017) practices for minoritized or endangered languages include the establishment of ‘breathing spaces’ (Fishman 1991), ‘virtual communities’ of speakers of these languages can be conceptualized as online breathing spaces (Belmar & Glass 2019).
Based on the analysis of online communities of practice of North and West Frisian (Belmar & Heyen 2019), Aragonese (Belmar 2020a); Catalan (Belmar 2020b) and the #Europeminoritylanguages project (Belmar 2018), this presentation will a) outline uses of virtual communities as breathing spaces for the revitalization of endangered languages; b) highlight the enormous potential of these virtual communities as databases for linguistic research; and c) raise some ethical considerations of online language activism and research.
References:
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.
Belmar, Guillem. 2018. New technologies are not the enemy: the opportunities social media offer minority languages, from the perspective of the #europeminoritylanguages project. In. Poznań: Adam Mickiewicz University.
Belmar, Guillem. 2020a. ¿Pueden las lenguas minorizadas respirar tranquilas en las redes sociales? El papel de las comunidades virtuales como refugio de uso a través de la observación de un grupo de Facebook para hablantes de aragonés. Études Romanes de Brno 41(1). 113–124.
Belmar, Guillem. 2020b. Les xarxes virtuals i el català: actituds, usos i el paper de les comunitats virtuals com a refugis d’ús. Révue d’Études Catalanes 5. 26–39.
Belmar, Guillem & Hauke Heyen. 2019. A comparison of language use in North and West Frisian virtual communities. In. Ljouwert / Leeuwarden: Mercator European Research Center on Multilingualism and Language Learning.
Belmar, Guillem & Maggie Glass. 2019. Virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages: reframing minority language use in social media. Adeptus 2019(14). 1–24.
Blommaert, Jan. 2019. Formatting online actions: #justsaying on Twitter. International Journal of Multilingualism 16(2). 112–126.
Cenoz, Jasone & Durk Gorter. 2017. Minority languages and sustainable translanguaging: threat or opportunity? Journal of Multicultural Development 38(1). 901–912.
Eisenlohr, Patrick. 2004. Language Revitalization and New Technologies: Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities. Annual Review of Anthropology 33(1). 21–45.
Fishman, Joshua. 1991. Reversing language shift. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Kelly-Holmes, Helen & David Atkinson. 2017. Perspectives on Language Sustainability in a Performance Era: Discourses, Policies, and Practices in a Digital and Social Media Campaign to Revitalise Irish. Open Linguistics 3(1).
Moriarty, Máiréad. 2015. Globalizing Language Policy and Planning. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Wenger, Etienne. 1998. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. 1st edn. Cambridge University Press.
Zappavinga, M. 2012. Discourse of Twitter and social media: How we use language to create affiliation on the web. London: Continuum.
The presentation also outlines the most salient effects of glocalization in Catalonia: the de-teritorialization and de-ethnicization of the Catalan language, the shift towards multilingualism, and the contestation of minority markedness. The role of computer-mediated communication has allowed diaspora communities to be more interconnected and more active members in the Catalan community than ever before. This, in turn, has led to Catalan being used in spheres where it had never been used before, new technologies have helped made it ‘cooler’ (Belmar 2020; Grau i Elias 2012). At the same time, the value of the ‘native’ speaker of Catalan has somewhat diminished, as discourses shifted towards other notions of speakerhood as a non-binary category and revitalization efforts have focused almost exclusively in the creation of so-called new speakers (Lanz, Juarros-Daussà, and Pera-Ros 2020, see Pujolar and O’Rourke 2018). This, together with the increasing linguistic diversity in Catalonia (see Barrieras-Angàs 2013), has triggered linguistic policies to shift from Catalan/Spanish bilingualism to multilingualism that is sustainable for the maintenance and reclamation of the local historical language(s) (Lanz et al. 2020). Finally, the presentation also explores the role that new minority media has had on the contestation of minority markedness in Catalonia, and how this has impacted linguistic practices, language ideologies and Catalan identity formation both among ‘traditional’ speakers of Catalan and ‘new’ speakers of the language. This struggle for unmarkedness, or this attempt to undo minorization, may be seen as one of the catalysts leading to the quick and wide spread of pro-independence movements in Catalonia, which embraced diversity but inadvertently made ‘language’ a highly politicised choice.
Belmar, Guillem. 2021. Language revitalization in Catalonia: Glocalization, (un)Markedness and (un)Sustainable Multilingualism. 13th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Language and Linguistics Society. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, online.
In 2018, the regional government passed the Norms for the protection, officialization and promotion of the Sardinian language and of the other linguistic varieties of Sardinia, which recognizes Sardinian, Catalan, Gallurese, Sassarese and Tabarchino as immaterial heritage of the Region to be protected, valorized and promoted (Consiglio Regionale della Sardegna, 2018). In this presentation, we will discuss the implications of the new law for the preservation of the minority languages on the island, as well as the use of translanguaging and receptive multilingualism strategies to boost multilingualism on the island.
The Multidisciplinary Approaches in Language Policy and Planning Conference. McGill University, in Montréal.
Les xarxes socials, de fet, han esdevingut eines de comunicació habitual, sobretot entre els joves, per a qui la comunicació virtual representa un percentatge molt elevat dels seus intercanvis comunicatius diaris. Aquests intercanvis es defineixen pel seu caràcter translocal, transtemporal i multimodal (veure Blommaert, 2018), que a la vegada es tradueix en una desterritorialització del concepte ‘llengua’ (Belmar & Bonsey, 2019; veure Kelly-Holmes & Adkinson, 2017). La llengua d’internet, de fet, sovint és descrita com a híbrida, mixta, un codi on les fronteres entre llengües es desdibuixen. Aquestes característiques ens fan pensar en el transllenguatge (o translanguaging), que entén les llengües com a codis de comunicació fluids (Poza, 2017) i se sol definir, de manera simplificada, com el procés d’experimentar i expressar en dues o més llengües (Baker, 2011, p. 288), tot derrocant jerarquies entre llengües (Velasco & García, 2014, p. 7). Segons Cenoz i Gorter (2017), per tal d’assolir transllenguatge sostenible, les llengües minoritzades necessiten refugis, espais on poder “respirar tranquil·les” (veure Fishman, 1991)
En aquesta presentació, explorarem les possibilitats de les comunitats virtuals com a ‘refugis’ per a llengües minoritzades prenent com a exemple el grup de Facebook per a parlants d’aragonès Aragonés: charrar ragonar parlar fablar tafalar chilar mormostiar recontar. N’analitzarem algunes publicacions i interaccions entre membres, així com l’ús que fan de l’aragonès.
2º Simpósio Internacional Línguas e variedades linguísticas ameaçadas na Península Ibérica, Lisboa.
O multilinguismo receptivo refere-se à capacidade de um falante de perceber enunciados ou textos noutra língua, mesmo que não a saiba falar. Esta habilidade, muitas vezes ligada à mútua inteligibilidade entre línguas estreitamente relacionadas, pode ser usadas para enriquecer o currículo escolar, assim como para promover competências passivas na língua menorizada (cf. Fonseca, 2012; Andrade, Melo-Pfeifer, & Santos, 2009). Os resultados do estudo de Belmar e Pinho (2018) indiciam que o frísio é altamente inteligível para os falantes nativos de holandês, o que poderia ser usado para promover o uso do frísio. Esta ideia foi posta em prática numa série de workshops de conversas bilingues na cidade de Leeuwarden, onde os participantes foram encorajados para conversar em holandês e frísio, ganhando assim confiança nas suas capacidades, assim como desenvolvendo a sua “assertividade linguística” (Suay, 2016).
Semelhantemente, o mirandês é uma língua menorizada reconhecida pelo Estado Português, em relação à qual as atitudes não são particularmente positivas (Hargitai, 2014). Como parte do contínuo do asturo-leonês (Bautista, 2016), esta língua, a qual é estreitamente relacionada com o português, é altamente inteligível para os falantes desta última (cf. Araújo, Hidalgo, Melo-Pfeifer, Séré, & Vela, 2009).
Neste trabalho, apresentaremos a experiência frísia e analisaremos como esta poderia ser posta em prática para a revitalização da língua mirandesa, desde o estudo da inteligibilidade ao incentivo de conversas bilingues como uma forma de encorajar o uso de mirandês na esfera pública.
2º Simpósio Internacional Línguas e variedades linguísticas ameaçadas na Península Ibérica, Lisboa.
Sustainable Multilingualism Conference - 24-25 May 2019 in Kaunas.
In this research, we tried to test how much Frisian Dutch native speakers can actually under-stand, as well as the perceived difficulty of each kind of exercise. An online test was de-signed with two reading exercises, three listening exercises and twenty sentences in West Fri-sian that the participants were asked to translate into Dutch. The test was shared through so-cial media, and we got answers from both the Netherlands and Belgium. The results seem to indicate that West Frisian is highly intelligible for Dutch native speakers, which we argue should be used to enrich the school curriculum and foster receptive skills in the minoritized language (cf. Fonseca, 2012), which could in turn boost its use.
Sustainable Multilingualism Conference, 24-25 May 2019 in Kaunas.
West Frisian is a minoritized language spoken in the province of Fryslân, in the Nether-lands, as well as in some neighboring villages in the province of Groningen. It has actually been said to be converging with Standard Dutch (see Nerbonne, 2001), and it has been found to be largely intelligible for Dutch native speakers (e.g., De Vries, 2010). However, it seems that negative attitudes towards the language (see Hilton & Gooskens, 2013; Belmar, 2018) serve as the basis for a perceived difficulty that is often used to prevent the language from being used in the public sphere. In addition, Frisian speakers are often reported to automatically switch to Dutch even with interlocutors who can understand Frisian, to the extent that learners feel frus-tration (see Belmar, Boven & Pinho, 2019).
The results of Belmar and Pinho’s (2018) study indicate that West Frisian is highly in-telligible for Dutch native speakers, which can arguably be used to boost the use of Frisian. This idea is now being put into practice in a series of workshops for twatalige konversaasjes in the city of Ljouwert organized by Afûk and the Department of Minorities and Multilingualism – Frisian of the University of Groningen. In these workshops, participants engage in conversa-tions on ‘linguistic assertiveness’ (see Suay, 2016) and awareness and confidence in bilingual conversations is built.
At the XVII International Conference on Minority Languages in Ljouwert, May.
The Internet and computer mediated communication are quickly becoming significant tools in the lives of minority language speakers and researchers. The effects of these new media on endangered languages and their speakers are evolving alongside their platforms and allow scholars to study in real time the effects internet mediated communication have on pedagogy, language policy and planning, ethnography and discourse analysis among others (Cormack & Hourigan, 2007; Jones & Uribe-Jongbloed, 2013).
Internet users can easily contribute to social media platforms, blogs and fora, creating new communities of practice, facilitating linguistic developments, bridging learner difficulties, supporting activism and, simply, using one’s language of choice across spatial and temporal limitations. These ‘virtual communities’ are no longer restricted by traditional geographical boundaries of language, emerging into the cyber-sphere and allowing people to perform in such communities regardless of their physical location (Moriarty, 2015; Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson, 2017).
Language use online, however, is often described as hybrid, and boundaries across languages often blur. These are also characteristics of ‘translanguaging’ practices, based on the view that different communication systems form a single integrated system in which languages become fluid codes framed within social practices (Cenoz & Gorter, 2017). In this panel, the speakers will look at current ‘virtual communities’ and analyze whether they can be considered ‘breathing spaces’ for the minority languages in question, following up on Cenoz and Gorter’s idea (2017) that in order to achieve ‘sustainable translanguaging’ practices, minority languages need ‘breathing spaces’.
Guillem Belmar Viernes (University of Groningen) and Hauke Heyen (University of Flensburg) open the panel with an introduction to the notion of ‘virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages’, illustrating it with a comparative analysis of two online communities of practice of West and North Frisian speakers.
17th International Conference on Minority Languages. Ljouwert, May 2019.
This presentation will first outline some general characteristics of the Frisian context as well as a basic profile of the new speaker of Frisian. After that, the results of an ongoing research project will be presented. This project consists of questionnaire handed it to all the adults learning Frisian at the courses offered by Afûk (the organization for the promotion of the Frisian language and culture) throughout the province of Fryslân. Through the statistical analysis of these questionnaires, issues like motivation, language use and attitudes will be discussed.
International Conference on Minority Languages 17, 22-24 May 2019 in Ljouwert/Leeuwarden.
In this research, we tried to test how much Frisian Dutch native speakers can actually understand, as well as the perceived difficulty of each kind of exercise. An online test was designed with two reading exercises, three listening exercises and twenty sentences in West Frisian that the participants were asked to translate into Dutch. The test was shared through social media, and we got answers from both the Netherlands and Belgium. The results seem to indicate that West Frisian is highly intelligible for Dutch native speakers, which we argue should be used to enrich the school curriculum and foster receptive skills in the minoritized language (see Fonseca, 2012), which could in turn boost its use.
"Small languages, big ideas. The smaller Germanic languages from a theoretical, general and comparative perspective" - Zürich, April 2019.
2nd International Conference on Bilingualism
University of Malta, March 2019
Conference "Small Language Large Issue" in Warsaw, November-December 2018.
In this research, we tried to test how much Frisian Dutch native speakers can actually under-stand, as well as the perceived difficulty of each kind of exercise. An online test was designed with two reading exercises, three listening exercises and twenty sentences in West Frisian that the participants were asked to translate into Dutch. The test was shared through social media, and we got answers from both the Netherlands and Belgium. The results seem to indicate that West Frisian is highly intelligible for Dutch native speakers, which we argue should be used to enrich the school curriculum and foster receptive skills in the minoritized language (cf. Fonseca, 2012), which could in turn boost its use.
Big Cities, Small Languages.
Leibniz-Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS), Berlin, November 2018.
Digital Presence is, therefore, an essential component of language revitalization (and maintenance). There is consensus among activists and scholars alike that «a language’s digital presence is of the utmost importance to be perceived as fitting the needs of the modern world» (Soria 2016). Among other things, digital presence: 1) helps raise awareness of linguistic diversity among the wider public; 2) creates a positive image of the minority language by associating it with modern life (Soria 2016, p. 15); 3) encourages people to use the language in different contexts (Tölke 2015); 4) narrows the digital language divide (Soria 2016, p. 16); and 5) strengthens the connection between speakers and their languages and their identity, which in turn boosts their confidence to use the language elsewhere.
The Europe Minority Languages Project aims at raising awareness of European linguistic diversity through its Social Media Channels (@EuroMinLang on Twitter, @europeminoritylanguages on Facebook and EuroMinLang on Youtube) and its website (wordpress blog), which currently contains some information on 87 Oral Languages + 45 Sign Languages. It is a collaborative effort, always open to suggestions and discussions on Social Media with as many people as possible. It currently has 8 regular contributors (native speakers of Catalan, Lombard, Occitan, Aragonese, Friulian, Arberesh, West Frisian and Irish), but it is constantly getting feedback from many more (be it as comments on Social Media posts, messages at our blog or emails). Much of these can be found on Twitter and Facebook under the hashtag #EuropeMinorityLanguages.
Among other things, the Europe Minority Languages Project collects information on different minority languages spoken in Europe, building a profile for each of them. We also publish a Word of the Day, we have taken part in both the Social Media Day for Small Languages (organized by Afûk) and the Meme Challenge (organized by Rising Voices) and we are currently developing more materials in a few languages (such as vocabulary lists, kahoots and quizlets).
Part of the Panel: Tweets, 'likes' and posts in minority language context (with Maggie Bonsey, Merryn Davis-Deacon and Piotr Szczepankiewicz).
3rd Poznań Conference of Celtic Studies, July 2018.
Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ presenta una serie de enclíticos que funciona como marcadores de persona. Estos enclíticos pueden aparecer en frases nominales para indicar posesión, y en frases verbales para indicar aquellos argumentos que no estén expresados léxicamente. La mayoría de estos enclíticos son elementos morfológicos segmentales con tono asociado, y se adjuntan al final de la frase que modifican. Sin embargo, tanto la primera persona singular como la primera persona plural inclusiva presentan casos de tono gramatical como alomorfos. En esta presentación, nos enfocaremos en las diferentes formas de la primera persona singular: =yù (ejemplo 1), y el tono bajo flotante =L (Paster & Beam de Azcona 2004; Paster 2010). Este último se realiza fonéticamente como un tono bajo nivelado (`) (ejemplos 2 y 3) o un tono descendente (^) (ejemplos 1, 2 y 3) dependiendo del contexto fonético. Sugerimos que la alternancia entre =yù y =L se debe a un proceso de erosión segmental con dos resultados distintos: la sustitución del último tono del elemento modificado por un tono bajo nivelado o un tono descendente.
Yucunani Sà'án Sàvǐ, con aproximadamente 87 hablantes (INEGI 2010), es una variante de Mixteco (Otomangue oriental) hablada en Yucunani (Oaxaca, México) y en otras partes de México y en los Estados Unidos (Kresge 2007). Los datos usados en esta presentación fueron recopilados de narraciones y sesiones de elicitación, tanto en persona como por videoconferencia.
(1) Ñoǒ-ka nìkeê tsi ñanì-yù tsi má-yù [Texto 11, 00:42]
ñuù=kó=ka nìkee=L tsi ñanì=yù tsi má=yù
pueblo=1P.INCL=DIST PFV.salir=1S COM hermano.de.varón=1S
COM madre=1S
‘De nuestra tierra salí con mi hermano y con mi mamá’.
(2) Ná ntakanì nǔ kue-ní ñàà nchiì sà'â kìí suátù [Texto 10, 00:19]
ná ntakani=L nǔ=kue=ní ñàà nchiì sà'a=L kìí suátù
IRR POT.decir=1S OBL=PLZ=2S.FORM MUL qué PFV.hacer=1S día sábado
‘Les voy a contar lo que hice el sábado’.
(3) Sana ntsà'àn-kuê ntsìtsá'an-kuê ra ñàà, nùú xina ñú'u ntsìtsá'àn ku ñàà, McDonald’s-ka ra ñàà, ntsàtsî iin hamburguesa [Texto 11, 02:06]
Sana ntsà'àn=kue=L ntsìtsá'an-kue=L ra ñàà nùú xina ñú'u
then PFV.go=PLZ=1S PFV.eat=PLZ=1S DISC MUL
OBL first time
ntsìtsá'an=L ku ñàà McDonald’s=ka ra ñàà ntsàtsi=L
PFV.eat=1S COP MUL McDonald’s=DIST DISC MUL PFV.eat=1S
iin hamburguesa
one hamburguer
‘Luego fuimos a comer y donde comí por primera vez fue allí en McDonald’s, me comí una hamburguesa’.
Abreviaciones:
COM comitativo OBL oblicuo
COP cópula P plural
DISC marcador discursivo PFV perfectivo
DIST distal PLZ pluralizador
MUL muletilla POT potencial
IRR irrealis S singular
Referencias:
INEGI. 2010. Censo de Población y Vivenda 2010. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2010/default.html.
Kresge, Lisa. 2007. Indigenous Oaxacan communities in California: An overview. California Institute for Rural Studies.
Paster, Mary. 2010. The role of homophony avoidance in morphology: a case study from Mixtec. Santa Barbara Papers in Linguistics 21. 29–39.
Paster, Mary & Rosemary Beam de Azcona. 2004. A phonological sketch of the Yucunany dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec. En Proceedings of Workshop on American Indigenous Languages. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California, Santa Barbara.
@ High Desert Linguistics Society
Poster for MA Multilingualism – Minority Languages: the case of Frisian
Location: 16th International Conference on Minority Languages in Jyväskylä and Närples: Revaluing minority languages (Finland)
Conference dates: 28-30 August 2017
There has recently been a spike of interest on the study of 'new speakers', especially in research concerning minoritized languages, with a large number of articles having been published sense the first appearance of the term in English-language academic literature in Robert (2009). Answering O'Rourke, Pujolar and Ramallo's (2015) call for more research on new speakers of different minoritized languages, this thesis aims to start the debate on new speakers of Frisian by surveying adults learning West Frisian at the evening courses offered by Afûk, their motivation to do so, their attitudes towards West Frisian and their language use.
MA Thesis at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
MA in Linguistics. Multilingualism Track.
Supervisor: Eva Juarros-Daussà
MA Thesis at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.
MA in Hispanic Linguistic and Language Science. Specialization: Language and Communication.
Supervisor: Milagros Fernández Pérez
BA in Translation and Interpreting (Catalan-Spanish-English-Chinese) with a minor in Basque Studies.
Supervisor: Anna Aguilar-Amat i Castillo
Talk initially intended for CoLang 2016 (Institute for Collaborative Language Research), at University of Alaska Fairbanks Dates: June 2016; which due to a lack of time just became a topic discussion during part of a workshop.
MA in Linguitics - Multilingualism Track at the University of Groningen.
Supervisor: Eva Juarros Daussà
Extracted from the MA Thesis: Belmar, G. (2017). The Acquisition of English Phonology in EFL Students: The Case of Spanish-Catalan Bilinguals (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia)
In this project we defend why we deem it misleading to state that the Princes of England speak Cockney. We will tackle dialect levelling in the British Isles (especially in England), and we will introduce the main changes which are occurring in RP or Received Pronunciation, also known as the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English.
Este será el hilo conductor del trabajo: la lingüística del siglo XX. A medida que vamos exponiendo estos puntos —por otra parte, incluidos en todas las teorías lingüísticas del siglo XX— expondremos las similitudes y las diferencias entre las teorías de Coseriu y Chomsky.
En aquest llibre ens endinsarem en la diversitat lingüística ibèrica tot fent una crida a la reivindicació dels drets lingüístics dels parlants de qualsevol de les vuit llengües que hi coexisteixen. Un recorregut que pretén sensibilitzar el lector i mostrar-li que en la comprensió i el respecte vers la diferència rau la clau de la unió.