‘I’ll be one of them’: linguistic<i>mudes</i>and new speakers in three minority language contexts

Puigdevall, Maite; Walsh, John; Amorrortu, Estibaliz; Ortega, Ane

doi:10.1080/01434632.2018.1429453

Cited by 29 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…All responses were coded on a scale of 1 to 3, from least to most positive. Following the results of previous studies on attitudes towards Basque (Amorrortu et al, 2009; Ortega et al, 2015; Puigdevall et al, 2018), responses agreeing with a useful consideration of Basque in everyday life, with the need to preserve this language, with the fact that education should be in Basque, or with the opinion that Basque should be spoken by everyone in the Basque Country were taken to be the most positive (i.e. 3).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 77%

The influence of social factors on the prosody of Spanish in contact with Basque

Elordieta

Romera

2020

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The main goal of this paper is to analyse how social factors determine the degree of occurrence of intonational features of Basque in Spanish in the Basque Country (i.e. Basque Spanish). Design/methodology/approach: We concentrate on information-seeking yes/no questions. In Castilian Spanish, these end in a rising contour, whereas in Basque they end in a rising–falling contour. The data were gathered through sociolinguistic interviews with 12 speakers of Basque Spanish with different linguistic profiles: monolingual Spanish; first language Spanish–second language Basque; and L1 Basque–L2 Spanish. Data and analysis: 172 information-seeking yes/no interrogatives were obtained from conversational speech. Their final intonational contours were annotated in the Spanish Tone and Break Index model of intonational analysis. Findings/conclusions: 79% of all information-seeking yes/no questions had final configurations with a rising–falling circumflex contour. Only 21% had the final rising contour of Castilian Spanish. Speakers differed in their frequency of occurrence of falling contours, but the differences did not correlate with the speakers’ linguistic profile (monolingual vs bilingual). Rather, higher percentages of yes/no questions ending in a falling contour were found among speakers who had (a) a higher degree of contact with the Basque ethnolinguistic group, and (b) more positive attitudes towards the Basque language and the Basque ethnolinguistic group. Originality: Methodologically, this study is original because the intonational analysis is carried out on natural speech rather than on read or elicited speech. This study is also original from a theoretical point of view because it is the first one to underline the role that subjective factors such as linguistic attitudes play in the adoption of features of a language variety from another contact variety. Significance/implications: Our research opens up a path to continue investigating the weight of subjective social factors such as linguistic attitudes in explaining the variation in the influence of one language variety over another.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 77%

The influence of social factors on the prosody of Spanish in contact with Basque

Elordieta

Romera

2020

International Journal of Bilingualism

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“…As Iker turned four years old, I noticed that Eva's emblematic Basque‐language practices had moved beyond formulas to produce sentences that were not solely automatic. This aspect reflected the nature of mudas as gradual and sometimes cumulative processes that are shaped over time (Puigdevall et al., ). Transcript 3 (below) is one example of Eva's creative language practice one year after the initial interview.…”

Section: The Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For low‐proficiency new‐speaking parents, a muda might represent subtle changes in their linguistic repertoire (e.g. the use of words or expressions from the minority language) that ultimately reflect new relationships with the language (Puigdevall, Walsh, Amorrortu, & Ortega, ). This article centres on the dynamics of muda in the case of low‐proficiency new‐speaking parents in the context of Basque revitalization and the efforts to increase language “normalization.” Coined by Catalan sociolinguist Rafael Ninyoles (), the term “normalization” refers to the deliberate efforts to grow and expand the use and prestige of the minority language.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ciriza

2019

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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

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“…The little research that touches upon contemporary summer colleges and language revitalization emphasizes their role in positively changing learners' attitude towards Irish (Armstrong, 2012;O'Rourke & Walsh, 2015;Puigdevall, Walsh, Amorrortu, & Ortega, 2018). For many learners of Irish, the Gaeltacht and its native speakers are a resource for immersion in the authentic language, which they usually experience in summer colleges (O'Rourke & Brennan, 2018).…”

Section: An Ethnographic Account Of Riail Na Gaeilgementioning

confidence: 99%

Creating places through language rules: A historical and ethnographic perspective on the “Rule of Irish”

Cahill

2019

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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In seeking to understand the political projects underlying pedagogical choices, this article studies the reasons for and situated dynamics of the implementation of the “Rule of Irish” (or Riail na Gaeilge), which prohibits the use of English in Irish immersion language camps (“summer colleges”) set in Ireland's officially designated Irish‐speaking regions, the Gaeltacht. Despite the great difficulty imposing this rule on learners represents, its implantation has remained unquestioned since the development of the first summer colleges at the beginning of the 20th century. Combining ethnographic observations, the study of press articles published between 1901 and 1916, and the analysis of contemporary language policies, I show that the implementation of Riail na Gaeilge aims to provide students with an experience of the monolingual Irish place that the Gaeltacht has long been popularly and officially imagined as being. Riail na Gaeilge is thus not just a pedagogical tool but it also has a social function of consecrating the Gaeltacht as Irish‐speaking Ireland. The article traces how the Gaeltacht was created and has been maintained through Riail na Gaeilge and explores the political reasons underlying this institutionalization.

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‘I’ll be one of them’: linguisticmudesand new speakers in three minority language contexts

Cited by 29 publications

References 8 publications

The influence of social factors on the prosody of Spanish in contact with Basque

The influence of social factors on the prosody of Spanish in contact with Basque

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

Creating places through language rules: A historical and ethnographic perspective on the “Rule of Irish”

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