Strengthening Indigenous languages in the digital age: social media–supported learning in Sápmi

Abstract

This article presents and discusses Sámi social media initiatives for strengthening languages. The Sámi are the Indigenous people of Europe. All Sámi languages are endangered, and the lack of resources for maintaining, promoting and teaching the languages has been underscored on several occasions by the European Council and the Sámi parliaments. Social media has become an arena where resources are created and shared, enabling communities of speakers to support each other and promote their languages. YouTube, blogs, Twitter and language learning applications are here discussed as public domains and community-grounded media. Based on a few examples and on our expertise as instructors within Sámi studies, we suggest strategies for developing long-lasting and innovative models for revitalizing threatened languages and cultures, and for counteracting language loss through social media. This contribution shares examples of innovative uses of social media in Sámi of relevance for other Indigenous contexts.

The use of Karelian language online: Current trends and challenges

“…The visibility of minority languages on the internet and social media has been the focus of several previous studies. As examples: Wagner (2013) studied the presence of Luxembourgish on Facebook; Cunliffe & Dyfrig (2013) investigated the visibility of the Welsh language on YouTube; Ferré-Pavia et al (2018) analyzed the internet and social media activity of ten language communities including Catalan, Galician, Basque, Welsh, Irish, Frisian, Breton, Corsican, Scottish Gaelic, and Sami; Outakoski, Cocq & Steggo (2018) studied Sami social media initiatives for strengthening languages; and Hiippala et al (2019) investigated the linguistic landscape of geotagged social media content. Additionally, Johnson (2013) has explored the visibility of (minority) language from the perspectives of bilingualism and code-switching by studying the bilingual use of English and Welsh on Twitter.…”

Revisiting the digital humanities through the lens of Indigenous studies—or how to question the cultural blindness of our technologies and practices

“…Examples from S apmi are scarce, but digital initiatives that support language learning and revitalization, as well as private projects on gaming and online literature (Outakoski et al, 2018), bear witness to the vitality of digital practices across S apmi. Campaigns that support language use on social media, for instance, have been organized by the Language Centre of the S ami parliaments (Sametinget, 2017), involving young persons as ambassadors for language revitalization.…”

“…A few scholarly works have given attention to the use of technology in S ami contexts, for instance, the use of GPS technology in reindeer herding (Kuoljok, 2020;Sandström & Wedin, 2010) not only as a tool for making the work of herders more effective, but also as a way of mapping how reindeer migration routes and choice of grazing land could be affected by infrastructure such as roads, railways and wind farms. A few case studies have examined social media as a channel for language revitalization projects and networking (Cocq, 2016;Ní Bhroin, 2015;Outakoski et al, 2018), as well as in relation to other technologies (Cocq & DuBois, 2019).…”

Indigenous Research Methodologies in Sámi and Global Contexts

“…There are also new arenas created for Sámi literacy in the Internet, where language and visual contents are connected to form strong messages about the society, the political situation, environmental threats, and other urgent issues within the Indigenous community (see, for example, the community pages for the Sámi activist group Suohpanterror3). Community-based language projects in the social media and the Internet have also opened up new arenas for groups of writers and language activists (Outakoski et al 2018). These new arenas can hopefully create space for local literacies and texts that have not been seen as part of the literary tradition before.…”