LL-L "Language maintenance" 2007.08.06 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  06 August 2007 - Volume 06

=========================================================================

From: Mike Wintzer <k9mw at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language maintenance" 2007.08.06 (05) [E]

Ron wrote:
 "....Many native Welsh-speakers tend to resent other people trying to
speak their language and deliberately speak very quickly to discourage
them....."

Ron, your description is sadly so correct for ALL regions
that I have come to poke my nose into during my lifetime.
What you write about Wales, can be written about
Occitània where I now live, just by changing a few
names.

Greetings to you all LLers,
Mike Wintzer

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language maintenance

Hi, Mike!

Thanks, but for the record: you quoted not me but David Clark who wrote that
in response to my request for responses.

Be that as it may, I must say that I've long tried to grapple with the type
of attitude the two of you referred to.

In theory, when we talk about minority languages (i.e. languages without
national power), especially those that are endangered (and all of them are
to some degree or other), we would expect speakers to welcome boosts from
the outside and, perhaps more importantly, recognition and appreciation on
the part of "outsider."  While this may be true in some cases, it is more
often the case that "outsiders" are discouraged. Why? What are the
possibilities? Let me throw a few possibilities your way. These are based on
my own observations. (The names assignations are mine.)

   - Linguistic tribalism ("Language is part of 'us against them (the
   power majority and outside)'.")
      - Linguistic exclusivity ("It's our language, our secret code,
      and nobody else should touch or even use it.")
   - Linguistic chauvinism ("Only we are the keepers of the proper
   language.")
   - Linguistic purism ("Only we can use the language properly because we
      live and grew up in the God-given place and belong to the appropriate
      ethnicity and class." If it turns out that there is a transported enclave
      somewhere else, this tends to be shrugged off as impure or
debased, thus as
      irrelevant. The assumption here is that language should never change.)
      - Linguistic racism ("No one that doesn't look like us can
      possibly speak like us and understand our culture.")
   - Linguistic insecurity ("So it happens to be what I leaned as a
   child. But ...")
   - Linguistic self-loathing ("What good is this language these days
      anyway? It would be an albatross around the children's necks. Away with
      those outsiders that want to turn things around!")
      - Linguistic suspiciousness ("They used to despise us and used
      to want to get rid of our language and culture. So what are they up to,
      those outsiders trying to learn it? Are they trying to ridicule
      us")

I wonder if this was an issue when Norman power over England had withdrawn
and scores of English, part-English and Norman people switched from their
native French to the reemerging, albeit still teetering English language
that was very much susceptible to further French influence.  If it was an
issue, I suppose that, had the other camp come out victorious, the English
language would now be extinct rather than globally dominant.

Just my thoughts ...

Reinhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20070806/743451b4/attachment.htm>