Quebec Seeks to Ease Divisiveness

[Christina Paulston]

Paul,
    well put, Christina

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>From: Paul_Lewis at sil.org
>To: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
>Subject: Re: Quebec Seeks to Ease Divisiveness
>Date: Tue, Apr 15, 2003, 2:54 PM
>

>
> I think what Prof. Fishman would point out to us is that the stable
> situations of which there are so many examples are places where there is
> not only bilingualism but also diglossia - either Fergusonian OR Fishmanian
> - the clearly established and socioeconomically supported functional
> compartmentalization of the language varieties that are in use.
>
> What causes language shift to take place is the destabilization that
> results from the loss of that functional compartmentalization.  As far as I
> can see, that almost always comes about as a result of social, economic, or
> political changes which weaken the support for the then-current language
> use configuration and which begins to provide rewards and benefits to those
> who use their language(s) differently.
>
> French hasn't been maintained in Louisiana because there are few(er)
> rewards and benefits for those who do so.  French is stronger in Quebec
> because the social, economic, and political rewards are there for those who
> use it.  While there are some cases where solidarity with one's ethnic
> group is reward enough to motivate language maintenance, solidarity seems
> to have a hard time standing up against power -  economic or political - as
> a motivator for acquiring or maintaining a language.
>
> ------- at -@- at -@- at ----------------
> M. Paul Lewis
> SIL Intl.
> 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd.
> Dallas, TX 75236
> (972) 708-7400 x2202  / Fax (972) 708-7387
> paul_lewis at sil.org
> ---------- at --@-- at --@-- at ------------------------
>
>
>
>
>                       Ronald Kephart
>
>                       <rkephart at unf.edu>                  To:
> lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
>                       Sent by:                            cc:
>
>                       owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sa         Subject: Re:
> Quebec Seeks to Ease Divisiveness
>                       s.upenn.edu
>
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>                       04/15/2003 12:28 PM
>
>                       Please respond to
>
>                       lgpolicy-list
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> At 9:07 AM -0700 4/15/03, Joshua Fishman wrote:
>
>>Some Examples of Long-lasting (> 3 gens.) Societal multilingualisms: [...]
>
> And there are lots of examples from the Caribbean, where I work. Some
> involve a creole and a lexically related standard (Jamaica,
> Martinique, etc.). Others involve a creole and a non-related standard
> (St. Lucia, Dominica).
>
> On Carriacou (Grenada), which is my field site, from the late 18th
> until well into the 20th century there were people who were
> trilingual (Creole French, Creole English, and the local variety of
> standard English). There's a handful of these folks still around, but
> they're going fast. This summer I'm hoping to record a few of them,
> as Creole French seems to be just about gone on Carriacou, except to
> the extent that it pervades Creole English (lexically and
> phonologically).
>
> Ron
>
> --
> Ronald Kephart
> Associate Professor
> English & Foreign Languages
> University of North Florida
> http://www.unf.edu/~rkephart
>
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