[Linganth] plugging sessions

[Jillian R Cavanaugh]

Panel title: The Gendering of Contracting Languages and Their Uses
(Wed. Nov 17, 2-3:45)

Recently, the speakers of contracting (endangered) languages have moved from the periphery to the center of linguistic anthropological scholarship. A groundswell of interest in indigenous, minority, and ethnolinguistic revitalization issues also characterizes recent work in sociocultural anthropology. Whereas earlier studies fulfilled the important role of documenting dying languages, recent ethnographic work seeks to capture the experience of language loss and assimilation, while pleading for ethnolinguistic tolerance and diversity (Hinton 1994; Jaffe 1999). Only recently framed as a human rights issue in linguistic anthropological scholarship (Hill 2002), linguistic rights are rendered more compelling to a wider audience through arguments accentuating links between biocultural diversity and linguistic diversity (Maffi 2000), and the global scope of endangerment processes (Nettle and Romaine 2002), despite local particularities (Hinton and Hale 2001; Grenoble and Whaley 199
8).

Studies in language shift have also illuminated gendered differences in linguistic practices and language attitudes. Our panel takes these lines of inquiry one step further by considering the gendering of contracting languages and their use by their speakers and by outsiders. When language shift occurs, one gender may be held disproportionately responsible for, or absent from, language socialization practices. For instance, women may be considered the repositories of culture and hence strongly associated with the contracting language, or conversely, women may form the vanguard of shift away from the contracting language. Simlutaneously, the languages in use in these communities may themselves become gendered or associated with the characteristics of one gender. The differences may engage gendered participation in local economies and gendered tracks to achieving aspirations.

Further, we consider interrelationships between gendered language practices and the participation of men and women in language revitalization efforts at the local, national, and international scales. Just as comparisons of language contraction and retention yield insights into cross-cultural similarities and particularities in this global process, we explore the gendering of selves through speech in situations where such associations and choices have high stakes.

Our panelists find a variety of gendered and gender-neutral language practices involving contracting language speakers. Hoffman raises the issue of human rights in regards to Moroccan Tashelhit language maintenance efforts that are urban-oriented and text-centric, given that mountain-secluded women bear the responsibility of language socialization and maintenance. Makihara explores the gendered dimensions of what she calls 'colonial diglossia' among the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island, Chile, where relatively low levels of class differentiation and gender inequality have contributed to widespread and rapid development of Spanish-Rapa Nui bilingualism and ethnic solidarity in the successful indigenous movement. Cavanaugh focuses on language shift from Bergamasco to Italian in northern Italy, where the gendering of the local vernacular as male may be contributing to shift, in spite of local revitalization efforts. Wertheim considers notions of purism among Tatar-Russian bilin
guals, with particular attention to the gendered associations speakers make when transgressing purist norms. LeMaster investigates the ideological underpinnings of ‘gaze positioning’ with endangered Irish Sign Language, focusing on struggles between gendered language researchers and on-the-ground individual practices, discourses and positionings.