Frysk

This study focuses on the motivation of adults learning a minority language. These are potential new speakers of the language, a group that has been described as central to language revitalization (Grinevald & Bert, 2011). Since the motivation to learn these languages does not seem to be linked to economic success or wider job opportunities, researchers have taken interest in knowing what drives people to learn a minority language (e.g., O’Rourke & DePalma, 2016).
In this study, new speaker motivations were investigated by means of open-ended interviews with adult learners of West Frisian —a minority language spoken in the Netherlands—, as well as a questionnaire filled in by adult learners of the language. The results show a predominance of integrative and personal motivation (also found in O’Rourke & De Palma, 2016), but not exclusively (as suggested by Jaffe, 2015). In addition, results seem to suggest that issues of legitimacy and authenticity are key at the debate around Frisian speakerness.

9th Cambridge Conference on Language Revitalisation: New speakers, new challenges, new linguistic forms. Cambridge

Social networking sites have become ubiquitous in our daily communicative exchanges, which has brought about new platforms of identification and opened possibilities that were out of reach for many minoritized communities. As they represent an increasing percentage of the media we consume, these sites have been considered crucial for revitalization processes. However, the growing importance of social media may also pose a problem for minoritized languages, as the need for communication with a wider audience seems to require the use of a language of wider communication. One way in which this apparent need for a global language can be avoided is by creating virtual communities where the minoritized languages can be used without competition, a virtual breathing space.

This study analyzes language practices of eight communities: four North Frisian and four West Frisian virtual communities. The analysis focuses on the languages used in each community, the topics discussed, as well as the status of the minoritized language in the community. A total of 1,127 posts are analyzed to determine whether these communities function as breathing spaces, the factors that may foster or prevent the emergence of these spaces, and the similarities and differences between these two sociolinguistic contexts.

Social networking sites have become ubiquitous in our daily communicative exchanges, which has brought about new platforms of identification and opened possibilities that were out of reach for many minoritized communities. As they represent an increasing percentage of the media we consume, these sites have been considered crucial for revitalization processes. However, the growing importance of social media may also pose a problem for minoritized languages, as the need for communication with a wider audience seems to require the use of a language of wider communication. One way in which this apparent need for a global language can be avoided is by creating virtual communities where the minoritized languages can be used without competition, a virtual breathing space. This study analyzes language practices of eight communities: four North Frisian and four West Frisian virtual communities. The analysis focuses on the languages used in each community, the topics discussed, as well as the status of the minoritized language in the community. A total of 1,127 posts are analyzed to determine whether these communities function as breathing spaces, the factors that may foster or prevent the emergence of these spaces, and the similarities and differences between these two sociolinguistic contexts.

Just like the rise of print capitalism gave place to the rise of broader group identities and nationalism (Anderson, 1983), the rise of computer-mediated communication seems to have given rise to a new concept of group identity (e.g. Kavoura, 2014), based no longer on geographical borders (Moriarty, 2015; see Belmar & Glass on the ‘de-territorialization’ of language) but on shared experiences or interests and on increasing individual agency in group membership performance (Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson, 2017). And among these interests, a common minority language has become a distinct marker of group affiliation (see Eisenlohr, 2004; Zappavinga, 2012).
For minority languages, the rise of virtual communities gives a solution to the decreasing opportunities to practice the language in a geographically bound area. These ‘virtual communities’ (Belmar & Glass, 2019) are no longer restricted by traditional geographical boundaries of language, emerging into the cyber-sphere and allowing people to perform in such communities regardless of their physical location (Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson, 2017). In this presentation we will analyze the concept of ‘virtual community’ as breathing spaces for minority languages (Belmar & Glass, 2019) with the analysis of online communities of practice of North and West Frisian.

Works cited:
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.
Belmar, G., & Glass, M. (2019). Virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages: Re-framing minority language use in social media. Adeptus, 14, 1-24.
Eisenlohr, P. (2004). Language revitalization and new technologies: Cultures of electronic mediation and the refiguring of communities. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33, 21-45.
Kavoura, A. (2014). Social media, online imagined communities and communication research. Library Review, 63(6-7), 490-504.
Kelly-Holmes, H., & Atkinson, D. (2017). Perspectives on language sustainability in a performance era: Discourses, policies, and practices in a digital and social media campaign to revitalize Irish. Open Linguistics, 3(1), 236-250.
Moriarty, M. (2015). Globalizing language policy and planning: An Irish language perspective. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Zappavinga, M. (2012). Discourse of Twitter and social media: How we use language to create affiliation on the web. London: Continuum.

Adults learning a minority language are potential new speakers, that is “adults who acquire a socially and communicatively consequential level of competence and practice in a minority language” (Jaffe, 2015, p. 25; cf. O’Rourke, Pujolar, & Ramallo, 2015). “New speakers” research has become quite common recently, marking a shift from traditional notions of ‘speakerness’ in minority contexts, built around the Fishmanian discourse of reversing language shift (cf. Kubota 2009). New speaker —actually neo-speaker— was one of the seven categories of speakers put forward by Grinevald and Bert (2011), who considered them “central to language revitalization” (Grinevald & Bert, 2011, p. 51).

This presentation will first outline some general characteristics of the Frisian context as well as a basic profile of the new speaker of Frisian. After that, the results of an ongoing research project will be presented. This project consists of questionnaire handed it to all the adults learning Frisian at the courses offered by Afûk (the organization for the promotion of the Frisian language and culture) throughout the province of Fryslân. Through the statistical analysis of these questionnaires, issues like motivation, identity and attitudes will be discussed.

CELC (Cambridge Endangered Languages and Cultures) Postgraduate Workshop 2018.
Cambridge, July 2018.