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Language, Ethnicity, and the State: Minority Languages in the EU

Language, Ethnicity, and the State: Minority Languages in the EU. Ch3: …Minority Language Planning on Corsica By Alexandra Jaffe. Background on French vs. Corsican. 20th c -- Mostly imposition of French, by 1950s most Corsicans had French as L1 1970s beginning of linguistic revitalization

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Language, Ethnicity, and the State: Minority Languages in the EU

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  1. Language, Ethnicity, and the State: Minority Languages in the EU Ch3: …Minority Language Planning on Corsica By Alexandra Jaffe

  2. Background on French vs. Corsican • 20th c -- Mostly imposition of French, by 1950s most Corsicans had French as L1 • 1970s beginning of linguistic revitalization • Struggle for Corsican has taken place within an ideology that sees languages as clearly bounded and mutually exclusive

  3. Language Shift on Corsica • Late 1880s -- French education available and French essential for economic advancement • In addition to language, there was implicit ideological schooling linking language, identity, citizenship, and stigmatizing regional languages • Diglossia on Corsica • Corsican is L1 for very few today

  4. Linguistic revitalization • Early efforts aimed at standardization and promotion of Corsican in public arena • Also sought to legitimize claim to political self-determination on the basis of the existence of a distinct language & culture • The use of language to legitimize political aims was problematic since use of Corsican had seriously eroded

  5. Corsican language planning • 1970s -- organization of Corsican language classes, University of Corsica, grammars, orthographies and pedagogical materials • 1980s -- Corsican Regional Assembly lobbies for Corsican language in schools; literary publications, broadcasting (radio & tv) • 1990s -- increased use of Corsican in schools, teacher training • Results: Corsicans now accept the linguistic legitimacy of their language, but French is still edging out Corsican, parents still aren’t teaching it to their children

  6. Debate over mandatory Corsican • People who pushed mandatory Corsican hoped that the power of status & authority would change language attitudes, that parents would be less apathetic and teach it to children • People who opposed mandatory Corsican did so because they opposed anything mandatory (indeed, their own use of Corsican was through free choice), and because teaching of Corsican in school was inauthentic • Language planning failed to challenge the underlying dominant language ideology

  7. Relations with Italy & Italian • In the early part of revitalization, focus was on denying relationship to Italian, on emphasizing distinctions • Now that legitimacy of Corsican is established, Corsicans recognize value of relationship with Italy, and thus counterbalance French dominance

  8. Polynomy • Polynomic languages are those that tolerate a high degree of internal linguistic diversity • Corsican is considered highly “polynomic” • In a context that values inclusiveness and tolerance, polynomy is a virtue • This gives Corsican a positive superior value and challenges the old language ideology

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