Declining linguistic diversity and the flawed attempts to save it
Reversing Babel is an ongoing doctoral research project (Economic and Social Research Council award no. PTA-030-2005-00968), being carried out by Dave Sayers in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK, under the joint supervision of Yasemin Soysal (Sociology) and David Britain
(Linguistics). The project is investigating declining linguistic
diversity in late modern society, using the UK as its main example.
The
investigation begins by using data and theory from social dialectology
to define ‘linguistic diversity’, currently an
under-theorised concept. The weakening and mixing of British English
dialects is measured over the last century, to demonstrate a gradual
decline in the overall diversity of the language. This is compared with
detailed information on changing societal conditions in Britain –
specifically increased literacy, geographical mobility, and more
recently mass media – and how the varying affects of these can be
read in different types of dialect changes throughout the period.
This foundation is used to interrogate minority language policies, and
whether they can fulfil their explicit claims to ‘protect
linguistic diversity’. Two case studies are considered, Cornish
(a very young language revival) and Welsh (a more established revival).
The analysis explores how the types of regulated language promotion
efforts undertaken, which generally rely on standardisation as a means
to protection, demonstrably inhibit both existing and potential
variation in the languages thus saved. This actuates a highly complex
and interrelated set of social, normative and ideological pressures
that are largely unintended consequences of the original policies. As a
result, although these languages may be strengthened in some numerical
or symbolic sense, diversity overall is significantly damaged.
I discuss this situation using discourse analysis and rhetoric theory.
‘Linguistic diversity’ is interpreted as an empty
signifier, a banner that unifies language planning but is freed from
any real meaning or scrutiny. The language planning enterprise itself
is viewed as an enthymeme: a
syllogism that is missing some of its logical premises. In this case
what is missing is any evidence that linguistic diversity is actually
protected, or indeed any way to find out. This embodies a distinctly deontological moral philosophy, proceeding on the basis of universal rules that serve as guides for moral action; rather than a teleological approach guided by the consequences of actions.
A conclusion of this research is that linguistic diversity is
declining; and that despite claims to the contrary, there is little in
place to stop it. Indeed the very efforts designed to arrest this
decline appear to be accelerating it in unseen ways. Moreover this
decline is occurring in both ‘dominant’ and
‘endangered’ languages. Declining diversity may therefore
not be caused by the hegemony of any particular languages, but by the
conditions of modern society itself.
Conference materials:
Cross-disciplinary insights on regional dialect levelling,
or 'What sociolinguistics can learn from sociology and geography (and
vice versa)' - an attempt to define regional dialect levelling
historically, and correlate it with regional concentrations of
population movements.
- HANDOUT
- POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
The Linguistic Virtual Collective
- a theoretical model designed to explain the diffusion of 'global linguistic
innovations' between distant speech communities, for example the new quotative be like (as in 'she was like, really?') apparently spreading from America to Canada, Britain, Australia and elsewhere.
- HANDOUT
Standardising Diversity - a critique of the claims
of modern language planning to be 'protecting linguisic diversity',
examining the inhibition of language-internal variation in two modern
language revivals, Cornish and Welsh.
- HANDOUT
- POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
From Language Rights to Language Survival: an expanded typology of language acquisition planning - an expanded typology designed to more fully separate the different rationales behind language acquisition planning.
- HANDOUT
- POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
New Public Management And The Language Planning Enthymeme - discussing the rhetoric of language policy and planning with regard to linguistic diversity.
- HANDOUT
- POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
Standardising Diversity: paradoxes and problems in the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (ECRML)
- noting claims in language policy and planning about linguistic
diversity, and evaluating these in light of two modern language
revivals, Cornish and Welsh.
- HANDOUT
- POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
Older papers (please note these are early graduate student papers and only reflect preliminary stages of current work)
Citizenship and Language - Are Users of Minority Languages Considered Deviants?
How Narrow is Narrowcasting? Are regional dialects standardised for national television?
Standardising Diversity: The Language Revival Paradox - Can The Cornish Language Be Revived Without Inhibiting Its Diversity?
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