Heritage Languages in the Digital Age

The Case of Autochthonous Minority Languages in Western Europe

Birte Arendt, Gertrud Reershemius, Birte Arendt, Gertrud Reershemius

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781800414228
• eBook ISBN:
  9781800414242
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Social Aspects in Computer Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Against the backdrop of social media and internet use and their impact on communication, those working with minority (or autochthonous) heritage languages, including teachers, language activists and planners and researchers, are reassessing the media, language policy and teaching practices which they had previously applied to stem the tide of language shift towards majority languages. The languages examined in this book are still spoken by a considerable number of speakers and enjoy varying and varied forms of institutional, legal, financial and ideological support. While their overall numbers of speakers are declining, their importance for identity construction and commodification processes continues to increase. This book addresses issues including the potential for a shift from a focus on oral to written practices; the rise of new communities of practice and communicative domains; and the need for resulting shifts in language policy and teaching methods.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Can Digital Media Help to Prevent Language Shift?
• Part 1: Shifting Ideologies
• 1 Language Ideologies, Digital Technology and Emerging Hierarchies of Knowledge
• 2 Myth Busters: Online Platforms and Emerging Ideological Shift among Lombard Speakers
• 3 Focus on Faroese: Digital Insights into the Smallest North Germanic Language Community
• 4 Breton in the Online Context: A New Speaker Community?
• Part 2: Digital Tools and Practices
• 5 Language, Education and Community in a Digital Age: A Welsh Digital Resources Case Study
• 6 Teaching a Regional Language in Online Courses: A Learner-Oriented Perspective on Agency, Practicesand Evaluation
• Part 3: Multilingual Practices on Social Media
• 7 North Frisian in Social Media: Looking for Computer-Mediated Communication in a Very Small Language
• 8 Unravelling Language Choice Online: Frisian Bilingual Teenagers on WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram
• 9 Moin mitnanner : Digital Practices and Low German on Instagram
• Epilogue: Agency, Ideologies and the Continuum of Language Practices - Towards an Integrated Theory