MINORITY LANGUAGES BETWEEN REFORMATION AND REVOLUTION: APPROACHES TO HISTORICAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS ON THE PLURILINGUAL MARGINS OF EARLY MODERN EUROPE Remco Mathijs Knooihuizen M.A. (Groningen) M.Sc. (Edinburgh) I V N E R U S E I T H Y T O H F G E R D I N B U A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to The University of Edinburgh · Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences Linguistics and English Language December 2008 i Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is of my own composition, and that it contains no material previously submitted for the award of any other degree. The work reported in this thesis has been executed by myself, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text. Remco Mathijs Knooihuizen Abstract In this thesis, I intend to further our knowledge of the sociolinguistics of Early Modern minority languages. Social and political developments in North-Western Europe in the 16th to 18th centuries caused an emancipation of vernacular languages, which took over from Latin as the main language in official domains. The sociolinguistics of this change are well known (e.g. Burke 2004); the fate of languages that did not make it to this new status, emerging ‘minority languages’, remains under-researched. Chapter 2 introduces some of the terminology used in this study. I discuss four categories of research methods into minority language shift and how they are applicable to research on historical situations, which often suffers from ‘bad data’. I then present a model of ethnolinguistic vitality that I use to survey the socio-historical backgrounds of several minority language groups in Chapter 3. Chapter 3 begins with a brief presentation of minority language groups from the Early Modern period. I choose three language groups to focus on in more depth: speakers of Norn in Shetland, of Flemish in Northern France, and of Sorbian in Germany. A survey of these three cases, with the initial wider presentation, identifies three recurring issues that are the focus of the subsequent chapters. The first of these is the influence of demographic change (Chapter 4). In the formation of nation-states in this period, many speakers of the majority language migrate to peripheral minority-language areas. I present two historical-demographic studies showing the integra- tion of immigrants into the local community through intermarriage, based on 17th-century population registers from Shetland and Dunkirk (France). Both show a large amount of iii iv intermarriage, despite a bias towards in-group marriage. Intermarriage brings the majority language into the minority-language home; the strength of the bias against intermarriage is likely to be a factor in the rate of shift, one of the main differences between Shetland and Dunkirk. Language policies are the topic of Chapter 5. They are an important part of minority language studies in the present day, particularly with regard to language maintenance. I survey the language legislation that existed in Shetland, French Flanders, and Lusatia, its purpose and implementation, and its effects on language shift. Purpose and implementation of language policies were limited, and its effect on minority language communities therefore only secondary. Chapter 6 is about target varieties in language shift. The question of whether language shift happened through education in a standard variety or through contacts with majority- language speakers from nearby areas can be answered by looking at the new majority- language dialect in the minority area. I undertake two different studies in this context. The first is an analysis of Shetland Scots using theories of dialect contact. The dialect has a number of ‘standardised’ features, but I argue these are mainly due to koinéisation of various dialects of Scots immigrants to Shetland and a second-language variety of Scots spoken by the local population. The second is a study of the French dialect of French Flanders using computational methods of data comparison on data taken from dialect atlases. This dialect shares features with neighbouring Picard dialects, but we can also identify Standard French features. This pattern correlates with what we know of migration to the area (Chapter 4). Both new dialects suggest the shifting population acquired the majority language mainly through contacts with majority-language speakers in their direct environment. In conclusion, I show that language shift in the Early Modern period was an organic process, where the inception, the rate, and the result of shift were steered by the minority v population’s social networks. The influence of institutions often blamed for language shift in modern situations – educational and language policies – was very restricted. In addition, I show that methods used in modern sociolinguistics can be successfully applied to historical situations, despite the bad data problem. This opens the door for more extensive research into the area. Acknowledgements In February 2005, I walked into the English Language department to talk to one Professor April McMahon about the possibility of her supervising me on a Ph.D. project about minority languages in Early Modern Europe. I was convinced she was American, she thought I was from Ireland. Our mind-internal accent placement devices were both distorted by two countries to the west. Now, almost four years later, I have at least a fair idea of where Eyemouth is, so my education has not been entirely in vain. In the past three and a half years, we have met in a large number of offices as April was promoted to higher and higher posts in the University. Our final meeting is set to be lunch at Peter’s Yard. Depending on whether I get the thesis printed off before April finishes decorating her latest office, we will see who has to pay. The acknowledgements section is typically the last section of a thesis to be written, and the pressure to get it right, to include everyone that should be included, is higher than one would expect. Nonetheless, here goes. I have really appreciated the chance I got to teach at the university, even though it was only first-year tutorials. Being forced to explain basic concepts to people who saw problems with what we regard as accepted truths has been helpful in developing a clear writing style, hopefully without jumping over too many steps in the argument. Although I still think some of their essays deserved the shredder more than a pass mark, and although I have been driven to despair on more than just one occasion, I suppose that’s something I could thank ‘my kiddies’ for. vii viii Other useful input towards developing my ideas, both by supportive feedback and by pointing out glaring errors in the argument, has come from the audiences at conferences I attended. My thanks go out to those people I roamed the ruins of Scalloway Castle with, who shared with me the greyness that is Aberdeen or the rare dry and sunny days in Bergen, who witnessed my battle with disgusting nachos gratinés (or in English, nachos au gratin, apparently) in Montréal, who survived an unairconditioned Greek summer on Lesbos or a drizzly spring in Amsterdam – and to those who just turned up to the Language in Context or English Language Research Groups here in Edinburgh. With a bit of luck, this thesis is all the better for their input. A few people deserve to be mentioned in particular. Arnot McDonald of the Scottish Studies Library was always available to look for obscure books and journals in her brilliant treasure-house, and for a good chat while searching. Christina Schmidt and Florence Bonacina checked that my translations from German and French were reasonably accurate. The expert local advice about Shetland I received from Doreen Waugh and Brian Smith was more than helpful, as was the help with Older Scots and palaeography from Keith Williamson. I could not have done the statistical analyses in this thesis without the help from Dan Dediu, and I’m grateful to Paul Heggarty for long e-mail discussions and phone calls about the Sound Comparisons software, and for running my data through it. The support from my supervisors is also very much appreciated. The many discussions with April helped crystallise the points I wanted to make, and clarified things I wasn’t quite sure about. The input from my second supervisors, Graeme Trousdale and Wilson McLeod, may have been less frequent, but the extra pairs of eyes and different viewpoints were a welcome addition to the process. As always, of course, any mistakes that remain are entirely my fault. On a more personal note, I want to thank my office mates and fellow Ph.D. students for an enjoyable working environment, in particular Will, Lauren, Christina, Gareth, Vinton and Robert. Thanks for the chats, the cookies, the lunches, the tea, the pub quizzes, the ix computing tips, and the Office-Wide Office Hour. Also thanks to my flatmates, Myshele and Davide, for feeding me and giving me a (usually) quiet place to retire to. And finally to my dancing friends in New Scotland and SUSCDF at large for entertainment, relaxation and fitness. The most thanks, however, go out to my family. Without their financial support with the bits that two years of (gratefully acknowledged) AHRC fees-only grant did not cover, I would not have been able to begin this Ph.D. Without their practical support – and despite a sat-nav that claims a large chunk of Northern France does not exist – I would not have been able to do parts of it. And without their lasting moral support, I would not have been able to finish it. Mamma en pappa, bedankt! Contents Declaration i Abstract iii Acknowledgements vii Contents xi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Early Modern Europe: sketch of a period of emergence .