View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by RERO DOC Digital Library Sorbian, Scottish Gaelic and Romansh: the Viability of Three Indigenous European Minority Languages. Lizentiatsarbeit, eingereicht bei der Philosophischen Fakultät Freiburg (CH) Elisabeth Peyer (Schleitheim, SH) University of Fribourg Department of English Linguistics Mémoire supervised by Prof. P. Trudgill 2004 Acknowledgements i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Renzo Caduff for imparting his inside knowledge of the Romansh situation in the course of many interesting discussions, Professor Peter Trudgill for his encouragement and expert guidance at every stage of my research, St John Skilton for his kind help in relation to Scottish Gaelic, and for providing me with useful information on the relevant reading material, Elaine Sheerin who was kind enough to proofread the entire mémoire, My family and friends for their support and interest in my work. Cover: Competition and Harmony by Eduardo Chillida (1988) Table of Contents ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................................i Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................ii List of Abbreviations.................................................................................................................iv Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 1 Language Maintenance and Language Shift Theories ....................................................... 3 1.1 Joshua Fishman's Theory of Reversing Language Shift ............................................ 4 1.2 David Crystal's Theory of Language Revitalisation .................................................. 7 1.3 Richard Bourhis' Interactive Acculturation Model .................................................. 10 1.4 Christina Bratt-Paulston: Isolation as Key Factor in Language Maintenance ......... 13 1.5 Nettle and Romaine's Global View of Language Shift ............................................ 14 1.6 Synthesis of the Theories Discussed ........................................................................ 15 1.6.1 Globalisation and Mobility............................................................................... 15 1.6.2 Demographic Factors....................................................................................... 16 1.6.3 The Speech Community and its Commitment to the Language....................... 17 1.6.4 The Official Status of a Minority's Language and Culture .............................. 17 1.6.5 Education.......................................................................................................... 18 1.6.6 Media................................................................................................................ 19 1.6.7 Language Attitudes.......................................................................................... 20 1.7 Remarks on the Data Used in this Mémoire............................................................. 22 2 The Current Situation of Sorbian ..................................................................................... 23 2.1 Introduction: the Sorbian Language and its History ................................................ 23 2.2 Globalisation and Mobility....................................................................................... 25 2.3 Demographic Factors............................................................................................... 26 2.4 The Speech Community and its Commitment to the Language............................... 30 2.5 The Official Status of the Sorbian Language and Culture ....................................... 33 2.6 Education.................................................................................................................. 35 2.7 Media........................................................................................................................ 37 2.8 Language Attitudes.................................................................................................. 39 3 The Current Situation of Scottish Gaelic ......................................................................... 41 3.1 Introduction: the Scottish Gaelic Language and its History .................................... 41 3.2 Globalisation and Mobility....................................................................................... 43 3.3 Demographic Factors............................................................................................... 44 3.4 The Speech Community and its Commitment to the Language............................... 47 Table of Contents iii 3.5 The Official Status of the Gaelic Language and Culture ......................................... 51 3.6 Education.................................................................................................................. 53 3.7 Media........................................................................................................................ 56 3.8 Language Attitudes.................................................................................................. 59 4 The Current Situation of Romansh................................................................................... 61 4.1 Introduction: the Romansh Language and its History.............................................. 61 4.2 Globalisation and Mobility....................................................................................... 63 4.3 Demographic Factors............................................................................................... 64 4.4 The Speech Community and its Commitment to the Language............................... 68 4.5 The Official Status of the Romansh Language and Culture..................................... 72 4.6 Education.................................................................................................................. 74 4.7 Media........................................................................................................................ 77 4.8 Language Attitudes.................................................................................................. 78 5 Discussion of the Current Situations of Sorbian, Gaelic and Romansh........................... 81 5.1 Globalisation and Mobility....................................................................................... 81 5.2 Demographic Factors............................................................................................... 82 5.3 The Speech Communities and their Commitment to the Language......................... 85 5.4 The Official Status of the Minority Languages and Cultures .................................. 87 5.5 Education.................................................................................................................. 89 5.6 Media........................................................................................................................ 92 5.7 Language Attitudes.................................................................................................. 93 Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 95 References ................................................................................................................................ 98 List of Abbreviations iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BFS Bundesamt für Statistik CnaG Comunn na Gàidhlig GDR German Democratic Republic GME Gaelic-Medium Education ICSP Information Centre of the Scottish Parliament NZZ Neue Zürcher Zeitung PAS Paritätische Arbeitsgruppe Sprachengesetz Bund und Kantone PSR Pro Svizra Rumantscha RLS Reversing Language Shift SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands SEP Scottish Executive Publications UHI University of the Highlands and Islands UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Introduction 1 INTRODUCTION Sorbian, Scottish Gaelic and Romansh1 are three of the lesser used European languages, with each having around 60,000 speakers. They are indigenous languages and have been spoken in their respective regions before the founding of the present nation-states. Over the last two centuries, migration has caused the Sorbian, Gaelic and Romansh language areas to shrink. Today, they are smaller than ever before, so much so that most German, British and Swiss people have hardly ever heard Sorbian, Gaelic or Romansh spoken. Many majority language speakers, therefore, seem to assume that Sorbian, Gaelic or Romansh are destined to die out. These three languages would not be the first European languages to die out in modern times. Cornish and Polabian are just two examples of indigenous European languages that have been lost in the last three hundred years. This begs the question whether it really matters if lesser used languages become extinct. In a word, the answer to that question is yes. The importance of saving threatened languages can hardly be disputed. The reasons for protecting minority languages are manifold. First, languages are interesting in themselves. The death of a language always implies the loss of human intellectual achievement. Second, linguists agree that it is important to study as many different