Bernadette O’Rourke

Identities and New Speakers of Minority Languages: A Focus on Galician

This chapter examines some of the changes associated with becoming a new speaker of Galician or what are collectively referred to as neofalantes do galego. We discuss the processes involved in neofalantes’ changing linguistic behaviours and, in particular, the motivations and the identity positioning which shape decisions to displace a more socially and economically powerful first language with one which offers less in terms of social mobility and prestige.

A Cross-National Study of Young People’s Attitudes

In this chapter I will discuss some of the findings from sociolinguistic research undertaken at two university institutions in Ireland’s and Galicia’s largest cities, Dublin and Vigo respectively. In the study, a total of 815 Irish and 725 Galician respondents completed a self- administered sociolinguistic questionnaire10 which included a range of attitudinal statements and questions on different aspects relating to the Galician and Irish languages, their use and speakers. The sample was stratified according to the four main academic disciplines offered at each university which included students pursing degree courses in the areas of humanities, technology, business and science. Insights were also gained into certain aspects of the survey through the triangulation of the quantitative data in-depth interviews and group discussions with a smaller number of students.

A New Policy for Ideological Change

Despite the fact that the academic study of language policy is relatively recent, it has for a long time existed as an activity in different countries and states even though it has not always been explicitly labelled as such. In the absence of explicitly stated formal policies, decisions about language have always been embedded in the agendas of powerful commercial interests. While noting that no single definition of language policy carries universal approval, Bugarski (1992 cited in Schiffman 1996: 3) provides a useful starting point defining it as ‘the policy of a society in the area of linguistic communication — that is, the set of positions, principles and decisions reflecting that community’s relationships to its verbal repertoire and communicative potential’. In a language policy, as Schiffman (1996) highlights, such positions, principles and decisions often take the form of rules, regulations or guidelines about the status, use, domains and territories of language(s) and rights of speakers of the language(s) in question.

Evolution of Attitudes towards Irish and Galician

As noted in Chapter 1, a basic premise of modern linguistics is that all languages are functionally equal (Edwards 1994). Grillo (1989: 173) notes that, in the same way as anthropologists refuse to judge the relative worth of cultures, linguists believe that ‘one language is as good and adequate as any other’ (Trudgill 1983: 205). Nevertheless, languages and cultures are very often evaluated and their social stratification tends to be the norm rather than the exception. However, the verifiability of negative judgements about different ways of speaking and about the speakers of different languages is unrelated to the mobilizing power of such judgements (Fishman 1976b: 331), especially if they contravene the basic premise of equality (Grillo 1989: 173). As Spitulnik (1998: 164) points out, language ideologies and processes of language evaluation are not just about language itself but are closely related to the construction and legitimization of power.

Effects of Language Policies on Attitudes

Apart from a number of questions included in market survey research, up until the 1970s, the main barometer used to measure the impact of language policy in Ireland was the Census of Population. More conventional studies on language attitudes would tend to exclude self-reports of language ability such as those in the Census. In the absence of such studies, the census question nonetheless provides some indication of the early effects of policy changes. In Ireland, there is of course also a very real sense that such self-reports represent attitudinal or evaluative statements about the language as opposed to real ability and, many people who return themselves as Irish-speaking on census forms may in fact be expressing a strong emotional attachment to the language rather than claims that they possess reasonable fluency (Coakley 1980 cited in Williams 1988: 277). The 10 per cent increase (from 18 to 28 per cent) in those claiming ability to speak Irish over the fifty or so years between 1926 and 1971 can therefore in many ways be taken to represent an ideological shift in favour of Irish.