Máiréad Moriarty

Micro-level language-planning and grass-root initiatives: a case study of Irish language comedy and Inari Sámi rap

The aim of this paper is to examine the increased potential for language change from the micro-level, given the new domains in which minority languages are present in the global era. Drawing on the theoretical notion of sociolinguistic scales this paper presents a comparative account of the changing positions of the Irish and Inari Sámi languages. Specifically, this paper is centred on a comparative study of two media personalities, namely an Irish language stand-up comedian, Des Bishop, and an Inari Sámi rap artist, Amoć, whose success as language-planning actors stems from their use of the mediated space to influence micro-level language planning. By identifying both Bishop and Amoć as micro-level language-planning actors, this paper will examine the potential knock on effects of such initiatives for macro-level language-planning agencies, such as the educational domain, thereby pointing to the potential for increased minority language recovery when such languages achieve new values and functions.

Normalising language through television: the case of the Irish language television channel, TG4

Abstract This article addresses one of the major gaps in the existing research on the sociolinguistic effects of minority language media, namely the effect that such media have on actual language attitudes and language practices. One key notion addressed in the article is the role of minority media in supporting the revitalisation of minority languages, understood here as lesser-used languages. Drawing on the case of the Irish language television channel TG4, this article will provide evidence as to how the availability of such media has altered the position of the Irish language amongst a particular cohort of the Irish population, namely University students who are not first language Irish speakers. While a limited percentage of the participants reported a direct increase in their Irish language use as a direct result of watching TG4, there is a clear identifiable change in the way they perceive the language. It is argued that the impact the presence of minority languages on the media has on actual language practices is indirect and is mediated through language attitudes. On this basis the article concludes that the availability of media in minority languages is of benefit to the language revitalisation, particularly from the point of view of encouraging linguistic normalisation.

Contesting language ideologies in the linguistic landscape of an Irish tourist town

This article explores the linguistic landscape (LL) of a tourist town named Dingle located in the Southwest of Ireland. Building on recent theorizing in LL studies, where a discourse-analytical approach to LL data is promoted, the study uncovers a number of contesting language ideologies that circulate in the LL of Dingle. The contest involves two key actors, namely the State and the local community, who promote a number of discourse frames that show contesting language ideologies. On the one hand the State promotes an Andersonesque (Anderson, 1983) modernist ideology of ‘one Nation one language’, where Dingle is a key space where such an ideology can be safeguarded. While, on the other hand, local people promote a postmodernist ideology of multilingualism, in which the value of the Irish language is part of a wider bi/multilingual repertoire. This suggests that the LL can be viewed as a dynamic space that is significant in indexing and performing language ideologies that are continually being contested and renegotiated.

Minority Languages and Performative Genres: The Case of Irish Language Stand-Up Comedy.

Abstract This article will examine the potential for language change from the bottom-up given the new domains in which minority languages are present as a result of the process of language mobility. Drawing on a theoretical notion of sociolinguistic scales, this article aims to discuss how the position of the Irish language has been reconfigured. From this position, the article traces how the domain of the Irish language in contemporary Irish society has been reformed through increased presence of the language in performative genres such as comedy and rap music. The principle aim of this article is to examine the domain of Irish-language comedy produced by the Irish-American comedian Des Bishop in his television series In the Name of the Fada and in his subsequent stand-up comedy show Tongues in terms of bottom-up language planning. The article will discuss what is seen under the gaze of the comic lens and highlights the achievements of such a scrutiny in terms of Irish language maintenance. By identifying Bishop as a bottom-up language-planning actor, the potential for such initiatives to boost top-down language planning is revealed.

Globalization and Minority-Language Policy and Planning

The central purpose of this chapter is to construct a fresh conceptual framework to understand the relationship between the processes of globalization and minority-language policy and planning. The volume addresses a constellation of concerns including the simultaneous processes of globalization and glocalization, how these processes change our perspective on language and what this may mean for LPP. In particular, the book examines how global processes provide both opportunities and threats for such languages and highlights key concerns for minority languages in globalization.

New Speakers, Familiar Concepts?

This chapter introduces the reader to the concept of the new speaker. The new speaker paradigm is presented firstly as a development on previous paradigms that often considered so-called non-native speech and its users within a deficit framework, and which did not fully acknowledge the full sociolinguistic competence of non-traditional language users. The late modern sociolinguistic landscape in which new speakers function is briefly sketched before focusing on the immediacy associated with research on new speakers of minority languages. Following a discussion of the role of new speakers for the continued vitality of minority languages, the structure of the volume is outlined.

Voicing the ‘Knacker’: Analysing the Comedy of the Rubberbandits

This chapter discusses mediated representations of voice in the performances of the Rubberbandits, a comedy duo from Limerick, in Ireland. Limerick is a city with a national reputation for social disadvantage and criminal gangs, and the Rubberbandits’ particular brand of satirical and musical comedy is based on the inner-city urban identity of Limerick. They appropriate and localise rap and hip-hop genres to the context of Limerick city in their original music, and a strong element of the absurd runs through their other comedy performances. A kind of sociocultural heteroglossia surrounds their performances: the real-life voices of the Rubberbandits are radically different to those of the alter egos they inhabit as part of their performance. However, although their actual identities are known, the Rubberbandits always appear incognito, with plastic bags covering their faces, and when interviewed stay in the characters of their alter egos, Mr Chrome and Blind Boy Boat Club.

Multilingual creativity and play in the semiotic landscape: an introduction

The papers presented in this special issue contribute to the growing interest in creativity in the study of multilingualism (cf. Deumert, 2014, 2017; Jones, 2012, 2016; Maybin & Swann, 2007). The renewed focus on creativity and play has come about due to a fundamental shift in how language is approached and understood; where language is no longer understood as a static and fixed entity, but rather as a dynamic and flexible resource (cf. Blommaert, 2010). This conceptual shift is the result of the increased globalisation of language, and the more fleeting or liquid character of society and social relations (Baumann, 2000). Each of the contributions to this volume is aligned with the social construction of space and place as dynamic and changeable. The repurposing of places and spaces brings new meaning potential to the material conditions of given social environments, a process that is enabled by instances of multilingual creativity and play described in this volume. The main aim of each of the papers is to focus on instances of creativity evident in the semiotic landscape (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010), a site where language, together with other semiotic resources, is involved in the symbolic construction of space. Our focus on creativity in the semiotic landscape achieves three aims. Firstly, it serves to further broaden more traditional approaches to the linguistic landscape by taking the field away from its examination of parallel and written monolingualism to a focus on multilingual and multimodal resources. Secondly, by tracing the movement of semiotic resources across genres, media and social and geographical spaces we see questions of identity, power and ideology come to the fore. Thurlow, in his commentary urges scholars to further scrutinise these issues. And thirdly, by examining creativity and play produced and consumed by urban middle-class actors, we observe a common tendency to use it for identity, representation and branding work. In an attempt to expand the existing scholarship on multilingual creativity, the collection of papers in this volume aims to examine spaces of creative semiotic play, to not only describe these settings and outline their potential meanings, but to also critically address how such situated semiotic processes lead to the social construction of power relations. Attention to creativity and play can reveal tensions and ideological positions that constitute, reproduce and transform regimes of language. The remainder of this introduction will outline how this special issue contributes to an advancement of linguistic and semiotic

Developing resources for translanguaging in minority language contexts: A case study of rapping in an Irish primary school

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study is to examine the extent to which pedagogic resources based on the principles of translanguaging provide an alternative approach to the teaching of language. The Irish language situation provides a good context in which to investigate the potential for transglossic resources to function as effective teaching resources because it is a situation where having access to the minority language via the education system has not resulted in frequent informal language use. The presence of the Irish language in the curriculum has undoubtedly helped develop competence; however, there is strong evidence to show that this competence is rarely activated outside of the classroom setting (cf. Moriarty, 2015). This article provides an analysis of a study on rap as a resource for a more flexible approach to the teaching of Irish. The data show that the use of transglossic resources does foster a more positive ideological position for the language both in the classroom and in the students’ social environment. Also, it demonstrates the capacity of rap to provide a space in which even the most limited Irish language resources can be mobilised.

Concluding Remarks: Globalizing LPP

The various chapters that comprise this book offer a glimpse at the possibilities and challenges afforded to minority languages within the context of globalization. By introducing key concepts within sociolinguistics and exploring the relationship between these concepts and minority languages, this volume broadens the theoretical and empirical scope of LPP research. In considering the complex relationship between globalization and the Irish language it has become evident that existing theories of LPP need to be (re)evaluated. In particular, such policies need to take in to consideration the many new uses and users of minority languages, like Irish, that have come into being as a result of global processes of mobility and flow. In this final chapter, the concept of LPP will be revisited and an account of what these changes may mean for future research directions is provided.