Seeing the Wood for the Trees: A Language Protection Approach to the Societal Dynamics of Threatened Minority-Language Groups

Conferéncia a cargue de Conchúr Ó Giollagáin. University of the Highlands and Islands (Escòcia)

Vielha, 15 de junh de 2023. Tàs 16.30h, ena Sala d’Actes deth Conselh Generau d’Aran.

Quini son es punts a on podem comparar eth cas aranés damb er escocés e irlandés?

Qué podem aportar, d’Aran estant, ara politica lingüistica escocesa e irlandesa?

Qué podem apréner nosati dera situacion deth gaelic?

Auram era ocasion d’escotar a  Conchúr Ó Giollagáin, e compartir dobtes, questions e experiéncies.

La podetz descargar en ligam:

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/31d3484c809b18b58176d9b58f0b54a620230621120612/41122e9a76941ab5ec2abe5ce2f5f15a20230621120652/2ccc15?trk=TRN_TDL_01&utm_campaign=TRN_TDL_01&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid

Entà mès info: jordi.suils@udl.cat

Entà un nau enfocament:

Grana part des fondaments academics dera politica lingüistica actuau en Escòcia e en Irlanda se referissen ara promocion dera lengua minorizada sense centrar-se pro en emparament dera comunitat de parlants qu’encara perviu. Ua des limitacions d’aquera Politica Lingüistica ei era tendéncia a centrar-se enes esfòrci de promocion, d’ua manèra cada dia mès dissociada des desfisi der emparament des grops minoritaris, ei a díder, era promocion lingüistica sense era proteccion dera comunitat lingüistica. Er objectiu der enfocament prepausat ei desvolopar un nau encastre de Politica Lingüistica que permete era promocion dera lengua minorizada amassa damb mesures d’emparament lingüistic coerent. Era tòca ei basar-se ena promocion lingüistica plan establida en encastre educatiu e institucionau damb estatus, ath madeish temps que s’aumente significativament era atencion as problèmes reaus dera gent que viu en comunitats de lengües minorizades. Açò, en esséncia, implique desvolopar un enfocament estrategic adaptat des factors sociaus que non s’abòrden adequadaments ena planificacion institucionau.

Brèu biografia deth Prof. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin:

Conchúr Ó Giollagáin ei un dublinés qu’a viscut pendent fòrça ans en diuèrses regions de parlar irlandés abans d’arribar ena University of the Highland and Islands (Escòcia) eth 2014. A estat professor de sociologia deth lenguatge ena Escòla de Sciéncies Politiques e Sociologia dera Universitat Nacionau d’Irlanda de Galway. Ara demore en Inverness. Actuauments ei professor de recèrca sus eth gaelic, e director der Institut de Sciéncies deth Lenguatge dera UHI.

Ei especializat en planificacion lingüistica e en cultura e sociologia de lengües minoritàries, e a escrit fòrça sus tèmes restacadi damb era sostenibilitat d’aguestes cultures, mès que mès es comunitats gaeliques en Irlanda e Escòcia.

Es sòns interèssi d’ensenhament e de recèrca includissen era planificacion lingüistica, era sociolingüistica, era antropologia lingüistica e era biografia de Gaeltacht.

Proposal:

One of the limitations of late-modern LPP (Language Promotion and Protection) is the tendency to focus on language promotion efforts but in a way that is increasingly dissociated from the challenges of minority group protection, i.e. language promotion without language community protection. The aim of this proposed project is to develop a new LPP framework by which minority-language promotion can be pursued in tandem with coherent language protection measures. This new LPP focus aims to build on well established language promotion in educational and status-bearing institutional domains while significantly increasing the societal focus on real world concerns of living in actual minority-language communities. This, in essence, entails developing an adequate strategic approach to societal factors which are not adequately addressed in the status focus of minority-language institutional planning.

Abstract:

The aim is to present a new conceptual framework by which we can interpret the various constituent social elements contributing to minority-language social dynamics. This framework draws on detailed data from the Gaelic contexts of Ireland and Scotland (e.g. Ó Giollagáin et al. 2007; Ó Giollagáin and Charlton 2015; Ó Giollagáin et al. 2020; Ó Giollagáin and Caimbeul 2021). The analysis underlying this new conceptualisation examines: a) the implications of minority-language promotion with insufficient language protection, and b) the influence of the minority-language LPP (Min-Lang LPP) framework on the social dynamics of the minority group. Four phases of socialisation (primary, secondary, civic reinforcement, and processes of collective coherence) are identified in the social dynamic, and the influence and interaction of key groups of social participants (identified as minority; majoritarian; tangential and neo-cultures) on the outplay of the dynamic in society are demonstrated. I contend that the established Min-Lang LPP framework has generated a de-societalised approach to the concerns of the vernacular communities in decline, as policy affairs do not adequately correspond to core aspects of the actual reality of minority social dynamics.

Defining aspects of Min-Lang LPP have focussed on promoting language issues through key sectors of education, media, arts, and through symbolic use in public administration; despite considerable achievements in these sectors, broader social policies aimed at supporting the communal/societal use of Irish and Gaelic remain underdeveloped. The paper demonstrates how the preferment of the sectoralist approach to Min-Lang LPP has been to the advantage of an intermediary state class – analysed through the Bordieuan lens of symbolic authority – and has led to: 1) a disadvantageous social ranking system; 2) a clientelist hierarchy promoting amorphous, ineffective language politics; 3) the alienation of the existing speaker group from language politics of Min-Lang officialdom; and 4) the emergence of a consumerist, ‘user’ aesthetic for minority-language sociocultural engagement.

Short Biography for Prof. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin:

Conchúr Ó Giollagáin is a Dubliner who lived for many years in various Irish-speaking Gaeltacht regions prior to coming to the University of the Highland and Islands in 2014. He now lives in Inverness. He is the UHI Gaelic Research Professor and the director of the UHI Language Sciences Institute. He is also the academic director of Soillse, a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research project. In 2015 he was appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland, Galway. Ulster University in Belfast has recently appointed Conchúr as a Visiting Professor for 2022-2025.

Conchúr is a prominent scholar in language planning and minority language culture and sociology. He has written extensively on issues concerning the sustainability of minority cultures, especially the Gaeltacht communities in Ireland and Scotland. 

Conchúr previously lectured in the School of Political Science and Sociology in the National University of Ireland Galway on the sociology of language. His teaching and research interests include language planning, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and Gaeltacht biography. Previously, he was the Head of the Language Planning Unit in Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge (Ireland’s Irish-medium college in NUI Galway), where he devised and led Ireland’s first MA programme in Language Planning. He also contributed to the development of the Acadamh’s MA in Language Sciences.

He published in 2020 with colleagues the most comprehensive sociolinguistic survey of the societal extent of Gaelic speakers’ use of the language in the remaining vernacular communities in Scotland: The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community: A Comprehensive Sociolinguistic Survey of Scottish Gaelic (Aberdeen University Press; Research Digest:https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/t4-media/one-web/university/research/lsi/research-digest-gearr-iris-rannsachaidh-/Ge%C3%83%C2%A0rr-iris-Rannsachaidh_The-Gaelic-Crisis-in-the-Vernacular-Community.pdf). He co-authored the government-commissioned Gaeltacht survey Comprehensive Linguistic Study of the Use of Irish in the Gaeltacht (2007:https://www.cogg.ie/wp-content/uploads/Linguistic-Study-of-the-Use-of-Irish-in-the-Gaeltacht.pdf). The update of the study Nuashonrú ar an Staidéar Cuimsitheach Teangeolaíoch ar Úsáid na Gaeilge sa Ghaeltacht: 2006–2011 (An Update of the Comprehensive Linguistic Study of the Use of Irish in the Gaeltacht) was published in 2015 (https://www.udaras.ie/assets/uploads/2020/11/002910_Udaras_NuashonruI%C2%81_EXCERPT_report_A4_2.pdf).  Along with Tamás Péterváry, Brian Ó Curnáin and Jerome Sheahan he published the first major study of bilingual acquisition in Ireland,Iniúchadh ar an gCumas Dátheangach: An sealbhú teanga i measc ghlúin óg na Gaeltachta / Assessment of Bilingual Competence: Language acquisition among people in the Gaeltacht (https://www.cogg.ie/wp-content/uploads/iniuchadh-ar-an-gcumas-datheangach-1.pdf). He co-edited two ground-breaking books, Beartas Úr na nGael: Dálaí na Gaeilge san Iar-Nua-Aoiseachas [A New Deal for the Gaels: Irish in Postmodernity] (2016) and An Chonair Chaoch: an Mionteangachas sa Dátheangachas (2012) examining the minority language condition from the perspective of those whose primary identity is the minority culture. With Micil Chonraí, he published Stairsheanchas Mhicil Chonraí: Ón Máimín go Ráth Chairn. (Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1999), which was subsequently translated by the late Jean Le Dû, and published as Une Vie Irlandaise. Du Connemara à Ráth Chairn: Histoire de la Vie de Micil Chonraí (Terre de Brume 2010).