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  • © 2022

Transmitting Minority Languages

Complementary Reversing Language Shift Strategies

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Provides unpublished data on the management of vulnerable languages in newly described and creative ways

  • Brings together a diverse range of settings and examples from international contexts

  • Examines the challenging notion of territoriality in language transmission

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
  2. Introduction

    • Michael Hornsby
    Pages 1-14
  3. Transmission in Post-traditional Families

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75
  4. Alternatives to ‘Traditional’ Transmission

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137
    2. Basque Intergenerational Transmission from a Language Socialisation Perspective

      • Paula Kasares, Ane Ortega, Estibaliz Amorrortu
      Pages 217-246
  5. Transmission in Diasporic Contexts

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 277-277
    2. Conclusion

      • Wilson McLeod
      Pages 357-368
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 369-376

About this book

This book gives fresh insight into the diverse ways in which the transmission of minority and heritage languages is carried out in a range of sociolinguistic contexts. When traditional modes of intergenerational transmission begin to break down, minority language and diaspora communities resort to other modes of transmission, out of necessity, to complement traditional mechanisms and secure language maintenance. This volume brings together a broad range of studies of these alternative modes of transmission, examining the complex and diverse practical, ideological and personal challenges that arise in different settings. Beyond addressing the dynamics of language use within the home and family, the book also emphasises the importance of the participation of the minority community itself in language and cultural transmission. These mechanisms and initiatives, sometimes overlooked or dismissed in the academic literature, will prove to be essential in maintaining and ensuring the survival of minority and heritage languages into the 21st century and beyond. The twelve chapters in the book are divided into four sections (intergenerational transmission; transmission in post-traditional families; alternatives to ‘traditional’ transmission; and transmission in diasporic contexts), and the language contexts, both minoritised and diasporic, which are discussed include Basque, Breton, Galician, Guernesais, Irish, Māori, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Sorbian and Spanish. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociolinguistics, language acquisition, heritage language maintenance and revitalization, and language policy and planning.

Keywords

  • language contact
  • heritage languages
  • family language policy
  • intergenerational transmission
  • Maori
  • Basque
  • Sorbian
  • language shift
  • territoriality
  • language revitalization
  • immersion learning
  • multilingualism

Editors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Michael Hornsby

  • Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Wilson McLeod

About the editors

Michael Hornsby is Head of the Centre for Celtic Studies in the Faculty of English at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. He is the author of Revitalizing Minority Languages: New Speakers of Breton, Yiddish and Lemko (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and co-editor of New Speakers of Minority Languages: Linguistic Ideologies and Practices (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).


Wilson McLeod is Professor of Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He is the author of Gaelic in Scotland: Policies, Movements, Ideologies (2020) and co-editor of Language Revitalisation and Social Transformation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).



Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access