From one Diglossic Situation to Another — Ideological and Sociolinguistic Change in Modernising Corsica (1769–1974)

Abstract

This chapter reviews the evolution of Corsica’s sociolinguistic situation from its annexation by France as a preparation for a more thorough analysis of the 1970s cultural and linguistic revival and its contemporary consequences. It shows how the diglossic conceptions of language, identity and their interrelation first emerged in Corsica. I describe how the various political and linguistic ideologies shaping Corsicans’ cultural and linguistic identities and informing current language debates and attitudes to language planning were progressively constructed and distilled beween 1769 and 1974, who the actors involved in ideological struggle were and the nature and scope of their respective glottopolitical powers.