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SUMMARY:Ethnolinguistic identities and language revitalisation in small so
 ciety: the case of the Faeroe Isles - Dr Stephen Leonard\, University of C
 ambridge
DTSTART:20100429T160000Z
DTEND:20100429T173000Z
UID:TALK20202@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ruth Cumming
DESCRIPTION:Under the threat of Danish\, the Faeroese language faced extin
 ction in the nineteenth century. Today\, the language is no longer conside
 red 'corrupt' and is instead spoken by nearly the entire population as a f
 irst language. The reasons for its survival can be explained by a number o
 f factors\, including: the important role of oral heritage\, the manner in
  which these traditions were practiced in Faeroese culture and the fact th
 at a Faeroese identity was based upon them. The influence of this oral lit
 erature on the overall language was disproportionately significant as the 
 Faeroese did not develop a written tradition until the nineteenth century.
  Faeroese was never a minority language as such and survived the onslaught
  of Danish as an oral form and as the 'low' variety in a diglossic\, bilin
 gual environment. The use of Faeroese was restricted to the homestead (and
  farm) where the tradition of oral literature continued to flourish. It tu
 rns out that this sociolinguistic context and specifically the introductio
 n of an unphonetic orthography made a significant contribution to the surv
 ival of the language\, albeit perhaps at the cost of the oral traditions.\
 n\nIn the face of changing interaction between language and culture\, the 
 Faeroese have managed to maintain a sense of linguistic identity and produ
 ce a model of linguistic survival in the context of social change. The exa
 mple of Faeroese shows us that given the right circumstances a language ca
 n survive with a minimal number of speakers for a sustained period of time
  and that provided there is a strong ethnolinguistic identity and the will
  to preserve the language\, a minority language can in fact prosper.
LOCATION:GR05\, English Faculty\, 9 West Road (Sidgwick Site)
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