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010B: Linguistic Landscape
G. Caviezel The visibility of Romansh in public spaces - Between minority language promotion and the commodification of ethnolinguistic authenticity | ||
| Présentations | ||
The visibility of Romansh in public spaces - Between minority language promotion and the commodification of ethnolinguistic authenticity Universität Zürich, Schweiz In 2017 and 2018 Romansh signage was introduced in three different retailers in the Romansh/German bilingual municipality Ilanz/Glion (Graubünden, Switzerland) and the surrounding area – a new phenomenon that gives Romansh, a minority language spoken in Switzerland, much greater visibility in the public sphere. This study examines the different actors’ (initiators and implementers) goals and justifications, as well as to what extent their intentions and arguments are related to and/or in contrast with each other, using qualitative data from semi-structured interviews. The promotion of a minority language, its commodification and the underlying linguistic ideologies are linked in a complex way. While the language promoters strive for more visibility of Romansh in the public space and thus for the promotion and maintenance of the language, the retailers aim to acquire more customers, or rather, increase profit by staging ethnolinguistic authenticity. The rationales for legitimizing the use of Romansh are partly based on the same ideological convictions, with both initiators and implementors making use of profit-oriented and pride-oriented[1] arguments. Both actors use the same instrument, argue in a similar way, but pursue different goals. Although Romansh becomes the legitimate and authorized language[2] in this socio-economic context, the value attributed to it is only of symbolic nature. Hence, Romansh becomes a symbolic resource[3] which is transformed into other symbolic resources, namely recognition, praise, and loyalty, as well as material resources such as financial gain. [1] Duchêne, A./Heller M. (2012): Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit. New York: Routledge. [2] Bourdieu, P. (1975): „Le langage autorisé“. Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 1(5):183–190. [3] Heller, M./Duchêne A. (2016): „Treating language as an economic resource: Discourse, data and debate“. In: Coupland N. (Hrsg.): Sociolinguistics: Theoretical debates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 139–156. | ||