The social practice of Breton: an epistemological challenge
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Adam Le Nevez
Abstract
Many strategies and initiatives aimed at the promotion of the practice of Breton focus on the language as the key unit of inquiry. In this way language activism frequently involves introducing initiatives aimed at doing something to, or for, Breton. This article makes the argument that, although language-centred initiatives have many strengths, they often struggle to deal productively and effectively with the issue of language heterogeneity and diversity. In particular, when these initiatives focus on the development and promotion of a prestigious standard, they often have difficulty mobilizing an important group of Breton speakers: Bretons who use and identify more closely with local, vernacular varieties of the language. As an alternative to this paradigm, this article suggests reframing the focus of language initiatives by making the Breton language community, rather than the Breton language, the key unit of inquiry. In doing so it develops a view of Breton as a situated social practice, used by a group of people in related but diverse ways, rather than as a fixed and normative code.
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Introduction
- Langue bretonne : un siècle de mutations
- À propos des relations entre langue et identité en Bretagne
- La langue bretonne dans la société régionale contemporaine
- Will the real Breton please stand up? Language revitalization and the problem of authentic language
- Contested varieties and competing authenticities: neologisms in revitalized Breton
- The social practice of Breton: an epistemological challenge
- Les trois ruptures sociolinguistiques du breton
- Institutional Breton language policy after language shift
- Signe et sens en balance: le breton affiché dans la ville de Brest
- Teaching languages for a multilingual Europe – minority schools as examples of best practice? The Breton experience of Diwan
- Signs of absence: language and memory in the linguistic landscape of Brittany
- Book review
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Introduction
- Langue bretonne : un siècle de mutations
- À propos des relations entre langue et identité en Bretagne
- La langue bretonne dans la société régionale contemporaine
- Will the real Breton please stand up? Language revitalization and the problem of authentic language
- Contested varieties and competing authenticities: neologisms in revitalized Breton
- The social practice of Breton: an epistemological challenge
- Les trois ruptures sociolinguistiques du breton
- Institutional Breton language policy after language shift
- Signe et sens en balance: le breton affiché dans la ville de Brest
- Teaching languages for a multilingual Europe – minority schools as examples of best practice? The Breton experience of Diwan
- Signs of absence: language and memory in the linguistic landscape of Brittany
- Book review
