Abstract
This study investigates conditions for language use among Norwegian adolescents using the minoritized Norwegian written language Nynorsk. By combining survey data and focus group interviews, and deploying the framework of ‘capacity’, ‘opportunity’, and ‘desire’ as an analytical lens, the study explores some of the factors and forces that influence the adolescents’ choice to maintain the use of this non-hegemonic Norwegian written language. The paper thus seeks to add to the body of research investigating language maintenance of minoritized languages. The findings illuminate the discrepancy between regulations and practices in the Norwegian language community. Still, even if the collective structures are not optimal, many of the adolescents display a willingness to keep using Nynorsk – a willingness which is partly rendered possible by the existence of these same collective structures. The study thus demonstrates the dialectic relationship between these structures and individual language choices. Moreover, the data show that under given circumstances, some of the same factors and forces that usually further language shift, may also promote language maintenance.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to the pupils who participated in this study. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and valuable comments.
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelei
- Conditions for Nynorsk language use – the role of capacity, opportunity, and desire in the maintenance of Nynorsk among Norwegian adolescents
- Enacting Chinese-ness on Arab Land: A Case Study of the Linguistic Landscape of an (Emerging) Chinatown in Multilingual and Multicultural Dubai
- The sociolinguistics of Luxembourgish football language: A case study of contact-induced lexical variation in a complex multilingual society
- Local languages and the linguistic landscape: the visibility and role of Sardinian in town entry and street name signs
- Miscellaneous
- University autonomy and the increasing shift to English in academic programmes at European universities: In dialogue with Liviu Matei
- Trends in sociolinguistics: a series of interviews with leading sociolinguists
- An interview with Peter Trudgill
- An interview with Jenny Cheshire
- Reviews
- Mirvahedi, Seyed Hadi (ed.) (2019): The Sociolinguistics of Iran’s Languages at Home and Abroad: The Case of Persian, Azerbaijani, and Kurdish. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. 294 p.
- Higham, Gwennan (2020): Creu Dinasyddiaeth i Gymru. Mewnfudo Rhyngwladol a'r Gymraeg [Creating Citizenship for Wales. International Immigration and the Welsh Language]. Cardiff: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru. 144 p.
- Pradilla Cardona, Miquel Àngel (ed. 2022): Catalan sociolinguistics: State of the art and future challenges (IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 32). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 333 p.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelei
- Conditions for Nynorsk language use – the role of capacity, opportunity, and desire in the maintenance of Nynorsk among Norwegian adolescents
- Enacting Chinese-ness on Arab Land: A Case Study of the Linguistic Landscape of an (Emerging) Chinatown in Multilingual and Multicultural Dubai
- The sociolinguistics of Luxembourgish football language: A case study of contact-induced lexical variation in a complex multilingual society
- Local languages and the linguistic landscape: the visibility and role of Sardinian in town entry and street name signs
- Miscellaneous
- University autonomy and the increasing shift to English in academic programmes at European universities: In dialogue with Liviu Matei
- Trends in sociolinguistics: a series of interviews with leading sociolinguists
- An interview with Peter Trudgill
- An interview with Jenny Cheshire
- Reviews
- Mirvahedi, Seyed Hadi (ed.) (2019): The Sociolinguistics of Iran’s Languages at Home and Abroad: The Case of Persian, Azerbaijani, and Kurdish. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. 294 p.
- Higham, Gwennan (2020): Creu Dinasyddiaeth i Gymru. Mewnfudo Rhyngwladol a'r Gymraeg [Creating Citizenship for Wales. International Immigration and the Welsh Language]. Cardiff: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru. 144 p.
- Pradilla Cardona, Miquel Àngel (ed. 2022): Catalan sociolinguistics: State of the art and future challenges (IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 32). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 333 p.