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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 557

Part of Session 104: Microlinguistics and language planning (Other abstracts in this session)

Language planning and standardization in a minority language context: A case study on Rumantsch Grischun in Switzerland

Authors: Berthele, Raphael
Submitted by: Berthele, Raphael (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)

The Romance varieties of Romansh, spoken in the Eastern Swiss Alps, are a well known case of indigenous languages that have been undergoing sustained and important pressure from the country’s majority language, (Swiss) German. The Romansh languages have been written in up to five rather different local varieties (‘idioma’), and this impressive variety of writing norms for today’s ~60’000 speakers is often seen as one of the major impediments to the language maintenance efforts. One of the typical macro-level measures undertaken to strengthen the status of endangered languages is to introduce a common standard language, particularly for purposes related to administrative and other public usage, but also for the teaching of literacy in public schools. The goal of this measure is to either reverse language shift towards the majority language and/or to conquer new and additional usage domains for the minority language.

Although there have been several attempts in the history of the Romansh languages to find a common standard, the language currently being implemented, “Rumantsch Grischun”, seems to be the most promising one. However, despite the political backup for the new language, there are ongoing debates in the Romansh communities about the usefulness of a new standard.

In this presentation I will provide analyses of the debate on Rumantsch Grischun in the Romansh media. These analyses show that the macro-level language planning process is confronted with rather divergent reactions on the micro-level: We observe fervent solidarity with the idea of a common standard that unites the Romansh, equally fervent aversion against the new ‘artificial’ standard (and therefore strong claims for turning back to the ‘traditional’ written variants), and resignation or indifference given the increasing weakness in vitality of Romansh in the face of the German majority language.

In a second analysis, data from a mandated study on the introduction of Rumantsch Grischun in the public schools will be presented, in order to focus on the micro-processes that actors (above all teachers and pupils) are involved in when the macro-level policies are implemented. Results of the comparison of language proficiency in the traditional and in the new written languages will be presented, and interview and questionnaire data from parents, teachers and school authorities will be discussed.

Overall, the results give rise to a complex and rather mixed global picture, showing on the one hand relatively similar proficiency in writing and reading skills when comparing the old languages to the new standard, but quite important differences in the oral domain. These results are then discussed in the light of the macro-level planning issues presented at the beginning of the presentation and the fundamental issue of which division of labour between oral and written forms of the minority languages and the majority language the macro-processes can and should try implementing.