Appropriating New Technology for Minority Language Revitalization

258 Pages·2008·4.32 MB·English

Freie Universität Berlin

Fachbereich Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften

Appropriating New Technology for Minority
Language Revitalization:
The Welsh Case

DISSERTATION

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
Doktor der Philosophie
(Dr. phil.)

Vorgestellt von

Mourad Ben Slimane
Appropriating New Technology for Minority Language Revitalization

Gutachter: 1. Prof. Dr. Gerhard Leitner
2. Prof. Dr. Carol W. Pfaff

Disputation: Berlin, den 27.06.2008
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Appropriating New Technology for Minority Language Revitalization
Acknowledgments
This dissertation would not have been written without the continuous support as well as great help of
my dear Professor Gerhard Leitner. His expertise, understanding, and patience added considerably to
my research experience. I would like to express my deep gratitude for him because it was his
persistence and direction that encouraged me to complete my Ph.D.

My special thanks goes out to Professor Carol W. Pfaff for giving me the opportunity to do a
seminar on endangered languages at the John F. Kennedy Institute, which has been very useful for
my thesis and professional experience.

Thanks to Professor Peter Kunsmann, PD Dr.Volker Gast, and Dr. Florian Haas for kindly accepting
to serve on my defense committee.

I would also like to thank the Freie University of Berlin for the financial support that it provided me
with to finish my research.

The Welsh Language Board has also been very supportive in offering me recent literature on the
development of Information Technology during my visit to Wales.

Thanks to Grahame Davies from BBC Wales who provided me with many insights at different
points in time with regard to Welsh new media and related matters.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for its moral support during the different phases
of writing my dissertation.

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Appropriating New Technology for Minority Language Revitalization
Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................................................................................4
NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS................................................................................................................................8
1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................................11
1.1. PLAN AND INTEREST..............................................................................................................................................11
1.2. DEFINING SOME TERMS.........................................................................................................................................13
1.3. MODELS..................................................................................................................................................................23
2. LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT AND LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION....................................................29
2.1. OVERVIEW ...........................................................................................................................................................29
2.2. CAUSES OF LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT...............................................................................................................29
2.3. WHY CARE?..........................................................................................................................................................34
2.4. TYPES OF LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION PROGRAMS...............................................................................................40
3. CELTIC LANGUAGES...........................................................................................................................................50
3.1. OVERVIEW ...........................................................................................................................................................50
3.2. APPROACHES.........................................................................................................................................................50
3.3. PERSPECTIVES ON CELTIC LANGUAGES AND ENGLISHES.......................................................................................58
4. MINORITY LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE POLICIES IN THE UK..........................................................62
4.1. OVERVIEW ...........................................................................................................................................................62
4.2. THE WELSH LANGUAGE........................................................................................................................................63
4.3. THE CORNISH LANGUAGE.....................................................................................................................................70
4.4. THE MANX LANGUAGE.........................................................................................................................................75
4.5. THE GAELIC LANGUAGE........................................................................................................................................78
4.6. THE ULSTER SCOTS LANGUAGE............................................................................................................................81
4.7. THE IRISH GAELIC LANGUAGE..............................................................................................................................84
5. ISSUES IN LANGUAGE PLANNING AND POLICY.........................................................................................92
5.1. OVERVIEW ...........................................................................................................................................................92
5.2. IMAGE AND PRESTIGE PLANNING...........................................................................................................................92
5.3. INITIATIVES IN INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION............................................................................................96
6. FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY................................................................................................................................102
6.1. OVERVIEW .........................................................................................................................................................102
6.2. DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY........................................................................................................................102
6.3. MINORITY LANGUAGE MEDIA..............................................................................................................................107
6.4. ISSUES SURROUNDING TECHNOLOGIES................................................................................................................115
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7. STUDY OF SOME EXAMPLES OF TECHNOLOGY FORMS.......................................................................122
7.1. OVERVIEW .........................................................................................................................................................122
7.2. THE LUSHOOTSEED CASE....................................................................................................................................122
7.3. THE MAORI CASE................................................................................................................................................126
7.4. THE BASQUE CASE..............................................................................................................................................131
7.5. THE MOHAWK CASE............................................................................................................................................136
7.6. THE WARLPIRI CASE...........................................................................................................................................140
7.7. THE KHASI CASE.................................................................................................................................................145
7.8. ASSESSMENT.......................................................................................................................................................148
8. TECHNOLOGIES APPROPRIATED BY THE WELSH COMMUNITY.......................................................151
8.1. OVERVIEW .........................................................................................................................................................151
8.2. BILINGUAL WEBSITES.........................................................................................................................................151
8.3. DIGITAL LIBRARY................................................................................................................................................158
8.4. DIGITAL COLLEGE...............................................................................................................................................162
8.5. DIGITAL TELEVISION: S4C..................................................................................................................................164
8.6. INTERNET RADIOS...............................................................................................................................................170
8.7. NEW MEDIA.........................................................................................................................................................174
8.8. ONLINE LESSONS.................................................................................................................................................178
8.9. CD-ROMS .........................................................................................................................................................180
8.10. WELSH LANGUAGE DVDS.................................................................................................................................182
8.11. VIDEOCONFERENCING.......................................................................................................................................185
8.12. LANGUAGE SOFTWARE......................................................................................................................................189
9. DATA ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................................................198
9.1. INFORMATION ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS...........................................................................................................198
9.2. ROLE OF WELSH..................................................................................................................................................199
9.3. FREQUENCY AND TOOLS......................................................................................................................................201
9.4. ATTITUDES .........................................................................................................................................................202
9.5. FURTHER COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS............................................................................................................204
10. EVALUATION.....................................................................................................................................................206
11. CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................................212
12. BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................................................219
13. APPENDIX............................................................................................................................................................245
14. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS IN DIRECT INTERVIEW OR VIA EMAIL CORRESPONDANCE..............249
15. SUMMARY...........................................................................................................................................................250
16. CURRICULUM VITAE.......................................................................................................................................257
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Appropriating New Technology for Minority Language Revitalization
List of Diagrams
DIAGRAM 1-1. A TAXONOMY OF THE STRUCTURAL VARIABLES AFFECTING ETHNO-LINGUISTIC VITALITY.....................24
DIAGRAM 2-1. TSUNODA’S MODEL..................................................................................................................................40
DIAGRAM 2-2. EIGHT RULES FOR TEACHERS...................................................................................................................43
DIAGRAM 2-3. RULES OF LEARNING FOR APPRENTICES..................................................................................................44
DIAGRAM 3-1. THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY LANGUAGE TREE......................................................................................55
DIAGRAM 7-1. THE POLYNESIAN GROUP INCLUDING THE MAORI LANGUAGE..............................................................127
DIAGRAM 7-2. MOHAWK COMMUNITIES........................................................................................................................137
DIAGRAM 7-3. LANGUAGES WITH THE LARGEST NUMBERS OF SPEAKERS ....................................................................142
DIAGRAM 9-1. LOCATIONS OF THE PARTICIPANTS.........................................................................................................198
DIAGRAM 9-2. PROFESSIONS OF THE PARTICIPANTS......................................................................................................199
DIAGRAM 9-3. THE WELSH LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGICAL DEVICES..............................................................................199
DIAGRAM 9-4. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ROLE OF WELSH...............................................................................................199
DIAGRAM 9-5. ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS..............................................................................203

List of Maps
MAP 3-1. LOCATIONS OF CELTIC SPEAKERS....................................................................................................................52
MAP 7-1. THE LOCATION OF THE LUSHOOTSEED PEOPLE..............................................................................................124
MAP 7-2. THE BASQUE COUNTRY..................................................................................................................................132
MAP 7-3. LOCATIONS OF MOHAWK SPEAKERS............................................................................................................... 137
MAP 7-4. ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF AUSTRALIA......................................................................................................142
MAP 7-5. NORTH EAST INDIA WITH MEGHALAYA STATE..............................................................................................146
MAP 8-1. THE LOCATIONS OF VIDEOCONFERENCING FACILITIES..................................................................................186

List of Tables
TABLE 1-1. JOSHUA FISHMAN’S INTERGENERATIONAL DISRUPTION SCALE.....................................................................25
TABLE 4-1. QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES DURING THE 2001 CENSUS...............................................................................77
TABLE 4-2. KNOWLEDGE OF IRISH OF ALL PERSONS AGED 3 YEARS AND OVER...............................................................85
TABLE 8-1. KEYWORDS.................................................................................................................................................183
TABLE 9-1. AGE GROUPS OF THE PARTICIPANTS............................................................................................................198
TABLE 9-2. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ROLE OF WELSH...................................................................................................200
TABLE 9-3. QUESTIONS ABOUT FREQUENCY AND TOOLS...............................................................................................201
TABLE 9-4. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ATTITUDES OF THE WELSH PEOPLE.......................................................................203

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List of Illustrations
ILLUSTRATION 7-1. THE NIUPEPA COLLECTION.............................................................................................................129
ILLUSTRATION 7-2. MAORI DICTIONARIES ONLINE........................................................................................................131
ILLUSTRATION 7-3. LEXICON MODULE..........................................................................................................................138
ILLUSTRATION 7-4. PRACTICE MODULE.........................................................................................................................139
ILLUSTRATION 7-5. THE KHASI ONLINE NEWSPAPER.....................................................................................................147
ILLUSTRATION 8-1. THE JOB CENTRE PLUS HOMEPAGE................................................................................................157
ILLUSTRATION 8-2. THE DIGITAL LIBRARY OF WALES.................................................................................................160
ILLUSTRATION 8-3. CYMRU’R BYD...............................................................................................................................175
ILLUSTRATION 8-4. THE ONLINE MAGAZINE ‘LLAIS LLEN’............................................................................................176
ILLUSTRATION 8-5. AN ONLINE WELSH LANGUAGE LESSON ........................................................................................180
ILLUSTRATION 8-6. MAIN SCREENFIGURE.....................................................................................................................181
ILLUSTRATION 8-7. FUNNY WAYS TO LEARN WELSH.....................................................................................................181
ILLUSTRATION 8-8. WELSH GRAMMAR IN A PLAIN WAY...............................................................................................182

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Notational Conventions
Abbreviations

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
CAIN Conflict Archive on the Internet
CAT Computer Aided Translation
CEC Commission of the European Communities
CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research
CCC Cornwall County Council
CD Compact Disc
CD-ROM Compact Disc (Read Only Memory)
COE Council of Europe
CYDAG Cymdeithas Ysgolion Dros Addysg Gymraeg
DAB Digital Audio Broadcasting
DETR Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
DfEE Department for Education and Employment
DTV Digital Television
DiViTh Digitale Videotheken
DVD Digital Versatile Disc
DVD-R DVD (Recordable)
DVD-RAM Digital Versatile Disc (Random Access Memory)
DVD-ROM Digital Versatile Disc (Read Only Memory)
ELWa Education and Learning Wales
ERDF European Regional Development Fund
EiTB Euskal Irrati Telebista
EKE Euskal Kultur Erakundea
ESRC Economic and Social Research Council
ETB Euskal Telebista
GIDS Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale
GOSW The Government Office for the South West
EU European Union
ELWa Education and Learning Wales
HEFCW Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
HFS Horizon Family Solutions
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
IBIS Interfaces for Bilingual Information Systems
ICT Information and Communication Technology
ICD Intercultural Dialogue
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IFCC Irish Famine Curriculum Committee
IMD Independent Media Distribution Plc
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISOS Irish Script On Screen
IT Information Technology
IP Internet Protocol
IPA International Phonetic Alphabet
KBps Kilobites
LLGC Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru
LPP Language Planning and Policy
MSD Marysville School District
MT Machine Translation
MTV Music Television
MYM Mudiad Ysgolion Methrin
NafW National Assembly for Wales
NARA National Archives and Records Administration
NIRS National Indigenous Radio Service
NLP Natural Language Processing
NLW National Library of Wales
NILTS Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey
NREL Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
NZDL New Zealand Digital Library
PAW Pintubi Anmatyerre Warlpiri
PC Personal Computer
PFECMR Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research
PGI Profit Gate Incorporation
PPA Pre-school Playgroups Association
PSUD Prescott School Unified District
RNIB Royal National Institute of the Blind
RNID The Royal National Institute for Deaf People
RLS Reversing Language Shift
RSI Repetitive Strain Injury
SALTMIL Speech and Language Technology for Minority Languages
SAPI Speech Application Programming Interface
S4C Sianel Pedwar Cymru
SD Super Density
SNP Scottish National Party
TBCS Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
TM Translation Machine
TPR Total Phyical Response
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TREL Tele-Rent Eastbourne Limited
TTS Text to Speech
UK United Kingdom
UKERNA United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association
UKP United Kingdom Parliament
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UOW University of Waikato
USA United States of America
UUP The Ulster Unionist Party
UZEI Unibertsitate Zerbitzuetarako Euskal Ikastetxea.
VAT Value Added Tax
VOC Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie
VOWB Vlaams Overlegorgaan inzake Wetenschappelijk Bibliotheekwerk
VSO Verb Subject Object
WAG Welsh Assembly Government
WISPR Welsh and Irish Speech Processing Resource
WMA Warlpiri Media Association
WLB Welsh Language Board
WLS The Welsh Language Society
WWW World Wide Web

Use of terminology

The term appropriating will be used to mean the deployment of technology by minority language communities.

The terms minority, lesser-resourced, and lesser-used languages will be used interchangeably. In some cases, native,
indigenous, and heritage languages will also be utilized variously.

In my thesis, the term mass media can be extended to include all types of technologies.

The terms digital television and satellite television will be employed variously as far as the Basque television is
concerned.

Language modernization and language revitalization will be used interchangeably in my dissertation. While language
revitalization will be applied to extinct, weakening, moribund, and healthy languages, the process of language revival
will only revolve around extinct languages.

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