TY - JOUR

T1 - Standardisation: bolstering positive attitudes towards endangered language varieties? Evidence from implicit attitudes

AU - Vari, Judit

AU - Tamburelli, Marco

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - Language maintenance research generally argues that providing endangered varieties with a standard impact positively their vitality by e.g. increasing positive attitudes. This paper investigates whether different degrees of linguistic proximity between vernacular varieties and the standard may lead to different speakers’ attitudes towards the vernacular varieties. Following sociopsychological models of implicit automatic attitudes, e.g., dual attitude models, we hypothesised that varieties that have a more linguistically close standard would elicit more positive attitudes. We then used an online Auditory Implicit Association Test to investigate attitudes towards vernacular Moselle Franconian varieties in two speech communities, the Belgische Eifel in Belgium and the Éislek in Luxembourg. Moselle Franconian is considered generally vulnerable (UNESCO), and the two speech communities have opted for different methods of introducing a standard variety. While the speech community of Luxembourg created an ‘own’ linguistically close standard (Standard Luxembourgish), the Belgian speech community relies on a more linguistically distant standard, namely Standard German. Results show that linguistic distance between the standard and its vernaculars can impact on speakers’ attitudes. Our findings have important implications for the role of standardisation processes in language maintenance efforts.

AB - Language maintenance research generally argues that providing endangered varieties with a standard impact positively their vitality by e.g. increasing positive attitudes. This paper investigates whether different degrees of linguistic proximity between vernacular varieties and the standard may lead to different speakers’ attitudes towards the vernacular varieties. Following sociopsychological models of implicit automatic attitudes, e.g., dual attitude models, we hypothesised that varieties that have a more linguistically close standard would elicit more positive attitudes. We then used an online Auditory Implicit Association Test to investigate attitudes towards vernacular Moselle Franconian varieties in two speech communities, the Belgische Eifel in Belgium and the Éislek in Luxembourg. Moselle Franconian is considered generally vulnerable (UNESCO), and the two speech communities have opted for different methods of introducing a standard variety. While the speech community of Luxembourg created an ‘own’ linguistically close standard (Standard Luxembourgish), the Belgian speech community relies on a more linguistically distant standard, namely Standard German. Results show that linguistic distance between the standard and its vernaculars can impact on speakers’ attitudes. Our findings have important implications for the role of standardisation processes in language maintenance efforts.

KW - Language attitudes

KW - Moselle Franconian

KW - attitude theory

KW - language planning

KW - language vitality

KW - standardisation

U2 - 10.1080/01434632.2020.1829632

DO - 10.1080/01434632.2020.1829632

M3 - Article

VL - 44

SP - 1

EP - 20

JO - Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

JF - Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

SN - 0143-4632

IS - 6

ER -