Linguistic Insecurity

In recent decades, francophones in Québec have gone through a process of sociopolitical ascension while anglophones have gone through a process of minoritization. These processes were intertwined with the policies, legislation, and school experiences of young people attending English-language schools. This study enables us to examine the relationship between linguistic groups of young people attending a school board in the eastern part of Québec which includes two regions : Gaspésie-Île-de-la-Madeleine and Côte-Nord. We analyzed the identification of these young people and their relation to linguistic groups using a qualitative interpretive methodology, and a constructivist approach to linguistic boundaries. The results revealed discourses and a feeling of minoritization, fuelled by a sense of geographical and linguistic isolation, which characterized the region. Participants lamented a lack of recognition of their status as a linguistic minority by the francophone majority in Quebec. These young people identify more with Canada, the Maritimes, and the fisheries, than as Quebecers. They mostly identify as anglophones or "almost bilinguals. " They report experiencing a form of linguistic insecurity towards their competence in French, even if a number has French as their first language.

Dans les dernières décennies, au Québec, les francophones ont vécu un processus de majorisation et les anglophones, un processus de minorisation. Ces processus se sont superposés aux politiques d'amé-nagement linguistique adoptées ainsi qu'aux vécus scolaires des jeunes fréquentant des écoles de langue anglaise. Cette recherche permet de creuser les rapports aux groupes linguistiques de jeunes fréquentant une commission scolaire à l' est du Québec couvrant deux régions : la Gaspésie-Île-de-la-Madelaine et la Côte-Nord. C' est à partir d'une méthodologie qualitative interprétative et d'une approche constructiviste des frontières que nous analysons les identifications et les rapports de ces jeunes aux communautés linguis-tiques. Leurs discours expriment un sentiment de minorisation, qui semble nourri par le double sentiment d'isolement linguistique et géographique qui caractérise la région. Les participants et participantes à l' étude déplorent un manque de reconnaissance de leur statut de minorité linguistique par le groupe majoritaire francophone au Québec. Ils s'identifient davantage au Canada, aux provinces maritimes et à la pêche qu'à une identification québécoise. Les jeunes se définissent principalement comme anglophones ou « presque

This study examines the ownership of English and linguistic (in)security of multilingual English learners in two post-Soviet nation-states. Using the chronotopic and scalar analysis of discourse, I examine students’ ideologies of English vis-à-vis their linguistic repertoires in the context of national imaginary and globalization. I utilize the concept of ‘nation branding’ to trace the relationship between language ideologies and broader sociopolitical factors, including neoliberalism. The analysis of 60 individual student interviews revealed that the state-circulated nation-branding discourse is a powerful tool for instilling the sense of linguistic ownership. The findings showed that students in Uzbekistan regard English as opportunistic and more valuable in the global market than their local languages. In contrast, students in Kazakhstan see all of their languages including English as pivotal in enacting trilingual identity at local, national, and global scales.

This draft shows that hyphenation in Welsh used to be normal and propagates morphological hyphenation. This seems to be the historically developed system and most useful in order to stabilise the morphology of the language, to ease hyphenation, and thus to allow for the full use of the language, avoiding linguistic insecurity but promoting the language's use, health and prestige.

Cet article cherche à mettre en lumière les représentations sociolinguistiques présentes dans la nouvelle de Nicolas Ancion, « Bruxelles Insurrection », en s’appuyant sur les travaux relatifs à la linguistique populaire et l’imaginaire linguistique. L’analyse qualitative via le logiciel Weft QDA permettra de mieux cerner les associations thématiques présentes dans la nouvelle, quelle que soit la conscience que l’auteur en ait. Centrales seront les évocations relatives à la francophonie, aux normes et aux éléments de caricature des personnages. Au terme du travail, nous espérons être en mesure d’indiquer comment l’imaginaire linguistique de la communauté francophone belge se manifeste dans un texte mettant en scène une forte insécurité linguistique.

This paper reflects on “standards” in Canadian English in scholarly research and public debate from a number of view points. The goals of these reflections are three-fold. First, we aim to characterize the chasm between scholarly and public debates of a language “standard” in Canadian English (CanE). While this debate is not new (e.g. Kretzschmar 2009: 1-5 for a recent example), its application in the Canadian context is a desideratum. Second, we characterize the standard in CanE from a demographic point of view: what is this standard and, above all, which Canadians (and, more importantly, how many) presently speak it?  And third, we ask what linguists of CanE may have to offer to the public and how the perceived knowledge gap might be bridged.
All perspectives discussed here reflect on notions of a standard from the perspective of speakers of ‘non-dominant’ dialects of a given language (Clyne 1992).  These non-dominant dialects are in traditional parlance constructed as hyponyms of a language. Examples will clarify the point more easily than a definition: Austrian German and Swiss German are in public discourse often seen hyponymous to (German) German; Canadian English and Irish English and New Zealand English often to British English or American English and Quebec French and Algerian French to French (Parisian French). Concepts of standards vary, of course, across western languages, and English is special as it allows for two dominant languages since the mid-20th century: British English (BrE), the historical standard and American English (AmE), the most powerful dialect of the language at present. AmE and BrE are dominant in a number of ways: their economic (and military) powers are unmatched in the former, and considerable in the latter case; their historical roles as players on the world stage has a long history and so it is not surprising that the most powerful norm-providing institutions for English are situated in these two countries. Because of the importance of one source in the present context, I will draw from that paper, Chambers (1986), more heavily perhaps than usual in this stock taking 25 years after the first (and only) conference on the Standard in CanE (see Lougheed 1986).

This study examines the ownership of English and linguistic (in)security of multilingual English learners in two post-Soviet nation-states. Using the chronotopic and scalar analysis of discourse, I examine students’ ideologies of English vis-à-vis their linguistic repertoires in the context of national imaginary and globalization. I utilize the concept of ‘nation branding’ to trace the relationship between language ideologies and broader sociopolitical factors, including neoliberalism. The analysis of 60 individual student interviews revealed that the state-circulated nation-branding discourse is a powerful tool for instilling the sense of linguistic ownership. The findings showed that students in Uzbekistan regard English as opportunistic and more valuable in the global market than their local languages. In contrast, students in Kazakhstan see all of their languages including English as pivotal in enacting trilingual identity at local, national, and global scales.

« Je suis fatiguée de vivre avec mon « guard up » en jetant pour un commentaire à propos de mon accent, de mon français ».  Cette citation reflète la fatigue et la frustration d'un locuteur en milieu francophone minoritaire.  Ce texte, qui a été présenté lors de la réunion annuelle de la Société acadienne de Clare, explore les expériences ethnolangagières et la création des cicatrices langagières.

The role of amount of exposure in the perception of sound categories: evidence from Cyprus
Katarzyna Alexander

The present study focuses on the way the perception of the boundary between singleton and geminate alveolar plosives by Greek Cypriots is influenced by their amount of exposure to Standard Modern Greek (SMG).
In Cyprus, Greek Cypriots tend to use Cypriot Greek (CG) in their day-to-day communication and SMG in formal situations. One of the differences between the two varieties is that CG comprises aspirated geminate plosives which are absent in SMG. The geminate plosives can be divided into contrastive ones and non-contrastive ones, the former carrying the literal meaning of a word and the latter being a potential carrier of social information about the speaker. It is assumed here that due to the sociolinguistic status of SMG in Cyprus, the amount of exposure to this variety might depend on a listener’s socio-economic background and/or level of affiliation with Mainland Greek culture.
In line with exemplar theory (ET), the amount of exposure to a sound category is likely to determine the extent of development of that category’s robustness in a listener’s memory (Pierrehumbert 2001, 2003). Following this premise, it may be hypothesised that listeners who receive greater exposure to SMG might have more extensive exposure to non-contrastive alveolar singletons (which in SMG are used instead of non-contrastive geminates), and therefore those listeners may have better-developed categories of this sound in their memory.
The results of forced-choice perceptual tests carried out as a part of this study indicate that the amount of exposure as measured by means of the identity score and socio-economic index turned out to be predictors of the way study participants perceived the heard sound tokens only to a certain extent. Further analyses of recorded perceptual patterns suggest that the effect of the amount of exposure may be overridden by other factors which might be potentially linked to listeners’ (linguistic) security or insecurity. 
References:
Pierrehumbert, J. (2001). Exemplar dynamics: Word frequency, lenition and contrast. In J.
Bybee & P. J. Hopper (eds.), Frequency Effects and Emergent Grammar (pp. 137–158).
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Pierrehumbert, J. (2003). Phonetic diversity, statistical learning, and acquisition of phonology,
Language and Speech, 46 (2–3), 115–154.

In recent decades, francophones in Québec have gone through a process of sociopolitical ascension while anglophones have gone through a process of minoritization. These processes were intertwined with the policies, legislation, and school experiences of young people attending English-language schools. This study enables us to examine the relationship between linguistic groups of young people attending a school board in the eastern part of Québec which includes two regions : Gaspésie-Île-de-la-Madeleine and Côte-Nord. We analyzed the identification of these young people and their relation to linguistic groups using a qualitative interpretive methodology, and a constructivist approach to linguistic boundaries. The results revealed discourses and a feeling of minoritization, fuelled by a sense of geographical and linguistic isolation, which characterized the region. Participants lamented a lack of recognition of their status as a linguistic minority by the francophone majority in Quebe...

Studi sul legame tra rappresentazione dell’errore e disagio linguistico in studenti universitari di lingue straniere evidenziano una visione della lingua intesa come norma e una marcata preoccupazione da parte dei discenti per la competenza linguistica (soprattutto morfosintassi, fonologia, lessico) invece che per la competenza pragmatica, flessibilità e/o efficacia comunicativa; tuttavia, gli studenti considerano l’errore un elemento costitutivo del processo di acquisizione per il quale chiedono all’insegnante un costante intervento per segnalarlo e correggerlo. Partendo da queste considerazioni, si è voluto osservare se la “paura dell’errore” corrisponda alla sua effettiva realizzazione nei testi e se una riflessione sulla distanza percepita tra L1 e L2 può essere utilizzata in favore di un processo di insegnamento/apprendimento che ridimensioni la natura dell’insicurezza linguistica. La ricerca ha coinvolto due gruppi di studenti universitari cechi e slovacchi di italiano L2. I risultati indicano che attraverso lo sviluppo della competenza metalinguistica è possibile sia rafforzare la dimensione comunicativo-pragmatica della lingua, sia rivalutare la natura dell’errore in favore di un apprendimento linguistico meno ansiogeno e più consapevole.

Este estudio explora el fenómeno del elogio desmedido a la forma de hablar español por parte de un hablante nativo hacia uno no nativo. Aunque podría tratarse sólo de un cumplido, afirmar que la habilidad lingüística de un hablante no nativo es superior a la de uno nativo, también podría provenir de algún tipo de inseguridad respecto a la propia manera de hablar. La inseguridad lingüística de los hablantes nativos frente a los hablantes no nativos ha sido poco estudiada. El presente estudio se llevó a cabo por medio de un blog en el que se solicitaron respuestas y ejemplos de experiencias a hablantes nativos y no nativos. Se examina en qué contextos ocurre este fenómeno: interlocutores, creencias sobre su forma de hablar, definición de “hablar bien”, entre otros aspectos.