Search results for "language rights"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
The Rise of Finnish-Language Popular Literacy Viewed through Correspondence to Newspapers 1856–70
2014
In the mid-19th century, a significant number of persons among the Finnish-speaking rural populace learned to read fluently and write for the first time. One of the first purposes to which Finnish-speakers could put their writing was letters to the press. This paper first provides a brief overview of how rural Finnish-speaking commoners acquired functional literacy. It then examines what letters to newspapers written by self-educated commoners reveal about writers’ motives, the uses to which writing could be put in mid- 19th century Finland, and the tensions which arose when newly literate commoners began to criticize their social superiors in the press and no longer needed their help in re…
Toponymic politics and the role of heritagisation in multiethnic cities in Romania
2022
Although scholars have made considerable progress in understanding the dynamics of heritagisation and toponymic politics, research is yet to explore how these may interact with each other. Drawing on a mixed-methods comparative qualitative study, this paper explores the politics of place naming and multilingualism in the context of heritagisation in three multiethnic cities in Romania: Târgu Mureş, Oradea and Baia Mare. We argue that the recent trends of heritagisation introduce a new element in the politics of place naming in ethnically diverse cities. Heritage becomes inclusive when it loses its importance in the power struggle between minority and majority political representatives. Once…
Using language to help people, or using people to help language? A capabilities framework of language policy
2023
Language policy is a hugely diverse field, united only by the intent to influence language use in some way. Much early research in the field asserted that language policy had an emancipatory drive, to empower downtrodden minorities against the cruelty or indifference of majoritarian politics. But over the years, critical accounts have increasingly questioned who precisely benefits from promoting minoritized languages. Indeed, can the language itself, valorized as an emblem of heritage, sometimes become invested with its own separate value? Can that value even outweigh concerns over improving people's prospects and capabilities? In what follows, I compare that balance between people's capabi…