Linguistics and English Language

Language in context seminar

Speaker: Ragnhild Ljosland (University of Highlands and Islands)

Title: Scots and Nynorsk: A comparison of two language movements’ struggle for recognition in higher education

Abstract: As demands for independence continue to be made in Scotland, a growing Scots language movement attempts to gain recognition for Scots as an independent language as opposed to a variety of English (Unger 2013). These attempts include calls for recognition in the higher education sector. Although not formally linked to the independence movement, the Scots language movement has interesting parallels in the Nynorsk movement which emerged as Norway gained independence in the years preceding and following 1905 (Almenningen et al. 2003, Linn 2014, Hyvik, Millar and Newby 2016). This paper explores the early phases of the struggle to have Scots recognised as suitable for use in schools and higher education in Scotland and draws parallels to the similar struggles faced by the Nynorsk movement c. 1884-1939. The paper will show how language rights in schools and higher education are linked and interdependent, how the early phase of bringing Scots and Nynorsk into universities in both cases was driven by pioneers, and explore the shared ideologies of the Scots and Nynorsk movements.

References:

  • Almenningen, O., Hoel, O. L., Pilskog, G. M., & Tangen, H. (2003). Studentar i målstrid. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget/Studentmållaget i Oslo.
  • Hyvik, J., Millar, R. M., Newby, A. (2016). Language and Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century: Nynorsk and Scots in Comparative Context. Scandinavica 55(2), 6-42.
  • Linn, A. (2014). Parallel languages in the history of language ideology in Norway. In Hultgren, A. K.. Gregersen, F & Thøgersen J. (Eds.) English in Nordic Universities Ideologies and Practices, 27-52. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  • Unger, J. W. (2013). Discursive Construction of the Scots Language: Education, politics and everyday life. Lancaster: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Speaker bio: Ragnhild Ljosland is a sociolinguist with an interest in culture and heritage, affiliated with the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute and the UHI Language Sciences Institute. Her research concerns on the discursive construction of imagined communities and latterly the narrative construction of heritage. Her PhD (2008) and early career research investigated the role ascribed to the English language in research and higher education in non-English speaking countries, thinking especially of how English functions not only as a lingua franca but also as a signifier of group membership within transnational specialist communities, and as a signal of aspirations to participate in a globalised higher education "market". More recent research includes wider aspects of linguistic and cultural history and heritage, with a particular interest in Scotland, Orkney, and Shetland. Areas include sociolinguistic aspects of the post-medieval Norn to Scots language shift, Orkney and Shetland dialect and dialect literature, the rhetoric of support for Scots as a language within the context of the Scottish independence movement, and the narratives of heritage, but also runic inscriptions and Norse culture and its legacy today.

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József Wells

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Dec 10 2021 -

Language in context seminar

2021-12-10: Scots and Nynorsk: A comparison of two language movements’ struggle for recognition in higher education

Online via link invitation