Search

At the outset of the twenty-first century, the survival of many minority and indigenous languages is threatened by globalization and the ubiquity of dominant languages such as English in the worlds of communication and commerce. In a number of cases, these negative trends are being resisted by grassroots activists and governments. Indeed, there are many examples of activists and governments working together in this manner to preserve and revitalize indigenous languages and cultures. Such coordinated efforts are vital to the success of language revitalization. This article compares the work of language activists and governments in three small island jurisdictions in the British Isles: the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. Comparison between these cases is greatly facilitated by similarities in their political, economic and demographic circumstances. The cases, however, reveal important differences in the way that activists and governments have responded to the challenges of language revitalization, as well as some interesting insights on the future prospects of the indigenous languages of these small island jurisdictions.

Over the past several decades, Manx Gaelic, the indigenous language of the Isle of Man, a small island in the British Isles, has undergone a profound process of revitalisation and reintegration into the life of the community. At the forefront of this revitalisation process has been a dedicated group of language activists who saved the language following the death of the last native speakers. More recently, however, the Isle of Man government has supported the revitalisation of Manx, mainly through education planning and support for cultural programming. This article examines the Select Committee on the Greater Use of Manx Gaelic, a committee of the island's parliament, Tynwald, the internal and external contexts that shaped its deliberations and recommendations and the role it played in signalling a change in the attitude of the government towards Manx in the mid-1980s. The Select Committee highlights the important connection between the political (governance) and social (identity) dimensions of islandness in the revitalisation of an Indigenous language in a small island context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the revitalisation of Manx Gaelic, the indigenous language of the Isle of Man, through acquisition or education planning (one of a number of planning strategies used to preserve and promote endangered languages). Language scholars argue that the key to 'Reversing Language Shift' is to encourage language development in the domestic sphere (in the home and community) rather than (solely) in the education system. In the Isle of Man, however, the specific emphasis on education planning initiatives was a response to the dearth of fluent speakers and a complete absence of native speakers1. This break in intergenerational continuity necessitated the development of a solid cohort of younger speakers before revitalisation could even begin to take place in the domestic sphere. While the creation of a Manx medium primary school in 2001, as well as other educational initiatives at the pre-school, primary, secondary and adult levels have instigated a revival of Manx, providing opportunities for the growing cohort of Manx speakers to use the language outside of school remains contentious and will pose the single biggest challenge for the linguistic revitalisation process in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews articles from the Celtic Cultural Studies, Issue No. 5 which include "The Story of Mann and All That, or How Heritage Became History Again," by Susan Lewis, "Ethnocultural Linkage in Language Revival: The Role of Joshua Fishman's Yians in Xish Revitalization: The Case of Manx Gaelic," by Jennifer Kewley, and "Shaping the Shape-Shifter: Cultural Revival, Spirituality and the Manx Manannan," by Breesha Maddrell.