Can Language Shift be Reversed? Insights from and for Galician
(Guaranteed Session, MLA Convention, Chicago, 3-6 January, 2019)
On the 35th Anniversary of the Galician Language Bill Lei de normalización lingüística (1983), it is time for Galician and international scholars to re-assess the process of language planning undertaken in contemporary Galicia. This assessment will also help evaluate and answer Fishman\’s question(1991, 2001), apud Rubin & Jernudd 1971, on if and how minority languages can be revitalized when in contact with languages of wider communication.
At the Modern Language Association\’s 2019 convention in Chicago (January 3-6, 2019), the Galician Language, Literature and Culture Forum would like to celebrate and debate on language revitalization and normalización with a panel addressing the question: Can language shift be reversed? We invite proposals for 15- to 20-minute talks on topics including but not limited to:
How the social situation of Galician fits into Fishman’s 1991 Reversing Language Shift paradigm (RSL);
What contemporary findings on language revitalization can help the Galician language planning process;
How can the Galician perspective dialogue with different language revitalization models;
Interactions between top-down and bottom-up approaches to the Galician language “normalization” process.
Please submit titles,250-word abstracts (in English) and a brief bio to Gabriel Rei-Doval (reidoval@uwm.edu) by 15 March 2018.
