Revalorising Occitan in the 21st Century

Elyse Ritchey

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The phenomena of language endangerment and revitalisation are intimately tied to societal context. Many studies of revitalisation ...

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The phenomena of language endangerment and revitalisation are intimately tied to societal context. Many studies of revitalisation in Europe focus on the results of revitalisation efforts, such as the creation of new speakers and quantifiable changes in attitude. However, detailed analyses of the sociocultural effects of such efforts on communities are lacking. This book offers a case study which fills that gap by examining the value and meaning that language revitalisation brings to one rural town. It focuses on a marginalised regional language of southern France, Occitan, which has been the object of successful revalorisation efforts. Residents of the region tend to hold it in high esteem. Yet its linguistic precarity continues despite the many initiatives dedicated to the re-establishment of its use. In this book, it is argued that the inherent value of such efforts lies not only in their capacity to re-establish language use, but to create space for re-imagining the community. The book shows rural France to be a dynamic place, where language activism responds to local needs, but is also bound up in wider debates on globalisation, multiculturalism, and minority rights.