This paper argues for an ethnographic-sociolinguistic approach to the issue of linguistic rights. In much of the literature on linguistic rights, a fundamentally flawed set of assumptions about language and society is being used, leading to assessments of language situations that are empirically not sustainable. An alternative set of assumptions is offered, grounded in ethnography and focused on language use as oriented towards centering institutions that attribute indexicalities ^ function and value ^ to linguistic resources. Such centers are invariably multiple but stratified, and the state occupies a crucial place in these systems, between the world system and local forces. This model is applied to the Tanzanian sociolinguistic situation, where a strong state appeared to be caught between pressures that were both transnational and local. This gave rise to a pattern of distribution of linguistic resources, including English and Swahili, that offered semiotic opportunities to speakers to construct deeply ‘local’ meanings. The languages were not in themselves agents of inequality, but the way in which they were distributed nationally and in relation to transnational hierarchies is the key to understanding inequality. Discussions of linguistic rights should start from assessments of the real potential and constraints of linguistic resources, not from idealized and static conceptions of language and society and predefined scenarios of their interaction.

Situating language rights : English and Swahili in Tanzania revisited

Human rights and language wrongs—A future for diversity?

This study documents practices relating to the use of Isthmus Zapotec or Diidxaza, an Indigenous language of Oaxaca, Mexico, in formal and non-formal education. Drawing on ethnographic monitoring and ethnography of language policy methodologies, I document, interpret, and ultimately engage in Isthmus Zapotec education with the aim of countering social inequalities produced through language hierarchies. Within the historical and socio-political context of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec where Isthmus Zapotec is spoken, I describe and categorize the actors, practices, and socio-political processes that currently constitute the educational language ecology. I draw on participant observation, interviews, photographs and documents collected during 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork and several subsequent visits in the Isthmus (2013-2015) in order to illustrate the linguistic landscape and the prominent practices in this domain. Increased official recognition for Indigenous languages in Mexico and state-level promotion of local languages are influencing some education practices, although exclusion of Isthmus Zapotec remains the norm. A variety of Isthmus Zapotec teachers, learners, and advocates are working to reverse this exclusionary legacy, however. The ideologies and social imaginaries of actors in two education sites are analyzed in-depth, illustrating a convivial multilingual paradigm through which teachers and learners of Isthmus Zapotec are creating inclusive communities of practice, in contrast to the exclusionary and manipulative norms in many social and educational spaces. Additionally the strategies of Isthmus Zapotec advocates across education contexts and social scales are compared, exploring how strategies of representing, connecting, and producing are employed to address language inequalities, with differing degrees of speed and visibility. I analyze my own strategies of engagement in Isthmus Zapotec education and discuss conceptual and methodological shifts in how I approach advocacy work in relation to marginalized languages. Endangered or minoritized language education will continue to hold different meanings for different actors from local to global levels; a multi-perspectival approach is necessary to develop new strategies and to support inclusive and convivial imaginaries of multilingualism in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and other contexts of language inequality. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Nancy H. Hornberger

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Imagining convivial multilingualism: Practices, ideologies and strategies in Diidxazá/ Isthmus Zapotec indigenous language education

This three-year qualitative research study took place in a new immigrant-receiving community in North Carolina. Utilizing narrative analysis, it explores how Mexican, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan immigrants of indigenous backgrounds use language as a survival tool to move in and out of transnational social spaces. In addition, it explores the ways in which parents transmit funds of knowledge (Moll, 1992) to their undocumented youth to prepare them for adult life as children of Latino indigenous immigrants in the U.S.. This article examines the implications of transnational cultural and linguistic spaces and its effects and implications for children of multilingual families. It also raises questions about the ways multilingualism affects border mobility and transnationality as well as how undocumented families use multilingualism as a transnational bridge to facilitate their children's survival in a hostile U.S. environment while schools remain indifferent and unaware of such issues. ********** While conducting research in an urban area in North Carolina, I met Inez. As I approached Inez, she was speaking to her son in a language I had never heard. Inez was moving her hands, pointing at a document while her son lifted his shoulders and shook his head from left to right, as if saying "no." Inez was one of the mothers who agreed to meet with me and take part in my research study on newly arrived immigrants in North Carolina. As I approached, she pulled out other documents and continued to speak to her son. When I arrived, I said hello and she was still speaking to her son in a language I did not understand. She then told her son a series of sentences that were a combination of Spanish, English, and what I later found out was Otomi. As her son was leaving, Inez turned to me and said, "Se lo tengo que decir en los tres idiomas, a ver si se le pega. [I have to speak to him in all three languages to make sure that it sticks.]" She continued to say, "El que sabe dos idiomas, vale por dos, pero el que habla mas de dos, vale por muchos. Para vivir como indigena-Mexico-Americano tiene que valer por muchos. [The person who speaks two languages is worth two people, but the person who speaks more than two languages, is worth many more people. To live like an indigenous Mexican American has to be worth many people.]" I was quickly struck by the significance and the power of her insight. I was also reminded of a comment made by her son's teacher: "That lady is not teaching her kids anything; she is only confusing them and making our lives more difficult than it already is. I have to teach that child. He will be confused by all those phrases that she calls languages." In that moment I realized how powerful Inez was because she was teaching her son about difference, access, connections, culture, and how to be a global competitor in his indigena-Mexico-Americano world. She was teaching him how to use the multiple languages he speaks in order to be a global transnational citizen. But it also heightened my awareness to the profound disconnect between schools and student populations. (1) I use this story to illustrate the altering dynamics of U.S. immigrants who are not unaware of the benefits of having access to multiple communities and the necessity of teaching their children to live in transnational ways. Yet, schools and educational programs aimed at educating non-English speakers of color often do not take into consideration the language diversity and versatility of this student population. Inez's comments highlight the complexities of students' linguistic identities, experiences, and lives in addition to the ways parents work to help their children achieve transnational linguistic identities. Her comments illustrate that for many multilingual and multicultural communities, the ability to communicate in several languages is necessary as a survival tactic and shows solidarity in multiple language communities, including their own marginalized indigenous community. …

The Politics of Organic Phylogeny: The Art of Parenting and Surviving as Transnational Multilingual Latino Indigenous Immigrants in the U.S.

............................................................................................................................................... V INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY ........................... 16 An instrumentalist approach .................................................................................................................. 19 An ethnocultural approach..................................................................................................................... 24 An ecological approach.......................................................................................................................... 30 A language rights approach ................................................................................................................... 35 An economic approach ........................................................................................................................... 41 A political approach............................................................................................................................... 44 A post-structural approach..................................................................................................................... 56 Developing the Theory ........................................................................................................................... 66 CHAPTER 2: ABOUT THE RESEARCH ............................................................................................. 73 Purpose and justification of the research............................................................................................... 75 Locating Breton activism in the broader language context.................................................................... 77 About the research project ..................................................................................................................... 79 Negotiating researcher/participant status and identity in the interview process ................................... 97 The author as a reflexive participant in his own research: the thesis as activism ............................... 101 CHAPTER 3: A SOCIO-HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF BRITTANY AND BRETON ............... 104 The socio-historical context of Brittany and Breton............................................................................. 104 Breton from the Revolution to the Second Empire (1789-1870)........................................................... 107 Breton during the Third Republic (1870-1940).................................................................................... 111 The socio-symbolic marginalisation of Brittany and Breton................................................................ 114 French representations of Breton language and identity during the Third Republic........................... 117 The Breton revival movement............................................................................................................... 127 Changes to the Breton social landscape following the Second World War.......................................... 132 The Rebirth of Breton ........................................................................................................................... 138 CHAPTER 4: LINGUISTIC TRANSFORMATIONS OF BRETON................................................ 146 The territorial presence of Breton ........................................................................................................ 146 The Breton speakers ............................................................................................................................. 150 Generational difference and the rise of a neo-Breton standard ........................................................... 152 Intergenerational linguistic disruption................................................................................................. 159 Generational differences in the language ideology and practice of Breton speakers .......................... 165 Breton Language Education................................................................................................................. 168 CHAPTER 5: PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF BRETON.................................................... 186 Breton linguistic and socio-cultural identities ..................................................................................... 186 The development of a Breton identity ................................................................................................... 188 Contemporary representations of Breton identity ................................................................................ 194 Why do people learn Breton? ............................................................................................................... 204 What do people want from Breton? What do they want for Breton?.................................................... 223 The desire for Breton to express conviviality ....................................................................................... 232 CHAPTER 6: POLICY, PLANNING AND LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY IN BRITTANY................ 237 Language Policy and ideology in France............................................................................................. 237 Language Policy and ideology in Brittany ........................................................................................... 243 The Breton Language Office: a case study in Breton language planning ............................................ 248

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Language diversity and linguistic identity in Brittany: a critical analysis of the changing practice of Breton

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Ernesto Díaz Couder

Papers

Linguistic Human Rights. Overcoming linguistic discrimination