You say potato, I say tatws: The terrain of linguistic coexistence in Wales

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dc.citation.journalTitleRice Working Papers in Linguisticsen_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber4en_US
dc.contributor.authorGriffin, Jeffrey L.
dc.contributor.orgLinguistics Department
dc.date.accessioned2013-11-18T20:17:57Z
dc.date.available2013-11-18T20:17:57Z
dc.date.issued2013-11
dc.description.abstractThis study examines the linguistic coexistence in Wales of Welsh and English in public signage and other public spheres and the ongoing normalization of Welsh through a reorientation of the linguistic landscape. Concerted efforts by the now defunct Welsh Language Board, the Welsh language commissioner, the Welsh National Assembly, and other governmental entities have aimed at preserving and promoting the Welsh language. While Welsh is spoken by just a fifth of the population, it is increasingly woven into the sociocultural fabric of contemporary Wales. Given this revitalization, the language is considered by linguists to be a success story in language preservation. This study, which was carried out in Cardiff, the Welsh capital; Conwy, a town in North Wales; and Betws-y-Coed, a village in North Wales, documents the visual contexts in which Welsh appears on the streets and sidewalks, in retail establishments, and in museums and other places of cultural importance. Such symbolic use of a minority language amounts to what one scholar has called “a reorientation of normative space.” One notable finding is that when Welsh appears in the linguistic landscape, in the vast majority of cases, it reflects a top-down process driven by public institutions. Another key finding is that when Welsh and English appear together, typically the lettering is the same size in both languages and the amount of text is about the same. However, in a majority of cases, Welsh is featured more prominently by being displayed above or to the left of the English, although that is much more likely in Conwy or Betws-y-Coed than in Cardiff.en_US
dc.identifier.citationGriffin, Jeffrey L.. "You say potato, I say tatws: The terrain of linguistic coexistence in Wales." Rice Working Papers in Linguistics, 4, (2013) Rice University: https://hdl.handle.net/1911/75165.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/75165
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherRice University
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licenseen_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/en_US
dc.subject.keywordlinguistic landscapeen_US
dc.subject.keywordminority languagesen_US
dc.subject.keywordWelshen_US
dc.titleYou say potato, I say tatws: The terrain of linguistic coexistence in Walesen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
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