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Category: Project

Description: West Frisian, the second official language in the Netherlands, is a minority language that has been classified by UNESCO as being vulnerable. West Frisian is being protected and promoted by means of provincial language planning. So far, the main focus has been on encouraging ‘traditional’ speakers to use their language. However, as a result of wider societal changes, it has become crucial to extend the focus of language planning to getting more ‘new’ speakers — that is, “individuals with little or no home or community exposure to a minority language but who instead acquire it through immersion or bilingual educational programs, revitalization projects or as adult language learners” (O’Rourke, Pujolar & Ramallo 2015: 1). New speakers can strongly contribute to the vitality of minority languages like West Frisian. However, there are comparatively few adult new speakers of West Frisian — and to date, little is known about them. Component 1 of this project examines current new speakers’ evaluative reactions towards West Frisian and its varieties. This article presents the results of component 1: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404523000805 Component 2 of the project investigates new speakers language practices and how they are affected by traditional speakers' behaviours. This article presents the results of component 2: https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad045 Component 3 investigates new speakers' motivations for minority language learning. An article based on the results of component 3 is currently in preparation. A summary of these results can be found in this research report: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8054010 The data for this project were elicited by means of the Sociolinguistics of New Speakers (SNS) Survey, which can be found in the Files section below. The SNS comprises three sections: (1) the Language Evaluations amongst New Speakers (LENS) Questionnaire, which was used to elicit the data for project component 1; (2) the Language Activation of New Speakers (LANS) Questionnaire, which was used to elicit the data for project component 2; and (3) the Motivations for Minority Language Learning (MMLL) Questionnaire, which was used to elicit the data for project component 3. You are welcome to use or adapt this survey for your own research. If you do so, please let Ruth Kircher (kircher@ecmi.de) and Mirjam Vellinga (mirjam.vellinga@afuk.frl) know — they are keen to hear about new developments regarding the sociolingusitics of new speakers in Fryslân and other minority language contexts!