http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6226-6352
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ABSTRACT
Researchers of minority language media are increasingly interested in the role of internet-based communication in language usage, maintenance, and revitalisation. This study explores the use of hashtags signifying the Welsh/Cymraeg, Frisian/Frysk, and Irish/Gaeilge languages on Twitter. Acknowledging the challenges of interpreting social media data, we focus on the hashtag and what it can tell us about the social and digital lives of minority languages. Specifically, we examine the agents using those hashtags, the topics they discuss, the languages used and the extent to which ambient communities may be formed through their use. Our analysis reveals different types of agents who are active and who have a variety of purposes in applying the minority language hashtag – sometimes to promote content in the minority language, more often to draw attention to content about those languages. Comparative analysis between the three language hashtags reveals statistically significant differences along a number of different dimensions, indicating that each minority language hashtag community has its own unique character. Through this comparative, platform-specific contribution we reach some generalisations concerning minority languages in the digital age, while also paying attention to the particularities of each language context and the exploitable features of social media for those languages.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Sarah McMonagle http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6226-6352
Daniel Cunliffe http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9142-185X
Lysbeth Jongbloed-Faber http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9048-3664
Notes
1. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and for the helpful comments that have led to its improvement. It was not possible to address many suggestions within the confines of the current paper, although they will help the development of our research.
3. Officially designated Irish-speaking areas, located mainly along the western seaboard as well as in counties Meath and Waterford.
4. boyd (Citation2015) argues that social media is a phenomenon, to be described in the singular, as opposed to the more grammatically correct ‘phenomena’, as it refers to a set of practices, tools, and ideologies.
5. Born on Twitter, the hashtag has spread to other social media as well as to the offline world. Heyd and Puschmann (Citation2017) note the commodification, professionalization and deictic status of hashtags in offline semiotic contexts. As such, the hashtag is appropriated for non-digital modes. However, the searchable, dialogic, and affiliative functions of digital hashtags are not transferable.
6. http://indigenoustweets.com/, accessed 14 July 2017. The figures for the top four languages have not been updated since April 2017, for technical reasons.
7. χ2 = 59.475, p < .001.
8. χ2 = 248.653, p < .001.
9. Twitter handles representing ‘private individual’ accounts have been anonymised.
10. χ2 = 471.527, p < .001.
11. In Welsh, there is a distinction between Cymraeg (Welsh – the language) and Cymreig (Welsh – originating in or belonging to Wales) as well as further words referring to Welsh people.
15. The authors speculate that, as minority language users began to use Twitter, they may have been more inclined to apply the minority language hashtag in order to connect with topics and other users – to create ‘ambient affiliations’ (Zappavigna Citation2011) – in the respective language. As Twitter ‘followings’ increase and stabilise, the necessity of the hashtag to affiliate may become less. We also speculate that users of ‘smaller’ languages may continue to apply their respective minority language hashtag. Such speculations must be tested and verified by further studies.
16. χ2 = 128.195, p < .001.
17. At the time of writing, @Ga_Vicipeid had last tweeted in November 2012; @Vicipeid_IE began tweeting in July 2017.
22. In both Welsh and Irish, initial mutations may occur in certain grammatical situations. Thus, for Welsh it was necessary to additionally search for the mutated forms of #cymraeg (#gymraeg, #nghymraeg, and #chymraeg) and for Irish, the mutated forms of #gaeilge (#anghaeilge, #ghaeilge, and #ngaeilge).
23. A distinct advantage of using Twitter in language-related research is its open API and the fact that the majority of Twitter accounts are public. Other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Snapchat, are more challenging for such research as access to user-generated content must usually be granted by users themselves.