Language beliefs and the polynomic model for Corsican

Abstract

As part of the attempts to revitalise Corsican, a regional language of France, and to reverse the language shift to French, language activists and academics have sought to apply the model of a polynomic language to what is considered as one language, but what is, in fact, a number of different Corsicans, each with varying levels of mutual intelligibility. Polynomy for Corsican calls upon islanders to recognise these different varieties as one language, without discrimination between what some refer to as dialects. The foundation upon which polynomy is built is the active participation of speakers, semi-speakers, and non-speakers in the recognition of Corsican as a polynomic language. On the basis of the results from four surveys into language beliefs over a five-year period, this paper evaluates the extent to which islanders engage critically and intellectually with the concept of polynomy, with a view to assessing the feasibility of the model to change positively both language beliefs and language practices. In addition, we analyse the potential for polynomy to answer criticisms levelled at Corsican language education by inviting respondents to consider the practical application of polynomy to a key domain in language revitalisation.

Keywords:

• polynomy
• Corsican
• French
• minority language education
• language attitudes

Notes

1. See Blackwood (2008, pp. 47–49) for a full discussion of the Deixonne law.

2. This and all other translations are my own.

3. Jaffe (2005, p. 15), for example, refers to ‘more than thirty years of Corsican thinking’ in the practical application of polynomy in education.

4. Distanciated Corsican refers to the relexification process, whereby heavily Gallicised Corsican terms are replaced by a ‘Corsicanised’ item. See Blackwood (2004b) for a full discussion.

5. For an overview of social representation, see Augoustinos, Walker, and Donaghue (2006).