Abstract
This article explores policy and pedagogical pliability as strategies for perpetuating and protecting regional languages, like Võro, in the twenty-first century. The concept of pliability, as I develop it in this article, refers to the flexibility and adaptability of policies that are free from prescriptive and strict mandates. By examining this case from Estonia, I posit that the notion of enrichment plays a significant role in shaping the pliability and durability of contemporary Estonian regional-language policy. Whether an intentional or accidental approach on the part of Võro-language supporters, an emphasis on enrichment effectively helps to position the regional-language speakers with the national majority and establish proximity to their political and cultural interests. The data for this analysis were gathered during a diachronic, qualitative yearlong, school-based ethnography of Võro-language teachers in southeastern Estonia in 2001–2002 and 2013–2014. As a result of this ethnographic analysis, I find that enrichment as an ideology carries significant implications across macro and micro levels of language planning for revitalization including contributing to the curtailment of possibilities for long-term legal recognition for the language, perpetuating a classroom emphasis on oral skills over written skills, and emphasizing the arts- and performance-based value of language learning. The article concludes with lessons learned from the pliability of policy and pedagogy for language revitalization efforts elsewhere in Europe and beyond.
References
Brown, Kara D. 2009. Market models of language policy: A view from Estonia. European Journal of Language Policy 1. 159–168.10.3828/ejlp.2009.4Search in Google Scholar
Brown, Kara D. 2010. Teachers as language-policy actors: Contending with the erasure of lesser-used languages in schools. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 41. 298–314.10.1111/j.1548-1492.2010.01089.xSearch in Google Scholar
Brown, Kara D. 2017. Policy drag & resiliency: Teachers’ response to voluntary language policyin southeastern Estonia. In Maarja Siiner, Kadri Koreinik & Kara Brown (eds.), Language policy beyond the state, 183–200. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.10.1007/978-3-319-52993-6_10Search in Google Scholar
Conley, John M, & William M O’Barr. 1998. Just words: Law, language and power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Dementi-Leonard, Beth, & Perry Gilmore. 1999. Language revitalization and identity in social context: A community-based Athabascan language preservation project in Western Interior Alaska. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 30(1). 37–55.10.1525/aeq.1999.30.1.37Search in Google Scholar
Ehala, Martin. 2006. Keelevahetuse pööramisvõimalusi Võru keelealal. Publications of Võro Institute 18, 11–26.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua. A. 1991. Reversing language shift. Clevedon, UK, Multilingual Matters Ltd.Search in Google Scholar
Fitzsimmons-Doolan, Shannon, Palmer, Deborah & Henderson, Kathryn. 2017. Educator language ideologies and a top-down dual language program. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 20(6). 704–721.10.1080/13670050.2015.1071776Search in Google Scholar
García, Ofelia, & Kate Menken. 2010. Stirring the onion: Educators and the dynamics of language education policies (looking ahead). In Kate Menken & Ofelia García (eds.), Negotiating language education policy: Educators as policymakers, 249–261. New York: Taylor and Francis.Search in Google Scholar
Golovachev, Valentin. 2007. The stages and milestones in Taiwan’s language policy. Far Eastern Affairs 35. 115–125.Search in Google Scholar
Gorter, Durk. 2015. Multilingual interaction and minority languages: Proficiency and language practices in education and society. Language Teaching 48(1). 82–98.10.1017/S0261444812000481Search in Google Scholar
Guerrettaz, Anne Marie. 2015. Ownership of language in Yucatec Maya Revitalization pedagogy. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 46(2). 167–185.10.1111/aeq.12097Search in Google Scholar
Hinton, Leanne. 2011. Language revitalization and language pedagogy: New teaching and learning strategies. Language and Education 25(4). 307–318.10.1080/09500782.2011.577220Search in Google Scholar
Hinton, Leanne, & Jocelyn Ahlers. 1999. The issue of “authenticity” in California language revitalization. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 30(1). 56–67.10.1525/aeq.1999.30.1.56Search in Google Scholar
Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle. 2007. Language-in-education across the Baltic: Policies, practices and challenges. Comparative Education 43. 553–570.10.1080/03050060701611946Search in Google Scholar
Hornberger, Nancy. 2014. “Until I became a professional, I was not, consciously, indigenous”: One intercultural bilingual educator’s trajectory in indigenous language revitalization. Journal of Language, Identity & Education 13(4). 283–299.10.1080/15348458.2014.939028Search in Google Scholar
Huang, Lillian. 2007. Strategies in revitalizing indigenous languages in Taiwan. International Conference on Austronesian Endangered Language Documentation. Providence University. 6. 25–45.Search in Google Scholar
Jaffe, Alexandra. 2008. Language ecologies and the meaning of diversity: Corsican bilingual education and the concept of ‘polynomie’. In Angela Creese, Peter Martin & Nancy H Hornberger (eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education. vol. 9. Ecology of language. 2nd edn. 225–236. Berlin: Springer.Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, David Cassels. 2009. Ethnography of language policy. Language Policy 8.139–159.Kama, Kaido. 1999. Kaasaegne võru liikumine Euroopa põlisrahvaste kontekstis [The current Võru movement in the context of European indigenous peoples]. Fenno-Ugria Infoleht 2. 10.Search in Google Scholar
Kama, Kaido. 1999, July. Kaasaegne võru liikumine Euroopa põlisrahvaste kontekstis. Fenno-Ugria Infoleht 2(10).Search in Google Scholar
King, Jeanette. 2013. Te Koanga Reo: Maori revitalization. In L. Hinton & K. Hale (eds.), The green book of language revitalization in practice, 119–128. San Diego: Academic Press.10.1016/B978-012349353-8/50017-0Search in Google Scholar
King, Kendall. 2004. Language policy and local planning in South America: New directions for enrichment bilingual education in the Andes. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 7. 334–347.10.21832/9781853598203-002Search in Google Scholar
Kõivupuu, Marju. 1997. Pärimuskultuuri õpetamisest (mitte ainult) Võrumaa koolides [the teaching of folk culture (not only) in the schools of Võru County]. Fenno Ugria Infoleht 2. www.suri.ee/il/97/2/primusku.html Retrieved December 12, 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Koreinik, Kadri. 2007. Võro: The Võro language in education in Estonia Mercator Regional Dossiers Series. Ljouwert, The Netherlands: Mercator.Search in Google Scholar
Koreinik, Kadri. 2011a. Agency Lost in the Discourse of Language Endangerment: Nominalization in Discourse about South Estonian. Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu aastaraamat 7. 77–94.10.5128/ERYa7.05Search in Google Scholar
Koreinik, Kadri. 2011b. Public discourse of (de)legitimation: The case of South Estonian language. Journal of Baltic Studies 42(2). 239–261.10.1080/01629778.2011.569071Search in Google Scholar
Koreinik, Kadri. 2013. The Võro language in Estonia: ELDIA case-specific report. Mainz, Wien, Helsinki, Tartu, Mariehamn, Oulu, Maribor: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität.Search in Google Scholar
Kurman, George. 1968. The development of written Estonian [Uralic and Altaic Series v. 90]. Bloomington: Indiana University.Search in Google Scholar
McCarty, Teresa. L. 2011. Ethnography and language policy. New York and London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Menken, Kate, & García Ofelia. 2010. Introduction. In Kate Menken & Ofelia García (eds.), Negotiating language education policy: Educators as policymakers, 1–10. New York: Taylor and Francis.Search in Google Scholar
Ministry of Culture. 2004. Riiklik programm Lõunaeesti Keel ja Kultuur [State program Southern Estonian language and culture]. www.kul.ee/print.php?path=407 (accessed 15 January 2006).Search in Google Scholar
Õunapuu, Pärja, & Õunapuu Toom. 1999. Keel ja kõne: IX klassi emakeeleõpik. [Language and speech: IX grade mother-tongue textbook].Tallinn: Koolibri. Ozolins, Uldis. 1999. Between Russian and European hegemony: Current language policy in the Baltic States. Current Issues in Language & Society 6. 6–47.Search in Google Scholar
Pasanen, Annika. 2009. Annika Pasanen: Keelepesade punumine Venemaal pole kerge [Annika Pasanen: Weaving language nests in Russia is not easy]. Fenno-Ugria Teataja 4. 3.Search in Google Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair. 2006. Postmodernism in language policy. In Thomas (ed.), An introduction to language policy: Theory and method, 60–76. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Reimann, Nele. 2000. ABC tiijuht́ kiräoppusõ manoq: abis ja juhatusõs kuulmeistrile võro keele oppamises algklassilatsilõ. Võru, Estonia: Võro Instituut.Search in Google Scholar
Ricento, Thomas. 1998. Language and policies in the United States and Canada: Myths and realities. In Thomas Ricento & Barbara Burnaby (eds.), National Language Policy in the United States. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.10.4324/9781410603890-11Search in Google Scholar
Ricento, Thomas K. & Hornberger, Nancy H. 1996. Unpeeling the onion: language, planning and policy and the ELT professional. TESOL Quarterly 30(3). 401–426.Search in Google Scholar
Riigikogu. 2011. Language Act. Retreived from https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/506112013016/consolideSearch in Google Scholar
Rüütel, A. 2002 September 1. Vabariigi Presidendi pöördumine seoses kooliaasta alguse 1. septembril 2002 [Republic Presidential appeal in connection with the start of the school year on 1 September 2002]. www.president.ee/print.document.html?gid=21090 (accessed 3 September 2002). [Presidential Homepage].Search in Google Scholar
Sallabank, Julia. 2010. Standardisation, prescription and polynomie: Can guernsey follow the corsican model?. Current Issues in Language Planning 11(4). 311–330.10.1080/14664208.2010.533343Search in Google Scholar
Soler, Josep. 2013. The anonymity of Catalan and the authenticity of Esotnian: Two paths for the development of medium-sized languages. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 16(2). 153–163.10.1080/13670050.2012.720665Search in Google Scholar
Tollefson, James W. 2006. Critical theory in language policy. In Thomas Ricento (ed.), An introduction to language policy: Theory and method, 42–59. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A. 1998. Introduction: Language ideology as a field of inquiry. In Bambi B Schiefflin, Kathryn A Woolard & Paul V Kroskrity (eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory, 1–50. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
