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Advertising and the future of minority languages in Europe

Advertising and the future of minority languages in Europe. Helen Kelly-Holmes & David Atkinson University of Limerick, Ireland. Research Focus. Language choice in advertising in areas of Western Europe in which there is an official regional or national commitment to the promotion of

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Advertising and the future of minority languages in Europe

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  1. Advertising and the future of minority languages in Europe Helen Kelly-Holmes & David Atkinson University of Limerick, Ireland

  2. Research Focus • Language choice in advertising in areas of Western Europe • in which there is an official regional or national commitment to the promotion of • one or more historically minoritised languages

  3. Hypotheses & Assumptions • The appearance of a marginalized language in the familiar textual frame of an advertisement has a very powerful effect • In this context (minority autochthonous languages in Western Europe), where there are by definition no monolingual speakers, language choice will always have a strongly symbolic/fetishistic element.

  4. Research Questions • To what extent are advertisers making statements about their own identity, their customers’ identities and their product’s identity through their language choices? • Do these choices contribute towards “normalization” of these historically minoritised languages across different sociolinguistic contexts?

  5. Sociolinguistic context of Irish • Irish is first official language, but English is the dominant language • 1.57 million in Republic report that they can speak Irish (pop. 3.9 million) (Census 2002) • 21.6% report using it on a daily basis, but 78% of these were school-going age • Effectively no monolingual speakers of Irish • Gaeltacht – predominantly Irish-speaking areas

  6. The Gaeltacht

  7. Irish in Northern Ireland • Good Friday Agreement (1998) enhanced status of Irish in Northern Ireland (and Ulster Scots and other languages) • “Rights, Safeguards and Equality of Opportunity (Economic, cultural and social issues)” • In relation to Irish: Commitment to take resolute action to promote the language • To facilitate and encourage spoken and written use in public • To encourage Irish-medium schools, liase with Irish-speaking community etc.

  8. Potential of Irish as advertising language • Irish has not been a language associated with the market • Both privileged and minoritised e.g. Official Languages Act 2003: “The duty of public bodies to ensure that the Irish language only, or the Irish and English languages together, are used, on oral advertisements, -whether they be live or recorded, on stationery, on signage and on advertisements under regulation to be made by the Minister. [Section 9(1)]” • For the majority of the population – strong symbolism • For those who identify themselves primarily as Irish speakers

  9. Potential of Irish as advertising language cont’d. • Why not express yourself in the most professional and correct way in the most learned and versatile of languages. Use that which is more authentically Irish than any other aspect of our most ancient but vibrant culture - OUR LANGUAGE (http://indigo.ie/~europus/). • On each page your customers will be able to choose between English and Irish. Alternatively you may choose to have a site in English only or Irish only. We encourage the use of the Irish Language. You will find that the use of Irish will attract users to your site as it adds to the unique flavour of an Irish business (www.webbery.ie)

  10. “the Irish language national weekly newspaper” ; established 1996 Aims to provide “high quality Irish language journalism” Published in a Gaeltacht region “a natural environment where the language can grow and develop” (http://gaeltacht.local.ie). “Foinse sa Rang” Read by Irish speakers throughout the country Circulation of ca. 10,000 89 advertisements from 4 issues Foinse (“Source”)

  11. Lá (“Day”) • Daily newspaper • Published in Belfast, Northern Ireland Lonely Planet - Ireland Map • 86 advertisements from10 issues • Although a daily paper, attracts less advertising than Foinse. • Circulation ca. 4,000 – not just in Belfast.

  12. Conclusions re. Advertising in Irish • Advertising is exclusively monolingual in Irish, except for some addresses, slogans etc. • Government and public sector are main advertisers in Foinse (Rep. IRL) • Arts sector is main advertiser in Lá (N.I) • Limited number of other domains (e.g. Language courses, education) • Very limited no.of “purely” commercial advertisements; these stand out visually

  13. Conclusions re. Advertising in Irish • 1. Compulsion: adherence to language policy directives (tokenistic/symbolic/ decorative or communicating with a minority group and as is their right?) • 2. Language-ideology-based marketing approach, in which the language is either a core part of the product, and so it must be used in the commercial discourse in order to add to the credibility of the product

  14. Conclusions re. Advertising in Irish • 3. Domain-specific usage: Irish is found in the domains where we expect to find it; does this challenge commonsense assumptions/ contribute to normalization? • 4. Communication with community that identifies itself with the language (more dominant in Lá (N.I. context)) -> language choice in this situation always about constructing identities for product, advertisee etc.

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