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From discouragement to self-empowerment. Insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the Kashubs in Poland

The paper relates the results of an ethnolinguistic vitality (ELV) survey among the Kashubs in Poland. The results reveal two interrelated layers of ELV: (1) an individual ELV reflected in language use and shaped by personal experience, emotions, and language proficiency; (2) a more collective ELV a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Olko, Justyna, Hansen, Karolina, Wypych, Michał, Kuzawińska, Olga, Bańdur, Macéj
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7446787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32817687
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237395
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author Olko, Justyna
Hansen, Karolina
Wypych, Michał
Kuzawińska, Olga
Bańdur, Macéj
author_facet Olko, Justyna
Hansen, Karolina
Wypych, Michał
Kuzawińska, Olga
Bańdur, Macéj
author_sort Olko, Justyna
collection PubMed
description The paper relates the results of an ethnolinguistic vitality (ELV) survey among the Kashubs in Poland. The results reveal two interrelated layers of ELV: (1) an individual ELV reflected in language use and shaped by personal experience, emotions, and language proficiency; (2) a more collective ELV associated with the perception of the group’s language strength, its status and utility. The most surprising predictor of linguistic praxis in our study, in addition to language skills, was the positive impact of experienced discouragement on language use. This remained significant when controlling for proficiency. We argue that the correlation between experiencing discouragement and increased language use is best explained by the self-empowerment of speakers who, earlier in their lives, met with negative attitudes toward their heritage language. Rather than succumbing to this discouragement and assimilating to the dominant language, their response was to develop an emotional link to Kashubian and increase their use of this minority language as a conscious act of self-determination and engagement.
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spelling pubmed-74467872020-08-26 From discouragement to self-empowerment. Insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the Kashubs in Poland Olko, Justyna Hansen, Karolina Wypych, Michał Kuzawińska, Olga Bańdur, Macéj PLoS One Research Article The paper relates the results of an ethnolinguistic vitality (ELV) survey among the Kashubs in Poland. The results reveal two interrelated layers of ELV: (1) an individual ELV reflected in language use and shaped by personal experience, emotions, and language proficiency; (2) a more collective ELV associated with the perception of the group’s language strength, its status and utility. The most surprising predictor of linguistic praxis in our study, in addition to language skills, was the positive impact of experienced discouragement on language use. This remained significant when controlling for proficiency. We argue that the correlation between experiencing discouragement and increased language use is best explained by the self-empowerment of speakers who, earlier in their lives, met with negative attitudes toward their heritage language. Rather than succumbing to this discouragement and assimilating to the dominant language, their response was to develop an emotional link to Kashubian and increase their use of this minority language as a conscious act of self-determination and engagement. Public Library of Science 2020-08-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7446787/ /pubmed/32817687 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237395 Text en © 2020 Olko et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Olko, Justyna
Hansen, Karolina
Wypych, Michał
Kuzawińska, Olga
Bańdur, Macéj
From discouragement to self-empowerment. Insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the Kashubs in Poland
title From discouragement to self-empowerment. Insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the Kashubs in Poland
title_full From discouragement to self-empowerment. Insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the Kashubs in Poland
title_fullStr From discouragement to self-empowerment. Insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the Kashubs in Poland
title_full_unstemmed From discouragement to self-empowerment. Insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the Kashubs in Poland
title_short From discouragement to self-empowerment. Insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the Kashubs in Poland
title_sort from discouragement to self-empowerment. insights from an ethnolinguistic vitality survey among the kashubs in poland
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7446787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32817687
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237395
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