“Cre’n sorçh dy Ghaelg t’ou loayrt nish?”: The intersection of ideologies and morphosyntactic variation in new speakers of Manx Gaelic

McNulty, Erin (2024) “Cre’n sorçh dy Ghaelg t’ou loayrt nish?”: The intersection of ideologies and morphosyntactic variation in new speakers of Manx Gaelic. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis explores language production and linguistic beliefs in a community of New Speakers. New Speakers are a speaker profile that have emerged from language revitalization efforts in various minoritized language communities (e.g. Irish - O’Rourke and Walsh, 2015; Galician - O’Rourke and Ramallo, 2015). New Speakers generally acquire their minority language primarily through means other than first language transmission in the home (O’Rourke, Pujolar, and Ramallo, 2015: 1), reaching “a socially and communicatively consequential level of competence” (Jaffe, 2015: 25) in their language. Research on New Speakers’ language practices indicates that both their language production and beliefs are highly variable (e.g. Hornsby, 2015; O’Rourke and Walsh, 2015) and that language beliefs may shape language practices in New Speaker communities (Rodriguez-Ordoñez, 2020; Enriquez-García, 2017).

This thesis specifically explores the intersection between morphosyntactic variation and language beliefs among New Speakers of Manx, the minoritized Celtic language spoken by around 2200 people in the Isle of Man (Isle of Man Government, 2022). Manx underwent extreme minoritization in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and by the mid-20th century ceased to be spoken by a community of traditional native speakers (Broderick, 1991). Subsequent revitalization efforts from the late 20th century onwards have resulted in a community of New Speakers, variation in whose production and beliefs is also noted (e.g. McNulty, 2023a, Ó hIfearnáin: 2015a; 2015b).

This thesis expands on this research, exploring language practices among speakers of Manx through the New Speaker framework, using the case study of Manx to examine how this framework might apply to atypical or lesser-studied minoritized varieties. It employs both qualitative and quantitative data collected through an extended period of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Isle of Man through the medium of Manx itself. The thesis investigates how New Speakers of Manx vary in their production of certain morphosyntactic constructions, as well as how they think and feel about these constructions, tying into broader themes of language ideologies and attitudes. It presents an original theoretical framework outlining the broad language beliefs present in the Manx New Speaker community. This framework explains how patterns of variation observed among these speakers might be analysed as individual speakers’ agentive use of particular constructions available to them in Manx to index commonly-held beliefs about language and linguistic identity to other community members. Therefore, this thesis has implications for how such indexicalities and patterns of variation develop in nascent varieties like Manx, which will be applicable to other minoritized and contact varieties more broadly.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Supported by funding from the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities
• Supervisor's Name: O'Rourke, Professor Bernadette, Smith, Professor Jennifer and O Maolalaigh, Professor Roibeard
• Date of Award: 2024
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2024-84467
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 17 Jul 2024 12:37
• Last Modified: 17 Jul 2024 12:49
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84467
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84467