The 'Language
History from Below' conferencemarked the launch of HISON, a
network of researchers involved in historical sociolinguistics. HISON
is intended to facilitate contacts between scholars in this
domain; to
this extent the organisers plan to organise annual conferences,
workshops and
summer schools and publish topical volumes and journal issues.
Our mailing list comprises some 300 scholars in the field.
Onbekend taalverleden - Studies in
de historische sociolinguïstiek
The book series Onbekend taalverleden - Studies in de
historische sociolinguïstiek provides a forum for
innovative research on the social history of Dutch. It contains
studies on underrepresented or forgotten aspects of that language
history, based on the analysis of primary sources. Onbekend taalverleden aims to
incorporate the newest developments in the domains of both European and
international historical sociolinguistics.
Series editors:
Wim Vandenbussche, Rik Vosters & Roland Willemyns
Publisher:
VUBPress, Brussels.
1. Guy JANSSENS,
Kris STEYAERT (with Bernard Pierret). 2008. Het onderwijs van het Nederlands in de
Waalse provincies en Luxemburg onder koning Willem I (1814-1830).
Niets meer dan een boon in een brouwketel?
2. Gijsbert RUTTEN (with Rik Vosters).
2010.
Een nieuwe Nederduitse
spraakkunst. Taalnormen en schrijfpraktijken in de Zuidelijke
Nederlanden in de achttiende eeuw.
Foundations
for a European social history of language
2011-2014
Funded by the
Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
PhD researcher: Els
Belsack
This project is
intended to apply the VUB expertise in the domain of historical
sociolinguistics and 19th century social language history on a European
level. The long 19th century (1794-1914) was the century of
language planning far beyond the Low Countries, viz. all over Europe.
Many European countries witnessed processes of nation-state formation,
on the one hand, and unprecedented language planning activity (both
corpus and status planning), on the other; elements which laid
the foundations for the present day linguistic diversity/complexity of
Europe.
Policy makers and linguists alike currently stress the importance of a
‘European language policy’, without ever elucidating the historical
basis for the present-day linguistic diversity in a scholarly
manner. There is to date not one single encompassing research
project which analyses the history of language planning in Europe on a
solid linguistic basis.
With this project, we intend to meet this challenge in partnership with
a number of excellent foreign research partners. The ongoing PhD
project focusses on parallels between Belgian and Norwegian social
language history regarding language-‘internal’ (corpus) planning
measures and language-‘external’ (status) planning measures.
200
years of Dutch philology in Flanders: the interplay between
academia, social struggle and national identity building
2011-2014
Funded by the
Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
PhD researcher: Kim
Germeys
This project aims at
the first analysis ever of the history of Dutch philology in 19th
century Flanders.
Through in-depth research on
-the contents of the study programmes at the universities of Ghent,
Louvain and Brussels,
-the theories taught
-and the social agency of the involved professors
the project will focus on the contribution of Dutch philology as a
discipline to, on the one hand, the emerging field of philology in
Europe and, on the other hand, the language struggle and the so-called
‘Flemish Movement’ as one of the most important socio-cultural events
in 19th century Flanders. The project will result in a standard
reference work that can be presented (in re-worked book format) exactly
200 years after the beginning of Dutch philology in Flanders, in 2016.
It is evident that this project will be framed in international
research cooperation regarding the history of (Dutch) philology and
regarding the interaction bewteen university language departments and
socio-cultural struggle.
Language
use, language variation and language planning in the United Kingdom of
the Netherlands (1814-1830)
2008-2011
Funded by the
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen)
PhD researcher: Rik
Vosters
Visiting postdoctoral fellow (2008-2009): dr. Gijsbert Rutten
The United Kingdom
of the Netherlands (UKN, 1814-1830) was a crucial period for the
status, form and function (and even survival) of the Dutch language in
Flanders. In the historiography of Dutch, however, this period
received little attention, so far. Much of this scarcely
available information appears to be incomplete or incorrect,
moreover. It has generally been assumed, for example, that King
Willem's language policy of total Dutchification ('one country, one
language') was doomed to fail from the very onset and that Dutch simply
could not become the intended fully-fledged language of
government. Our research data show that this 'communis opinio' is
wrong, that 'official Flanders' did work and function in Dutch only
from 1823 onwards and that Willem's language policy was a success in
the public administration.
Many of the misunderstandings about the linguistic situation in the UKN
are due to the absence of text corpora. Now that the Koninklijke
Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde has compiled an
impressive body of text material for their project on the language of
justice and court in Flanders during the UKN, it has finally become
possible to assess the real language situation at that time on the
basis of primary sources.
The present project aims at a description of language use and language
variation in judicial documents from Flanders between 1814 and
1830. Per province documents from both central and peripheral
towns will be used. The analysis will focus on the relationship
between language and policy, language and class, and language and
(official/unofficial) norms. Top of
page
Sprachkonfliktforschung
in Sprachkontaktgebieten: Die öffentliche Meinung zu
Aspekten der Position der deutschsprachigen Belgier im belgischen
föderalen System.
Joint doctorate project
between Hogeschool-Universiteit-Brussel & Vrije Universiteit
Brussel. Top of
page
A
historical-sociolinguistic analysis of ego-documents from 19th
century Flanders
2006-2009
Funded by the
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) and the Research
Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
This final
postdoctoral project deals with egodocuments from Flanders (letters,
diaries, travel journals) from the first half of the 'long 19th
century' (1787-1840). Using original documents from scribes
pertaining to all social classes, the sources will be analysed on the
levels of spelling, style, dialect interference, official writing
norms, and the social stratification of writing quality. This
should render an overview of language variation and language use during
three crucial periods of the language history on the Dutch language
area:
-the French period (1787-1814), usually branded as the catalysing
factor for the assumed decay of Dutch during the later 19th century
-the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1814-1830), during which the
Northern and Southern Low Countries (and the Dutch used in both areas)
were reunited
-and the first years of the kingdom of Belgium, the real 'anni
horribili' for Dutch in Flanders
As such, the project should provide us with new insights (based on
primary sources) in the linguistic reality of the everyday writer
during the half-century that determined the later evolution and
standardisation of Dutch in Flanders.
Language
Standardization, Ideology and Media in 19th C. Flanders
2003-2006
Funded by the
Flemish Fund for
Scientific Research (FWO-Vlaanderen)
and the Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Language planners in the late 19th
century frequently claimed that the
professional media scribes were responsible for the degeneration of the
Dutch language in Flanders at the time on the lexical, morphological
and syntactical level. So far, however, there are very few
studies
available which allow us to confirm or contradict this statement.
As such, we remain uninformed about the impact of many
sociolinguistic
factors which may (or may not) have influenced the quality of the
newspaper language at the time:
- integrationism vs.
particularism - extreme vs. moderate
integrationism/particularism - various official
orthography
guidelines - widespread spelling
variation
at the time - unofficial
metalinguistic
literature and spelling/grammar/style norms - ideological and
political
stratification of the norm debate
In order to determine
the real
influence of the printed press on the
standardization process of Dutch in Flanders during the 19th
century,
we will prepare a digital corpus of original newspapers
from Flanders, covering the whole 19th century and the various dominant
ideological positions at the time. In line with our earlier
research,
we will limit this case study to the situation in the town of Bruges.
The three main research
objectives
are the following: 1. Analyzing to
which extent
these newspapers followed one or
more of the official language norms, whether they changed their writing
policy when the norms changed, or if they used a different norm of
their own altogether. The easiest level to check this is spelling, but
we also have access to a number of style guides written in the “don’t
write… but write” tradition which provide prescriptive advice. 2. Describing the
breadth of
the stylistic continuum
in the newspapers. Previous analyses of election newspapers have
established that certain journalists were able to diversify their style
according to subject or the reading public. How should the newspaper
style be defined on the continuum between dialect and intended
standard? Did they use a regionally flavoured variety? Can one
distinguish signs of a growing “norm consciousness”? We will compare
this writing praxis with the newspaper’s theoretical claims on the
topic of standardization. 3. Providing
conclusive
evidence about the
influence of the frequently cited ideological aspects of the linguistic
debate on the actual writing behaviour of the heavily politicized
press. Comparing the different ideological backgrounds of the
newspapers and the views of the politicians they supported with the
newspaper’s writing practices should clarify to which extent language
political views were implemented in ‘their’ newspapers.
Social
Differentiation of Standardization and
Writing Traditions in Bruges between 1750-1830
2000-2003
Funded by the
Flemish Fund for
Scientific Research (FWO-Vlaanderen)
and the Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
In order to come to a full
understanding of both the standardization
process and the social stratification of the Dutch language in Flanders
during the 19th century, it is necessary to conduct a series of
research
projects on class specific language use during that period. This
project
specifically deals with the written production (in Dutch) of the
Flemish
upper middle class and upper class in the period 1750-1830 on the basis
of original sources from the town of Bruges.
The three main research objectives are the following:
1. Analysing the written language use of the social groups which
traditionally use the standard (or prestigious) varieties of a
language:
the upper middle class and the upper class. There are indications
that the actual writing practice of these groups did not conform to the
traditional image of the Frenchified Flemish upper classes. They
frequently used the Dutch language for prestigious functions, and seem
to have gone through the same problematic standardization process as
the
lower classes. Contrary to what is generally assumed, this
standardization
may have taken place before the 19th century.
2. Giving a detailed overview of the nature and the
evolution of a number of spelling and style traditions in formal
Flemish
texts. These may explain frequent writing problems appearing in
texts
from both the lower and the upper classes in the 19th century.
Referring
to similar successful projects which have been conducted in Germany
over
the past decade, this part of the project will mainly consist of a
philological
study of a diachronic selection of meeting minutes from Bruges.
3. Discussing the pragmatic value of the written varieties used
by the Flemish upper classes in the period 1750-1830. I believe
that
the diglossic model which is traditionally applied to 19th century
Flanders
is too limited: on the one hand, there are clear indications
that,
next to French, Dutch was also used for formal functions. On the
other hand, there probably was a serious degree of formal variation in
the Dutch as it was actually written by the higher classes. The
pragmatic
aspects of these variety choices have hardly been discussed so far in
the
context of the standardization of Dutch in Flanders. l
Co-edited with Ana
Deumert (Monash University, Australia), published with John
Benjamins (IMPACT series, volume 18)
The aim of this
collection of
articles
is to provide a comprehensive
comparative introductory textbook to the standardization processes of
all
the Germanic languages (Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese,
Frisian,
German, Icelandic, Luxemburgish, Norwegian, Swedish, Yiddish). In
addition
the 'unsuccessful' standardization of two Germanic dialects (Low German
and Scots) will be discussed, as well as the more recent
standardization-in-progress
of Germanic-based creoles (e.g. Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole English).
The publication will serve as a reference work presenting the
state-of-the-art
in standardization research, and provide a solid base for further
reading.
Our intention, however, goes beyond the simple compilation and
repetition
of existing knowledge. The linguistic and sociolinguistic facts will be
presented, for the first time, according to a strictly comparative
rationale.
The contributors will therefore be asked to structure their chapters in
a similar way, broadly based on Haugen's (1966, 1983) well-known
descriptive
model for language standardization. This four-step model defines the
central
dimensions along which standard languages develop, and has been used
successfully
in the study of standardization processes of various languages across
the
world. It will allow the authors to focus on those elementary formal
aspects
of standardization which are believed to exist across individual
language
histories, and thus perfectly suits the comparative purpose of the
book.
<>The book was reviewed in:
-Archivum Lithuanicum, 6, 2004. pp. 351-358. (by Giedrius
Subacius).
DOWNLOAD REVIEW
-Germanistik. Internationales Referatenorgan mit
bibliographischen Hinweisen, Band 45 (2004), 3:4, pp. 595 (by Kurt
Braunmüller). DOWNLOAD REVIEW
-Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, Volume 21, Number 1 (2006),
pp. 191-194 (by John Holm).
DOWNLOAD REVIEW
-Journal of Germanic Linguistics, Volume 16, Number 4 (2004), pp.
351-354 (by Michael Clyne).
DOWNLOAD REVIEW
-Language, Volume 82, Number 1, March 2006, pp. 195-195 (by Robert
Allen Cloutier). DOWNLOAD REVIEW
-Linguist List, Vol-15-2387. Wed Aug 25 2004. (by Stephan
Elspaß).
DOWNLOAD REVIEW
-Sociolinguistica. International Yearbook of European Sociolinguistics,
Volume 19
(2005), pp. 203-206 (by Manfred Görlach). DOWNLOAD REVIEW
-Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik, LXXII, 3 (2005),
pp. 338-339 (by Peter Auer) DOWNLOAD REVIEW
This biannual graduate course in
sociolinguistics will be devoted to
the study of aspects of the Canadian linguistic situation with regard
to
language policy and language education. It will cover, among
other
things, the Canadian federal language policy, language legislation and
language planning in the province of Quebec, the situation of
francophone
minorities outside Quebec, the status of Native languages in Canada,
educational
aspects of multilingualism and the interplay between immigration and
language
policy. Towards the end of the course a special lecture will
focus
on the many parallels between the Belgian and Canadian situation, and
on
the variety of similar or different solutions and measures taken in
each
country.
The aim of this
collection of
articles
is to provide a comprehensive
comparative introductory textbook to the standardization processes of
all
the Germanic languages (Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese,
Frisian,
German, Icelandic, Luxemburgish, Norwegian, Swedish, Yiddish). In
addition
the 'unsuccessful' standardization of two Germanic dialects (Low German
and Scots) will be discussed, as well as the more recent
standardization-in-progress
of Germanic-based creoles (e.g. Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole English).