Identities in action: a nexus analysis of identity construction and language shift

• Published in: Visual Communication
• Main Author: Lane, Pia
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2009
• Subjects: Visual Arts and Performing Arts; Communication; Canada; Norway; Finn; Bugøynes; Northern Norway
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470357209343360; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1470357209343360

This article investigates language shift and identity construction in two Finnic-speaking communities: Lappe in Ontario, Canada and Bugøynes in Northern Norway by asking how the people of these two communities perceive themselves at a time when their minority language is in the process of disappearing. Identity construction through visual and linguistic means are analysed and compared. In both communities, people speak similar minority languages, observe similar traditions and have Finnish items in their homes, but such actions do not carry the same symbolic value. In Lappe, these items and traditions have been allocated social meaning; they are explicitly referred to as ‘Finn’, whereas similar items and traditions do not carry any overt symbolic value in Bugøynes. This symbolic value, or lack thereof, is not a direct result of the items and traditions themselves; rather they mediate social action. An analysis of the social actions and the way these actions take part in identity construction reveals that it is not the traditions and items in themselves that carry symbolic value, but rather the actions that precede or accompany them.