The Effects of the Beginning of University Studies on the Language Revitalisation of Skolt Saami as Seen from the Perspective of Students and the Language Community
Abstract This study examines how the beginning of Skolt Saami studies at a university has affected the revitalisation of the language, as seen from the perspective of both students and the Skolt Saami language community. Skolt Saami is one of the three Saami languages spoken in Finland, along with A...
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| Format: | Book Part |
| Language: | unknown |
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Springer International Publishing
2023
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42979-8_4 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-031-42979-8_4 |
| Summary: | Abstract This study examines how the beginning of Skolt Saami studies at a university has affected the revitalisation of the language, as seen from the perspective of both students and the Skolt Saami language community. Skolt Saami is one of the three Saami languages spoken in Finland, along with Aanaar (Inari) Saami and North Saami. All Saami languages are endangered languages. Today, the majority of native speakers (ca. 300) live in Finland. I approach the research topic from the perspective of reversing language shift, which refers to a situation in which, due to various active measures, a language shift from a minority language to a majority language is successfully halted or decelerated. My focus is on a situation in which a minority language acquires the status of a university major. The data consists of interviews with Skolt Saami students at the University of Oulu. |
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