Rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in Greenland
Many indigenous peoples’ languages in the world are endangered. But the special case in Greenland is the fact that Greenlandic is not an endangered language, even though less than 56,000 people speak Greenlandic. In fact, Greenlandic is spreading in Greenlandic society. The challenge in Greenland is...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Master Thesis |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Universitetet i Tromsø
2009
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/2397 |
id |
ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/2397 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/2397 2024-06-02T08:07:11+00:00 Rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in Greenland Pedersen, Ivalu Søvndahl 2009-11-15 9530058 bytes application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10037/2397 eng eng Universitetet i Tromsø University of Tromsø https://hdl.handle.net/10037/2397 URN:NBN:no-uit_munin_2147 openAccess Copyright 2009 The Author(s) VDP::Humanities: 000::Linguistics: 010 VDP::Social science: 200::Sociology: 220 sociology of multilingualism Greenland indigenous peoples self-determination bilingualism education legislation language policy and planning SVF-3904 Master thesis Mastergradsoppgave 2009 ftunivtroemsoe 2024-05-07T08:42:34Z Many indigenous peoples’ languages in the world are endangered. But the special case in Greenland is the fact that Greenlandic is not an endangered language, even though less than 56,000 people speak Greenlandic. In fact, Greenlandic is spreading in Greenlandic society. The challenge in Greenland is rather how to educate Greenlanders to become functionally bilingual in Greenlandic and Danish, considering the vast varieties of bilingual skills that exist. Greenland has been a Danish colony since 1721 but achieved Home Rule in 1979 and an increased form of self-determination called ‘Self Rule’ in 2009. With the introduction of Self Rule the Greenlandic language has raised its status and become the official language in Greenland. Greenland is dependent on the annual block grant that it receives from the Danish state. In order for the country to create a self-sustaining economy, Greenland needs to invest in education. Today it is crucial for young Greenlanders wanting a further education to learn Danish, because Greenland lacks educational material and books in Greenlandic. But the amount of people who receive a further education is limited due to lack of Danish skills. The amount of people who will go on to receive further education in the future is crucial in the process of increased self-determination. Analysing official documents at macro level, i.e. at government level, this Master’s thesis studies the sociolinguistic paradoxes within the contemporary official language policy and planning situation in Greenland, concentrating primarily on language education policy in Greenlandic state schools. Factors affecting language policy in Greenland are those of: history, decolonisation, language emancipation, self-determination, nationalism, ideology and power. This Master’s thesis argues that one of the critical issues in official Greenlandic language policy is the absence of a clear definition of the status and role of the Danish language in Greenlandic society, which needs to be clarified more professionally at ... Master Thesis Greenland greenlander* greenlandic University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Humanities: 000::Linguistics: 010 VDP::Social science: 200::Sociology: 220 sociology of multilingualism Greenland indigenous peoples self-determination bilingualism education legislation language policy and planning SVF-3904 |
spellingShingle |
VDP::Humanities: 000::Linguistics: 010 VDP::Social science: 200::Sociology: 220 sociology of multilingualism Greenland indigenous peoples self-determination bilingualism education legislation language policy and planning SVF-3904 Pedersen, Ivalu Søvndahl Rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in Greenland |
topic_facet |
VDP::Humanities: 000::Linguistics: 010 VDP::Social science: 200::Sociology: 220 sociology of multilingualism Greenland indigenous peoples self-determination bilingualism education legislation language policy and planning SVF-3904 |
description |
Many indigenous peoples’ languages in the world are endangered. But the special case in Greenland is the fact that Greenlandic is not an endangered language, even though less than 56,000 people speak Greenlandic. In fact, Greenlandic is spreading in Greenlandic society. The challenge in Greenland is rather how to educate Greenlanders to become functionally bilingual in Greenlandic and Danish, considering the vast varieties of bilingual skills that exist. Greenland has been a Danish colony since 1721 but achieved Home Rule in 1979 and an increased form of self-determination called ‘Self Rule’ in 2009. With the introduction of Self Rule the Greenlandic language has raised its status and become the official language in Greenland. Greenland is dependent on the annual block grant that it receives from the Danish state. In order for the country to create a self-sustaining economy, Greenland needs to invest in education. Today it is crucial for young Greenlanders wanting a further education to learn Danish, because Greenland lacks educational material and books in Greenlandic. But the amount of people who receive a further education is limited due to lack of Danish skills. The amount of people who will go on to receive further education in the future is crucial in the process of increased self-determination. Analysing official documents at macro level, i.e. at government level, this Master’s thesis studies the sociolinguistic paradoxes within the contemporary official language policy and planning situation in Greenland, concentrating primarily on language education policy in Greenlandic state schools. Factors affecting language policy in Greenland are those of: history, decolonisation, language emancipation, self-determination, nationalism, ideology and power. This Master’s thesis argues that one of the critical issues in official Greenlandic language policy is the absence of a clear definition of the status and role of the Danish language in Greenlandic society, which needs to be clarified more professionally at ... |
format |
Master Thesis |
author |
Pedersen, Ivalu Søvndahl |
author_facet |
Pedersen, Ivalu Søvndahl |
author_sort |
Pedersen, Ivalu Søvndahl |
title |
Rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in Greenland |
title_short |
Rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in Greenland |
title_full |
Rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in Greenland |
title_sort |
rethinking bilingualism : a sociolinguistic analysis of language planning and education legislation in greenland |
publisher |
Universitetet i Tromsø |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/2397 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland greenlander* greenlandic |
genre_facet |
Greenland greenlander* greenlandic |
op_relation |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/2397 URN:NBN:no-uit_munin_2147 |
op_rights |
openAccess Copyright 2009 The Author(s) |
_version_ |
1800752197797937152 |