Standardization of the Inuit Language in Canada

This research project describes the various efforts at the standardization of Inuktut in Canada. The questions investigated relate to pedagogical considerations of accounting for dialectal differences and the different writing systems in Canada. These questions will hopefully serve as a resource to promote understanding and awareness of the different dialects and the writing system used in the Inuit regions of Canada and which of them might be most appropriate and readily accepted as ‘the dialect of instruction’. This research will also have implications for the governments in the Inuit regions and their curriculum development– all of which have a stake in the successful implementation of the new standards as they will have to ensure it is taught to the Inuit students across Canada. It should be noted that the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami also includes the standardization of Inuktut across the four Inuit regions as a priority in the Strategy on Inuit Education (2011). ----- Ce projet de recherche a pour but de décrire les divers efforts de standardisation de l’inuktut au Canada. Les questions abordées ici sont liées aux considérations pédagogiques au sujet des différences dialectales et des divers systèmes d’écriture au Canada. Ces questions sont conçues comme une ressource pour encourager la prise de conscience et la compréhension des divers dialectes et systèmes d’écriture utilisés dans les régions inuites du Canada et pour aider à déterminer quel dialecte pourrait être admis comme ‘dialecte d’instruction’. Cette recherche aura également des conséquences pour les gouvernements dans les régions inuites du Canada et leur développement du curriculum puisque – comme ils devront assurer son enseignement aux étudiants inuits à travers le Canada – ils ont tous un intérêt dans l’implémentation réussie de nouveaux standards. Il est à noter que l’Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, l’organisation inuit au Canada, a également indiqué dans sa Stratégie sur l’Éducation Inuite en 2011, que la standardisation de l’inuktut dans les quatre régions inuites est une priorité majeure

Standardizing minority languages: Competing ideologies of authority and authenticity in the global periphery

This book addresses a crucial, yet often overlooked dimension of minority language standardisation, namely, how social actors engage with, support, alter, resist and even reject standardisation processes. We look at standardisation processes as a political domain where social actors use standards as semiotic resources for articulating discourses on society. The chapters in this volume are therefore concerned first and foremost with social actors, their ideologies and practices, rather than with language per se. By considering the perspectives and actions of people who participate in or are affected by minority language politics, this volume aims to provide a comparative and nuanced analysis of the complexity and tensions inherent in minority language standardisation processes. Echoing Fasold (1984), this involves a shift in focus from a sociolinguistics of language to a sociolinguistics of people. How do social actors experience and negotiate these predicaments? Why are standards for minoritised languages sometimes sought after and praised and at other times vehemently contested and rejected? What are the consequences of standardisation projects for different people? It is these questions that this volume considers through case studies of minority language standardisation from around the world. The authors, who come from very different backgrounds with respect to involvement in standardisation processes, draw on ethnographic, historical and discourse data in order to examine standardisation projects in diverse settings. In bringing these case studies and analyses together, we aim to provide both empirical and conceptual insights into minority language standardisation. This volume highlights the role of social actors in the creation and negotiation of standards, and the diversity of marginalised or peripheral speech communities in which standardisation efforts occur. Focusing on ground-level processes and participants allows us to illuminate ways in which projects to standardise minoritised languages echo, reinvent, and at times subvert the characteristics of language standardisation established since the 18th century. Beginning with a reflection on language standardisation from a historical perspective (section 2), we then define our focus on minority/ minoritised language communities and discuss the nature of standardisation projects in these settings in particular (section 3). We conclude with an overview of the volume (section 4)