A Materialist Take on Minoritization, Emancipation and Language Revitalization: Occitan Sociolinguistics since the 1970s

Résumé En Oc

This paper introduces and discusses Occitan sociolinguistics as it evolved from the 1970s onward as a theory of language contact as conflict. It was developed in conjunction with its Catalan counterpart and as a reaction to Joshua Fishman’s allocational model of diglossia, and came as a response to conditions of swift social and linguistic change in Southern France after the Second World War. This model, proposed mainly at first by Robèrt Lafont in Montpelhièr, is strongly materialist in that it focuses on the material conditions of language production and replaces the language movement among other social struggles. This paper first explores the roots of the contemporary Occitan movement and its links with the birth of Occitan sociolinguistics. It then analyses key concepts in Occitan sociolinguistics such as diglossic ideology as essential concepts to understand processes of minoritization, linguistic alienation and social domination. Finally, it look at how this approach conceptualizes language revitalization not as a linguistic issue but as a social one, and suggests that Occitan sociolinguistics provide an alternative to models of language loss and revival rooted in cultural and identity politics.

Aquest article presenta e discutís la sociolingüistica occitana tala coma fuguèt concebuda despuei leis annadas 1970 coma teoria dau contact lingüistic coma conflict. Se devolopèt cotria amb la sociolingüistica catalana coma una reaccion au modèl alocacional de Joshua Fishman e venguèt coma una respònsa occitana ai condicions socialas dei cambiaments sociaus e lingüistics rapids en Occitània après la fin de la seconda guerra mondiala. Aqueu modèl, prepausat mai que mai a l’origina per Robèrt Lafont a Montpelhier, is prefondament materialist en çò que se concentra sus lei condicions materialas dei produccions lengatgieras e plaça lo moviment lingüistic entre leis autrei mobilizacions socialas. Aquest article ramenta primièr lei rasigas dau moviment occitan actuau e sei liames amb la naissença de la sociolingüistica occitana. Passa puei a l’analisi de concèpts claus coma aqueu d’ideologia diglossica coma una part centrala de la comprension dei procès de minorizacion, d’alienacion lingüistica e de dominacion sociala. Acaba amb la question de la revitalizacion de la lenga non coma question lingüistica mai coma problèma sociau, e suggesís que la sociolingüistica occitana porgís d’alternativas ai modèls analitics e explicatius basats sus la cultura e l’identitat.