Language Variation & Change workshop

The Workshop on Language Variation & Change will be having its first meeting this Friday, February 9, from 3:30 to 5:00 PM in Cobb 202 to hear Camilla Kleeman-Andersen present a talk titled “Can anything good come out of Upernavik? Language ideologies in Greenland” (abstract below) about the sociolinguistic effects of standardization on a dialect of Kalaallisut (Greenlandic).

As always, please visit the LVC website for more information about the workshop and our schedule this quarter. There are a number of slots still open, so if you’re interested in presenting this quarter or in the Spring, please reach out to me (sjiries@uchicago.edu).

Can anything good come out of Upernavik? Language ideologies in Greenland

Heated language debates focusing on the relationship between Greenland and Denmark have characterized the Greenlandic linguistic community for decades. What has yet to receive as much attention is the relationship between the internal languages of Greenland. With a focus on the Upernavik dialect in Northern Greenland, this presentation shows some of the stigmatization of particular dialects in Greenland. The strong Greenlandic standardization ideological mindset helped preserve Kalaallisut as the primary language in the country. However, the strong standardization ideologies can also be a weakness in preserving the different variations in the country. The presentation is based on two ongoing articles focusing on standardization ideologies and how these ideologies can erase other dialects and even stigmatize variations.