CONTATO LINGUÍSTICO EM CONTEXTO DE OBSOLESCÊNCIA LINGUÍSTICA

DESAFIOS PARA A REVITALIZAÇÃO DO FRANCOPROVENÇAL NA FRANÇA

Abstract

We discuss the theoretical-methodological challenges of the linguistic contact approach in the context of linguistic revitalization of endangered languages under a sociolinguistic perspective. Minority languages with low social prestige in close contact with a dominant language go through processes of linguistic change that can lead to linguistic substitution, as the dominated language gradually loses its communicative functions and falls into disuse. We study the case of Francoprovençal, a regional language spoken in France. The expansion of French, the dominant language of prestige, resulted in the confinement of Francoprovençal language to small villages and rural life, causing losses in its linguistic structure. Nowadays, revitalization movements act in the valorization of the language and seek to disseminate it and give it a new role in the community. New speakers who have learned the language as a second language emerge, presenting a performance strongly marked by contact with French, which creates an opposition to the native or traditional speakers who see in their performance a corrupted version of the language, frenchified. The contact and its effects appear as a disturbing factor, and linguistic change is seen as interference of the dominant language and loss of the minority language, creating a stalemate for the revitalization.