Structural Approach to Language Revitalisation: Revival of Aanaar Saami

Abstract

AbstractAanaar Saami is an indigenous language spoken by an estimated 400 people mainly around Lake Aanaar in Northern Finland. Within the past three decades, the once critically endangered language has acquired dozens of new speakers. This study provides a novel overview of the recent development of Aanaar Saami by combining a structural perspective to language change and an analysis of language ideologies behind probably one of the most successful language revitalisation projects in Europe. As for the ideological themes pertaining to Finnish influence on Aanaar Saami, it is possible to identify four recurring themes in the literature: (1) good vs. poor language, (2) language competence, (3) institutional domain, and (4) tolerance. The revitalisation of Aanaar Saami shows that even large-scale contact-induced changes need not result in a loss of linguistic or cultural identity among minority language speakers.