A transition from spontaneity to planning? Economic values and educational policies in the process of revitalizing the regional language of Latgalian (Latvia)

Abstract

This paper deals with current questions in revitalizing the regional language Latgalian, one of the varieties native to Latgale, a region located in the eastern part of Latvia. It first provides an overview of domains where Latgalian is used and highlights recent changes in these. Based on linguistic landscape data as well as interviews with entrepreneurs from Latgale, it analyzes the usage value of Latgalian and relates it to perceptions of its economic potential for individual businesses and for the development of Latgale as a whole. These perceptions are then related to the presence of Latgalian in education and educational policies. On these grounds, the paper argues that the societal processes through which the status of Latgalian is negotiated have changed from being based mostly on unidirectional bottom-up initiatives towards a more complex set of factors. These include more favourable attitudes and also increasingly coherent activities by top-down actors, including government institutions, such as the approval of curricula by the Latvian Ministry of Education and Science for the written Latgalian language.

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