Attitudes towards minority languages: an investigation of young people's attitudes towards Irish and Galician

This study compares young people’s (aged 17-25) attitudes towards two of Europe’s lesser-used or minority languages. The first is Irish, spoken in the Republic of Ireland and the second is Galician, spoken in the Autonomous Community of Galicia in the north-western part of Spain. Quantitative data on attitudes towards these two languages were collected through a sociolinguistic questionnaire. This questionnaire was completed by a sample of 817 Irish and 725 Galician university students in Dublin and Vigo, Ireland’s and Galicia’s respective major cities. The results of the survey confirm general levels of support for each language. However, sizeable minorities, particularly amongst Irish students, were found to have consistently more negative attitudes. Moreover, despite general support for the presence of these languages within their respective societies and as symbols of identity, the study provides some evidence of the continued presence of deep-rooted stigmas which are attached to these languages. An analysis of the factors influencing language attitudes amongst the two student groups highlighted important differences between the Irish and Galician contexts. Most favourable attitudes towards Galician were expressed by students whose political and ethnic allegiances were most closely tied to the ideal of a Galician national identity. Positive attitudes towards Galician as a result of a strongly held Galician national sentiment were also found to be contributing to changes in the language behaviours of younger age-groups. The factors which were found to be most influential in determining attitudes towards Irish appeared to be related to these young Irish people’s experience with the language within the Irish education system. The level of support for Irish was affected by students’ academic performance in Irish as an examination subject at school, which in turn was found to govern their ability to speak and ultimately, to put the language into use