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Gastronomy, Football, and Resistance: The Multi-faceted Visibility of Corsican in the Linguistic Landscape

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Book cover French Language Policies and the Revitalisation of Regional Languages in the 21st Century

Abstract

This chapter discusses a variety of settings in which the Corsican language is visible in the contemporary Corsican linguistic landscape. Examples are drawn from an empirical corpus of 5638 signs, sampled on 20 prominent streets in each of Ajaccio and Bastia, the island’s largest towns. Quantitative assessments reveal contextual, authorial, and material trends in Corsican sign-writing, whilst qualitative analyses inform detailed discussions of the language in the fields of gastronomy, support for the cities’ rival football clubs, and resistance to national identity through texts linked to the independence movement. Whilst regional languages in France are frequently associated with minorities, tradition, and the past, the data discussed in this chapter demonstrate the widespread visibility of Corsican, and its use in multiple aspects of contemporary life.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the case of Ajaccio, this approach required adaptation to account for the fact that the city centre curves around a bay. Investigations made on foot indicate that the focal point of the city lies on the west side of the bay, amongst the majority of the largest streets, shops, and public buildings.

  2. 2.

    The variables and values within them have been developed from existing methods and theories in the LL field, including work by Cook (2013), Jaworski (2010), Kallen (2010), Reh (2004), Scollon and Scollon (2003), Solé Camardons and Romaní (1997). These and other methodological developments are discussed in detail elsewhere (Amos and Soukup forthcoming).

  3. 3.

    All percentages are rounded up to the nearest 0.1%.

  4. 4.

    The total number of values shown for each variable differs because the variables did not each include the same number of values. Whilst only five values were recorded in the materiality variable, for example, the site variable contained 42 values, and field yielded 47 values.

  5. 5.

    Image reproduced for clarity from http://www.vogliadifrancia.it/2015/06/16/corsica-storia-damore-e-di-birra/pietra-rossa/.

  6. 6.

    Several scholars have commented on the parallels drawn by various European regionalist movements with the Scottish case. See Pittock (2008) for an overview, as well as Moreno (2006), Paquin (2002), and Sorens (2009).

  7. 7.

    This is here discussed in the context of the LL. For more information on Corsica’s various independence movements and their links with language politics, see Arrighi (2002), Arrighi and Jehasse (2008), Jaffe (1999, 2014), and Serrano (2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    H. William Amos

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  1. H. William Amos
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Correspondence to H. William Amos .

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  1. School of Arts, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Michelle A. Harrison

  2. School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland

    Aurélie Joubert

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Amos, H.W. (2019). Gastronomy, Football, and Resistance: The Multi-faceted Visibility of Corsican in the Linguistic Landscape. In: Harrison, M.A., Joubert, A. (eds) French Language Policies and the Revitalisation of Regional Languages in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95939-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95939-9_8

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