Paper short abstract:

My paper explores the implications of the shift from oral to written languages in the context of minority languages; I draw attention to competing language ideologies as they emerge in the engagement with writing by the elderly, semi-literate population of Griko-speakers of Grecìa Salentina (Italy).

Paper long abstract:

The emergent field of degrowth studies assumes a multi-disciplinary investigation of economic, ecological and cultural sustainability. It contests growth strategies that privilege resource expenditure and accumulation (Kallis, 2011, Kallis-et-all, 2012, 2013) rather than "human relations and values" (Scheider-et-all, 2010). Building on this premise, my proposed paper aims to explore the implications of the shift from oral to written languages. This happens largely in relation to minority languages embedded in the European framework of legal recognition. At first, this shift seems to reproduce the dominant language ideology - a language becomes such when it is written, as it were. Through the analysis of the ethnographic data, my proposed paper explores the productivity of Griko, a 'dying language' of Greek origins spoken by the elderly population in the south Italian province of Lecce (Grecìa Salentina); in particular, I draw attention to competing language ideologies as they emerge in the engagement with writing by the elderly, semi-literate population. By investigating the potential of minority languages to become symbolically as well as economically valuable 'assets', notwithstanding their reduced use as communicative tools, I explore, therefore, the ways in which cultural degrowth may occur.