ABSTRACT

A growing body of literature has addressed the ‘complex layers and nuances of today’s multilingual, mobile and global society’ [Barakos & Selleck, 2019, Elite multilingualism: Discourses, practices, and debates. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40(5), 361]. Heller [2010. The commodification of language. Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, 101–114] argues that the globalised new economy is bound up with transformations of language and identity in many different ways [e.g. Bauman, 1997. Postmodernity and its discontents. London: Routledge; Castells, 2000. The information age: Economy, society and culture (3 vols). Oxford: Blackwell; Giddens, 1990. The consequences of modernity. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University California Press]. This paper examines how these themes play out in Wales, in the relative value placed on Welsh and English by ‘new’ or ‘learner’ speakers of Welsh. These ‘new’ or ‘learner’ speakers have learnt a minority language often through non-traditional routes and this article seeks to understand what linguistic varieties are capitalised by these learners, how they characterise their own language knowledge, and how these ‘new speakers’ position themselves in relation to mobility and the new globalised economy. Additionally, the paper seeks to explore how disparities in terms of access to resources can impact on new speakers’ trajectories – in other words, how different routes to bilingualism are perceived as opening or closing metaphorical doors.

摘要

越来越多的文学作品论及了“当今多语言，移动和全球社会的复杂层次和细微差别” [Barakos＆Selleck，2019，精英多语言论：话语，实践和辩论。多语言和多元文化发展杂志，40（5），361]。海勒[2010。语言的商品化。《人类学年度评论》，第39卷，第101-114页]认为，全球化的新经济以多种不同的方式与语言和身份的转变紧密相关[eg Bauman，1997.后现代性及其不满。伦敦：Routledge；Castells，2000年。信息时代：经济，社会和文化（3卷）。牛津：布莱克威尔；吉登斯，1990年。现代性的后果。伯克利/洛杉矶：加利福尼亚大学出版社]。本文以威尔士语的“新”或“学习者”讲者对威尔士语和英语的相对价值来考察这些主题在威尔士的表现。这些“新”或“学习者”的讲者经常通过非传统途径学习了少数民族语言，本文旨在了解这些学习者利用了哪些语言种类，他们如何表征自己的语言知识以及这些“新讲者”如何在交通和新的全球化经济中定位自己。此外，本文试图探索在资源获取方面的差异如何影响新演讲者的轨迹，换句话说，如何将通往双语的不同途径视为打开或关闭隐喻之门。