8 Guernsey French, identity and language endangerment Julia Sallabank Department of Linguistics & English Language, Lancaster University Introduction This chapter examines the effects of identity on revitalization efforts in the context of a small and dwindling language community. It discusses the nature and inter-relationship of identity, ethnicity and culture, and their roles in language choice and attitudes, relating these to the ethnolinguistic vitality of the indigenous language in Guernsey. It is often assumed that language plays a significant part in identity construction and identification, but this view is not necessarily consistent with the language shift taking place in many places around the world: Krauss (1992) estimates that 90 per cent of the world’s languages will have disappeared by 2010. This chapter considers the extent to which each instance of language loss or language death entails the loss of part of group or individual identity, and the role of identity in language maintenance. Background The focus in this chapter is on language shift on Guernsey, the second largest of the Channel Islands, in the Gulf of St. Malo off the coast of northern France (see the map in Figure 8.1). Despite its proximity to France, its political allegiance is to Great Britain. The main industries at present are finance (Guernsey is a tax haven) and tourism, but before World Waqr II the economy was based on agriculture and horticulture. The Channel Islands are not part of the UK and have their own parliaments which regulate local affairs, although they are dependent on the UK for foreign policy. The Islands are only associate members of the European Community, and are not subject to European laws and agreements such as the Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. Eight hundred years of political autonomy have not increased the status of the indigenous vernacular, nor has it stopped it from declining – indeed, it might be argued that language is not a symbol of independence. Guernsey French 1 is now at around level 7 on Fishman’s (1991) 8-point scale of language endangerment, i.e. most native speakers are past brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by SOAS Research Online