A sociolinguistic description of Perpignan
This thesis reports on a research project conducted in Perpignan in 1988. The object of the project was to discover and describe the varieties of language present in the town, patterns of language use and language attitudes among inhabitants. Perpignan has been part of France and therefore officially French-speaking for over three hundred years, but it is historically a Catalan-speaking town, and Catalan is still spoken there, although it is now a minority language. Several other minority languages are also spoken, due to the presence of immigrant communities, most notably Spanish, Portuguese and Arab. The research took the form of a questionnaire survey, used with a representative sample of the population. The major part of the thesis consists of a presentation of the findings of the survey. It presents the responses of the sample as a whole, and then discusses in greater detail the responses of each ethno-linguistic group. The survey revealed that Catalan, the historically indigenous language of the region, is quite widely known, but little used. 54.5% of the sampled population claim some knowledge of this language, but only 19.2% actually use it regularly. The majority of the sample seems to be well-disposed
Marley, Dawn
P Philology. Linguistics
A sociolinguistic description of Perpignan. This thesis reports on a research project conducted in Perpignan in 1988. The object of the project was to discover and describe the varieties of language present in the town, patterns of language use and language attitudes among inhabitants. Perpignan has been part of France and therefore officially French-speaking for over three hundred years, but it is historically a Catalan-speaking town, and Catalan is still spoken there, although it is now a minority language. Several other minority languages are also spoken, due to the presence of immigrant communities, most notably Spanish, Portuguese and Arab. The research took the form of a questionnaire survey, used with a representative sample of the population. The major part of the thesis consists of a presentation of the findings of the survey. It presents the responses of the sample as a whole, and then discusses in greater detail the responses of each ethno-linguistic group. The survey revealed that Catalan, the historically indigenous language of the region, is quite widely known, but little used. 54.5% of the sampled population claim some knowledge of this language, but only 19.2% actually use it regularly. The majority of the sample seems to be well-disposed
sociolinguistic description report project conduct object project discover describe variety language present town pattern language_use language_attitude among inhabitant part france therefore officially french speaking historically catalan speaking town catalan still spoken although minority_language several minority_language also speak due presence immigrant community notably spanish portuguese arab take_form questionnaire_survey use representative_sample population major_part consist presentation finding survey present response sample whole discuss great_detail response ethno linguistic group survey reveal catalan historically indigenous language region quite widely know_little use sampled population claim knowledge language actually use regularly majority sample seem well