LANGUAGE ECOLOGY RE-ORIENTATION IN A CONTEMPORARY METROLINGUAL FRAMEWORK: A CRITICAL PARADIGM SHIFT TO AN EXPANDED, COMMON STANDARD ALBANIAN

LANGUAGE ECOLOGY RE-ORIENTATION IN A CONTEMPORARY METROLINGUAL FRAMEWORK: A CRITICAL PARADIGM SHIFT TO AN EXPANDED, COMMON STANDARD ALBANIAN

Kolgjini, Julie M.

Given present emergent trans-local new media in de-territorialized and poly-lingual milieus, an approach to the current Unified Literary Albanian (ULA) that integrates elements of Gramscian-esque and Bakhtinian-esque optics on language would be more in sync with contemporary poly-glossic realities of numerous Albanian speech communities in 21st century linguistic marketplaces than the language’s present standard. Such reforms could serve as partial remedies for current linguistic injustices and insecurities regarding various purported dysfluencies of marginalized and disenfranchised speakers of stigmatized Albanian varieties, thereby averting returning to past repressions. This alternative positioning allows younger generations of language learners to exercise their agency in arriving at “their own emergent orders of normativity” (Leppänen et al., 2009, p. 1080). Espousing this perspective encourages language guardians with ortholinguistic tendencies to refocus their energies from “deeply entrenched dogmas” (Del Valle, 2014, p. 370) of standard language ideology focusing on linguistic imposition and denigration, and exclusionary policies that neglected to integrate rich socio-historical realities of the languagers, to an inclusive linguistic regime that embraces the present linguistic diversity of polycentric sociolinguistic spaces. Instead of perpetuating outdated language policies involving inflexible linguistic intolerances of bygone eras that (still) attempt to hermetically seal language and prevent any leakage, cross-contamination, trans-languaging, or codemeshing from one variety (in)to another, mutual accommodation and communicability are advocated here. Given the diffusion of polycentric sociolects in various locales where Albanian is employed, “putting the toothpaste back in the tube” could be rather challenging and futile. Thus, various gatekeeping pedagogies, including many current replacement and appropriateness paradigms, could be ineffectual given contemporary metrolingual realities of many Albanian languagers and learners.

Article
PeerReviewed

International Burch University

2015-07

2893