GIDS is a Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale framework developed by Joshua Fishman (1991). The framework includes eight stages 1-8, which should be read from the bottom up, assuming that stage 1 is the ideal be strived for and that revitalization of an endangered language usually starts at one of the lower stages:
2. Local/regional mass media and governance;
3. Local/regional work sphere;
4. Public schooling;
5. Schools for literacy acquisition, not in the public schooling system (incl. courses for adults);
6. Home-family-neighbourhood language use and transmission;
7. Cultural interaction in the given language involving primarily the older generations;
8. Language reconstruction and adult acquisition.
Except for a handful of committed language activists, Lower Sorbian does not have a closely-knit speech community. Young people, even if they learn it at school, can rarely hold a spontaneous conversation on a simple topic. Here, reversing language shift has to start at stage 8 (the beginning of the scale; for comparison, for Upper Sorbian stage 6, which is concerned with family, neighbourhood and community language use, has been secured). On the other hand, there is a community of people interested in preserving Lower Sorbian/Lower Lusatian culture. They observe traditional holidays and rituals, but using mostly German in the process. Lower Sorbian has a symbolic function (the language of songs, prayers and greetings), Dołowy-Rybińska 2014: 179.
Šula za dolnoserbsku rěc a kulturu (the School for Lower Sorbian Language and Culture) offers activities that could be considered in terms of stages 8 and 7 of Fishman's GIDS scale: language courses, seminars and lectures about the history and culture of Lower Lusatia, etc. (Dołowy-Rybińska 2014: 180). Stage 6, which requires intergenerational language transmission at home, is probably unattainable. Stages 5-4 of the GIDS scale, concerned with literacy and education, are addressed by the Witaj program (see the Wiki for more details).
Stages 3-1 are concerned with the presence of the minority language in the public sphere. In the Wiki, the legislative framework and some institutions created to protect Lower Sorbian culture (and language) are described. There are some Lower Sorbian newspapers and other publications, local TV and radio programming in Lower Sorbian, and Lower Sorbian institutions that employ Lower Sorbian speakers. Lower Sorbian is protected by the local Brandenburg law and by the European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages, but not by German law on the federal level.
The main language revitalization program for Lower Sorbian is Witaj bilingual education in kindergarten and school. The School for Lower Sorbian Language and Culture organizes language courses, conferences, seminars, public lectures and other events regularly. There are also language camps organized in both Lower and Upper Lusatia, often central in new speakers' learning biographies, and Lower Sorbian tables organized once per month in Leipzig and Dresden (SMiLE 2019).
Online resources include digital corpora, online dictionaries, digital library and encyclopedia, teaching materials, basic online course, song-book app, YouTube, Lower Sorbian wikipedia. It should be noted that new technologies have positive but also negative outcomes: the Sorbian languages do not have enough human and other resources to keep up with technological progress – what cannot be easily done in these languages is then done in German and English (SMiLE 2019).
Language revitalization programs are often started with the “common-sense” understanding that the language in question is in a dire need of protection and preservation. Thus, it is frequently the case that the planning phase is too rushed or non-existent. An associated problem is the lack of prior ideological clarification. We discuss it with regard to Lower Sorbian in Hornsby et al. 2021. The lack of clear goals of Lower Sorbian language revitalization is also visible in the literature. For example, Lewaszkiewicz (2014) argues that what Lower Sorbian revitalizers should aim for is a stable diglossia, where German performs high-prestige functions and Lower Sorbian remains the language of family and community use. It should be emphasized that Fishman considers stable diglossia a transitional phase before attaining stable bilingualism (1991). For Marti, a possible solution would be to “merge” Lower and Upper Sorbian into one language (with two/multiple equally valid local standards, such as British and American English or European and Brazilian Portuguese), which would have a better chance to survive (1990: 79). The controversy of Lower Sorbian spelling (which, modelled after Upper Sorbian, was rejected by traditional speakers) clearly shows that this is not an option for Lower Sorbian speakers.
References:
Dołowy-Rybińska, Nicole. 2014. Sytuacja Języków Łużyckich – Stan, Instytucje, Działania Rewitalizacyjne. Zeszyty Łużyckie 48: 173–90.
Fishman, Joshua A. 1991. Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Hornsby, Michael, Dołowy-Rybińska, Nicole, Chojnicka, Joanna and Toutous, Jeanne. 2021. The ideological foundations of Breton and Lower Sorbian language revitalization through education and their consequences for new speakers. Submitted to the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.
Lewaszkiewicz, Tadeusz. 2014. Dolnołużycki i Górnołużycki - Języki Zagrożone Czy Wymierające? Slavia Occidentalis 71 (2): 37–53.
Marti, Roland. 1990. Probleme Europäischer Kleinsprachen Sorbisch Und Bündnerromanisch. München: Otto Sagner.
SMiLE = Sustaining Minority Languages in Europe. 2019. Project conducted by Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska and Cordula Ratajczak financed by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage. Unpublished materials.
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