Strengthening Indigenous languages in the digital age: social media

Abstract

This article presents and discusses Sámi social media initiatives for strengthening languages. The Sámi are the Indigenous people of Europe. All Sámi languages are endangered, and the lack of resources for maintaining, promoting and teaching the languages has been underscored on several occasions by the European Council and the Sámi parliaments. Social media has become an arena where resources are created and shared, enabling communities of speakers to support each other and promote their languages. YouTube, blogs, Twitter and language learning applications are here discussed as public domains and community-grounded media. Based on a few examples and on our expertise as instructors within Sámi studies, we suggest strategies for developing long-lasting and innovative models for revitalizing threatened languages and cultures, and for counteracting language loss through social media. This contribution shares examples of innovative uses of social media in Sámi of relevance for other Indigenous contexts.

Keywords

social media Indigenous education revitalization Sámi

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Strengthening Indigenous languages in the digital age: social media–supported learning in Sápmi

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