Language and Intangible Cultural Heritage

The next speaker in our English Language and Linguistics research seminar series is Professor Natalie Braber from Nottingham Trent University

The talk’s title is ‘Is our language part of our heritage? Intangible cultural heritage in the UK‘. There’s an abstract below.

This is an online session. Email Billy Clark to join: billy.clark@northumbria.ac.uk

Abstract:
Language is critical to individual and shared identities and is central to feelings of belonging. Access to heritage language may positively influence well-being. Gibson et al. (2021) found that amongst young people in a First People population in Australia, ‘higher levels of community language use was associated with 26% lower suicide rates’, indicating that cultural factors may be protective for those at risk of suffering transgenerational harms stemming from historical injustices and discrimination (Gibson et al. 2021, 1). Researchers recognise that ‘authorised heritage discourse’ privileges dominant hegemonic, usually Western, discourses at the expense of marginalised heritages (Smith 2006). 
 
Historically, the UK lacks any systematic framework for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH), including aspects of language such as dialects and occupational lexicons (see e.g., Braber 2022 on East Midlands ‘pit talk’). Indeed, there is a powerful misconception that the UK lacks any ICH (Waterton and Smith 2009). Only in December 2023 did the UK consider ratification of UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. This ratification means we will need to consider how to create an inventory of ICH and encourage engagement with communities to preserve and revitalise their practices, oral traditions and expressions.
 
My research challenges notions that the UK lacks ICH drawing on local and regional-level initiatives to preserve and revitalise language heritage. I argue that safeguarding language as a form of ICH is critical to delivering social justice to communities. This paper details different projects undertaken in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire which engages local communities with local dialects and languages.

Bio:
Natalie Braber is a Professor of Linguistics at Nottingham Trent University. As a sociolinguist, her research focuses on language variation (especially of the East Midlands), the language of coal miners, language and heritage, language and memory, accent discrimination and ear witness testimony. She regularly publishes articles, book chapters and books on these subjects, including Lexical Variation of an East Midlands Mining Community (Edinburgh University Press) and East Midlands English (de Gruyter). In different projects, she has worked with museums, community groups, cultural organisations, artists, musicians, poets and writers to allow for a wide engagement with ideas around language and local heritage. Her research is funded by organisations such as the Economic and Social Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy, Arts Council and National Lottery Heritage Fund.