Exploring the presence of Cymraeg on TikTok
Open accessAbstract
Many of the world’s languages are endangered or vulnerable. For some of these languages, a presence in technological domains can illustrate vitality and demonstrate relevance to the lives of younger speakers. A presence on social media is often seen as particularly significant for younger speakers due to their high levels of social media use. This article explores the presence of Cymraeg (the Welsh language) on TikTok. Through the analysis of a corpus of 200 videos, the article reveals a complex and richly bilingual content space with considerable intermingling of Cymraeg and English. Commenting on videos and engaging in a text-based conversation with the content creator and other audience members is shown to be a significant activity. The corpus demonstrates that Cymraeg is being used, taught, discussed and promoted on TikTok. This article contributes to an ongoing assessment of the digital vitality of Cymraeg and extends our understanding of the role that social media can play in supporting the sustainability and vitality of minority languages.
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Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Gibson M (2015) A framework for measuring the presence of minority languages in cyberspace. In: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace Yakutsk 30 June–3 July pp. 61–70. Moscow: Interregional Library Cooperation Centre. Available at: http://www.ifapcom.ru/files/2015/khanty/yak_mling_2015.pdf (accessed 12 July 2023).
Cited by
Still being checked.
- Authors
- Cunliffe, D.
- Affiliations
- University of South Wales (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Cunliffe, Daniel
- ORCID
- Cunliffe, Daniel
- Venue
- New Media & Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2024-04-15
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 4790-4821
- ISSN
- 1461-4448 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7315
- OpenAlex
- W4394813733
- Semantic Scholar
- 5d6f0a902c4787a93d890c2a36454afa43bb51d6
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 7.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- New Media & Society (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Multilingual Education and Policy
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Digital Communication and Language
- Keywords
- Welsh language, TikTok, minority languages, language vitality, endangered languages, bilingualism, language teaching, language promotion, social media, audience engagement
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