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Latvia
(2019)
This chapter deals with current issues in bilingual education in the framework of language and educational policies in Latvia, and also outlines similarities or common tendencies in the two other Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania. As commonly understood in the 21st century, the term ‘bilingual education’ includes ‘multilingual education, as the umbrella term to cover a wide spectrum of practice and policy’ (García, 2009: 9).
When we first started the project of looking at minority languages through a linguistic landscape lens, we felt that the visibility of minority languages in public space had been insufficiently dealt with in traditional minority language research. A linguistic landscape approach, as it had developed over the last years, would constitute a valuable path to explore, by looking at the ‘same old issues’ of language contact and language conflict from a specific angle. We were convinced that fresh linguistic landscape data would be able to provide innovative and useful insights into ‘patterns of language […] use, official language policies, prevalent language attitudes, [and] power relations between different linguistic groups’ (Backhaus 2007, p. 11). The linguistic landscape approach, as presented by the different authors in this volume, has clearly proven to be a heuristic appropriate and relevant for a wide range of minority language situations. More specifically, the ideas and analyses in the different chapters do contribute to a further understanding of minority languages and their speakers. They deepen our comprehension of language policies, power relations and ideologies in minority language settings.
This chapter explores the Linguistic Landscape of six medium-size towns in the Baltic States with regard to languages of tourism and to the role of English and Russian as linguae francae. A quantitative analysis of signs and of tourism web sites shows that, next to the state languages, English is the most dominant language. Yet, interviews reveal that underneath the surface, Russian still stands strong. Therefore, possible claims that English might take over the role of the main lingua franca in the Baltic States cannot be maintained. English has a strong position for attracting international tourists, but only alongside Russian which remains important both as a language of international communication and for local needs.
This chapter will present results of a linguistic landscape (LL) project in the regional centre of Rēzekne in the region of Latgale in Eastern Latvia. Latvia was de facto a part of the Soviet Union until 1991, and this has given it a highly multilingual society. In the essentially post-colonial situation since 1991, strict language policies have been in place, which aim to reverse the language shift from Russian, the dominant language of Soviet times, back to Latvian. Thus, the main interests of the research were how the complex pattern of multilingualism in Latvia is reflected in the LL; how people relate to current language legislation; and what motivations, attitudes and emotions inform their behaviour.
In der akademischen Diskussion zum Global English hat sich seit den 1980er Jahren ein Modell etabliert, das die Staaten, in denen Englisch gesprochen wird, idealtypisch in drei Kreise einteilt: Den Inneren Kreis, in dem Englisch wichtigste Sprache der Gesellschaft sowie L1 eines Großteils der Bevölkerung ist, den Äußeren Kreis, wo Englisch L2 und eine wichtige Sprache unter mehreren ist, sowie den Erweiterten oder Expandierenden Kreis, in dem Englisch als Fremdsprache und als Lingua Franca dominiert (Kachru, 1985). Dieser Beitrag zeigt anhand einer Bestandsaufnahme gesellschaftlicher Funktionen des Deutschen weltweit, dass dieses Modell auch auf das Deutsche übertragen werden kann. Allerdings unterscheidet sich das Deutsche in einigen erheblichen Aspekten vom Englischen: Zum Inneren Kreis gehören die Länder des deutschsprachigen Kerngebietes, zum Äußeren Kreis Länder, in denen Deutsch anerkannte Minderheitensprache ist, und zum Erweiterten (oder im Falle des Deutschen eher Bröckelnden) Kreis Länder, in denen es einzelne deutsche Sprachinseln oder eine deutschsprachige Diaspora gibt, wobei letztere auch erst in jüngster Zeit entstanden sein kann. Schließlich diskutiert der Aufsatz die Position des Baltikums in diesem Modell.
The establishment of Scottish Parliament: What difference does it make for the Gaelic language?
(2004)
After the Labour government takeover in Westminster in 1997, followed by the referendum on establishing a Scottish Parliament, hopes for more support for the Gaelic language in Scotland were nourished. In the election campaign to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, all parties which were elected to Parliament had mentioned Gaelic, and all parties except the Conservatives had promised an increase in support for Gaelic (cf. Scottish parties’ election manifestoes, obtainable from the parties or via their web sites). Now that the new Scottish Executive, formed by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, has been in power for some time, it is interesting to see if these hopes have been fulfilled.
The two core questions of this paper will thus be:
1. What is the status of Scottish Gaelic after the devolution process?
2. What difference does the existence of the Scottish Parliament make for the status of Gaelic?
It is important to note that this paper refers to language status and Gaelic’s position from a mere language policy perspective. The results are mostly based on an analysis of Parliament documents, the method of investigation being strictly philological. Empirical research has not yet been undertaken. The reference time of my paper will be the first year of Scottish Parliament and the new executive. Even though this is an arbitrary time break, the first year is a symbolic point of time. As the first legislation period as a possibly more natural reference point is not over yet, this choice seems legitimate.
Preface
(2015)
Russia, its languages and its ethnic groups are for many readers of English surprisingly unknown territory. Even among academics and researchers familiar with many ethnolinguistic situations around the globe, there prevails rather unsystematic and fragmented knowledge about Russia. This relates to both the micro level such as the individual situations of specific ethnic or linguistic groups, and to the macro level with regard to the entire interplay of linguistic practices, ideologies, laws, and other policies in Russia. In total, this lack of information about Russia stands in sharp contrast to the abundance of literature on ethnolinguistic situations, minority languages, language revitalization, and ideologies toward languages and multilingualism which has been published throughout the past decades.
This chapter analyses the impact of political decentralization in a state on the position of ethnic and linguistic minorities, in particular with regard to the role of parliamentary assemblies in the political system. It relates a number of typical functions of parliaments to the specific needs of minorities and their languages. The most important of these functions are the representation of the minority and responsiveness to the minority’s needs. The chapter then discusses six examples from the European Union (and Norway) which prototypically represent different types of parliamentary decentralization: the ethnically defined Sameting in Norway and its importance for the Sámi population, the Scottish Parliament and its role for speakers of Scottish Gaelic, the German regional parliaments of the Länder of Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony and their impact on the Frisian and Sorbian minorities respectively, the autonomy of predominantly German-speaking South Tyrol within the Italian state, and finally the situation of the speakers of Latgalian in Latvia, where a decentralized parliament is missing. The chapter also makes suggestions on comparisons of these situations with minorities in Russia. It finally argues that political decentralization may indeed empower minorities to gain a greater voice in their states, even if much ultimately depends on individual factors in each situation and the attitudes by the majority population and the political center.
Every Regional Dossier begins with an introduction about the region in question, followed by six chapters that each deal with a specific level of the education system (e.g. primary education). Chapters 8 and 9 cover the main lines of research into education of the minority language under discussion, and the prospects for the minority language in general and in education in particular, respectively. Chapter 10 provides a summary of statistics. Lists of (legal) references and useful addresses regarding the minority language are given at the end of the dossier.
This dossier consists of an introduction to the region under study, followed by six sections each dealing with a specific level of the education system. These brief descriptions contain factual information presented in a readily accessible way. Sections eight to ten cover research, prospects, and summary statistics. For detailed information and political discussions about language use at the various levels of education, the reader is referred to other sources with a list of publications.
Ob es um die Rechtschreibreform geht, um Anglizismen im Deutschen oder um den Umgang mit Migranten- oder Minderheitensprachen - Debatten und Meinungen zu Sprache(n) und Sprachformen sind Teil unseres Alltages. Dass Sprache auch Gegenstand der Politik ist, also Sprache und das Verhältnis von Sprachen in der Gesellschaft bewusst oder unbewusst gesteuert werden, wird dagegen in deutschsprachigen Kontexten eher selten thematisiert. Diese Einführung gibt einen Überblick über Ansätze, Praktiken, Theorien und Perspektiven auf wichtige Bereiche der Sprach(en)politik. Der erste Teil erläutert den theoretischen Hintergrund, der zweite Teil stellt eine Reihe von Ländern vor, die beispielhaft für wichtige Ansätze der sprachpolitischen Praxis stehen, aber auch nach ihrer Bedeutung für die größten philologischen Fächer (Germanistik, Anglistik, Romanistik) ausgewählt wurden. Damit liegt die erste systematische deutschsprachige Einführung in ein Thema vor, das international seit langem ein großes Maß an Aufmerksamkeit erhält. Sie richtet sich an Studierende und Lehrende sprachwissenschaftlicher Fächer und Nachbardisziplinen ebenso wie an Akteure der sprachpolitischen Praxis.
Linguistic Landscapes (LL) sind in der internationalen Soziolinguistik und verwandten Disziplinen in aller Munde. Seit Mitte der 2000er Jahre sind Studien, die sich als Teil dieses Ansatzes verstehen, wie Pilze aus dem Boden geschossen. Seit 2008 hat es in fast jährlichem Rhythmus gut besuchte Tagungen gegeben, die sich ausschließlich mit Linguistic Landscapes beschäftigen - sowohl mit Fallstudien aus aller Welt als auch mit theoretischen und methodologischen Fragen. Folgerichtig sind nicht nur eine Vielzahl von Einzelaufsätzen erschienen, es hat auch mehrere Sammelveröffentlichungen gegeben, und seit 2015 erscheint ein eigenes Journal unter dem Titel „Linguistic Landscapes“ (vgl. Gorter 2013 für einen Überblick über die Entwicklung des Ansatzes).
Obwohl auch Wissenschaftler, die im deutschsprachigen Raum tätig sind, sich in den letzten Jahren den Linguistic Landscapes gewidmet haben, hat die Methode in deutschsprachigen Publikationen jedoch bisher nur einen vergleichsweise geringen Stellenwert eingenommen. Dieser Beitrag möchte somit zum einen Grundlagenarbeit leisten, indem er die Idee der Linguistic Landscapes noch einmal vorstellt und seine Entwicklung der vergangenen Jahre nachzeichnet. Zum anderen soll im Kontext dieses Bandes der Nutzen des Ansatzes für die Analyse von Sprachen von Migrantengruppen diskutiert werden. Schließlich wird der Beitrag durch einige Bemerkungen dazu abgerundet, in welchem Maße die Untersuchung von LL einen Nutzwert haben kann, der über wissenschaftliche Kreise hinausgeht. Grundlage für diesen Beitrag sind internationale Veröffentlichungen der letzten Jahre, vor allem aber gehen Erfahrungen aus eigenen Studien mit ein, die wir seit 2007 mit unterschiedlichen Zielsetzungen im Baltikum und in Deutschland durchgeführt haben.
This chapter investigates policies which shape the role of the German language in contemporary Estonia. Whereas German played for many centuries an important role as the language of the economic and cultural elite in Estonia, it severely declined in importance throughout the twentieth century. Mirrored on this historical background, the paper provides an overview of the current functions of German and attitudes towards it and it discusses how these functions and attitudes are influenced by policies of various actors from inside and outside Estonia. The paper argues that German continues to play a significant role: while German is no longer a lingua franca, it still enjoys a number of functions and prestige in clearly defined niches involving communication within German-speaking circles or between Estonians and Germans. The interplay of language policies of the Estonian and the German-speaking states as well as by semi-state and private institutions succeed in maintaining German as an additional language in contemporary Estonia.
This chapter introduces readers to the context and concept of this volume. It starts by providing an historical overview of languages and multilingualism in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, highlighting the 100th anniversary of statehood which the three Baltic states are celebrating in 2018. Then, the chapter briefly presents important strands of research on multilingualism in the region throughout the past decades; in particular, questions about language policies and the status of the national languages (Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian) and Russian. It also touches on debates about languages in education and the roles of other languages such as the regional languages of Latgalian and Võro and the changing roles of international languages such as English and German. The chapter concludes by providing short summaries of the contributions to this book.
This chapter investigates differences in language regards in Latvia and Estonia. Based on the results of a survey that had about 1000 respondents in each country, it analyses general views on languages and language-learning motivation, as well as specific regards of Estonian, Latvian, Russian, English, German and other languages. The results show that languages and language learning are generally important for the respondents; language-learning motivation is overwhelmingly instrumental. Besides the obvious value of the titular languages of each country, English and Russian are to differing degrees considered of importance for professional and leisure purposes, ahead of German, Finnish (in Estonia) and French, whereas other languages are of little relevance. In more emotionally related categories, differences are more salient. L1-speakers of Russian differ in their views from L1-speakers of Estonian and Latvian, indicating that the linguistic acculturation of society in Estonia tends to be more monodirectional towards Estonian, whereas in Latvia there are more bidirectional tendencies as both Latvian and Russian L1-speakers regard each other’s languages as at least moderately relevant.
Dieser Beitrag vergleicht die Ansätze ,Linguistic Landscapes' (LL) und ,Spot German' (SG) in Hinblick auf ihr Potenzial für die Untersuchung des Vorkommens und der Funktionen der deutschen Sprache in Regionen außerhalb des deutschsprachigen Kerngebietes. Als Beispiele wurden eine LL-Studie im Baltikum sowie eine SG-Untersuchung auf Zypern gewählt. Der Vergleich zeigt, dass beide Methoden - trotz ihrer unterschiedlichen Präzision - ähnliche Aussagen zur Rolle des Deutschen erlauben: In beiden Ländern erscheint Deutsch als „Ergänzungssprache“ zu den gesellschaftlichen Hauptsprachen in bestimmten Nischen, z.B. im Tourismus und in Verbindung mit bestimmten Firmen und Produkten.
Studies on the Linguistic Landscapes (LLs) investigate frequencies, functions, and power relations between languages and their speakers in public space. Research on the LL thereby aims to understand how the production and perception of signs reflect and simultaneously shape realities. In this sense, the LL is one of the most dynamic places where processes of minoritization take place: the (in)visibility of minority languages and the functional and symbolic relationships to majority languages are in direct relationship with negotiations of minorities’ place in society. This chapter looks at minority languages in the LL from two major perspectives. Firstly, it discusses language policies, focussing on which policy categories and which domains of language use are of particular relevance for understanding minority languages in the LL. Then, it turns to issues of conflict, contestation, and exclusion by providing examples from a range of geographically and typologically prototypical case studies, including Israel, Canada, Belgium, the Basque Country, and Friesland.
Research on language politics, policy, and planning is of importance to contact linguistics, since political relations between groups of language users, the way in which the use of language(s) is organized, and how language issues are politicized fundamentally shape the political and social conditions under which language varieties are in contact. This chapter first provides a short sketch of how language policy, planning, and politics have so far been conceptualized. Major subfields will be discussed, and then relevant actors and factors in these processes will be introduced. At the end, these aspects will be discussed from a contact linguistic perspective and summarized in a graphic visualization.
Numerous academics and politicians have in recent years contributed to the description and analysis of language policy for the benefit of smaller languages. The present paper tries to add to these by taking up the notion of yet another aspect of politics and language, exemplified by two case studies. The political aspect is the decentralization of parliamentary power for the benefit of minority languages. The two case studies deal with the relationship between the Scottish Parliament and the Gaelic language on the one hand, and between the Norwegian Sarni Parliament, the Sameting, and the Sami language on the other hand. The underlying idea is to consider whether parliamentary bodies may contribute to the empowerment of speakers of minority languages regarding the language of individual choice in as many instances as possible. This applies to any domain of language use, but in particular public bodies, education, and the media, at local, regional and national levels.
Nach einem kurzen Überblick über die heutige sprachökologische Situation in Lettland möchte ich dabei auf die Rolle der deutschen Sprache in verschiedenen Bereichen der lettischen Gesellschaft eingehen. Komplettiert wird der Überblick über die deutsche Sprache im heutigen Lettland durch einige Überlegungen zu Maßnahmen, die die Situation zugunsten des Deutschen ändern könnten.
Dieser Beitrag möchte einen Überblick über die Rolle geben, die die Regionalsprache Lettgallisch im Bildungssektor im Baltikum spielt. Zum einen soll in groben Zügen die historische gesellschaftliche Entwicklung des Lettgallischen mit einem Schwerpunkt auf dem Bildungsbereich dargestellt werden, zum anderen werden Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre diskutiert, in denen Diskurse und Einstellungen zum Lettgallischen eine Wandlung durchlaufen. Der theoretische Rahmen dafür sind internationale Diskussionen zu Regional- und Minderheitensprachen sowie Debatten in der Bildungspolitik. Damit soll nicht zuletzt Aufmerksamkeit für das Lettgallische in der deutschsprachigen Wahrnehmung des Baltikums generiert werden, das in einem Kompendium zu Bildungsgeschichte(n) im Baltikum nicht fehlen darf. Nach einer kurzen Einführung in die Region Lettgallen (Latgale) und das Lettgallische folgen aktuelle Beispiele für den sich ändernden Gebrauch des Lettgallischen und seine Einordung in Diskurse zu Minderheitensprachen. Schließlich wird auf jüngste politische Entwicklungen eingegangen, etwa im Kontext der Ausarbeitung neuer Lehrstandards für die staatlichen Schulen in Lettland.