Open Access

Die Europäische Union hat zur Mehrsprachigkeit einen Strategieplan erstellt, der eine Perspektive befördert, um die sprachliche Diversität positiv zu werten. Vor diesem Hintergrund lässt sich eine Tatsache nicht leugnen: Wenn die Mehrsprachigkeit allgemein gefördert werden soll, dann bringen Sprecher(innen) von Sprachminderheiten - historische, lang ansässige bis hin zu neuen Minderheiten - eine Sprachkompetenz in die Union ein, die ihnen eine herausragende Stellung und Chance zuweist. Die Herausforderung an die Gesellschaft ist dabei dreifach: die Bedürfnisse nach Spracherhalt der Herkunftssprachen mit der Notwendigkeit der sprachlichen Integration von Immigranten zu verbinden und für alle den Zweit-, Drift- und Fremdsprachenerwerb zu fördern. Von wissenschaftlicher Seite her ist dabei eine Definition von Mehrsprachigkeit zu klären, die dem heutigen Wissenstand Rechnung trägt. Zusätzlich wird der Begriff der Multikompetenz eingeführt. Damit wird versucht, das mehrsprachige Repertoire eines Individuums mit seinem sprachbiographischen Hintergrund zu fassen und mit seinen Anpassungsfähigkeiten, die aus der Interaktion mit der Umwelt erwachsen, zu verbinden. Der Beitrag veranschaulicht an Beispielen aus dem Schweizer Kontext und anhand eines europäischen Vergleichs die sprachliche Verwobenheit der drei Stränge - historische Minderheiten, Immigration und Fremdsprachenunterricht - in einer pluriellen Gesellschaft. Ein Rückblick auf Studien zu Binnenmigration in der Schweiz, zu Interaktionsanalysen und zu statistischen Daten zur sprachlichen Integration von Fremdsprachigen in der Schweiz bietet Anlass zu einem Ausblick auf die europäischen Herausforderungen. Diese werden mit ersten Ergebnissen des laufenden EU-Forschungsnetzwerkes LINEE, in dem mehrsprachige Schulkontexte quer durch Europa vergleichend untersucht werden, untermauert.

During the 19th century German became similar to French and English in its general importance. This position was largely due to the influence of the newly reformed system of education and research in which German speaking countries played an important role. Obviously, things have changed since then, the use of German nowadays reflects its status as a large European language, with the international language being English. This change in status is often seen as a fundamental loss. But, taking into account all the prerequisites and historical developments of the linguistic landscape, German has been rather successful. Arguments for this position – and corresponding facts - are presented in the following paper

Being visible may be as important for minority languages as being heard. Traditional research on minority languages focuses on language maintenance and language shift, on language endangerment and revitalization, on language transmission in the family, on education, and on language policies in other social domains such as the media. Although literacy has become an important issue also for speakers of minority languages, much less attention has been given to the written displays of minority languages in the public space. In this volume, our aim is to explore the contribution of linguistic landscape research to the understanding of the dynamics of minority language situations, with an explicit focus on Europe. We wish to add a new perspective to the long history of studies of linguistic minorities, because we believe the aspect of the visibility of minority languages in public space has received too little attention in traditional minority language research. The linguistic landscape approach seems particularly appropriate for a number of reasons. First, it adopts an all-encompassing view on written language in the public space, paying attention to all signs, rather than limiting its scope to the study of predominantly one type of signs. Second, linguistic landscape research not only studies the signs, but it investigates as well who initiates, creates, places and reads them. Moreover, linguistic landscape research as presented in this volume looks at how the linguistic landscape is manipulated — consciously or unconsciously — in order to confirm or to resist existing or presumed language prestige patterns and hierarchies.

This chapter familiarises readers with main concepts of language policy and planning (LPP) from an LL perspective. The chapter provides an overview of the development of the understanding of LPP, culminating in an up-to-date definition. Then, it visualises relations between the LL and LPP through an application of the Holistic Ecolinguistic Model for the Analysis of Language Policy (HEMALP). As a case in point, the paper provides insight into two LL projects conducted in 2022 in Latvia: First, an analysis of the semiotics and languages used during protests against the Russian war and crimes in Ukraine shows how a changing geopolitical situation may trigger LPP changes, e.g. with regard to the tolerance of vulgarisms and the roles of Russian, English and of multilingual signs in general. Second, an LL study in a rural parish in Eastern Latvia reveals changing practices of Latvian, Latgalian, English and Russian and identity-related semiotics, pointing to public space as a palimpsest of language policies.