Z1: Sprache im öffentlichen Raum
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Aims and objectives:
Language debates in Latvia often focus on the role of Latvian as official and main societal language. Yet, Latvian society is highly multilingual, and families with home languages other than Latvian have to choose between different educational trajectories for their children. In this context, this paper discusses the results of two studies which addressed the question of why families with Russian as a home language choose (pre)schools with languages other than Russian as medium of instruction (MOI). The first study analyses family narratives which provide insight into attitudes and practices which lead to the decision to send children to Latvian-MOI institutions. The second study investigates language attitudes and practices by families in the international community of Riga German School.
Methodology:
The paper discusses data gathered during two studies: for the first, semi-structed interviews were conducted with Russian-speaking families who choose Latvian-medium schools for their children. For the second study, a survey was carried out in the community of an international school in Riga, sided by ethnographic observations and interviews with teachers and the school leadership.
Data and analysis:
Interviews and ethnographic observations were subjected to a discourse analysis with a focus on critical events and structures of life trajectory narratives. Survey data were processed following simple statistical analysis and qualitative content analysis.
Findings/conclusions:
Our data reveal that families highly embrace multilingualism and see the development of individual plurilingualism as important for integration into Latvian society as well as for educational and professional opportunities in the multilingual societies of Latvia and Europe. At the same time, multilingualism and multiculturalism, including Russian, are seen as a value in itself. In addition, our studies reflect the bidirectionality of family language policies in interplay with practices in educational institutions: family decisions influence children’s language acquisition at school, but the school also has an impact on the families’ language practices at home. In sum, we argue that educational policies should therefore pay justice to the wishes of families in Latvia to incorporate different language aspects into individual educational trajectories.
Originality:
Language policy is a frequent topic of investigation in the Baltic states. However, there has been a lack in research on family language policy and school choices. In this vein, our paper adds to the understanding of educational choices and language policy processes among Russian-speaking families and the international community in Latvia.
This paper discusses contemporary societal roles of German in the Baltic states (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania). Speaker and learner statistics and a summary of sociolinguistic research (Linguistic Landscapes, language learning motivation, language policies, international roles of languages) suggest that German has by far fewer speakers and functions than the national languages, English, and Russian, and it is not a dominant language in the contemporary Baltics anymore. However, German is ahead of ‘any other language’ in terms of users and societal roles as a frequent language in education, of economic relations, as a historical lingua franca, and a language of traditional and new minorities. Highly diverse groups of users and language policy actors form a ‘coalition of interested parties’ which creates niches which guarantee German a frequent use. In the light of the abundance of its functions, the paper suggests the concept ‘additional language of society’ for a variety such as German in the Baltics – since there seems to be no adequate alternative labelling which would do justice to all societal roles. The paper argues that this concept may also be used for languages in similar societal situations and, not least, be useful in language marketing and the promotion of multilingualism.
Cette contribution se concentre sur les locuteurs de l’allemand en situation minoritaire dans le Caucase. Il s’agit de descendants d’anciennes minorités allemandes de l’Empire russe et de l’Union soviétique, qui ont émigré vers les territoires transcaucasiens en plusieurs phases à partir de la fin du xviiie siècle. Les personnes interrogées sont celles qui, en raison de mariages interethniques, ont évité les déportations de 1941 et vivent toujours dans le Caucase du Sud. Avec les méthodes caractéristiques de la sociolinguistique, l’auteure a enregistré, transcrit et analysé des entretiens formels semi-dirigés effectués en 2017 dans le Caucase du Sud avec deux générations de descendants. L’article présente la situation des variétés de l’allemand (dialecte souabe et allemand standard) et de leurs locuteurs dans des constellations de langues en contact dans le Caucase ainsi que les actions menées par différents groupes d’acteurs pour préserver la langue et la culture allemandes en Géorgie.
Le bas allemand, répandu dans le tiers nord de l’Allemagne, est une langue régionale dont l’existence est menacée. Elle compte certes encore un grand nombre de locuteurs, mais ceux-ci présentent une structure d’âge très défavorable. Depuis deux générations, la transmission de la langue au sein des familles n’est plus assurée et l’ensemble des locuteurs est fortement vieillissant. Il existe cependant une pratique de théâtre amateur très vivante dans le nord de l’Allemagne : 3 000 troupes de théâtre jouent en effet en bas allemand. Or ces petites unités organisationnelles touchent justement les jeunes avec leurs offres et leur ouvrent l’accès à la langue régionale. Une enquête menée en ligne en 2017 par le Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache et l’Institut für niederdeutsche Sprache auprès des troupes de théâtre amateur a montré que ces groupes peuvent offrir un cadre stable pour l’utilisation du bas allemand. De nombreux participants à cette enquête ont indiqué que la possibilité d’utiliser le bas allemand constituait pour eux une motivation importante pour participer à leur troupe de théâtre respective.
Öffentliche Sprachdiskurse, wie sie beispielsweise in den Medien stattfinden, werden typischerweise aus einer sprachkritischen Haltung heraus geführt. Inwieweit diese veröffentlichte Meinung tatsächlich die Mehrheitsmeinung der Sprecherinnen und Sprecher widerspiegelt, ist durchaus eine offene Frage. In diesem Beitrag berichten wir aus einer rezenten Erhebung über Spracheinstellungen in Deutschland. Wir zeigen, dass die Art der Frageformulierung einen starken Einfluss auf die Ergebnisse hat, und berichten, welche sprachlichen Veränderungen die Befragten in jüngerer Zeit angeben, wahrgenommen zu haben.
The annual microcensus provides Germany’s most important official statistics. Unlike a census it does not cover the whole population, but a representative 1%-sample of it. In 2017, the German microcensus asked a question on the language of the population, i.e. ‘Which language is mainly spoken in your household?’ Unfortunately, the question, its design and its position within the whole microcensus’ questionnaire feature several shortcomings. The main shortcoming is that multilingual repertoires cannot be captured by it. Recommendations for the improvement of the microcensus’ language question: first and foremost the question (i.e. its wording, design, and answer options) should make it possible to count multilingual repertoires.