Ethnic and Language Minorities

Otgonbayar Chuluunbaatar -Ч. Отгонбаяр (Монгол улсын ШУА-ийн Хэл зохиолын хүрээлэнгийн гадаад гишүүн, Австри улсын судлаач) Монголчуудын дунд биелгээ эсвэл бүжиг гэж нэрлэдэг байхад харин ойрадууд үүнийг бий хэмээн нэрлэдэг. Ойрадын бийлэх болон бүжиглэх урлагийн төрөлд багтах Долдой зээрд хэмээх нэгэн ховор дуут бий тэр бүр манай бүжиг болон Жангар туулийн судлаачдын хараанд өртөж, бүрэн сайн танигдаагүй байсаар иржээ. Энэ Долдой зээрд хэмээх бийг ерөнхий утгаар нь Жангар судлалын нэгэн хэсэгт хамааруулан судлах бүрэн боломжтой хэмээн үзэж байна. Монголд дуут бийн энэ төрөл маш ховор бөгөөд зөвхөн Алтайн уулсын ай савд нутагладаг баруун монголчуудын нэгэн хэсэг болох ойрадын захчин угсаатны дунд биелэлээ илүү олж хөгжин, бийлэгдэж иржээ.

ENGLISH: Toponymy and signage in Friulian: an overview of the present situation. Friuli is a historical region of Northeast Italy comprising most of the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia. It presents a special linguistic situation because Friulian (a Rhaeto-Romance language), Slovene, German and Veneto speaking communities coexist alongside the Italian community. In addition to the national law n. 482/1999 which protects historical linguistic minorities, the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia has issued various laws to protect the different linguistic communities of its territory. Some of these laws contain specific rules concerning toponymy and signage in Friulian language (Regional Laws 68/1981, 15/1996, 29/2007, etc.). This paper considers the consequences of and the problems pertaining to the enforcement of these laws by local authorities (Region, Provinces, Mountain communities, Municipalities): i.e. graphization and normalization of Friulian toponymy, typologies and modes of realization of the road signs in Friulian, the relationship between the standard and local variants of place names, bi- and multilingual road signs and the Italian Highway code, the effects on and reactions of the local communities. In particular herein is shown the data collected and the results of the project "Mappatura Toponomastica del Friuli" (Toponymic Mapping of Friuli), which the author carried out in all the municipalities (177) where the legal protection of the Friulian language is in place. The paper is accompanied by photographic documentation gathered throughout the region.  /  – 
ITALIANO: Situata all’estremità nord-orientale dell’Italia, la Regione autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia presenta una situazione linguistica peculiare, poiché – oltre all’elemento italiano – vi convivono comunità retoromanze (friulane), slave, germaniche e venete. Oltre alle leggi nazionali (soprattutto n. 482/1999 di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche) la Regione autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia ha emanato varie leggi di tutela per le diverse comunità linguistiche del suo territorio, nelle quali compaiono norme specifiche sulla toponomastica. In questo contributo sono analizzati gli effetti e le problematiche legate all'applicazione di tali misure da parte degli enti locali (regione, province, comunità montane, comuni): processi di standardizzazione e normazione dei toponimi (grafia, morfo-fonologia, ecc.), rapporto tra varianti standard e varianti locali dei nomi, processi di ufficializzazione (o coufficializzazione) della denominazione friulana o slovena, segnaletica (bi- e trilingue) e codice stradale, gli effetti e le reazioni da parte delle comunità locali. In particolare sono illustrati i dati raccolti e i risultati del progetto "Mappatura Toponomastica del Friuli", che l'autore ha svolto in tutti i comuni (177) dove è prevista la tutela della lingua friulana. L'articolo è accompagnato da documentazione fotografica raccolta in tutta la regione.

This paper will deal with the well-known phenomenon of minority languages and language minorities in the United States. Minority languages are obviously seen more from linguistic, while language minorities more from sociological point of view. However, these two concepts cannot be understood separately nor can be analyzed individually. This seminar paper will provide insight to the social position, level of acceptance, and geographical distribution of minority languages, and will also provide statistics and figures from U.S. Census and Official English Campaign.

As was the case with many newly independent African nations, Somalia was beset by a language problem whose complexity had begun well before independence and the unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. With three languages (English, Arabic, and Italian) used as media of communication in government offices and in schools, various Somali administrations struggled to contain the impasse but found no tangible solution. Barely three years after Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in October 1969, he had his military regime introduce the Somali orthography in the Latin alphabet. Based on this milestone, Siad Barre's military rule is highly commended for taking a remarkable step forward in what came to be known as the Somalization project. However, officials of the government and Somali scholarship failed to

(résumé non intégré dans la publication)
En Thaïlande, où l’on compte plus de cinquante langues et dialectes appartenant à cinq familles linguistiques distinctes, les Thaï des grands centres urbains pensent - et veulent que l’on pense - que le multilinguisme du pays n’est pas leur affaire. Le système scolaire, d’autre part, a fait le choix, aussi ambitieux qu’idéaliste, de l’anglais et de quelques autres grandes langues internationales, langues à la fois géographiquement lointaines et typologiquement très différentes, aux dépens des langues des pays voisins, qui contribueraient pourtant au développement des capacités linguistiques des écoliers !

An unprecedented issue has occurred in the history of Chile, with the establishing of a Constitutional Convention to draft a new constitution. This Convention has allocated a number of seats for indigenous peoples. This has come to reveal a new linguistic issue in a country that has been thought of as monolingual and homogeneous. Indeed, problems and debates around languages are beginning to emerge. How many indigenous peoples are there? What are their languages? How many speakers do they have? These are new questions for many Chileans. It was the contemptuous and dismissive reaction of a right-wing and conservative member of the convention, Teresa Marinkovic, to the machi Francisca Linconao — another member who was speaking in her mother tongue, Mapudungun — that prompted me to develop this reflection. This reflection is based, above all, on thinking critically about the linguistic policies and planning that have been proposed so far.

Such ethno-religious groups were reported under the titles unknown or other during 7 with their cultural and political organizations, including associations, foundations, business unions, journals, and monthly newspapers, and even a new political party. The eighth chapter is Molokans in Kars: From Soviet Spying to Our Beautiful Old Neighbours argues that the Molokanism emerged as a peasant movement, and it has become an ethno-religious identity in the historical process. Then, the deportation of the Molokans to Kars and the conflictual relationship with the other local groups as well as the state in the region are mentioned. In the process, varying perceptions of Molokans in Turkey are noted, in particular how the Molokans are perceived and explained in academic studies. In their chapter Tragic Memories Encountering Ethno-Religious Revival in Contemporary SouthEastern Turkey: The Case of the Assyrian Church of the East, the Italian scholars Benedetta Panchetti and Marcello Mollica, write about the Assyrian Church of the East. The authors state that these Christians were divided into various groups due to political, geographical, and social reasons, and later became known under different names. In their work, Panchetti and Mollica consulted archival documents as well as interviews with community leaders and worshipers of the Eastern Assyrian Church. The last chapter, The Forgotten Armenians, is written by Philip O Hopkins. Hopkins begins by providing a brief synopsis of the complicated history of Armenians in Turkey. He then discusses the Genocide and its aftermath. From the time of the forced migration to Armenians currently in Turkey, Hopkins demonstrates that Armenians still play a role in society, albeit a muted one. Armenian centers in places like Van and killings are mentioned. Hopkins shows that the governmental discrimination of Armenians has a long and storied history.

The status and image of minorities often depends not on their self-perceptions, but on the official stance taken by the state in which they live. While identity is commonly recognized as malleable and personal, the official status of minorities is couched in stiff scientific language claiming to be authoritative. But as polities change, these supposedly scientific categorizations of minorities also change. Based on academic reports and parliamentary decisions, in Hungary today the Catholic South Slavs known as Bunjevci are officially regarded as an obscure branch of the Croatian nation. This has not always been the case. Early records of the Bunjevci categorized them in a variety of ways, most commonly as Catholic Serbs, Dalmatians, and Illyrians. In the nineteenth century Bunjevac elites were able to project to the Hungarian public a mythological positive historical image of the Bunjevci, delineating them from the negative stereotypes of other South Slavs. This positive image, fixed in encyclopaedias and maintained until the Second World War, represented the Bunjevci as Catholic Serbs who (unlike Croats or Orthodox Serbs) were constantly faithful to the Hungarian state and eager to assimilate. In the 1920s and 1930s traditional Hungarian stereotypes of Bunjevci protected them from abuses suffered by other South Slavs. As political relations transformed, official views of the Bunjevci also changed. With the massive upheaval during and after the Second World War, there was a change in accounts of who the Bunjevci were. The transformation from communism and the break-up of Yugoslavia have also evoked demands for changes in identity from some Bunjevci, and brought new impositions of identity upon them.

Copyright belongs to Ma Seng Mai Payap University 2012. This version is just a reshared digital copy from "https://inter.payap.ac.th/wp-content/uploads/linguistics_students/Seng_Mai_Thesis.pdf"

The thesis presents the grammatical structures of Wa using traditional linguistic terms. Wa is a language spoken in South East Asia. Its language classification falls under the Mon-Khmer sub-group of the Austro-Asiatic language family. This research is based on the Yaong Soi dialect of Wa which is regarded as the main dialect of the Wa Bible translation. A set of elicitated grammar sentences, three narratives, and personal intuition were used as data sources in this study.
The description covers several topics. It includes a general description of word classes, phrases, verbal operators, and clause structures. Noun phrase structure, tense, aspect, and modality particles were also investigated. Typologically, Wa is a head-initial language. This means objects follow the verbs and modifiers (adjectives, relative clauses, and numbers) follow the noun. There is no subject and object marking—they can be predicted by their positions. The negation in Wa is pre-verbal.
Interesting findings include: some adverbs in other languages are verbs in Wa, some of the constituents can be moved out of noun phrases, negation often involves a secondary negation particle, and Wa has two alternative clause word orders – SVO and VSO. The word order alternation is not predicted by semantics or transitivity of the verb. The analysis shows that the word order in Wa seems to vary according to the clause types.

The paper is based on field research conducted among Tanzanian and Zambian university students. Its immediate aim was to find out their attitude to the colonialism-born non-African (European and South Asian) minorities. The evidence gives reason to argue that the level of tolerance among Zambian students is higher than among Tanzanian. The most significant reasons for that are those related to the two countries’ history since the pre-colonial time, the memory of it, and this memory’s use and abuse by the post-colonial states. The greatest difference between the two cases lies in the existence since pre-colonial time of the Swahili culture and language at minimal number of expansionist centralized polities as the background for autochthonous peoples’ unity in Tanzania and lack of such a background till colonial period in Zambia. The Tanzanian situation is generally exceptional for Africa, while Zambian is typical. The theories based on the European historical experience prompt that Tanzania has better prospects for nation-building. However, we admit that in the wake of multiculturalism and profound shift in comprehension of nation as social reality in contemporary world, Zambia’s position can be even more favorable for multicultural nation-building and creation of the postcolonial nation-state than that of Tanzania.

Cet article explore la citoyenneté et l’identité à travers l’expérience de la minorité anglophone de Gatineau, 4e ville du Québec, localisée dans la région de la Capitale nationale du Canada. La géographie de ses pratiques quotidiennes, ses espaces d’appartenance et lieux d’engagement en font en effet un cas fort intéressant dans le contexte de travaux préoccupés par la flexibilité des nouvelles formes de citoyenneté. La situation de cette population minoritaire est unique car
bien que résidant au Québec elle est proche géographiquement et culturellement d’Ottawa, la capitale du Canada, qui elle est majoritairement anglophone. Nous analysons les manières particulières « d’habiter » l’espace de la minorité anglophone de Gatineau et ses prétentions citoyennes en prenant appui sur une réflexion sur les effets de la frontière sur son espace de vie quotidienne, à cheval entre Gatineau et Ottawa. Son expérience transfrontalière particulière fait
apparaître une forme assez inédite de citoyenneté que nous nommons
« affinitaire ». Fermée d’un point de vue ethnique car attachée à la collectivité anglophone, elle est néanmoins flexible géographiquement en sollicitant différentes échelles spatiales : entre le quartier et la communauté qui l’anime, et l’espace plus large de l’agglomération, de part et d’autre de la frontière.

Through Nicholas Al-Jeloo's exhibition, the general Fairfield community is able to witness the immense pride of the Assyrian people and the celebration of Persistence & Existence. The Assyrians are a key community in Fairfield. This exhibition showcases how the contemporary life of the Assyrian people is deeply rooted in the past and traditions of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria.

This presentation demonstrates the benefit of examining education language policy. Sign language studies document participants’ school location and attendance dates; addressing changing language policies in deaf education. Education of some spoken language populations parallels that of deaf Westerners. Considering such similarities, this variable should be incorporated in new variation studies.

During 25 years of independence, because of different objective and subjective reasons, independent Georgian State could not fully get over the problems concerning ethnic minorities (despite the fact that in this direction after Rose Revolution of 2003 the situation was positively changed and several steps were made) We can single out still actual several main issues concerning ethnic minorities and their integration process. Among non-ethnic Georgians, especially in the compactly populated regions the level of knowledge of Georgian language is still very low. In the country the level of unemployment is quite high and ethnic minorities are no exception too. In non-urban space the level of unemployment is higher than in urban space. As a result, Georgian population has less possibility to interact with ethnic minorities in the public sphere.  Cultural and informational alliance. The level of civic alienation is quite high too. Weak civic institutionalized space doesn’t help the colla...

Ziņojuma uzdevums bija noskaidrot vairākus jautājumus:
1. Vai jāpilnveido likumdošana, lai pilnīgāk īstenotu konvencijas 4. un
5. pantu?
2. Vai jāreformē institūcijas, kurām ir saskarsme ar mazākumtautībām vai
atbildība par tām?
3. Vai jāpilnveido esošās programmas/ prakse, un kā tas jādara?
4. Vai jāizstrādā un jāīsteno kādas jaunas programmas?
5. Kādi ir prioritārie virzieni valsts un pašvaldību iestāžu mazākumtautību
politikas finansējumam?

Cet article explore la citoyenneté et l'identité à travers l'expérience de la minorité anglophone de Gatineau, 4 e ville du Québec, localisée dans la région de la Capitale nationale du Canada. La géographie de ses pratiques quotidiennes, ses espaces d'appartenance et lieux d'engagement en font en effet un cas fort intéressant dans le contexte de travaux préoccupés par la flexibilité des nouvelles formes de citoyenneté. La situation de cette population minoritaire est unique car bien que résidant au Québec elle est proche géographiquement et culturellement d'Ottawa, la capitale du Canada, qui elle est majoritairement anglophone. Nous analysons les manières particulières « d'habiter » l'espace de la minorité anglophone de Gatineau et ses prétentions citoyennes en prenant appui sur une réflexion sur les effets de la frontière sur son espace de vie quotidienne, à cheval 1

On the basis of a thorough scrutiny of documents making part of the monitoring mechanism of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, this paper explores the relationship between prescriptions of the genre of diplomatic communication, on the one hand, and specific contextual purposes and goals of the actors, on the other. The degree of freedom within the genre of diplomatic exchanges is at the center of this study. Having analyzed the structure of documents and the use of strategies in state reports and monitoring body's opinions, I conclude that the parties are able to adjust genre prescriptions to the considerations of thematic relevance and appropriateness. They also prove knowledgeable in selecting suitable techniques according to the relative priority of the issues. Genre is therefore best seen as a resource and not as a strictly constraining factor in diplomatic communication.

The present work aims at studying the learning process features both in Canada (i.e. cayuga, cree, delaware, mohawk, ojibwe, oji-cree, e oneida) and California polysynthetic languages (Santa Barbara's area, Malibu). Methods used to convey linguistic contents about polysynthetic languages are especially investigated. For this very purpose, two study cases of major importance are analyzed: the enhancing and spreading of Canada's polysynthetic languages and the revitalization process of California's aboriginal languages. In the latter case, special attention is given to Chumash, an aboriginal language originally from Santa Barbara's area (Malibu). Educational patterns used in several situation will be compared. At last, a detailed representation of polysynthetic didactic approaches will be provided, relating the width of aboriginal communities, the linguistic vitality and the educational decisions.

Ovaj prilog bavi se problematikom održavanja hrvatskog jezika među članovima drugog naraštaja australsko-hrvatske zajednice u drugom najvećem australskom gradu Melbourneu. Cilj priloga jest najprije prikazati opće podatke o brojčanosti hrvatske govorne zajednice u Australiji i u Melbourneu i prezentirati stopu 'prelaženja' na engleski kod djece čiji su roditelji rođeni u Hrvatskoj, Bosni i Hercegovini, Vojvodini ili u Boki Kotorskoj i koji su došli u Australiju kao odrasle osobe. Glavni dio priloga sačinjava pregled najvažnijih domena u životu govornika manjinskog jezika i opis jezičnih kombinacija koje se koriste u tim životnim domenama. U zaključku su navedene prognoze o budućnosti hrvatskog jezika ukoliko sadašnji članovi druge generacije prenesu hrvatski na buduću treću generaciju, odn. na unučad hrvatskih doseljenika koji su se otisnuli na peti kontinent u pedesetim, šezdesetim i ranim sedamdesetim godinama prošlog stoljeća.

This article discusses the results of the research carried out within the frame of a joint project of two faculties Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Psychology and Education) ''Elaboration of Multilingual Education strategies for integration of ethnic minorities into society'' and focuses on the degree, quality and effectiveness of competence in the Georgian and English languages revealed by non-Georgian speaking students enrolled in Georgian Universities within the frames of the programme referred to as 4+1.

Minority languages are often reduced to their quantity: There are only x speakers left, the number of speakers is declining, and the language disappears. Speaker numbers offer a seemingly simple and objective way to quantify the development of a language. However, there is not one fail-safe way of counting languages or speakers. This paper reviews the possibilities to count languages (and speakers) and the difficulties involved when reviewing the data. Using examples from minority languages in Austria, it is shown that the resulting numbers are far from objective because they heavily depend on the way the survey is conducted: Who asks whom and how? Moreover, the definition of a ‘minority language’ itself is examined: When is a language considered a minority language? As the paper shows, the two concepts ‘minority’ (in the sense of ethnic group) and ‘minority language’ are heavily interwoven and the lines often get blurred—especially when it comes to passing laws which grant rights to minority groups. For these laws, the results of language surveys are frequently used to measure how many members of a minority group live in an area. This means that language surveys are not just a linguistic tool, but have farreaching consequences, particularly for members of a minority group.

Mniejszościowe szkolnictwo greckie w Polsce zaczęło się rozwijać w początkach lat pięćdziesiątych. W tych latach wykształtowały się dwie formy szkolnictwa narodowościowego: 1) szkoły typowo narodowościowe, w których wszystkie przedmioty wykładane były w języku danej grupy narodowościowej (szkoły I typu); 2) nauka języka macierzystego w szkołach polskich (szkoły II typu).

The main purpose of this study is to map out how leading newspapers in the U.S. are framing different ethnic groups in the Middle East in their daily reporting. For this analysis, a systematic random sample was drawn from published articles focused on two main ethnic groups in the Arab region, namely, Amazigh "Berbers," and Copts. There are 391 news stories in The New York Times and 408 news stories in Washington Post about Berbers and Copts during the last eight years (2011-2019). The study came out with the findings that American newspapers dedicated large spaces to cover the issues of minorities in the Middle East, and there was a greater tendency in the newspapers to cover Coptic minority compared to the Berber minority. The study newspapers heavily relied on minorities sources, both NYT and WP relied on 61% Coptic sources and 67% on Berbers sources. However, the data showed that Arabic sources were the least cited in stories published about minorities in the Middle East (6% in both NYT and WP). Different frames were used by NYT and WP, while NYT focused more on presenting Copts issues through international frames, WP tends to present Berbers through the cultural frame.

Wa Dictionary Project Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board, The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Copyright 2004-2005 SOAS. All rights reserved. Draft (2005-09-20) -- please do not quote without written permission.

An article in Swedish about an Arab community in Zheynov (Swed. spelling Djejnov), Uzbekistan.  ////

Most of the Central Asian Arabs live in Uzbekistan, where densely populated Arab areas can still be found. As typically static rural environments such communities have so far been able to maintain an ``Arab'' identity to varying degrees. When asked about their customs and language during a visit by the present author in September 1997, the inhabitants  of the village of Zheynov, a former collective farm to the west of the city of Qarshi in the southern part of Uzbekistan, described themselves as an ethnic group of their own with their own language. Their language, which they called Arabic, is most probably a strongly relexified Arabic language variety or possibly an Arabic-Tajik mixed language. Being an isolated rural community with low mobility their linguistic assimilation has been limited to the nearest environment, a predominantly Tajik-language but typically bilingual Tajik- and Uzbek-speaking environment. During the Soviet era their ethnic identity was to a large extent officially denied or even suppressed, according to their own historical writing (Saidov & Ravshanov 1996). After independence they now expect greater opportunities to assert their ethnicity. However, what is not taken into account by these people is a future scenario where they are very likely to become more and more exposed to and integrated in sociopolitical orders set up by a new central government which is no longer as far away as during the old regime. What will happen to such a language setting as the Arab one of Zheynov when exposed to global political actions such as language standardization and citizenship education? ////


Reference:
Saidov, Murodullo & Poyon Ravshanov 1996, Zejnov tarixi [The History of Zheynov], Tashkent: Abu Ali ibn Sina nomidagi tibbiyoti nashriyoti.

This article explores the conditions for the revocation of minority protection rules in the ten new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe. It examines the political constellations for all cases in which restrictive legislation in the area of minority protection was adopted since the beginning of accession negotiations. A strongly minority-sceptic government, high issue salience (indicated by large and mobilized minorities together with strong electoral support for nationalist parties) and a high level of protection are found to be jointly sufficient for negative change. Under such conditions, restrictive legislation is adopted even when EU conditionality and veto players are present—they at best delay and moderate the result. To illustrate this constellation, the article presents three case studies: Slovak legislation on language rights (1994-1998 and 2006-2010) and Latvian legislation in the fields of education (1997-2004) and language (1997-2000).

The main purpose of this study is to map out how leading newspapers in the U.S. are framing different ethnic groups in the Middle East in their daily reporting. For this analysis, a systematic random sample was drawn from published articles focused on two main ethnic groups in the Arab region, namely, Amazigh "Berbers," and Copts. There are 391 news stories in The New York Times and 408 news stories in Washington Post about Berbers and Copts during the last eight years (2011-2019). The study came out with the findings that American newspapers dedicated large spaces to cover the issues of minorities in the Middle East, and there was a greater tendency in the newspapers to cover Coptic minority compared to the Berber minority. The study newspapers heavily relied on minorities sources, both NYT and WP relied on 61% Coptic sources and 67% on Berbers sources. However, the data showed that Arabic sources were the least cited in stories published about minorities in the Middle East (6% in both NYT and WP). Different frames were used by NYT and WP, while NYT focused more on presenting Copts issues through international frames, WP tends to present Berbers through the cultural frame.

One hundred years is an opportune period to examine the ecology of any speech community. Within such a time period, three to five generations have been born. With the passage of time and raising of new generations, languages also change. Diachronic, or historical, studies of languages and their speakers inform us of the following: the speech varieties that groups display reflect not only their ‘inherited’ or ‘native’ language/s, (which can anyway be prone to change and even shift), but also the varieties of other groups with which they are in contact. As linguistic behaviour is reflective of the social and political circumstances that a speech community encounters, changes in these circumstances can have commensurate changes in the community’s linguistic behaviour. This paper tracks attributes of the Macedonian speech community over 100 years, from the partition of Macedonia in 1913 to the present. It briefly examines the policies that Macedonians were subjected to in regard to their native language in Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria after 1913, and focuses on how Macedonian has been maintained amongst émigré Macedonians, and their children and grandchildren born in Australia. Backgrounded by the linguistic legacies that speakers in two of the three Macedonian-speaking countries have inherited, this paper adopts a cross-perspective analysis of three generations of speakers resident in Australia and offers a ‘synchronic’ or contemporary description of speakers’ domains and their linguistic choices in them and attitudes towards the codes that make up their linguistic repertoire.

Microsociolinguistic literature quite regularly stresses that macrosociolinguistic research in the tradition of Joshua A. Fishman does not address the (linguistic) diversity in contemporary society in an adequate way. This kind of critique is appropriate to a certain extent. The macrosociolinguistic way of thinking is indeed still too caught up in what sociologists call methodological nationalism. Against the background of a sketch of macrosociolinguistic
language minority research in the tradition of Fishman, this
contribution pleas for a change of macrosociolinguistic research from
within. The main task of macrosociolinguistic research is to start looking for new ‘units of analysis’ that reflect the diversity of today’s society more appropriately. In order to reach this goal, macrosociolinguistics can make use of the - often unnoticed - diversity that is part and parcel of much of its traditional concepts.

The status and image of minorities often depends not on their self-perceptions, but on the official stance taken by the state in which they live. While identity is commonly recognized as malleable and personal, the official status of minorities is couched in stiff scientific language claiming to be authoritative. But as polities change, these supposedly scientific categorizations of minorities also change. Based on academic reports and parliamentary decisions, in Hungary today the Catholic South Slavs known as Bunjevci are officially regarded as an obscure branch of the Croatian nation. This has not always been the case. Early records of the Bunjevci categorized them in a variety of ways, most commonly as Catholic Serbs, Dalmatians, and Illyrians. In the nineteenth century Bunjevac elites were able to project to the Hungarian public a mythological positive historical image of the Bunjevci, delineating them from the negative stereotypes of other South Slavs. This positive image, fixe...

Religionssoziologische Studien der letzten Jahre (etwa Pollack 2003) bescheinigen den ostdeutschen Bundesländern zumeist einen deutlich niedrigeren Grad an Religiosität und Kirchlichkeit als Westdeutschland. Im Vergleich mit südlichen Bundesländern wie Bayern erscheint Ostdeutschland geradezu areligiös. Wirklich der ganze Osten? Alljährlich am Ostersonntag bietet sich Besuchern der sächsischen Oberlausitz ein anderes Bild: An diesem höchsten christlichen Festtag des Kirchenjahres versammeln sich vormittags neun Prozessionen mit insgesamt knapp 1.700 festlich gekleideten Reitern 1 in ihren Kirchen, um den Segen zu erbitten und die Osterbotschaft, die Nachricht der Auferstehung Jesu Christi von den Toten, durch das Land und in ihre Partnergemeinde zu tragen. Die mit elegantem Gehrock, Zylinder und weißen Handschuhen ausgestatteten Reiter sitzen auf prächtig geschmückten Pferden. Sie führen auf ihrer Prozession Kirchenfahnen, das Kreuz und die Statue des Auferstandenen mit sich, welche ihnen zuvor vom Pfarrer übergeben wurden. Dabei reiten sie zunächst unter vollem Glockengeläut dreimal um die Pfarrkirche der 4 Eine umfangreichere Einführung zur sorbischen Minderheit findet sich in: Elle 1995, eine Abhandlung sorbischer Geschichte bei Šołta (Hrsg.) 1974-1979. Die im Kontext des Osterreitens relevanten "historischen Rahmungen" werden in Kapitel 2.2 skizziert. Da sich der hier vorgestellte Brauch des Osterreitens lokal auf das Gebiet der katholischen Dörfer der Oberlausitz und Bautzen (also das östliche Sachsen) beschränkt, erlaubt sich der vorliegende Aufsatz, diese Eingrenzung zu übernehmen und die Niederlausitz auszublenden (auch wenn seit 1998 vereinzelt Versuche unternommen werden, den Brauch dort zu etablieren). Vgl. zur Situation der Niedersorben in Brandenburg, besonders vor dem Hintergrund des Einflusses der Braunkohleindustrie: Tschernokoshewa/Becker 1997. 5 "autochthon" (griech.-lat.) im Sinne von "alteingesessen, eingeboren". Konkrete Umsetzung findet dieser Schutz auf Landesebene in den Verfassungen des Freistaates Sachsen bzw. des Landes Brandenburg (1992) sowie auf Bundesebene im "Gesetz zu dem Rahmenübereinkommen des Europarates zum Schutz nationaler Minderheiten" (1997). Vgl. hierzu Pastor 1997. 6 Während der Nationalstaatenbildung im 19. Jahrhundert und der Neuordnung Europas nach den beiden Weltkriegen im 20. Jahrhundert war es den Sorben nicht gelungen, einen eigenen Staat zu etablieren oder Anschluss an die Tschechoslowakei zu erwirken, vgl. Šołta (Hrsg.) 1974-1979 (Bd. 2-4). Eingedenk des Konzeptes der Staatsnation (Meinecke) erscheint es sinnvoller, die Sorben nicht als nationale, sondern vielmehr als ethnische Minderheit zu bezeichnen. Zur Differenz zwischen nationaler und ethnischer Minderheit vgl. Polm 1995: 340. 7 Dies natürlich mit der Einschränkung, dass auch Sorben außerhalb der Lausitz leben (z.B. während der Wirtschaftskrisen seit Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts nach Australien und Texas auswanderten) oder auch heute ihre Ausbildungs-oder Arbeitsorte jenseits der Lausitz wählen (bzw. suchen müssen). 8 Prinzipiell besteht seit 1999 eine gesetzliche Festlegung des sorbischen Siedlungsgebietes (vgl. Elle 1999: 77-90). Dennoch erkennen einige Gemeinden ungern die Fremdzuschreibung als sorbische Gemeinde an, weil diese entsprechend der Minderheitenförderung mit höheren finanziellen Ausgaben verbunden ist.

El objetivo es analizar la relación que tienen los distintos grupos gitanos/romaníes en referencia a los usos de sus lenguas, considerando las diferencias internas y la vinculación de las mismas con conceptualizaciones de legitimidad y adscripción identitaria, Para tal fin se articularán dos ejes: por un lado, las prácticas lingüísticas presentes en el contexto de los movimientos de unificación gitana a nivel global, y por otro lado los usos de las lenguas en la interacción local dentro y entre los distintos grupos presentes en Buenos Aires y en relación a la sociedad mayor hegemónica.