Language Minority and Majority Constellations including German

The look at European languages is traditionally nationalistic in nature. In reality, there are a number of language minority constellations in central Europe with the involvement of German: as a minority language near the closed German language region and as a majority language for various autochthonic as well as migration-induced minority languages inside of the German language region. The project’s aim is the systematic documentation and description of these different minority constellations.

For this purpose, new surveys and language recordings are being conducted since 2017 in two –  up until now – sparsely researched language minority regions (among other things); some work with speakers of German varieties in East Lorraine and the others with members of the German-speaking minority in the South Caucasus (in Georgia and Azerbaijan), who speak Swabian dialects. Additionally, further language recordings are made with Caucasus Germans who re-migrated to Germany, since they can serve as a comparison group.

Project management:
Dr. Albrecht Plewnia

Staff:
Dr. Katharina Dück
Johanna Tausch
N. N.