<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Language preservation is considered to be one of the central missions of ethnic groups. For the German minority in the Czech Republic too, language plays an important role in group identity. Its current language situation is a result of the negative historic developments after World War II and under the communist regime. Due to the forced resettlement of most German-speaking inhabitants and the subsequent assimilation policies of the communist regime, the German community underwent strong cultural and language assimilation, which is also attested by the steady decline of its membership. The study focuses on issues of the language situation of the German minority and the revitalization efforts that have been undertaken by its elite in cooperation with other relevant institutions. A research survey of the main representatives of the minority and its regional associations demonstrates their evaluations of the ways in which German language is currently used and promoted in the Czech Republic, and it also points to the different strategies they have been striving to implement to reverse the language shift.</p></abstract>

Language preservation is considered to be one of the central missions of ethnic groups. For the German minority in the Czech Republic too, language plays an important role in group identity. Its current language situation is a result of the negative historic developments after World War II and under the communist regime. Due to the forced resettlement of most German-speaking inhabitants and the subsequent assimilation policies of the communist regime, the German community underwent strong cultural and language assimilation, which is also attested by the steady decline of its membership. The study focuses on issues of the language situation of the German minority and the revitalization efforts that have been undertaken by its elite in cooperation with other relevant institutions. A research survey of the main representatives of the minority and its regional associations demonstrates their evaluations of the ways in which German language is currently used and promoted in the Czech Republic, and it also points to the different strategies they have been striving to implement to reverse the language shift.

Between Language Revitalization and Assimilation: On the Language Situation of the German Minority in the Czech Republic

Journal of Nationalism, Memory & Language Politics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Language preservation is considered to be one of the central missions of ethnic groups. For the German minority in the Czech Republic too, language plays an...

Degree of endangerment	Grade	Speaker population
Safe	5	The language is used by people of all ages, from children up.
Unsafe	4	The language is used by some children in all domains; it is used by all children in limited domains.
Definitively endangered	3	The language is used mostly by the parental generation and up.
Severely endangered	2	The language is used mostly by the grandparental generation and up.
Critically endangered	1	The language is used mostly by very few speakers, of the great-grandparental generation.
Extinct	0	There exists no speaker.

	Census
	2001	2011
Nationality	39,106	18,658
Mother tongue	41,238	14,148
Difference	–2,132	4,510
2011/2001 index	n/a	47.7
Mother tongue-to-nationality ratio	1.05	0.76

Between Language Revitalization and Assimilation: On the Language Situation of the German Minority in the Czech Republic

Pubblicato online: 30 lug 2018

Pagine: 121 - 139

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2018-0007

Parole chiave
German minority, Czech Republic, language situation, language shift, language assimilation, language revitalization

© 2018 Sandra Kreisslová, Lukáš Novotný, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Intergenerational language transmission

Differences between nationality and mother tongue in the German minority, 2001 and 2011

Between Language Revitalization and Assimilation: On the Language Situation of the German Minority in the Czech Republic

Pubblicato online: 30 lug 2018

Pagine: 121 - 139

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2018-0007

Parole chiaveGerman minority, Czech Republic, language situation, language shift, language assimilation, language revitalization

© 2018 Sandra Kreisslová, Lukáš Novotný, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Intergenerational language transmission

Differences between nationality and mother tongue in the German minority, 2001 and 2011

Parole chiave
German minority, Czech Republic, language situation, language shift, language assimilation, language revitalization