• Overview
• Research Platforms
• Thematic Area A: Language, Identity and Culture
• European Level
• National Level
• Regional Level
• Thematic Area B: Language Policy and Planning
• Thematic Area C: Multilingualism and Education
• Thematic Area D: Language and Economy
• Communication, Management, Infrastructure, Training and Gender

Local and regional varieties as markers of identity

(WP3, 2006–2008)

Summary Results

Dialects are strong markers of identity

In Istria (Croatia), the Czech part of the region Teschen Silesia and Latvia, dialects and local vernaculars serve as strong markers of identity. People tend to identify themselves most with the region they live in – and consequently with their dialect. In Istria, language is used to stress independence, in Teschen Silesia to integrate into a community and in Latvia, an almost dead language still proves to be an important aspect of identity.

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Rationale

Identity at the regional/local level has undergone significant changes during the past decades. The revitalization of dialects and local vernaculars present all over Europe have certainly had an impact on individual identity, which often had to suffer the imposition of a standard language. In the context of European policies, recognition of Europe’s minority or lesser-used languages as a source of cultural diversity has led to an added value, and in certain cases minority language speakers have become increasingly aware of their identities. In the existing tensions between global and local, language has become a powerful means of cultural resistance. A relevant issue here is the extent to which language is instrumentalised in order to enhance group identity within majority/minority settings.

Objectives

This WP provides the best units of comparison to enable both contextual specificity and structural comparisons that allow for the fact that minority/immigrant cultural integration might be influenced simultaneously by local, national and transnational factors.

Description of work

This WP envisages a comparative analysis of the experiences of Italian minority and other language/dialect groups in Istria (Croatia) with experiences of Polish minority groups in Silesia (Czech- Republic) in order to analyse the meaning of local linguistic identity and ways in which minority/local community cultural integration might be influenced simultaneously by local, national and transnational factors. Particular attention will be given to the use of linguistic and/or dialectal differences in reinforcing separation and otherness. It will also be important to see how gender and generation are significant in the formation and maintenance of linguistic practices, in the use of tradition and symbols, and in creating narratives that enforce and/or transgress cultural boundaries. The first research stage of this WP (months 1-6) provides an overview of the research and case studies conducted on the interaction of language, culture and identity at the regional/local levels with particular focus on those dealing with intergroup relations in majority/minority settings where language represents a powerful and flexible medium for assertion of identity against cultural homogenisation. Of special interest will be such studies that look into the privileged role that state policies, and their associated discourses and practices play in shaping cultural constructions of the various peoples who are subject to them, including immigrants, and how categories of identity are manipulated, contested and re-shaped. Empirical research (months 7-12) will address questions of identity in the specific domain of discourse from and about the Italian minority and other language/dialect groups in Istria (Croatia) and the Polish minority and other language/dialect groups in Silesia (Czech-Republic). One of the most significant aspects of this research is that it requires a necessarily inter-disciplinary approach. Our research will build on the ethnographic tradition, cultural studies, the life history approach, social psychology (speech accommodation theory), the phenomenological tradition, psychoanalysis and Bourdieu's social theory, in particular his concepts of ‘habitus’ and ‘conatus’ which will allow us to capture the plural nature of the process of identification and its variation according to class, gender age and other elements of social differentiations. Months 13-18 will be devoted to synthesis and the definition of new, strategic lines of research.