MULTILINGUALISM IN LITHUANIAN CITIES:

AIMS AND OUTCOMES OF A HOME LANGUAGE SURVEY IN VILNIUS,

KAUNAS AND KLAIPĖDA

Meilutė Ramonienė, Vilnius University

Guus Extra, Tilburg University

Multilingual Cities Project

• 6 Western European multicultural cities: • Göteborg• Hamburg• The Hague• Brussels• Lyon• MadridG. Extra and K. Yağmur, eds., 2004, Urban

Multilingualism in Europe. Immigrant Minority Languages at Home and School. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

Lithuanian cities

•Vilnius (544 206 inhabitants)

•Kaunas (350 555 inhabitants)

•Klaipėda (Lithuania’s major sea port, 184 657 inhabitants)

Research project “Language use and ethnic identity in urban areas of Lithuania”

Supported by Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation

Home language survey 2008

• Vilnius – 11 136 students from 92 schools • Kaunas – 8 479 students from 60 schools • Klaipėda – 3 726 students from 33 schools

Coverage of schools 97-99 %

• survey amongst primary school pupils • targeted pupils 8-10 years • research goal - measuring distribution and

vitality of home language use

Population of Lithuania in 20013 484 thous.

83.45%

1,5%1,23%

0,12%0,65%

6,31%

6,74%Lithuanian Polish

Russian Byelorussian

Ukrainian Jewish

Other

%

Population by Ethnicity (%)

Lithuanians

Poles Russians

Others

Lithuania

83.5 6.7 6.3 3.5

Vilnius 58 19 14 9

Kaunas 92.9 0.4 4.4 1.7

Klaipėda

71.3 0.4 21.3 27.1

South-East

45 33 13 9

Visaginas

14.9 8.6 52.4 24.1

Questions Focus

1-3 personal information (name, age, gender)

4-6school information (city, district, name, type, grade)

7-9 birth country of the pupil, father and mother

10 ethnicity

11-16 language repertoire, language proficiency, language choice, language dominance, and language preference (five dimensions)

17-20 languages learnt at/outside school and languages of media

Questionnaire

Language profile

The language profile consists of four dimensions:– reported language proficiency: the extent to which

the pupil can understand/ speak/read /write the home language;

– language choice: the extent to which the home language is commonly spoken with the mother and father, grandparents, younger and older siblings, and best friends;

– language dominance: the extent to which the home language is spoken best;

– language preference: the extent to which the home language is preferably spoken.

Reported home languages (1)

•37 languages

Ranking Language Frequency

1. Lithuanian 21073

2. Russian 10139

3. English 3180

4. Polish 2006

5. German 299

6. Belarusian 232

7. French 141

8. Ukrainian 119

9. Latvian 93

10. Armenian 38

Reported home languages (2)

0 5001000

15002000

25003000

35004000

45005000

55006000

65007000

75008000

85009000

950010000

1050011000

Russian English

Polish

German Belarusian

French Ukrainian

Latvian

Armenian Spanish

Italian Chinese

Hebrew/Jewish

Danish Turkish

Azerbaijanian Chechen

Dutch

Greek Korean

Norwegian

Swedish Arabic

Finnish Hungarian Romanian

Sign Language Czech

Estonian Hindi

Indian

Karaimic Moldavian

Portuguese Tatar

Valencian

Languages other than Lithuanian

Distributional data at city level

Vilnius

Language Frequency

Lithuanian 8707

Russian 5605

Polish 1879

English 1298

Belarusian 180

German 106

French 81

Ukrainian 50

Lettish 37

Romani 17

Kaunas

Language Frequency

Lithuanian 9026

Russian 2764

English 1364

German 116

Polish 113

French 40

Lettish 38

Belarusian 30

Ukrainian 27

Romani 21

Klaipėda

Language Frequency

Lithuanian 3340

Russian 1770

English 518

German 77

Ukrainian 42

Belarusian 22

French 20

Lettish 18

Polish 14

Armenian 9

Languages used at home

Languages Frequency

Lithuanian only

11483

Russian 8065

English 3067

Polish 1188

German 285

Belarusian 169

French 136

Ukrainian 90

Latvian 86

Armenian 29

Languages Frequency

Russian only 1449

Lithuanian 8065

English 2026

Polish 1415

German 226

Belarusian 205

French 102

Ukrainian 97

Latvian 72

Armenian 24

Languages Frequency

Polish only 315

Russian 1415

Lithuanian 1188

English 221

Belarusian 85

German 30

Ukrainian 24

Latvian 22

Russians Lithuanians Poles

Language choice for Russian (Russians)

0102030405060708090

100

7 8 9 10 11 12

Mother

Father

Grandparents

0102030405060708090

100

7 8 9 10 11 12

Younger siblings

Older siblings

Best friends

Language dominance in Russian or Lithuanian (Russians)

0102030405060708090

100

7 8 9 10 11 12

Russian

Lithuanian

Russian + Lithuanian

0102030405060708090

100

7 8 9 10 11 12

Russian

Lithuanian

Russian + Lithuanian

Language preference for Russian or Lithuanian (Russians)

Language choice for Polish (Poles)

0102030405060708090

100

7 8 9 10 11

Mother

Father

Grandparents

0102030405060708090

100

7 8 9 10 11

Younger siblings

Older siblings

Best friends

Language dominance in Polish or Lithuanian (Poles)

Language preference for Polish or Lithuanian (Poles)

0102030405060708090

100

7 8 9 10 11

Polish

Lithuanian

Polish + Lithuanian

0102030405060708090

100

7 8 9 10 11

Polish

Lithianian

Polish + Lithuanian

Language an ethnic identity (Russian schools)

0

20

40

60

80

100

tautybė namų kalbos dažniausiaivartojama namų

kalba

lietuvių

rusų

lenkų

Conclusions

• Language use habits: increasingly Lithuanian, less Russian

• Multilingualism is increasing• Russians tend to use Lithuanian more than Poles• Lithuanians: - associate their ethnic identity with their native

language• Non-Lithuanians: - associate less ethnic identity with native

language- tend to replace ethnic identity with national

identity

Thank you!