The German Speech Area in Europe

Language maintenance and language shift

Downes (1998: 62)

Alsace: key dates

� 1648: France acquires Alsace from the Holy Roman Empire by the Treaty of Westphalia.

� 1789 French Revolution: Alsace supportive.

� 1815 Restoration of monarchy: integration of bourgeoisie.

� 1871 The newly created German Empire annexes Alsace and part of Lorraine. German sole official language.

� 1911 Autonomy of Alsace-Lorraine as a state within the Empire.

� 1919 Alsace and Lorraine returned to France by the Treaty of Versailles and integrated into centralised state. French sole official language.

� 1940-1945 Alsace incorporated into Third Reich. Rigorous suppression of French language.

� 1945 Alsace restored to France. French sole official language; initially no German teaching permitted in schools.

South Tyrol: key dates

� 1919: Tyrol south of the Brenner ceded to Italy� 1922: Mussolini comes to power: German progressively banned, and Ettore Tolomei’s

ideologies implemented� 1923-39: significant inward migration of Italian speakers to industrial area� 1939: ‘Option’: South Tyroleans given choice of becoming Italian or relocating to

Germany� 1946: South Tyrol remains Italian, but Gruber-de Gasperi agreement provides for

autonomy� 1948: Statute of Autonomy; regarded as inadequate by German speakers� 1969: ‘Paket’ package deal agreed after years of negotiation between Austria and Italy

(and several terrorist attacks and some violence) , leading to:� 1972: revised Statute of Autonomy� 2001 Third Statute of Autonomy: additional autonomous powers and measures to

promote power-sharing

South Tyrol: Key provisions

� Power-sharing in provincial legislature

� ‘Sprachgruppenzugehörigkeitserklärung’

� posts in public administration shared in proportion

� equal status for all three languages

� separate schools for German and Italian speakers, with the other language taught compulsorily

� knowledge of both major languages required in public employment

� 1997 establishment of Free University in Bolzano/Bozen

Language shift and language maintenance

� bilingualism

� domain & domain allocation

� minority language restriction

� the linguistic market

� political and legal factors

� language legislation and language planning

� language dominance

� ethno-cultural factors

� attitudes to language & language loyalty

� social meaning

� ideologies of contact

Selected bibliography

� Gardner-Chloros, Penelope (1991), Language Selection and Switching in Strasbourg. (Oxford Studies in Language Contact). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

� Gardner-Chloros, Penelope (1997), 'Code-switching. Language selection in three Strasbourg department stores'. In: Coupland, Nikolas and Jaworski, Adam (eds.), Sociolinguistics. A Reader and Coursebook. London: Macmillan, pp. 361-375.

� Hinderling, Robert, and Eichinger, Ludwig M. (eds.) (1996), Handbuch der mitteleuropäischen Sprachminderheiten. Tübingen: Narr.

� Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle (ed. (2000), National Varieties of German outside Germany. A European Perspective. Oxford, etc.: Peter Lang.

� Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle and Wolff, Stefan (eds.), Minority Languages in Europe. Frameworks, Status, Prospects. Basingstoke, New York: Palgrave Macmillan,

� Judge, Anne (2000), 'France: “one state, one nation, one language”'. In: Barbour, Stephen and Carmichael, Cathie (eds.), Language and Nationalism in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 44-82.

� Pooley, Tim (2000), 'Sociolinguistics, regional varieties of French and regional languages in France'. Journal of French Language Studies 10, 117-157.

� Vassberg, Liliane (1993), Alsatian Acts of Identity. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.� Wolff, Stefan (2003), Disputed Territories. The Transnational Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict

Settlement. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. � Wolff, Stefan (ed. (2000), German Minorities in Europe. Ethnic Identity and Cultural Belonging.

Oxford: Berghahn Books.