Wolfgang Haubrichs
THE WAR OF PROFESSORS.
Argumentation in the domain of language history and language politics
DURING THE CONTENTION FOR ALSACE-LORRAINE BETWEEN 1871 AND 1918
The Franco-German war of 1870/71, which ended with the cession of the Alsace and German-
speaking Lorraine, was not only a war of armies, but also by scholars of both participating
nations, particularly by geographers, economists, theologians and historians. During this sharp
and piercing dispute many scholars withdrew and joined the intellectual mainstream of their
nation. In doing so they affirmed increasing antagonism between Germany and France in the
next few decades, which gained its most irréconciliable expression in the myth of the „inherited
enemies“ („Erbfeinde“). The study focuses on arguments extracted from the History of
Language as a supposed nationbuilding force and from the concept of ,VolkstunT (nationalité,
race).
Johannes Kramer
„TWO AND A HALF LINGUALISM“ (CASE STUDIES ON CORSICA, CURASAO, THE SEYCHELLES,
the GrOden valley and Luxemburg)
The author analyzes a special kind of trilingualism that could be called ,,two-and-a-half-
lingualism“ (asymmetrical trilingualism). Language A enjoying the highest prestige and having
to be acquired at school is opposed to two quite different varieties of a second language B that is
not closely related to A: the non-regional variety Bi exists in a standardised form with a rich
tradition whereas the regional variety B2 is still in the first phase of „Ausbau“. Five examples of
this linguistic situation are given: French (A), Italian (B1) and Corsican (B2) in Corsica, Dutch
(A), Spanish (B1) and Papiamentu (B2) in Cura9ao, English (A), French (B i) and Seychellois
(B2) in the Seychelles, German (A), Italian (B1) and Ladin (B2) in the Groden Valley, French
(A), German (Bj) and Letzebuergesch (B2) in Luxemburg.
Marek Lazihski
Language policy in Poland towards the German minority
The author describes the present situation of the German minority in Upper Silesia and outlines
the development of the official policy of the Polish government towards them.The problem is
analysed mainly on the basis of data provided by the Polish Ministry of Culture, the only
government institution dealing with minority problems, but some German sources are also
included. In spite of some new conflicts described in the paper the author finds some evidence
that the situation is improving, especially in the field of public education.
Roland Marti
Language policy in the border areas of the Slavic linguistic continuum
Historically, language policy in the Slavic linguistic continuum may be divided into three
periods: prehistory and „emancipation“ of the Slavic standard languages; language policy based
on the concept of a linguistically homogeneous state (the state determines the language); national
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