language policy (the language determines the state). Furthermore, external language policy
(directed towards neighbouring non-Slavic languages) has to be distinguished from internal
language policy (directed towards neighbouring Slavic standard languages). The development
of all the Slavic standard languages follows more or less the same pattern but different stages
occur at different times; most important in this aspect is the 19th century. External language
policy is mainly defensive and mainly directed against German. Internal language policy
displays a range of interesting developments. One of them is the creation of new standard
languages in areas that were formerly roofed over by another standard language (e.g. the
Macedonian standard language). The most unusual kind of internal language policy is the
unification of standard languages. This is attested in the Slavic linguistic continuum in the case
of the Czechoslovak and the Serbo-Croatian language.
Hubertus Menke
,1 am a Dane and speak German4. On linguistic history and language policy in
the German-Danish border area
The language spoken by territorial or social groups has not always and not necessarily been a
defining element in forming a state. This linguistic indifference used to be characteristic of
Denmark. The situation changed when the idea of the nation state gained ground in the 19th
century, and this in turn led to serious linguistic conflicts. In the course of time, however,
linguistic minorities on both sides of the German-Danish border found solutions to such
conflicts mainly by introducing the concept of self-declaration (cf. the declaration of Kiel 1949
and the treaty of Bonn/Copenhagen 1955). This allows for „separation of powers“ between
citizenship, (ethnic) cultural ties and the choice of language: I am a Dane and speak German!
Alicja Nagorko
Poles in Germany as mirrored by language
The degree of maintainance of the Polish language and the functions it still fulfills in German
Polonia has not aroused much interest amongst German slavists. Attention was mainly paid to
the traditional labour migration to Northrhine-Westfalia, where the largest concentration of the
Polonia in Germany is found; traces of this coexistence of Poles and Germans that lasted for
over a century are to be found in the Ruhr regiolect with its numerous polonisms.
A new look at the sociolinguistic situation of the Solidamosc emigration and the so-called
Aussiedler shows that a lot of myths connected with the Polonia will have to be discarded. It
shows that the will to assimilate is much stronger than the declared attachment to Polish
language and culture.
Peter Hans Nelde
VITALITY AND DYNAMISM OF EUROPEAN LINGUISTIC MINORITIES LIVING IN BORDER AREAS
In contrast to Breton defining the dynamics of small languages as the sum of language spread
and language development, we prefer the less "static" classification of language boundary
minorities, which is, nevertheless, incomparably more difficult to describe. Thus, "dynamics"
appears as a relational concept, which is context-dependent and can hardly be generalized.
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