Language identity and cultural memory in borderland areas. A survey-based research with aged respondents (seniors)

The article presents methodological and practical experiences of an inter-university research project “Language of boundaries – Boundaries of language. Paralinguistic aspects of intercultural communication”, one of project tasks being conducting interviews with Polish and German senior respondents. The project aims were, among others, to investigate linguistic and cultural awareness, the sense of proximity/alienness with the culture and the others in the transborder area and the processes of mutual accommodation. In this context, senior respondents are a particularly precious target group in language contact studies as they are witnesses of linguistic identity and cultural memory. The interviews took place in the Polish-German border region of Frankfurt/Oder and Słubice. The respondents were asked questions included in a questionnaire that was especially prepared for the purpose. The questions included among other things questions about the respondents’ origins, professional life, education, daily habits, languages spoken by them, attitudes towards the other cultural group. The authors have not only presented theoretical basics of transborder studies, accommodation processes and age studies, but they have also given practical tips on what should be considered when doing interviews with the elderly. The article includes a summary of the answers given by the two groups of the respondents. With the article, the authors intend to contribute methodologically to future socio- and gerontolinguistic studies. The research was carried out as part of the project Język pogranicza – pogranicze języka. Parajęzykowe aspekty komunikacji międzykulturowej (UMO: No. 0106 / NPRH3 / H12 / 82/2014) financed by the National Program for the Development of Humanities.The article presents methodological and practical experiences of an inter-university research project “Language of boundaries – Boundaries of language. Paralinguistic aspects of intercultural communication”, one of project tasks being conducting interviews with Polish and German senior respondents. The project aims were, among others, to investigate linguistic and cultural awareness, the sense of proximity/alienness with the culture and the others in the transborder area and the processes of mutual accommodation. In this context, senior respondents are a particularly precious target group in language contact studies as they are witnesses of linguistic identity and cultural memory. The interviews took place in the Polish-German border region of Frankfurt/Oder and Słubice. The respondents were asked questions included in a questionnaire that was especially prepared for the purpose. The questions included among other things questions about the respondents’ origins, professional life, education, daily habits, languages spoken by them, attitudes towards the other cultural group. The authors have not only presented theoretical basics of transborder studies, accommodation processes and age studies, but they have also given practical tips on what should be considered when doing interviews with the elderly. The article includes a summary of the answers given by the two groups of the respondents. With the article, the authors intend to contribute methodologically to future socio- and gerontolinguistic studies. Badania zrealizowano w ramach projektu Język pogranicza – pogranicze języka. Parajęzykowe aspekty komunikacji międzykulturowej (UMO: Nr 0106/NPRH3/H12/82/2014) finansowanego przez Narodowy Program Rozwoju Humanistyki. &nbsp

Contemporary research in minoritized and diaspora languages of Europe

This volume provides a collection of research reports on multilingualism and language contact ranging from Romance, to Germanic, Greco and Slavic languages in situations of contact and diaspora. Most of the contributions are empirically-oriented studies presenting first-hand data based on original fieldwork, and a few focus directly on the methodological issues in such research. Owing to the multifaceted nature of contact and diaspora phenomena (e.g. the intrinsic transnational essence of contact and diaspora, and the associated interplay between majority and minoritized languages and multilingual practices in different contact settings, contact-induced language change, and issues relating to convergence) the disciplinary scope is broad, and includes ethnography, qualitative and quantitative sociolinguistics, formal linguistics, descriptive linguistics, contact linguistics, historical linguistics, and language acquisition. Case studies are drawn from Italo-Romance varieties in the Americas, Spanish-Nahuatl contact, Castellano Andino, Greko/Griko in Southern Italy, Yiddish in Anglophone communities, Frisian in the Netherlands, Wymysiöryś in Poland, Sorbian in Germany, and Pomeranian and Zeelandic Flemish in Brazil