Hungarian in Austria. ELDIA Case-Specific Report.

Dear colleagues, I am very happy and honoured to be here, even if only as the last--minute replacement for my dear colleague from Vienna, Rosita Schjerve--Rindler, who could not participate because of health issues. She played a central role in the research network LINEE, originally funded by the 6th Framework Programme of the EU; I am mainly going to speak about the research project ELDIA (European Language Diversity for All), funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union from March 2010 till September 2013. What I am going to present here is a result of collective efforts under the leadership of Anneli Sarhimaa, the main instigator of the project; she played a decisive role especially in designing the data analysis underlying our final result, the European Language Vitality Barometer, but in addition to her, I would like to mention Jarmo Lainio's contribution to our original research agenda and project application, and Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, the law expert in our interdisciplinary team and a major co--planner of the barometer -and the empirical work of dozens of researchers at seven universities and research institutes, their results, ideas, experiences, and suggestions. More details and links to the publications can be found on the project website www.eldia--project.org.

Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja

ELDIA (European Language Diversity for All) was set out to investigate the state and conditions of language diversity in Europe by way of diverse Finno-Ugric minorities from Norway to Slovenia. The idea was to utilise the existing research infrastructure and networks for a novel comparative approach which would produce results generalisable for other minority languages and multilingual speaker communities as well.

2010

"Language Diversity. A Challenge for Europe" is the transcription of the conference hosted 4th March 2010 by the European Parliament and organized by EFA. The book is a transcript of the most relevant contributions of the seminar and it intends to give an overview of the different kinds of unresolved problems concerning the situation of languages in Europe. It follows the same structure as the one from the speeches of the conference and it is divided in three parts. The first one (Languages without a State) refers to the languages that suffer unfair discrimination within the Union. The prime example is Catalan, which is spoken by more than 10 million Europeans and can not be called a ‘minority language’ despite the fact that it bears no official status at a European level. Galician and Basque are in a similar situation, they are not under direct threat but actions should be taken to ensure its survival. The second (Minority languages within Member States) describes the situation of European lesser used languages and pays special attention among other endangered European languages to the Occitan, Breton, Franco-Provençal Frisian, Welsh and Corsican cases. Finally, the last part describes the situation of those languages bearing no legal protection outside the borders of the state that considers them official yet they do not risk to disappear. A classic example is Hungarian: Official in Hungary, but with no recognition in Slovakia, Romania and Serbia where Hungarian speaking communities are not entitled to its official use.

Belvedere Meridionale, 2016

Th e paper adopts the position that language is an intrinsic and largely non-negotiable part of individual culture and identity. Th e recognition of one's own language receives more and more support in international political and institutional frameworks. Th e promotion of linguistic diversity has become the offi cial policy of the European Union. Due to such policies it is to be expected that languages will be and will remain in contact in the context of all sorts of levels of governance. In order to manage linguistic diversity in multilingual and multicultural areas the introduction of a global regime of language policies is unavoidable. Th ese policies will need to satisfy transnational requirements and conditions, like universal human rights and Europeanization norms and standards set by the EU, OSCE, Council of Europe, and so on. However, because there are manifold connections between language and power, as we know from the work of the well-known political scientists, like Pierre Bourdieu, and sociolinguists. Th e latter claims that confl ict has always a language element to it. 1 Hence, it is to be expected that language policies will be subject to power confl icts and hegemonic strives. In order to support my claim I will analyse the language policies of states with Hungarian language minorities in Central Europe, particularly Romania, Slovakia, Serbia (Vojvodina), and Ukraine (Trans-Carpathia). Th ese policies can be studied in terms of concrete variables, like individual/collective rights, territorial or personal arrangements, thresholds, the Language Charter, multilingual education, the linguistic landscape, and so on. Th e range in which these variables are implemented is determined by local politics. Hence, this is subject to the politics of language policy. Th e ordering of these variables and vectors result into a typology of language policy representing a categorization of liberal language rights for minorites. Keywords multilingualism, politics of diversity, typology of language policy, empowerment of Hungarian language minorities, Central Europe

2012

In Austria there are two substantial Hungarian communities, namely the autochthonous minority of Burgenland and the more recent migrant groups in Vienna. Importantly, the latter have arrived in different waves and from various Hungarian-speaking regions of the Carpathian Basin, which clearly adds to the diversity of the community. In this respect, the Austrian context seems to be quite unique. Both Hungarians in Burgenland and Vienna are formally recognised minorities, yet due to the fact that Austrian minority rights are not harmonized on the various levels, the two groups do not enjoy the same level of protection, which is most dominant with regard to mother tongue instruction within the educational system and in the area of official language use. It is also due to these differences that the language use patterns of Hungarian-speakers in Burgenland greatly differ from those living in Vienna. It has further been argued that although the existing regulations of minority language protection in Austria are extensive, their implementation has not been achieved without shortfalls. Therefore, the aim of the present paper is to identify how regulations of minority language rights protection influence actual language use practices reported by the speakers themselves. The case study on the Hungarian-speakers in Austria was conducted within the international and interdisciplinary FP7 project ELDIA (European Language Diversity for All, www.eldia-project.org). The research, having a special focus on the legislative and institutional framework of language use and language use in practice, has shown that there are clear gaps between legal regulations and actual practices. It will be demonstrated that Hungarian-speakers have relatively little opportunity to use Hungarian in the public domains. The language use patterns reported by the informants show that the use of Hungarian is restricted mainly to the home context. Nevertheless, it will be argued that Hungarian has an exceptionally strong presence within the community for there is a clearly identifiable demand and willingness to use the Hungarian language and to develop it to the speakers changing needs.

Politeja

The paper will adopt the position that language is an intrinsic and largely non‑negotiable part of individual culture and identity. The recognition of one’s own language receives more and more support in international political and institutional frameworks. The promotion of linguistic diversity is the official policy of the European Union. Due to such policies, it is to be expected that languages will remain in contact in the context of all sorts of levels of governance. In order to manage linguistic diversity in multilingual and multicultural areas, the introduction of a global regime of language policies is unavoidable. These policies will need to satisfy transnational requirements and conditions, like universal human rights and the norms and standards of Europeanization set by the EU, OSCE, Council of Europe, and so on. However, because there are manifold connections between language and power, as we know from the work of political scientists such as Pierre Bourdieu, and sociolin...

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