Naslov
Osijek as a multilingual city

Autori
Bilić Meštrić, Klara

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Space and Time / - Zagreb : Institut za antropologiju, 2014

Skup
Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Space and Time

Mjesto i datum
Dubrovnik, Hrvatska, 27.04.2014. - 30.04.2014

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Osijek; jezična raznolikost; jezične politike
(Osijek; linguistic diversity; language policies)

Sažetak
This research has been conducted within LUCIDE project (Languages in Urban Contexts: Integration and Diversity in Europe), funded by the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme 2010-2014. The project involves partners from 13 European cities: Athens, Dublin, Hamburg, Limassol, London, Madrid, Osijek, Oslo, Rome, Sofia, Strasbourg, Utrecht and Varna. Its objective is to depict how communication occurs in a multilingual/plurilingual city, while this paper is especially concerned with multilingual matters in the city of Osijek (Croatia). While exploring language-related realities of the city in various spheres and aspects of city life, the issues which emerged as most striking were those that dealt with multilingualism in education, especially minority education models, and the perception of the importance and value of multilingualism in this traditionally multilingual area. These two aspects of the research will be the focus of the presentation. The research methodology has been developed among the LUCIDE partner cities and the language has been analysed as a form of communicative practice at the following three levels: symbolic/representational, transactional/communicative/ and finally at the authoritative/directive level. The first one refers to realities of everyday life – how we use language to send messages, the second one to the pragmatic use/unofficial acceptance of multilingualism by authorities on the ground and communicative efficiency and the third one refers to official texts and regulations. The research first drew on secondary data, on the basis of which the primary data collection ensued. 20 interviews were held with stakeholders from the following five spheres ; education, public sphere, economic life and urban and private sphere. Results of the research indicate that despite the fact that the respondents hold a high opinion of multilingualism and despite the highly developed regulation (Croatia has the highest number of officially recognised minority languages in the EU), a number of phenomena deserve more attention, especially at the symbolic and transactional level. To be more specific, languages traditionally spoken in Osijek and the surrounding area, such as Hungarian and German, are hardly perceived to be important and valuable (this is indicated by the loss of pupils in German classes and the lack of those whose mother tongue is the Hungarian language), while the language of utmost concern which eclipses all other languages is English. Furthermore, although the majority of the interviewed stakeholders take a positive stance toward minority languages, when asked what has been done in community to boost them, highest ranking officials quote laws and regulations, i.e. minority education models (which as was observed in some cases only deepen the ethnic divisions), but no specific answer is provided. In conclusion, it may be said that in spite of the importance that multilingualism has always had in the public discourse in Osijek, the statistic diversity, despite the highly developed laws and regulations (or perhaps because of them), may actually mean that from the official 22 minority languages spoken in the city, we have a linguistic reality with 2 languages that count as truly important, English and Croatian, which then renders multilingualism in Osijek a historical fact.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Pedagogija, Filologija, Etnologija i antropologija

POVEZANOST RADA