scholarly journals Varietätengebrauch und Varietätenkontakt in Südtirol und Ostbelgien

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Maria Riehl
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Standard Variety ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Symbolic Value

Dialect often plays an important role in minority communities where it functions as a marker of ethnic identity. In this case it also becomes an issue for speakers of the majority group who intend to acquire the minority language. The situation, however, differs from region to region and within different minority groups. The article discusses the linguistic setting and variety use of two German-speaking minorities, South Tyrol and East Belgium. The main focus is on the dimensions of dialect use in different domains, its linguistic influence on the standard variety, and its role for identity building. It will be pointed out that South Tyrolians almost exclusively identify with their regional dialect, whereas East Belgians also make use of language mixing. In its conclusion the article emphasizes the importance of dialectal and regional varieties for L2-learners: Learners should not only acquire a passive knowledge of the respective minority dialects, but also come to appreciate its symbolic value in the respective communities.

The impact of European legal acts on national legal terminology and on German as a minority language in South Tyrol, Italy

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Klara Kranebitter
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Legal Concepts ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Legal concepts are generally deeply rooted in a specific legal system. Even when two legal systems use the same official language, such as Germany and Austria, the system-boundness of their legal concepts may lead to communication problems. German is also an officially recognised minority language in South Tyrol, Italy. In South Tyrol, the local public authorities must use the minority language in their relations with German-speaking citizens. This brought about the need to elaborate a local German legal terminology to express Italian legal concepts. Terminology development efforts intended to promote terminology consistency and avoid an excessive regionalisation of South Tyrolean German, so as to foster communication with the neighbouring German-speaking legal systems. In the last decades, European Union law has led to a growing harmonisation in the legal terminologies of its Member States, facilitating communication between the different legal systems, also with benefits for terminology work in South Tyrol. This paper focuses on how European legal acts impact on national legal terminology and affect German legal terminology in South Tyrol. The considerations set out are based on comparative legal terminology work regarding the Italian and the German-speaking legal systems done at Eurac Research.

Beyond the Nation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Mitterhofer
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
National Population ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Heritage Discourse ◽  
Italian Province

In this chapter the author explores the effects of the exclusive potential of heritage in culturally heterogeneous European societies and investigates initiatives that seek to make heritage more inclusive and pluralistic. How do minority groups negotiate heritage practices and discourses formulated by the dominant national population? From a war monument in South Tyrol, an Italian province inhabited by a large German-speaking minority, to the role of migrant memories in the making of national heritage discourses, the chapter focuses on processes that seek to include minority voices and contrasting heritage interpretations in what Laurajane Smith terms the “Authorized Heritage Discourse.”

Human Identity, Political Recognition and Social Symbiosis: A Public Theological Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-277
Author(s):  
Nico Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Human Identity ◽  
Integration Model ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Shared Commitment

Abstract Muslim radicalization has forced western states to rethink policies on integrating minority communities into their societies. As a result, some European countries are in the process of replacing the traditional multiculturalist state paradigms with a civic integration model. This article warns against integration policies that: i) create parallel societies; ii). impose the identity of the majority group on minority groups; iii). or impose a difference-blind universal identity on all its citizens. Drawing on the Christian-informed political philosophies of John Althusius and Charles Taylor, the case is made for an inclusionary political mindset that addresses the challenges of globalization and pluralization. The approach proposed is termed symbiotic politics and is based on a common respect for political values such as human dignity, equality and freedom that are essential for human coexistence, a shared commitment to non-aggression and mutual aid, and the political recognition of collective identities.

scholarly journals Languages and language varieties: Comparative research on the linguistic attitudes in four bilingual minority communities in Hungary

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Anna Borbely
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Research ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Advanced Stage ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Positive Attitudes

A central issue of this paper is to study the patterns invariation of attitudes toward minority language varieties in four minority communities from Hungary: German, Slovak, Serb and Romanian. This study takes part from the research which focuses on how to obtain significant information about the mechanism of the language shift process concerning autochthonous minorities in Hungary. The results demonstrate that in the course of language shift communities at an advanced stage of language shift have less positive attitudes toward their minority languages than individuals from communities where language shift is in a less advanced stage. In Hungarian minority groups speakers’ attitudes toward minority language varieties (dialect vs. standard) are the symptoms of language shift.

scholarly journals Attitudes of South Tyrolean University Students towards German Varieties

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Mara Maya Victoria Leonardi
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
German Language ◽  
Standard Variety ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
German Standard ◽  
The Subject ◽  
University Teacher Training

This paper examines language attitudes of South Tyroleans towards German varieties used in educational institutions by means of a questionnaire survey with 55 university students. The aim of this paper is to provide an insight into subjects’ attitudes towards their own and other German (standard) varieties, with a focus on the sociolinguistic situation in South Tyrol (northern Italy). Previous studies have shown that the German-speaking community often have the notion that their own standard variety is deficient combined with a feeling of linguistic inferiority towards German speakers from Germany. Therefore, this article seeks to answer the following research questions: Which attitudes do South Tyrolean university students have towards the different German (standard) varieties? Do university teacher-training students get in touch with the concept of the pluricentric variation within the German standard variety during their education? Results reveal that despite a certain awareness of the issue of linguistic variation in the German language, the standard variety used in Germany still enjoys high prestige among our subjects compared to other German standard varieties. Moreover, results show that the students were hardly confronted with the subject of the German standard variety used in South Tyrol or with the variation of the German language during their high school years. However, this changes as soon as they attend university.

scholarly journals Chinese Eastern Railway and Russian Minority Groups in Manchuria

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-102
Author(s):  
N. А. Vul ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Ethnic Background ◽  
The Other ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Chinese White ◽  
History Of

The history of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) railway, which has drawn the attention of scholars almost since the time of its construction, is inseparable from the story of the complicated and tangled relations between one majority group — Chinese — and two large minority groups, White émigrés and Soviet citizens who resided in Manchuria and whose lives were largely related to the CER. These relations are largely ignored by the scholars of the CER, in which the focus is on various diplomatic aspects and the CER is considered to be a key actor in international relations of the countries and whose interests were related to Manchuria. Therefore, this article explores the complicated and tangled relations between Chinese, White émigrés, and Soviet citizens who resided in Manchuria in 1920s — 1930s and whose lives were largely related to the Chinese Eastern Railway. This very aspect, the existence of two minority groups (CER’s soviet staff and White émigrés) who shared the same linguistic, cultural, and ethnic background, but who, on the other hand, were political antagonists, makes the Manchurian case especially unique and interesting. This paper argues that common ethnic identity prevailed over ideological discord. This discord was neutralized by life which they lived together surrounded by culturally, linguistically, and ethnically different majority.

scholarly journals Effects of social evolution on terminology policy in South Tyrol

Terminology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-139
Author(s):  
Elena Chiocchetti
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Minority Community ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Legal Domain

Abstract This paper illustrates the challenges of terminology policy in the legal domain in South Tyrol, Italy, i.e. within a minority community whose language (German) is an official language in other countries. In this context terminology planning becomes necessary mainly in relation to legal and administrative concepts, due to the system-bound nature of legal language. The method applied in South Tyrol is micro-comparison with other German-speaking legal systems. Based on South Tyrol’s example, we show how changes in society have affected approaches, methods and tools for terminology planning and practical terminology work. South Tyrol’s autonomy model is often considered a best practice for the resolution of ethnic conflict. Its long-lasting experience in terminology planning may equally serve as a model for minority language communities that have only recently been granted extensive language rights.

scholarly journals ‘I’m a genuine Italian, but not a genuine Italian’: Complex and shifting strategies of ethnic and moral boundary making in the narratives of Italian minority parents in Flanders

2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-382
Author(s):  
Noel Clycq
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The Self ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
Core Element ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Boundary Making ◽  
Italian Origin ◽  
Identification Processes ◽  
Depth Interviews

It is well-documented in (ethnic) identity research that individuals to a large extent construct an identity they feel comfortable with. However, this is not an easy task and one’s identity is, for some more than for others, under constant pressure to be reflected upon and reconstructed. At the same time many individuals often feel that there is a core element in their (ethnic) identity that does not change and remains stable. Based upon 13 in-depth interviews with Italian origin parents in Flanders, this article discusses what might be a constant mechanism underlying identification processes for this group of individuals: the presentation of the self as morally good and valuable. However, to be able to do this, the Italian origin participants in this study have to develop a variety of sometimes contradictory strategies. In a Flemish society where their Italian ethnicity is not questioned or problematized, the participants seem very keen to underline how ethnically different from the Flemish-Belgian majority they are. Yet, at other times they present themselves as much more similar to this majority group when discussing other minority groups, in particular Muslims. However, the most striking group reconstruction occurs when participants use the example of ‘genuine Italians’ to differentiate themselves from a specific group of Italians, while at the same time stressing they are genuine Italians themselves. When studying these various strategies from the perspective of presentation of the self as morally good and valuable, it becomes clear why these seemingly contradictory strategies do not at all feel contradictory to the participants. The findings show how strong the need for such a recognition of the self is.

Collective References and Identity Threat among Lebanese and Lebanese-Armenians in the Context of Continuous Intergroup Conflict

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy R. Tavitian ◽  
Michael Bender ◽  
Fons J. R. Van de Vijver ◽  
Athanasios Chasiotis ◽  
Hrag A. Vosgerichian
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Identity Management ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Intergroup Conflict ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
Identity Threats ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sectarian Group

How people deal with adversity, in terms of threats to their social or ethnic identity has been extensively investigated. However, most studies have focused on samples (e.g. minority groups) from prototypical Western contexts. It is unclear how individuals perceive and deal with identity threats within non-Western plural contexts characterized by intergroup conflict. We therefore assess whether self-affirmation by recalling a past success can buffer against identity threat in the plural, non-Western context of Lebanon. In two studies we investigate how threats are negotiated at a national (Lebanon) (Study 1) and ethnic minority (Armenian) level (Study 2). In Study 1, we show that in a context characterized by a history of intergroup conflict, a superordinate national identity is non-salient. When investigating the content of memories of a sectarian group in Study 2, we find a hypersalient and chronically accessible ethnic identity, a pattern specific to Armenian Lebanese. We suggest that this hyper-salience is employed as a spontaneous identity management strategy by a minority group coping with constant continuity threat. Our findings point to the importance of expanding the study of identity processes beyond the typically Western contexts and in turn, situating them within their larger socio-political and historical contexts.

scholarly journals Understanding and Promoting Racial Diversity in Healthcare Settings to Address Disparities in Pandemic Crisis Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272110183
Author(s):  
Azza Sarfraz ◽  
Zouina Sarfraz ◽  
Alanna Barrios ◽  
Kuchalambal Agadi ◽  
Sindhu Thevuthasan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Clinical Training ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Majority Group

Background: Health disparities have become apparent since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. When observing racial discrimination in healthcare, self-reported incidences, and perceptions among minority groups in the United States suggest that, the most socioeconomically underrepresented groups will suffer disproportionately in COVID-19 due to synergistic mechanisms. This study reports racially-stratified data regarding the experiences and impacts of different groups availing the healthcare system to identify disparities in outcomes of minority and majority groups in the United States. Methods: Studies were identified utilizing PubMed, Embase, CINAHL Plus, and PsycINFO search engines without date and language restrictions. The following keywords were used: Healthcare, raci*, ethnic*, discriminant, hosti*, harass*, insur*, education, income, psychiat*, COVID-19, incidence, mortality, mechanical ventilation. Statistical analysis was conducted in Review Manager (RevMan V.5.4). Unadjusted Odds Ratios, P-values, and 95% confidence intervals were presented. Results: Discrimination in the United States is evident among racial groups regarding medical care portraying mental risk behaviors as having serious outcomes in the health of minority groups. The perceived health inequity had a low association to the majority group as compared to the minority group (OR = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.22 to 0.78; P = .007), and the association of mental health problems to the Caucasian-American majority group was low (OR = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.45 to 0.58; P < .001). Conclusion: As the pandemic continues into its next stage, efforts should be taken to address the gaps in clinical training and education, and medical practice to avoid the recurring patterns of racial health disparities that become especially prominent in community health emergencies. A standardized tool to assess racial discrimination and inequity will potentially improve pandemic healthcare delivery.

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