This project investigates the extent to which the individual multilingualism of speakers of German-based minority languages (in Italy, Romania, Ukraine, and the United States) contributes to the development of a specific linguistic identity. Speakers of German minority languages are almost without exception multilingual. For example, the German-speaking inhabitants of Sappada in the Carnic Alps have lived alongside a Romance-speaking population for centuries. The German-speaking residents of Transcarpathia (Western Ukraine), who refer to themselves as Schwaben, are surrounded by a multilingual environment (primarily Ukrainian, Ruthenian, Hungarian, and Russian), and for German minorities in the U.S., English serves as the lingua franca. The German-based minority language fosters group cohesion and, as a key factor, unites the speakers into a community. For the minority, language simultaneously becomes a symbol of their identity. The observable cultural and social convergences and influences from the contact language give cause to reflect on whether and to what extent the identity of the speakers is thereby undergoing a transformation. Today, the minority language is often limited to use within the immediate family. Other linguistic domains are dominated by the majority language. Based on the current linguistic situation, this research project aims to investigate the general impact of the language shift described above on the identity of the speakers. In addition, individual language use will be documented, for example within the family, at school, in church, or in everyday life, etc.
Some of the German-speaking minority communities have existed for more than ten generations. Whether the desire to preserve one’s own identity by continuing to communicate in the minority language has a stabilizing effect on language preservation is another question addressed by the project. In addition, the conducted and recorded interviews with speakers from German-speaking communities in Italy, Romania, Ukraine, and the United States contribute to the documentation of German-speaking varieties that are increasingly disappearing as actively used languages.