Project Details
Projekt
Comparing Types of Heritage Languages: Upper Sorbian and Polish in Germany (HOsPoD)
Applicants
Professorin Dr. Tanja Anstatt; Dr. Lenka Scholze
Subject Area
Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 540865605
The aim of our project HOsPoD is to employ empirical to analyze how different sociolinguistic conditions affect language maintenance and development of grammatical categories in two types of heritage language (HL). As an example, we study Upper Sorbian as an autochthonous, old-established HL and Polish in Germany as a migrational HL. This is an innovative approach that for the first time systematically contrasts these different types of HL. HLs are defined with respect to their sociolinguistic situation and to the conditions of child language acquisition: they are a non-dominant language in a given society and are acquired by children through natural language acquisition in parallel with the dominant language. While both types of HL conform to this basic definition, they differ significantly in specific conditions (e.g., settlement form, duration of HL situation, government support). The first goal of the project is to compare the specific characteristics of the sociolinguistic situation of both HLs. The main questions are whether one of the constellations is more favorable for language maintenance, what factors are responsible for this, and whether these findings can be applied to support measures. For this purpose, we collect data from three generations of speakers in order to investigate their course of language acquisition, family language policy, language choice, and language attitudes. The second goal is the analysis of linguistic changes. We investigate the development of two grammatical categories in Upper Sorbian colloquial speech and in Polish in Germany: verbal aspect and animacy. Both HLs are closely related to one another and therefore originally have very similar structures, and both are in contact with the same dominant language. Therefore, we pursue the hypothesis that similar developments in grammar can be found in both HLs. However, we also anticipate differences in the spread of developments in the speech community as a result of sociolinguistic differences. We also expect that the developments of Upper Sorbian colloquial language will be more advanced than those of Polish in Germany due to its already long-standing HL situation. We investigate this on the basis of language data collected from speakers of both HLs from several generations. This allows us to detect changes between the generations. In addition, we evaluate diachronic information on Upper Sorbian colloquial speech and data on the two categories in Polish in Poland. By systematically comparing the two types of HL, we address a frequently cited research desideratum and gain new insights into the factors relevant to HL. Furthermore, our project makes substantial contributions to the study of Upper Sorbian colloquial language and Polish in Germany, both of which are understudied so far.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Poland
