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Challenges of Slovene as a Medium-Sized Language Community Maja Bitenc bitencm@uni-lj.si

Challenges of Slovene as a Medium-Sized Language Community Maja Bitenc bitencm@uni-lj.si. December 3 – Anniversaries. France Prešeren’s , the greatest Slovene poet’s, birthday (born 1800). 90 th birthday of Slovene university – University of Ljubljana

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Challenges of Slovene as a Medium-Sized Language Community Maja Bitenc bitencm@uni-lj.si

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  1. Challenges of Slovene as a Medium-Sized Language CommunityMaja Bitencbitencm@uni-lj.si

  2. December 3 – Anniversaries • France Prešeren’s, the greatest Slovene poet’s, birthday (born 1800) • 90th birthday of Slovene university – University of Ljubljana Fran Ramovš – first lecture on historic grammar of Slovene

  3. Geographical Position of Slovenia

  4. Language Status 1991: Slovenia becomes independent • Slovene – official language of the Republic of Slovenia  national language in all areas of public life Constitution of Slovenia, Article 11: “The official language in Slovenia is Slovene. In those municipalities where Italian or Hungarian national communities reside, Italian or Hungarian shall also be official languages.” 2004: Slovenia joins the European Union • Slovene – one of the 23 official languages of the European Union

  5. Slovene – South Slavic Language Around 2,4 million speakers • Slovenes also in • European countries • Germany, France, • Sweden, Switzerland • ex-Yugoslavia • Croatia, BiH, Serbia, • Montenegro, Macedonia • overseas • USA, Canada, Argentina, • Australia Official language Regional or local official language

  6. Demographic Data • 2002 national census: 1 964 036people in Slovenia, • Slovene mother tongue: 1 723 434 (87 %) Slovene nationality: 1 631 363 • the number of people with Slovene mother tongue – incerasing, but slower than the population  the percentage of people with Slovene mother tongue – decreasing

  7. Population of Slovenia by Mother Tongue (2002) • 87 % Slovene (1 723 434) • 7,9 % »Serbo-Croatian« (153 172): Croatian 2,8 %, 1,9 Serbo-Croatian %, Serbian 1,6 %, Bosnian 1,6 % • 0,4 % Albanian (7177) • 0,4 % Hungarian (7713) • 0,2 % Italian (3762) • 0,2 % Macedonian (4760) • 0,2 % Romany (3834) • 0,1 % German (1628)

  8. Language(s) of Communication At Home (2002) • 91,1 % Slovene • 3,3 % Slovene and »Serbo-Croatian« • 1 % »Serbo-Croatian« • 0,2 % Hungarian • 0,2 % Slovene and Italian • 0,2 % Slovene and Hungarian • 0,1 % Italian • 0,1 % Romany • 0,1 % Albanian In Public (1991) • 94,4 % Slovene • 1,1 % Slovene and »Serbo-Croatian« • 0,9 % »Serbo-Croatian« • 0,3 % Slovene and Italian • 0,2 % Slovene and Hungarian

  9. The oldest Slovene written text? The first book in Slovene? The first translation of the Bible? The first Slovene Grammar? A Glimpse into the Past • Freising Manuscripts, around 1000 • Primož Trubar: Catechism and Spelling Book, 1550 • Jurij Dalmatin, 1584 • Adam Bohorič, 1584

  10. A Glimpse into the Past • endeavours forSlovene in all domains of public life in the middle of the 19th century  connected with the national movement, language as an element of national cohesion under Austro-Hungarian monarchy Slovene gradually introduced into educational system as a lanugage of instruction • 1918 – the first Yugoslav state: »Serbo-Croatian-Slovene« language in the Constitution • 1945–1991 Yugoslavia – formally: languages have equal rights • 1991: Slovene as the official language

  11. Ideologies/Attitudes concerning SloveneClassical controversy traditional approach defending position language – value in itself foreign languages – a threat more liberal approach diminished symbolic function of language functional value of language(s) 

  12. Sociolinguistic Changes since 1991 • language status • new domains • different status and prestige of languages of former Yugoslavia • increasing number of foreigners in Slovenia (refugees, immigrants) • increasing number of speakers of Slovene as a second/foreign language

  13. Sociolinguistic Changes since 2004 • language status • globalisation, free flow of people and labour – reflected also in a socio-cultural and communication sphere • Slovenia – attractive as a EU country  becomingmore diverse • communication technology  English language words and patterens • warnings concerning increasing use of English

  14. Sociolinguistic Changes since 2004 • additional value of knowledge of Slovene because of its status  more speakers of Slovene as a second/foreign language • Slovene at universities abroad  Slovene lectureship at 54 universities around the world • broadening and enlarging the network of Slovene lanugage teaching opportunities • translation into Slovene and from Slovene • widespread multilingualismin Slovenia

  15. Language Policy • first years after 1991 – less active language policy • 1994–2004: the first institutionalized frame of language policy activity:a permanent working body for language policy and language planning at the parliamentary committee for culture, education and sport • 2000–2004: Committee for the Slovene Language 2004– Sector for the Slovene language at the Ministry of Culture • 2004:Public Use of the Slovene Language Act - long, controversial discussion about the drafts - ideological construct of pure Slovene language as a value in itself

  16. Language Policy Resolution on National Programme for Language Policy 2007-2011 • the first integral document about language policy in the history of Slovene lanugage community • strategic guidelines in different domains of language policy activities • 12 main goals, 113 items • principal guideline: the importance and role of Slovene as the national lanugage, developing language competence and raising language awareness • no profound analysis of the situation • ! 250.375 € intended for attempts with sinhronisation of films 104.323 € for general and specialised reference books for Slovene

  17. Infrastructure of Slovene • Slovene orthography and grammar  sanctioned by the Orthographic Commission and the Fran Ramovš Institute of Slovenian Language, both part of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts - Slovene Orthography, 2001 - Dictionary of Standard Slovene, 1-5, 1970-1991, single volume 1994, available online - Slovenian Grammar, 1976, 1984, 1991, 2000 • serious deficiencies

  18. Infrastructure of Slovene • shortage of contemporary, user-friendly reference books • strong tradition of language revision/proof-reading  the responsibility of the author vs. proffesional language reviser?  speakers – not self-confident, not independent • language consultancies, newspaper columns e-consultancies  democratic consultancies

  19. Corpora Monolingual • FIDA plus –600 million words, referential corpus of Slovene (Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana, Jožef Stefan Institute) • Nova beseda– 240 milion words (Fran Ramovš Institute of Slovenian Language) Bilingual • Evrokorpus–222 million words,Slovene parallel corpus (Translation Unit of the Slovenian Government Office for European Affairs, the Secretariat-General of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia)

  20. “Communication in Slovene” Project – an Example of Good Practice • June 2008 – December 2013 Activities: • Spoken Corpus of Slovene – 1 million words • Written Corpus of Slovene – 1 billion words • Corpus Interface for Pedagogical Purposes • Training Corpus • Lexicon of Inflected Forms • Slovene Lexical Database • New Didactics of Slovene Language Teaching • Pedagogical Corpus-based Grammar • Manual of Style

  21. Foreign Languages in Slovenia • a lot of experiences with multilingualism and plurilingualism • foreign lanugages – popular  economic interests, size of the country, national multilingualism with Hungarian and Italian, historical lanugage ties • the question of foreign lanugages is stressed afer 2004 • in primary education: in 2011/2012 - 1st foreign lanugage in the first grade of primary school - compulsory 2nd foreign language in the last three years of primary school (at the moment: 2nd foreign lanugage as an optional subject in the last three years: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Latin, German, Italian, Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian)

  22. Foreign Languages in Slovenia • Ability to communicate in Serbo-Croatian (59 %), English (57 %), German (50 %) • Most useful langages: English (78 %), German (61 %), Italian (12 %) French (4 %), Spanish (2 %), Russian (1 %) • Use of foreign languages (2009, N=700) in business communication • 65 % no • 25 % English • 15 % German • 13 % languages of former Yugoslavia private sphere • 32 % no • 34 % languages of former Yugoslavia • 32 % English • 25 % German • 22 % Italian

  23. Case Study 1:Slovene in Science and Higher Education • discussions about language in this domain – often polarized Legislation • Higher Education Act (Article 8) – protects Slovene as the language of instruction in higer education  the following may be provided in a foreign language: - foreign-language study programmes - parts of study programmes, if visiting teachers participate in the provision thereof or if significant numbers of foreign students are enrolled therein - study programmes if they are also provided in Slovene

  24. Slovene in Science and Higher Education • Strategy of the University of Ljubljana ( Bologna declaration and Frame of economic and social reforms for bigger prosperity in Slovenia): 10 % foreign students 10 % programmes carried out by foreign professors Problematic • increasing use of English in certain classes of certain study programmes • textbooks, scientific newspapers, terminology – deficiencies • Slovene scientific achievements only get half of all available points according to the proposal of the document entitled Measures for the election in the title of university teachers, scientific workers and university co-workers

  25. Slovene in Science and Higher Education Resolution on National Programme for Language Policy 2007-2011 • Goal 10: For the consolidation of Slovene in higher education and science - university subject »professional-scientific variety of standard Slovene« - university textbooks in Slovene - promotion of publishing scientific papers in Slovene and using Slovene at international conferences in Slovenia - parallel study programmes in English and Slovene – but no financial support! • finding appropriate balance between local and global

  26. Conclusion Optimistic ☺ • Slovene – the strongest status ever • the number of people with Slovene mother tongue – increasing • Slovene as a second/foreign language • productionin Slovene • translation into Slovene and from Slovene

  27. Conclusion Challenges • infrastucture of Slovene (user-friendly reference books, dictionaries) • reducing defensive discurses and ideologies • proactive language policy • searching answers to questions of living in a multicultural and multlingual community  opportunities for learning Slovene  integration of immigrants  appropriate balance between Slovene and English in scientific discourse • Slovene language revitalisation among Slovene minorities and Slovenes around the world • vitality of language and self-confident speakers

  28. Thank you for your attention! Maja Bitencbitencm@uni-lj.si

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