Linguae Europaeae

by Julia Gainski  Julia Gainski is a senior in Integrative Biology and German Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Julia's future plans include traveling, applying to physician assistant programs, and learning new languages. She wrote this blog post in 418 'Language and Minorities in Europe' in Fall 2021. Poland has struggled time after time to survive as its borders consistently shifted due to unlawful rulers that have come to power. From Germany’s occupation of Poland in the Second World War to Poland being under Communist rule, Poland’s resilience, and ability to uphold their traditions, culture, and religion in the midst of dark times has shown the irrepressible strength that Poland portrays. Undoubtedly, Poland was drastically affected by these historical events and as a result, ethnic minorities have been further divided and impacted as well. There are four ethnic minorities that exist in Poland today which are: Karaim, Lemko, Romani and Tatar. T...

by Giovana Mete Giovana Mete is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois and majored in Psychology and Spanish. Giovana is currently working as an addiction’s counselor at Nicasa Behavioral Health Services. Her plans include attending Trinity International University this fall for a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling. Her goal is to become a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. She wrote this blog post in 418 'Language and Minorities in Europe' in Fall 2021. In this blog, I will explore the motivations for Russian citizens to learn the English language in their home country. I will focus on the lack of English usage in Russia with an emphasis on the barriers to learning English in comparison to other countries - the barriers to learning English include a variety of historical and social factors. I will be asking the questions, “Why do most Russians (81%) only speak their mother tongue while the rest of Europe seems to be learning English (BBC, 2014)? What are the...

by Emily Swisher  Emily Swisher is a third-year doctoral student in French Studies at the University of Illinois. Emily hopes to become a professor of French and incorporate research from her subfields of Translation/Interpretation and European Union Studies into her professional work. She wrote this blog post in 418 'Language and Minorities in Europe' in Fall 2021. The Arabic language has an undeniably strong hold in France. It is currently the second-most spoken language in the country with approximately four million locutors, far surpassing the combined number of speakers of France’s 25+ regional languages. Historically opposed to education initiatives in any language aside from the recognized national standard, France is now starting to reevaluate its policies toward the instruction of minority languages, and Arabic in particular. With a growing population of Arabic speakers on the mainland, the impetus for change seems to follow the adage, if you can’t beat them, join...

by Lucas Haney Lucas Haney is a senior in Spanish and Italian studies at the University of Illinois. Lucas’ future plans include pursuing an MA in Translation and Interpretation in order to help facilitate communication between groups with linguistic barriers, like in the medical field and/or the border between the US and Mexico. He wrote this blog post in 418 ‘Language and Minorities in Europe’ in Fall 2021. Cyprus has had an interesting development as a country for a little over a century due to an ongoing dispute within the country that heavily affects Turkey as well. The beginning of the 1960s started off swimmingly with Cyprus officially declaring itself independent in August 1960 from the rule of the British. With this independence there was an agreement between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots for a partnership with a constitution that would help to govern the country (THO). At this point the use of Turkish, or more specifically Cypriot Turkish in some cases, was spre...

by Riley Masterson Riley Masterson is a senior in Global Studies and French at the University of Illinois. Riley's future plans include attending law school and working in the legal field. She wrote this blog post in 418 'Language and Minorities in Europe' in Fall 2021. "Bratislava Castle from across Danube River." Author:  Hans Permana Source:  Flickr License: CC BY-NC 2.0 The image above shows Bratislava Castle on the banks of the Danube River in Slovakia. Not far downstream, the Danube forms the natural border between Slovakia and Hungary. Despite their proximity, Slovakia and Hungary have significant cultural and linguistic differences. These differences became a point of contention in 2009, when Slovakia amended its State Language Law (SLL) (NBC News, 2009). Slovak is cited as the “state language” of the Republic of Slovakia in Article 6 of the Constitution (Fiala and Wardyn, 2009). While Slovak may be far from a global lingua franca, or even a working langua...

by Scarlet Peterson Scarlet Peterson is a MA student in French Linguistics at the University of Illinois. In the future, Scarlet hopes to become a professor. She wrote this blog post in 418 'Language and Minorities in Europe' in Fall 2021. Ever since Brexit, the Scots have been considering independence more seriously than ever. Although there is still much debate surrounding the topic (and setbacks due to COVID-19), the notion is still not far from reality. And, with the recent alliance between the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Green Party, the political clout behind independence is stronger than ever (Dallison). Many Scots insist that, if independence from the United Kingdom was realized, they would be more capable of managing their internal affairs and preserving their identity (Learmoth). A fundamental aspect of this identity is contained within the Gaelic language, a minority language spoken by 1.7% of the Scottish people. Already spoken by a sliver of the populat...

by Sidney Schroepfer Sidney Schroepfer is a senior in psychology and Spanish at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sidney’s future plans include applying to graduate school for clinical psychology and volunteering in ESL classrooms. He wrote this blog post in 418 ‘Language and Minorities in Europe’ in Fall 2021.  Before beginning this blog post, I would like to thank my host parent, Tere, and the professors from the University of Deusto. Thanks to them, my study abroad experience had a major impact in understanding myself and the world around me, and I gained a deep connection to the city, its languages, and its people. In this blog I interweave my observations from a typical metro commute with research that demonstrates where and how Euskara is used. And therefore, demonstrates how a salient Basque identity is being shaped. First, I paint Bilbao’s context through a brief history lesson. The Basque language, Euskara, is a language isolate (Urban, 2021). It has no perc...

by Sophia Ebel Sophia Ebel is a senior in Comparative Literature and Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois. Her future plans include applying to graduate programs abroad in language education and education policy. She wrote this blog post in 418 'Language and Minorities in Europe' in Fall 2021. It is not uncommon for tensions to exist between linguistic groups, but in few cases is the relationship as strained as between Yiddish and German. Yiddish is a Germanic language that was previously spoken by Ashkenazi Jewish communities throughout Europe. For sociopolitical reasons Yiddish was historically viewed as a lesser dialect or distorted form of German, despite its lengthy history and unique influences from Hebrew, Aramaic, and the Romance and Slavic language families. Still, prior to the Second World War there were approximately 13 million Yiddish speakers living in Europe (Walfish).  The Holocaust, however, more than decimated this population and many of the surviving...