LANGUAGE ATTITUDES THROUGH AN INTERSECTIONAL LENS: VULNERABLE LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTIC VARIETIES IN SERBIA
Abstract
This paper investigates the attitudes of members of vulnerable linguistic communities in Serbia towards their own languages. Based on the results of a quantitative survey carried out in 2023, the authors assess the attitudes of speakers of vulnerable languages towards the maintenance and revitalisation of their languages, including transmission to the younger generations and their introduction in the school system, and discuss their feelings regarding speaking the language with the members of the community and outside the community. Finally, they examine the correlation between the aforementioned variables and a series of demographic factors to determine whether there are any statistically significant relations between them. The research shows that the majority of speakers of vulnerable languages in Serbia show positive attitudes towards their language, regardless of gender in most of the cases. On the other hand, the variable ‘language of the community’ is correlated with all other variables, while the variables ‘age’ and ‘education level’ correlate with some of the aforementioned attitudes and emotions. This is partially in line with what has been recently termed an attitude shift by sociolinguists, a change in ideology implying positive attitudes towards one’s own endangered language, a phenomenon observed in several endangered language contexts worldwide.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Bašić, G. (2021). Romi u Republici Srbiji: izazovi diskriminacije [Roma in the Republic of Serbia: The challenges of discrimination], Minority Rights Group Europe (MRGE). Available at: http://iriss.idn.org.rs/1187/1/MRG_Rep_RomaSerb_SE_Mar21_E.pdf (accessed: 28 March, 2025).
Bradley, D. (2002). Language attitudes: the key factor in language maintenance. In: Bradley, D. & Bradley, M. (eds), Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance (1–9). London & New York: Routledge.
Calvet, J.-L. (1998). Language Wars and Linguistic Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crenshaw, K. (1989 [2018]). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989 (1), 139–167.
Crystal, D. (2000). Language Death, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ćirković, S. (2023). The Romani language in the linguistic landscape of Serbia: a (non)visible minority language. Balcanica LIV, 21–63.
Dragojevic, M., Fasoli, F., Cramer J. & Rakić, T. (2021). Toward a Century of Language Attitudes Research: Looking Back and Moving Forward. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 40 (1), 60–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X20966714
Durlić, P. (2023). Vorbar: Frazeološki vlaško-srpski rečnik tradicionalne kulture Vlaha istočne Srbije [Vorbar: Phraseological Vlach-Serbian dictionary of the traditional culture of the Vlachs of Eastern Serbia], Majdanpek/ Pančevo: Pekus.
Garrett, P. (2010). Attitudes to Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511844713
Huțanu, M. & Sorescu-Marinković, A. (2023). Changing the Linguistic Landscape: Vlach Romanian in Eastern Serbia. TEME XLVII (1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.22190/TEME211018006H
Jakšić, B. (2015). Romi u Srbiji između nakovnja siromaštva i čekića diskriminacije [Roma in Serbia between the anvil of poverty and the hammer of discrimination], Beograd: MostArt.
Knežević, A. (2019). Maternji jezik kao determinanta etničkog identiteta u popisima stanovništva Srbije [Mother tongue as a determinant of ethnic identity in population censuses of Serbia]. Annales. Series historia et sociologia 29 (3), 455–472. https://doi.org/10.19233/ASHS.2019.30
Lugones, M. (2014). Radical multiculturalism and women of color feminisms. Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 13 (1), 68–80.
Mirić, M., Sorescu-Marinković, A. & Sokolovksa, V. (2024). Mother tongue in Serbia: a speakers’ perspective on the meaning of the concept. Open Linguistics 10 (1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2024-0016
Mirić, M., Sorescu-Marinković, A., Sokolovska, V., Vlajić, D., Ćirković, S., Redžić, A., Pons, N., Ćorković, M., Paunović Rodić, S., Sokolović, D., Miličević-Petrović, M. & Ramač, J. (2025). VLingS Questionnaire 1.0. In: Sorescu-Marinković, A., Ćorković, M. & Mirić, M. (eds), Vulnerable and Endangered Languages in Europe (338–379). Belgrade: Institute for Balkan Studies SASA; Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. https://doi.org/10.18485/vlings_vele.2025.ch12
Nagel, J. (2019). Intersectionality-as-metaphor and theories of flesh. Women’s Studies in Communication 42 (4), 427–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2019.1682918
Palant, Dž. (2009). SPSS: Priručnik za preživljavanje (translation of the 3rd edition) [SPSS Survival Manual]. Beograd: Mikro knjiga.
Raduški, N. (2006). Struktura stanovništva prema nacionalnoj pripadnosti i maternjem jeziku [Population structure according to national belonging and mother tongue]. In: Penev, G. (ed.), Stanovništvo i domaćinstva Srbije prema popisu 2002. godine [Population and households of Serbia according to the 2002 census] (181–205). Beograd: Republički zavod za statistiku, Institut društvenih nauka, Centar za demografska istraživanja, Društvo demografa Srbije.
Ramač, J. (2018). Osnovni pravci, težnje i dileme u kulturno-prosvetnom i nacionalnom životu Rusina u Jugoslaviji (1945-1970) [Basic directions, aspirations and dilemmas in the cultural-educational and national life of the Rusyns in Yugoslavia (1945-1970)]. Київські історичні студії 6 (1), 63–73.
Salem, S. (2018). Intersectionality and its discontents: Intersectionality as traveling theory. European Journal of Women’s Studies 25 (4), 403–418. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506816643999
Sallabank, J. (2010). Language Endangerment: Problems and Solutions. eSharp, Special Issue: Communicating Change: Representing Self and Community in a Technological World, 50–87.
Sallabank, J. (2013). Attitudes to Endangered Languages: Identities and Policies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sorescu-Marinković, A. (2023). What’s in a Vlach Name? Patronyms, Double Naming and Ethnic Identity of the Vlachs of Eastern Serbia. Onomastica LXVII, 183–203. https://doi.org/10.17651/ONOMAST.67.11
Sorescu-Marinković, A. & Huțanu, M. (2023). The Vlachs of Eastern Serbia: language and Society. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Tripp, A. (2023). Abandoning inauthentic intersectionality. Applied Psycholinguistics 44 (4), 514–533. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716423000139
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
© University of Niš, Serbia
Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND
Print ISSN: 0353-7919
Online ISSN: 1820-7804