Eurolinguistics

The euro linguistics , according to the presentation of their namesake, Norbert Reiter , in essence, the development of the linguistic similarities in Europe. Some papers and courses of study that call themselves European or Eurolinguistic seem inadequate in this regard, as they only cover a very small number of languages ​​and countries, in extreme cases only two - and often without a uniform approach. Eurolinguistic knowledge requires studies that illuminate the European languages ​​comprehensively or representatively. Eurolinguistics deals with the languages ​​of Europe in all areas of linguistics such as language history , language sociology , language politics, language systems, intercultural communication. Here are Europe and European defined differently depending on the author or research group.

definition

With regard to the term Europe or European , at least the following types of definitions can be found in the humanities and social science literature.

• in a geographical way: today this usually means the area from the Atlantic (with or without the British Isles) to the Urals.
• in a political way: this means mostly European Union , but sometimes also Council of Europe .
• in a (historical-) cultural-anthropological way: Such a definition includes the aspects religion, way of life, ancestors, value system, symbols and language or language culture (including the writing system), which can be given different weighting depending on the culture. In the literature, the following terms, among others, are designated as European: Renaissance , Enlightenment , Romanticism , Rationality , Christianity , university and general school , welfare state , rule of law , democracy , human dignity , freedom , equality , endured diversity , appreciation of ordinary life, self-realization, Latin Alphabet as well as linguistic influence through Latin . There are degrees of affiliation. The birth of Europe would be seen around the year 800. In this sense, a north-south strip from Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece and Cyprus would represent the threshold to other cultures.
• in a mixed geographic-cultural way: The term “ Kulturerdteil” was used here. The definition encompasses cultural rather than geographical aspects. According to this definition, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine do not belong to Europe.

Furthermore, eurolinguistic studies use different definitions of European languages:

• with and without inclusion of the nonstandard varieties
• with and without non-European varieties
• with and without historically young immigrants ( allochthonous ) languages
• with and without sign languages

State of research

The term Eurolinguistics was first coined by Norbert Reiter in 1991, but studies on European languages ​​had already been carried out (e.g. Lewy 1964, Décsy 1973). In addition to a series of works that take part of the European languages ​​into account, Harald Haarmann's works on linguistic history and language sociology have a pan-European perspective in mind. Mario Wandruszka probably also pursued this goal, but like many others he almost exclusively considered German , English , Italian , Spanish and French ; Wandruszka's and others' contributions are also clearly written from a German perspective. In addition, German, English, French, etc. are usually understood to mean German in Germany , English in Great Britain , French in France , etc.; Eurolinguistic studies have only recently shown awareness of other national varieties of these languages. Norbert Reiter, a Slavicist and Balkanologist by training, was primarily interested in semantics, with the aim of capturing the structure of linguistic content using a numerical method and thus finding out how people in Europe perceive or perceive their environment. However, form-oriented, as it were morphological - syntactic research was quickly added (for example with Uwe Hinrichs ). Eurolinguistics thus arose to a certain extent from language union research , in particular from Balkan linguistics and research on Standard Average European . Also sociolinguistic issues, particularly aspects of contact linguistics were, early on the euro linguistic agenda (at about Harald Haarmann and Sture Ureland). Eurolinguistic pragmatics , on the other hand, have only developed in recent years (with Joachim Grzega ). Scientists in Eurolinguistics who can be described as applied, often work without proper contact with the systems linguistic and sociolinguistic scientists and without any explicit reference to a Eurolinguistics discipline.

Only a few years after the turn of the millennium did basic works on the characteristics of the languages ​​of Europe emerge (Grzega 2006/2012, Hinrichs 2010), as did thoughts on specifically eurolinguistic teaching (Grzega 2006/2012). Publications that want to make eurolinguistic knowledge known to a broader German-speaking audience were created by Harald Haarmann (1975, 1993) and Joachim Grzega (2006, 2012).

Research projects (selection)

Larger examples from the field of systems linguistics:

• Atlas Linguarum Europae , ALE for short
• EUROTYPE

From the applied area:

• Languages ​​in a Network of European Excellence , abbreviated LINEE
• Language Dynamics and Management of Diversity , DYLAN for short
• EuroCom , for European Intercomprehension
• EuroLSJ

Institutionalization

With the exception of former and existing research centers on multilingualism (Bern, Brussels, Padua, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Udine and Uppsala) and the former European House Pappenheim (EHP) as well as the project area "Innovative European Linguistics" at the Donauwörth Adult Education Center, there has been little eurolinguistic research to date institutionalized.

Associations

The following eurolinguistic associations were founded:

• 1999 the Eurolinguistic Working Group Mannheim (ELAMA)
• 1999 the European Society for Phraseology (EUROPHRAS)
• 2005 the Associazione Eurolinguistica Sud (AES)
• 2007 the Eurolinguistic Network South East (ENSE)
• 2007 the Eurolinguistic Association (ELA)

Book series and magazines

• Studies in Eurolinguistics, since 2003, published by Sture Ureland at Logos-Verlag Berlin
• Eurolinguistic works, since 2004, published by Uwe Hinrichs Harrassowitz-Verlag Wiesbaden
• Journal for EuroLinguistiX , since 2004, edited by Joachim Grzega

literature

• Wolfgang Abbe et al .: Bibliography European Linguistics , 50 vols. Hamburg: Edition Loges 2011.
• Gyula Décsy: The linguistic structure of Europe: past - present - future , Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1973.
• Joachim Grzega: EuroLinguistic Parcours: Core Knowledge of European Language Culture , Frankfurt: IKO 2006, ISBN 3-88939-796-4 (reviewed by Norbert Reiter here (PDF; 190 kB) and by Uwe Hinrichs here ; PDF; 217 kB)
• Joachim Grzega: Europe's languages ​​and cultures through the ages , Tübingen: Narr 2012.
• Joachim Grzega: Eurolinguistics , Tübingen: Groos 2013 (= Study Bibliographies Linguistics 43).
• Joachim Grzega: Studies in Europragmatics: Theoretical Foundations and Some Practical Implications , Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2013 (= Eurolinguistic Works 7).
• Harald Haarmann: Sociology and Politics of the Languages ​​of Europe , Munich: dtv 1975.
• Harald Haarmann: The world of languages ​​in Europe: History and future of the language nations between the Atlantic and the Urals , Frankfurt (Main): Campus 1993.
• Uwe Hinrichs (Ed.): Handbook of Eurolinguistics . Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2010.
• Ernst Lewy: The construction of European languages , Tübingen: Niemeyer 1964.
• Mario Wandruszka: The European language community: German - French - English - Italian - Spanish in comparison , Tübingen: Francke 1998.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See e.g. B. Grzega 2012, 15ff.
2. ↑ since 1970; Initiator: Antonius Weijnen; current coordinator: Nicolae Saramandu; today's project team: several dozen scientists: homepage
3. ↑ 1990–1994 and 1998–2007; Coordinator: Ekkehard König; Project team made up of around 100 scientists
4. ↑ 2006–2010; Initiator: Peter H. Nelde; last coordinator: Iwar Werlen; Homepage ( Memento of the original from June 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ 2006–2011; Coordinators: Ruth Wodak and Anne-Claude Berthoude; Homepage
6. ↑ since 2000; Initiator: Horst G. Klein , current coordinator: Claudia Polzin-Hausmann; Homepage ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Initiator: Erhard Steller; Homepage
8. ↑ Homepage
9. ↑ Homepage
10. ↑ Homepage ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.