Programm 74. StuTS

Croatia's language policy has caused a decline in dialect speakers, including Čakavian and Kajkavian. However, Kajkavian speakers in Zagreb resist this trend. These speakers, known as "Purger," have a unique language attitude shaped by psychological and sociocultural factors. Language attitude involves cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements. Different methods exist to study language attitudes, aiming to understand and mitigate biases. This presentation analyzes Zagreb Kajkavian's characteristics, compares dialects, and proposes research on language attitudes toward dialects and Standard language.

The Croatian language, belonging to the BCMS language family, comprises three dialect families: Štokavian, Čakavian, and Kajkavian. These dialects differ in how they ask "what," using “što” for Štokavian, “kaj” for Kajkavian, and ča for Čakavian. The Štokavian dialect forms the basis of the Standard language, revitalized after the Yugoslavian war in the 1990s. Subsequently, Croatia has implemented an extensive language policy [1].

While this “puristic movement” led to a decrease of dialect speakers for both, Čakavian and Kajkavian, it seems that the Kajkavian speakers inhabiting the City of Zagreb, capital of Croatia, are resistant towards this trend. Looking at previous research [2][3][4], it looks like the speakers of Zagreb Kajkavian, which are often referred to as “Purger” (coming from the German word “Bürger”, meaning “citizen” [5]), always had a very special language attitude towards their variety.[6]

The concept of language attitude refers to individuals' reactions toward language varieties and their users, shaped by psychological and sociocultural factors. Consisting of an interplay of cognitive elements involving beliefs and stereotypes, affective aspects that pertain to evaluations, and behavioral dimensions that reflect observable actions and responses [7], several methods have been developed to research language attitudes such as the societal treatment approach, the direct approach and the indirect approach [8]. By doing so, the aim is to document and explain language attitudes as well as to understand the consequences of language attitude towards Non-Standard speakers and to find measures to reduce negative bias [9].

Therefore, this presentation aims to first analyze the characteristics of Zagreb Kajkavian and compare these to other Kajkavian dialects such as Međimurski Kajkavian and Zagorijan Kajkavian. Secondly, it summarizes previous research of language attitude of different Kajkavian communities, concluding in a research proposal to study the language attitude from both, Zagreb and other Kajkavian speakers, towards their dialect and the Standard language nowadays.

Info

Tag: 26.10.2023
Anfangszeit: 15:00
Dauer: 00:25
Raum: Hofburg Raum 1
Track: Sociolinguistics
Sprache: en

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