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  • Jazyk a identita etnických menšin: možnosti zachování a revitalizace [Language and Identity of Ethnic Minorities: The Possibilities for Maintenance and Revitalization]
  • Zdenek Salzmann
Jazyk a identita etnických menšin: možnosti zachování a revitalizace [Language and Identity of Ethnic Minorities: The Possibilities for Maintenance and Revitalization]. Leoš Šatava. 2d, expanded edition. Prague: Sociologické nakladatelství, 2009. Pp. 215. N.p. (paper).

The author, professor of ethnology at Charles University in Prague, spent five years in Bautzen (Budyšin), the center of a Lusatian enclave, the Sorbs, in eastern Germany, studying at close range the efforts of the local population to retain their linguistic and ethnic identity. But his interest in the maintenance, strengthening, and revitalization of the ethnolinguistic identity of threatened minority populations has been much wider, spanning several continents. These wider interests are reflected in the book under review.

In his introductory chapter, Šatava reviews the development and forms of ethnicity, and the range of opinions that have been held with regard to ethnicity. In practice, according to him, two diametrically opposite concepts may be posited: the unambiguous “either-or” concept, with its variants, and the “not only–but also” concept, one which seems to prevail now, but, of course, varies somewhat from case to case. [End Page 187]

Among the terms used by Šatava in his discussion of the linguistic status of ethnic minorities are vitality, loyalty, planning, shift, maintenance, revitalization, and death, and these and other concepts are then applied when he takes up several specific cases in some detail—Gaelic in Scotland, Friesian in Germany, Burgenland Croatian in Austria, and Maori in New Zealand. And then there are important questions to be asked, regardless of the “objective” merits of any particular case. For example: Will children be overburdened by having to acquire two languages? Can the language of a small ethnic minority fulfill the needs of a modern society? Can one justify public expenditure for maintaining a secondary, marginal, dying language? And the like.

In chapter 5, “Representative Models of a Successful Ethnolinguistic Revitalization: Comparative Material,” the author offers four brief examples. (1) The cultural model is exemplified by the Gaels, who have managed in recent years to avoid the threat of complete assimilation by strengthening the function of their language in both education and the media. (2) The cultural model with a political touch can be seen among the Lapps (Saami) in Norway or the Maori in New Zealand—the former interact with various international organizations, the latter have introduced a broad program of revitalization and have reinforced their political position. (3) The culturally political model has been applied in Wales, where the reversal of the language shift from Welsh to English has led, among other things, to the establishment in 1999 of a local Welsh parliament. (4) The politically cultural model is exemplified by the Basques of Spain, who, since 1979, have had an autonomous province, Euskadi, where their language, as well as Spanish, has been recognized as an official language of the province and is strongly supported.

Some writers on the subject would have been satisfied with presenting such a multilayered subject as this one by providing its historical background and then discussing its various aspects, but not Šatava. In chapter 4, titled “What to Do?,” he takes up the various measures designed to alleviate or solve problems under two headings—theory and practice. Among the factors he considers among the practical approaches are language ecology, legal and administrative measures, education, media, economics, and contacts with other ethnolinguistic minorities. Readers interested in pursuing matters in greater depth are referred to the most relevant sources.

Šatava’s book is clearly written and well documented; it makes a timely contribution to the literature dealing with the evergrowing efforts by minority populations worldwide to maintain, reinforce, and, if necessary, revive their threatened ethnic consciousness. The volume contains over 450 bibliographic references ranging in time from 1952 to the present, several helpful indices, and an English summary.

Zdenek Salzmann
Northern Arizona University
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