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: German in East Central and South East Europe is deeply rooted in the area’s multilingualism. It shows specific developments in different countries, though. In this article the examples Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Romania represent German in very different situations, historically as well as contemporary.
The present article is based on the premise that Europe is currently in context of migration dynamics between 'home' and 'foreign' ideas, between 'soft' strategies of inclusion, social participation on the one hand, and 'hard' tactics ofexclusion of the 'others' or 'Migrants' on the other hand. Against this background and based on some ideas of Zygmunt Bauman, Navid Kermani and Amin Maalouf, I will firstly discuss some factors of the 'We-debate'. Then, using the example of the novel So tun, als ob es regnet of the German-Romanian author Iris Wolff I will analyze how far literature uses translation and multilingualism to initiate a poetological process of understanding others and therefore counteracts cultural we-phantasms in Europe.
Inspired by the general theme Interculturality in language and literature. Assimilation – distinction – exchange, the contribution offers a short survey over the linguistic situation at the schools with instruction in German language in Romania and outlines the evolution, problems and perspectives in this domain. The long tradition of the church-sponsored, Lutheran German schools of the Transylvanian Saxons belongs to history. The present linguistic situation at schools with instruction in German language in Romania is a totally changed one and all participants are facing huge challenges. Very briefly, current aspects of the linguistic situation (school types, staff, students, acquisition of the language of instruction, multilingualism, language competence, phenomena of language contact, intercultural learning etc.) as well as possible actions in the field of multilingual didactics and educational politicy are pointed up.
C’est trop auch! the translation of contemporary French literature featuring urban youth slang
(2016)
The French post-colonial novel has recently been witnessing the emergence of urban youth language or français contemporain des cités (Goudaillier 2001). This linguistic variety allows underprivileged youths from multi-ethnic suburbs to rebel against authority by deliberately violating standard language norms. Its characteristics include frequent lexical input from immigrant languages, in particular Arabic and English, and the use of verlan at the morphological level, with the latter involving a form of back slang using syllabic inversion, which can be recurrently applied to heighten its coding function. In view of the social rejection of this ‘antilanguage’ (Halliday 1978), it has had difficulty penetrating into literature. However, this is now beginning to change, with urban youth discourse appearing in a number of novels, mostly by young ‘post-migration’ writers (Geiser 2008), such as Faïza Guène, Insa Sané and Rachid Djaïdani. While this language variety has mainly been dealt with by sociolinguists, some of the novels concerned are now crossing borders, and a multi-disciplinary approach to this phenomenon is now called for, combining linguistic, literary and translatological tools.
The transfer of this heterolingual genre does indeed raise a number of issues. For example, if we assume that translation is a cultural-political practice (Venuti 2008), what options do translators have to convey the resistant discourse of young immigrant slang users? How will the relationship between language use and social identity manifest itself in the target text? And how can a contrastive linguistic analysis of the features of urban youth language help to resolve translation problems? I will draw on a corpus of French and Dutch novels as well as some translations from French in an attempt to answer these questions.
Multilingual research could offer a unique perspective on how the languages already acquired by a person affect the online processing of a new language. But it is currently difficult to assess this issue because theoretical accounts of multilingualism have focused on acquisition rather than processing and most empirical research to date has gathered untimed (offline) evidence. To help bridge this gap, we formulate hypotheses that can help derive processing predictions from existing accounts of multilingualism. But crucially, and based on previous findings in second language processing, we identify ways in which assumptions about crosslinguistic influence may need to be revised to allow the separate treatment of lexical and syntactic processing, and to consider the role of variables such as language dominance and proficiency. In our view, the question of what's special about multilingualism is worth studying, but more research is needed before we can begin answering it.
In the context of globalisation and internationalisation, multilingualism and intercultural interaction are indispensable prerequisites that are desired in all areas. The focus of this paper is to highlight the importance and necessity of multilingualism and intercultural dialogue on the example of Timișoara. The beginnings and traces of multilingualism and the intercultural dimension of Timișoara can be traced based on the geography and history of the city alone. Considering these historical, political, social, cultural and economic prerequisites, this paper presents how the intercultural character and multilingualism of the Banat capital has led it to become a unique phenomenon in Europe, and how it has influenced the history and existence of this region of Romania. The good interethnic relations between the minorities shape the spirit of this city and have helped Timișoara become the European Capital of Culture 2021.The multicultural character of the city has also enabled the emergence of numerous cultural institutions, educational institutions, associations and organisations, which in turn promote this diversity of languages and intercultural interaction.