Sociolinguistics and Multiculturalism

The main objectives of the course are:
to define the most basic sociolinguistic concepts in order to explain the complex relationships between language and society in multicultural settings;
to analyse language use in relation to social factors such as culture, age, status, etc.;
The main competencies acquired through the course are:
knowledge of sociolinguistic theory, research methods, major concepts, and terminology in the analysis of data from a multilingual environment.
Familiarity with methodological approaches and techniques is intended as an introduction to independent research.

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Students will learn about:
the main areas of sociolinguistics, such as language policy, language planning, language ideologies, languages in contact, bilingualism or multilingualism of an individual or group, the relationship between language and identity, the complexity of individual identities and their identity and discursive practice;
terminological apparatus (diglossia, idiolect, sociolect, bilingual, multilingual and multilingualism), language variables, etc.);
methodology and techniques of sociolinguistic research (guided interviews, questionnaires, participant observation, recording and transcription of spontaneous speech, etc.).

The basic research areas of Slovene sociolinguistics (language policy and language planning, languages in contact, genre theory) will be presented and evaluated in the context of the development of the subject.
Several examples will be presented of different multicultural environments. Also, various intercultural relationships will be analyzed.

Students acquire the basic concepts of sociolinguistics.
Students understand how dominant language ideologies influence an individual's choice of language in a multicultural community.
Students learn about the relationship between language and language ideology
Students learn the benefits of being a multilingual individual and of multiculturalism.
Students understand how language policies affect us and how we can affect them in turn.
Students are able to design and conduct a simple sociolinguistic investigation (e.g., survey of attitudes through a sociolinguistic interview, observing language behaviour, analysing recorded language material) and evaluate its results.

• Edwards, John 2009: Language and Identity. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Catalogue
• Fishman, Joshua A. and García, Ofelia 2010: Language & Ethnic Identity. Volume I, Disciplinary & Regional Perspectives. Second Edition. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. Catalogue
• Coulmas, Florian 2011: Untrodden paths in linguistics identity research : special issue (general editor Joshua A. Fishman). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Hall, Stuart, Gay, Paul de (ed) 2010: Questions of cultural identity. Los Angeles [etc.]: Sage. Catalogue E-version
• Vassberg, M. Liliane 1993: Alsatian Acts of identity. Language Use and Language Attitudes in Alsace. Cleveton, Philadelphia, Adelaide: Multilingual Matters 90.
• Vodopivec, Peter 2006: Od Pohlinove slovnice do samostojne države. Ljubljana: Modrijan. Catalogue
• Zuljan Kumar Danila. Identity and discursive practices of Friulians and Slovenes in the Province of Udine, Italy, in recent decades. Dialectologia : revista electrònica, 2020, nr. 24, str. 273-296. E-version
• Zuljan Kumar Danila. Identity changes in the Slovenian and Friulian linguistic communities in the Province of Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. European Countryside, 2018, vol. 10, no. 1, str. 141-157. E-version
• Zuljan Kumar Danila. Slovenska identiteta med mladimi v Beneški Sloveniji. V: ZULJAN KUMAR, Danila (ur.), KOLENC, Petra (ur.). Simon Rutar in Beneška Slovenija, (Odstiranja,). Ljubljana: Slovenska matica. 2021, str. 141-155.
• Selected chapters from the manual Sociolingustics: An international Handbook of the Science of Language and Society = Soziolinguistik: Ein Internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft, HSK 3.1–3.3. Berlin – New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2004–2006.
• Selected discussions from Slovenian sociolinguistics.

Seminar paper

Written exam

Dr. Danila Zuljan Kumar is a researcher in the Dialectology Section of the Fran Ramovš Institute for the Slovenian Language at ZRC SAZU. She is devoted to Slovene dialectology, especially the study of the endangered Torre Valley dialect and the Natisone Valley and Collio dialects of the Littoral dialect group. Within this, she is particularly interested in the problems of linguistic contact between unrelated languages, i.e. between the West Slovenian dialects and their Romance neighbours. Recently, he has also focused on sociolinguistic issues in language contact, such as the relationship between identity(ies) and language(s) in multilingual societies. He is involved in the preparation of the Slovenian Linguistic Atlas.
In the years from 2010 to 2021, she was the head of the Research Station ZRC SAZU in Nova Gorica. In 2019 and 2020, she completed a four-month training at the University of Padua in Italy. Since 2017 she has been a member of the Slovenian-Italian Commission for the inscription of the Brda / Collio / Cuei region in the UNESCO list of cultural heritage. At the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica she teaches dialectology and sociolinguistics.
https://rpng.zrc-sazu.si/en/sodelavci/danila-zuljan-kumar-en