Language ideologies in the Romanian Banat : analysis of interviews and academic writings among the Hungarians and Germans

This is an introduction to a compilation of six articles on language ideologies in the Romanian Banat. My dissertation was initiated by fieldwork in the area, resulting to a database of interviews among the Hungarian and German inhabitants. This data is compared to intellectual writings. With regards to researcher position, I identify myself as a traveler in the area and as a foreign scholar. The analytical framework of this study draws from the study of Language Ideologies and Conversation Analysis.Here, language ideologies are broadly defined as metalinguistic discourse or talk about language. In the analysis of interviews, conversation analysis is used, in order to analyze the emergent character of language ideologies in interviews. The analysis indicates, that also language ideologies have a foundation in interaction and in the normative frameworks that speakers invoke in and through their talk.In the articles certain interactional structures are analyzed as possible sites for certain language ideology related phenomena. Among others, a peculiar form of a repair sequence is used to collaboratively evaluate a language form as inferior. Further results of this study show, that among the local Hungarian and German inhabitants multilingualism is considered ideal.In contrast, the intellectual writings, presenting an elite and national view, tend to emphasize conflict. Further, the local Hungarian variety is seen negatively both by its speakers and by Hungarian intellectuals, whereas the local German variety is considered as a valued part of the regional identity.In future projects the historical connections of current discourses and language ideologies of other groups in the area could be explored. It would be profitable also to supplement my work with longer-term fieldwork in the area.