Language discrimination in Germany

Bibliographic Data

ID8250077
AuthorsAstrid Adler (0000-0002-2246-2199, Leibniz Institute for the German Language, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume3
Issue2
Pages232-253
Publication date2019-12-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Language and Discrimination (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2397-2645 • E-ISSN: 2397-2637
PublisherEquinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/jld.39952
OpenAlexW2997240604
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited6

Language attitudes matter; they influence people’s behaviour and decisions. Therefore, it is crucial to learn more about patterns in the way that languages are evaluated. One means of doing so is using a quantitative approach with data representative of a whole population, so that results mirror dispositions at a societal level. This kind of approach is adopted here, with a focus on the situation in Germany. The article consists of two parts. First, I will present some results of a new representative survey on language attitudes in Germany (the Germany Survey 2017). Second, I will show how language attitudes penetrate even seemingly objective data collection processes by examining the German Microcensus. In 2017, for the first time in eighty years, the German Microcensus included a question on language use ‘at home’. Unfortunately, however, the question was clearly tainted by language attitudes instead of being objective. As a result, the Microcensus significantly misrepresents the linguistic reality of different migrant languages spoken in Germany

German · German population · Linguistics · Population · Sociology · Computer Science · Demography · Gender Studies in Language · Linguistic Education and Pedagogy · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Philosophy · Psychology

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