Search results for "Ethnolect"

The Szlonzokian Ethnolect in the Context of German and Polish Nationalisms1

2008

This article analyzes the emergence of the Szlonzokian ethnic group or proto-nation in the context of the use of language as an instrument of nationalism in Central Europe. When language was legislated into the statistical measure of nationality in the second half of the nineteenth century, Berlin pressured the Slavophone Catholic peasant-cum-worker population of Upper Silesia to become ‘proper Germans’. Polish ennationalizing pressure was added after the division of Upper Silesia between Poland and Germany in 1922. Ennationalizing policies changed in 1939 when the entire region was reincorporated into wartime Germany and, again, in 1945 following Poland's annexation of Upper Silesia. Frequ…