The Wendish Research Exchange - Kimura, Goro Christoph: The Significance of Language Use in the Church for the Maintenance of Sorbian

Lětopis Abstract 2016 1: Kimura, Goro Christoph: The Significance of Language Use in the Church for the Maintenance of Sorbian

In contrast to language shift, language maintenance appears to be a static phenomenon. However, this paper displays language maintenance as a process by applying Language Management Theory. By applying a case study from a Catholic Sorbian parish in eastern Germany it can be shown that the Sorbian language is maintained in the church not just as a tradition, but through numerous minute interventions at different levels. Given the crucial importance of the church as a central public space for the language, we could assume that without such managing activities in favour of Sorbian, it would not be possible to maintain the Sorbian language in this region.