Der schwierige Umgang mit dem germanischen Erbe: zum sprachsoziologischen Status der rhein- und moselfränkischen Varietäten in Ostlothringen

Abstract

Language borders often do not follow political borders. This can cause complex multilingual relationships to emerge. In Lorraine (as in Alsace), political affiliation has changed several times over the centuries between Germany and France; such changes of affiliation were usually accompanied by strong language policy measures. For the Germanophone varieties in Eastern Lorraine, this resulted in a complicated linguistic constellation after the Second World War: historically, these varieties belong to the West Central German dialect continuum, but today they are functionally covered by Standard French.

This constellation is particularly challenging for speakers when conceptualising their multilingual repertoire. Specifically the question of whether the Eastern Lorraine varieties still belong to German or whether they form a language in its own right (‘francique’) is answered differently.

This article provides an overview of the current sociolinguistic situation of the Germanophone minority in Eastern Lorraine and contrasts the answers to this question given by activists, by official France and by the speakers themselves.