Heiko F. Marten

• Senior Researcher at Rezekne Academy of Technologies

This entry provides an overview of contemporary roles of English in Latvia. English is relatively new to the Latvian ecolinguistic system, with Latvian, Russian and German being the most widespread three local languages throughout history. The importance of English has, however, grown rapidly since the re‐establishment of Latvian independence in 19...

Die 12 wissenschaftlichen Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes dienen als Bilanz des 57. Linguistischen Kolloquiums (a.k.a. the Linguistics Colloquium), das vom 21.–23.9.2022 erstmals an der Universität Tampere, Finnland stattfand. Die Beiträge in deutscher oder englischer Sprache spiegeln die thematische, methodologische und theoretische Vielfalt des...

Aims and objectives Language debates in Latvia often focus on the role of Latvian as official and main societal language. Yet, Latvian society is highly multilingual, and families with home languages other than Latvian have to choose between different educational trajectories for their children. In this context, this paper discusses the results of...

Linguistic Landscapes and Educational Spaces Edina Krompák, Víctor Fernández-Mallat and Stephan Meyer (eds) (2021) Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Pp. 312 ISBN: 9781788923859 (pbk) ISBN: 9781788923866 (hbk) ISBN: 9781788923873 (eBook)

The aim of the Regional Dossier series is to provide concise descriptions of minority languages in education, mainly in Europe but also in other parts of the world. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects...

The term ‘new speaker’ has recently emerged as an attempt by sociolinguists not only to understand the different types of speaker profiles that can be found in contemporary societies, but also to grasp the underlying processes of becoming a legitimate speaker in a given society. In this article, we combine the results from two studies situated in t...

This paper analyzes the LL in the city of Bautzen / Budyšin in Germany, a town which is frequently considered the “capital” of the Slavonic minority of the Sorbs. It focuses on the societal role of Sorbian in relation to practices and ideologies of mainstream German society. The vast majority of signs in Bautzen / Budyšin are in German only. Sorbia...

This chapter investigates differences in language regards in Latvia and Estonia. Based on the results of a survey that had about 1000 respondents in each country, it analyses general views on languages and language-learning motivation, as well as specific regards of Estonian, Latvian, Russian, English, German and other languages. The results show t...

This chapter introduces readers to the context and concept of this volume. It starts by providing an historical overview of languages and multilingualism in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, highlighting the 100th anniversary of statehood which the three Baltic states are celebrating in 2018. Then, the chapter briefly presents important strands of res...

This edited collection provides an overview of linguistic diversity, societal discourses and interaction between majorities and minorities in the Baltic States. It presents a wide range of methods and research paradigms including folk linguistics, discourse analysis, narrative analyses, code alternation, ethnographic observations, language learning...

This chapter investigates policies which shape the role of the German language in contemporary Estonia. Whereas German played for many centuries an important role as the language of the economic and cultural elite in Estonia, it severely declined in importance throughout the twentieth century. Mirrored on this historical background, the paper provi...

This chapter analyses the impact of political decentralization in a state on the position of ethnic and linguistic minorities, in particular with regard to the role of parliamentary assemblies in the political system. It relates a number of typical functions of parliaments to the specific needs of minorities and their languages. The most important...

This paper gives an overview of activities which have been carried out in the fi eld of Linguistic Landscapes (LL) at Rēzekne University College (Rēzeknes Augstskola, RA) since 2008. Between 2009 and 2012, LL research was carried out within the framework of one of the work groups of the TILRA project funded by the European Social Funds (ESF). TILRA...

Raksta mērķis ir izvērtēt lingvistiskās ainavas laukā paveikto, apkopojot piecu gadu pieredzi un ieskicējot nākotnes perspektīvas turpmākajos pētījumos un studiju procesa satura plānojumā. Rakstā pamatā ir izmantota deskriptīvā pētniecības metode un kontentanalīze. Būtiskākie secinājumi: Lingvistiskās ainavas izpēte dažādās teritoriālajās vienībā...

Being visible may be as important for minority languages as being heard. Traditional research on minority languages focuses on language maintenance and language shift, on language endangerment and revitalization, on language transmission in the family, on education, and on language policies in other social domains such as the media. Although litera...

When we first started the project of looking at minority languages through a linguistic landscape lens, we felt that the visibility of minority languages in public space had been insufficiently dealt with in traditional minority language research. A linguistic landscape approach, as it had developed over the last years, would constitute a valuable...

This chapter presents the role of the regional language of Latgalian in the linguistic landscape (LL) of the region of Latgale in Eastern Latvia. The example shows how LL as a method can contribute to the understanding of the functions that a regional or minority language is assigned to in the ethnolinguistic composition of a region and the underly...

This article looks at Latgalian from a perspective of a classification of languages. It starts by discussing relevant terms relating to sociolinguistic language types. It argues that Latgalian and its speakers show considerable similarities with many languages in Europe which are considered to be regional languages – hence, also Latgalian should be...