Introduction: ethnolinguistic minority language policies in Bulgaria and their Balkan context
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Angel G Angelov
Abstract
Language policy failure can come at a high price. From 1984 to 1986, the Communist Party of Bulgaria attempted a forced “nationalization” of its minorities, Turks were specifically targeted; names were to be Slavicized and Bulgarian was to be the only language allowed in public places; even Turkish newspapers were closed down. This special issue of IJSL examines the collapse of that language policy and how the attempt to carry it out reverberates through Bulgarian and Balkan politics, affecting Bulgarian minorities and their counterparts in adjacent nations. As a case of a failed language policy with mild repercussions — after 1989, more severe failures occurred in other Balkan nations, several suffered armed conflict and “ethnic cleansing” — such extreme measures did not occur in Bulgaria; its relationships with its minorities remain more exemplary for other nations in the overcoming of harsh policies and avoidance of civil war.
© Walter de Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Introduction: ethnolinguistic minority language policies in Bulgaria and their Balkan context
- Bulgarian Turks in the context of neighborhood with other ethnic-religious communities in Bulgaria
- Code-switching among Muslim Roms in Bulgaria
- Romani dialects in Bulgaria
- Bilingualism in a larger Slavonic background: Russian minorities and the Russian language in Bulgaria
- The Armenians in Bulgaria: a community portrait
- Bulgaria and linguistic matters of Bulgarian Jews
- The Aromânians: an ethnos and language with a 2000-year history
- Bulgarian Muslims from the Chech region and their linguistic self-identification
- Catholic Bulgarians and their dialect
- The four transitions in Bulgarian education
- Book reviews
- Language and religion: a case study of two Ambonese communities
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Introduction: ethnolinguistic minority language policies in Bulgaria and their Balkan context
- Bulgarian Turks in the context of neighborhood with other ethnic-religious communities in Bulgaria
- Code-switching among Muslim Roms in Bulgaria
- Romani dialects in Bulgaria
- Bilingualism in a larger Slavonic background: Russian minorities and the Russian language in Bulgaria
- The Armenians in Bulgaria: a community portrait
- Bulgaria and linguistic matters of Bulgarian Jews
- The Aromânians: an ethnos and language with a 2000-year history
- Bulgarian Muslims from the Chech region and their linguistic self-identification
- Catholic Bulgarians and their dialect
- The four transitions in Bulgarian education
- Book reviews
- Language and religion: a case study of two Ambonese communities
