Introduction
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Roland Marti
Abstract
The topic of “Small and Large Slavic Languages in Contact” within the framework of the sociology of language calls for an explanation, particularly regarding the restriction to Slavic languages. The size of linguistic communities has long been recognized as an important factor for survival, elaboration, official recognition, international importance, influence on other languages, etc., even though sheer size isn't everything (cf., e.g., the former position of Flemish in Belgium, long dominated by the numerically inferior French, or the situation of Belarusian in Belarus as described in this issue). On the other hand, it is rather unusual to analyze the quantitative (and power) relationship between languages chosen on the basis of their genetic relationship, that is, the Slavic group of languages within the Indo-European family. There are, however, several reasons that justify this choice.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Size isn't everything: the relation between Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian in Slovenia
- Lower Sorbian — twice a minority language
- Closely-related languages in contact: Czech, Slovak, “Czechoslovak”
- The Rusyn language in Slovakia: between a rock and a hard place
- In the grip of replacive bilingualism: the Belarusian language in contact with Russian
- Ukrainian and Russian in contact: attraction and estrangement
- On the relationship between small and large Slavic languages
- Book review
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Size isn't everything: the relation between Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian in Slovenia
- Lower Sorbian — twice a minority language
- Closely-related languages in contact: Czech, Slovak, “Czechoslovak”
- The Rusyn language in Slovakia: between a rock and a hard place
- In the grip of replacive bilingualism: the Belarusian language in contact with Russian
- Ukrainian and Russian in contact: attraction and estrangement
- On the relationship between small and large Slavic languages
- Book review
