Hybrid practices meet nation-state language policies: Transcarpathia in the twentieth century and today

Abstract

From the early twentieth century to the present day, Transcarpathia has belonged to several states: the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, Czechoslovakia, the Hungarian Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and finally to Ukraine. The status of what counts as a minority and a majority language has changed each time the state affiliation has been changed. Based on the long term research by Csernicskó, and on the one-month fieldwork carried out by Laihonen in 2012, our goal is to provide an autonomous critical account and discourse analysis of the linguistic situation in Transcarpathia. We draw examples especially from the linguistic landscape, which documents the hybrid practices difficult to catch with other means. Different nation states have aimed to evaluate certain languages over others. However, Transcarpathia has been too far away from different national centers and it has therefore remained a periphery. In the everyday life of Transcarpathians, ironies around language repertoires, standardization and heteroglossia come into the fore, especially in the current context. Such unexpected linguistic practices or "pre-nationalist" and "non-purist" ideologies offer a change to see how certain categories, such as language, have remained in their hybrid forms and are still clearly "in the making".

Interaction of national cultures in the development of musical life of Transcarpathia in the second half of the 20th century

“…In everyday life of Transcarpathia, the issue of the language, standardisation and heteroglossia comes into the picture in modern times especially. Such unexpected linguistic practices, or "before-nationalist" and "non-purist" ideologies suggest changes to see how certain categories, such as language, have remained in their hybrid forms and are still clearly in the making (Csernicskó & Laihonen, 2016).…”

Maintenance of minority languages and economic viability of minorities in the mirror of the Transcarpathian linguistic landscape

“…Az angol nyelv megjelenése azt üzeni a kaszonyi termálfürdő vendégeinek, hogy a hely modern, globális és nyugati is egyben. A nyugati világra asszociáló angol nyelv azt hivatott jelképezni az ukrajnai turista számára, hogy anélkül jutott el egy európai színvonalú helyre, hogy végigjárta volna a schengeni vízum beszerzésének drága és időigényes útját (Csernicskó -Laihonen 2016). Ahogyan Pavlenko (2009: 285) fogalmaz, az ilyen angol nyelvű feliratok elsődleges funkciója, hogy "nemzetközi aurát" biztosítsanak.…”

Producing the nation through philanthropy: Legitimising coethnic and prorefugee civic action in Hungary

“…As narratives and symbols of preserving the nation are familiar to everyone in the programme, in philanthropic encounters, all affected parties are capable of acting according to this pre‐existing imaginary. In other programmes, however, many of the targeted groups are in the later phases of assimilation, in particular, language change (Csernicskó, 2017; Csernicskó & Laihonen, 2016; Peti, 2017; Peti & Tánczos, 2012) These children occasionally or never use Hungarian in their everyday lives and attend majoritarian (Ukrainian language or Romanian language) state schools. Thus, they are not acquainted with Hungarian national discourses and related symbols and narratives, and they lack the knowledge of acting according to the roles prescribed by these.…”