European Pluricentric Languages in Contact and Conflict

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Rudolf Muhr

European pluricentric languages in contact and conflict – An overview

Abstract: This paper intends to give an overview about (a) which languages there are in Europe, (b) which of them are to be considered pluricentric, and (c) where there are conflicts either about the status of pluricentricity and/or about the acknowledgment of their national varieties and their social visibility. The paper will also reflect on the possible reasons for conflicts about pluricentricity. In order to do this, it was necessary to define the borders of “Europe” and make a list of all European languages that exist within the borders of this continent. In the course of the elaboration of this task, it became apparent that neither a full list of all European languages existed, nor was there a consensus among linguists about the term “language”. Thus, one of the additional results of this work is that a definition of the term “language” and other terms derived from it are offered in this paper. The overview over pluricentric languages (PCLs) in contact and conflict found two types of special forms of pluricentricity and five types of conflicts in a total of 29 European languages and 19 national varieties. This overview yielded a large number of ongoing and past conflicts that mostly occur when nations and languages split or language communities have to fight for their linguistic and social rights to become or stay visible.¹

Objectives of this paper

The task of this paper is to describe European pluricentric languages where there is some sort of conflict or where there are contact induced issues either by other varieties of the “same” language or other languages. In a first step, I will discuss the terms “Europe” and “European language” and then consider how many languages there are in the area that is called “Europe” and what status they have. In a further step, the languages that can be categorized as “pluricentric” will be selected. In a last step, an overview of the PCLs and national varieties (NV) is offered where there are conflicts and problems arising from contact between national varieties and other languages.

The continent called “Europe” is a geographical area of around 10 million square km. In the west, it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, in the north by the Arctic Ocean and in the south (partly) by the Mediterranean Sea. The Ural Mountains are conventionally considered as the eastern boundary. Europe includes parts of the Russian Federation even though Uralic and Altaic languages are used on both sides of the mountains². Moreover, it makes Western Kazakhstan (partly) a European country, which is contested by some authors and even the European Union³, while Cornell/Engvall (2017) clearly consider it to be a European country⁴ for different reasons than seem plausible. The country is therefore included in the list of European states. Some authors also delineate Europe at the Black Sea, the Kuma-Manych Depression in Russia⁵, and at the Caspian Sea⁶. This approach would exclude Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, which are all members of the Council of Europe. The latter is not a geographical but a political argument and settles the discussion about the eastern border of the European continent for the time being. In addition, it excludes any attempt to define Europe via so-called cultural-anthropological arguments, which would restrict Europe to the countries influenced by the Roman-Greek and Christian heritage⁷.

There are also some issues concerning the countries at the western border of Europe. Although Greenland geographically is part of the American continent, all countries east of North America are usually considered European. Greenland belongs as an autonomous region constitutionally to Denmark and can therefore be included in the list of European territories too. The same is the case with Iceland due to its language and longstanding contacts with (Northern) Europe.

1.  The result is the following list of 51 sovereign European countries⁸:

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo⁹, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City/Holy See.

2. In addition there are 8 dependant territories of European states with a special political (self-governing) status:

Note: (1) The French overseas regions and departments Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte and the French overseas collectivities French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna, which have their own statutory laws are not included here in the list of dependant territories as they are all situated outside the European continent. To include them would mean to include many very different languages in the list of European languages, which would overstretch the term “European language”¹⁰.

Note (2): The same approach is applied to the constituent parts of the Kingdom of Netherlands, which are all situated in the Caribbean Sea: Bonaire, Saint Eustatius, Saba, Aruba, Curaçao, Saint Maarten. There is just one typologically non-European-language – Papiamento – (a Creole language), which is spoken in these territories (but not included either in the list of European languages.)

3.Finally, there are 10 disputed territories which are in some cases de facto independent states or in other cases incorporated areas in other polities with little or no international recognition¹¹:

In all, there are 82 European political entities that form the basis of the next step: listing the languages used on European territory and then sorting out (a) those which can be considered pluricentric and (b) those that have some issues in respect to contact and conflict.

Part II: Defining the term “language”, setting up a complete list of European languages and a list of European pluricentric languages

1 Coping with problems in defining and listing the European languages

1.1 Existing lists denoting “European languages”