„Georgisch ist schön, aber Armenisch ist meins“. Identitätskonstruktion von armenischen Migranten in Georgien

Abstract

Language is a constitutive characteristic of membership in a social group and therefore an important element for the formation and the dynamic progression of personal and linguistic identity. Therefore, a change in the linguistic context, as is the case in migration, has consequences for the personal identity of the speakers involved. The connecting link between migrants with each other, as well as between migrants and the population of the country of migration may be provided by a so-called dachsprache (umbrella language), because this can serve as a cross-linguistic feature for identification. The project presented in this contribution investigates linguistic identification in the constellation of regional, migrant and umbrella languages for the case of Armenian and Georgian migrants in Georgia and Germany. The informants are multilingual Georgian-Armenian families in Georgia and Germany, as well as monolingual Georgian and Armenian migrants, respectively, in Germany. The aim is to investigate how the emigrants use their mother tongue(s) (Georgian and/or Armenian) and the respective umbrella languages (Russian and German) and what kind of linguistic identity they develop in this constellation. The question will be addressed with methods of modern qualitative research, in particular language biography research. It is assumed that there are differences between generations within each group of speakers as well as between these two groups, caused by the respective language-political constellations of umbrella, migrant and regional languages. The following contribution concentrates on the example of the Armenian migrants in Georgia.