National Varieties of German outside Germany: A European Perspective by Gabrielle Hogan-Brun (review)

Abstract

MLRy 98.4, 2003 1027 comes to recognize that the true barbarity lies within ourselves, and not outside. And it is the need to confront this condition?to domesticate it?which provides the only hope for an enduring civilization, then and now. I have only picked out a small number of themes from this enormously suggestive book. Yet I hope that what I have said will encourage readers to explore this splendidly gifted poet, to whom Keown has provided a first-rateintroduction. University of Essex Arthur Terry National Varieties of German outside Germany: A European Perspective. Ed. by Gabrielle Hogan-Brun. (German Linguistic and Cultural Studies, 8) Oxford, Bern, and Berlin: Lang. 2000. 275 pp. ?28. ISBN 3-906765-58-x (pbk). The relationship between language, nation (or ethnic group), and state is a central issue in the sociolinguistics of the European countries, and those in which German is spoken present unique complexities in this respect. German identity has been commonly seen in ethno-linguistic terms at least since the Napoleonic Wars, but the problem that this may not imply a necessary connection with citizenship of a state called 'Germany' has long defied resolution. If anything, this problem has become even more acute since the reunification of 1990 again created a single state with this name. A book such as the present one, which deals in a general European context with issues of language and identity in those European countries outside Germany where there are significant numbers of German speakers?where, in effect,there are people who speak German but are not 'Germans'?is thus to be welcomed in principle, since it must address precisely these important sociolinguistic issues and their significant current political implications, especially in the context of the European Union, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. In one respect at least, though, the title of the book is misleading. 'National vari? eties of German' could be taken simply to referto relatively established codifications of German outside Germany, such as 'Austrian Standard German' or 'Swiss Standard German'. In fact, as I have already suggested, the scope of the book is wider (and more useful), since, as the editor's introductory chapter makes clear, it deals with the varieties of German which are used in all the western European countries outside Germany and one eastern European country (Hungary) where German is widely spo? ken, whether German is an 'official' or 'national' language, or a 'minority' language with or without recognized status. Indeed, it is the variation between the status of German in these countries and the relationship of these varieties to the standard Ger? man of Germany which is of central interest. The introductory chapter, which aims to sketch 'a map of linguistic ecology for German within Europe' (p. 13), brings these distinctions out succinctly and provides a useful initial comparison of the relative sta? tus of German in the countries concerned. The chapters on the individual languages, however, are less uniform in their approach. Some, such as the excellent chapters on German in South Tyrol (by Antony Alcock) and on Belgium (by Peter Nelde and Jeroen Darquennes), give a detailed general account of the present status of German in the region in a historical context and allow the reader to make straightforward comparisons between the status of German in these areas along the lines outlined by the editor in her introduction. Others, however, are more restricted in their approach, dealing with specific issues rather than presenting a more general picture of the vari? ety or varieties of German in the countries concerned. For example, Felicity Rash's chapter (the longest in the book) considers the attitudes of non-German Swiss and non-Swiss to Swiss German diglossia rather than dealing directly with the diglossia 1028 Reviews itself,how it relates to varieties of German in the other German-speaking countries, and what it demonstrates about Swiss nationhood and the relationship of Swiss Ger? mans to other speakers of German. This chapter is interesting, informative, and well researched, but, although Swiss diglossia has been much written about, not least by the author in her own book {The...