https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4920-7777
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ABSTRACT
In Romania most Hungarian-speaking children study in their mother tongue, in Hungarian-language classes. Some of these are organised in ‘mixed schools’, where parallel Hungarian and Romanian classes coexist in the same institution. Although these institutions seem a good solution for inter-ethnic coexistence, no systematic research has been conducted on their internal language policy and language practices yet. The aim of the paper is to examine the language policy of these institutions, by focusing on the language of two top-down elements of the linguistic landscape, school inscriptions and internal signs of rooms. The study argues that three language strategies can be distinguished: asymmetry, symmetry and quasi-asymmetry, which are influenced by the institutional characteristics of the school. Furthermore, the paper offers possibilities for applying its findings in different contexts and situations. By drawing attention to the limits of formal language policy, it argues that depending on the structural context they find themselves in, actors can openly contest or reinterpret even seemingly clear legal regulations, negotiating their applicability according to the dominant language hierarchies and ideologies they adhere to. Additionally, the paper provides insights concerning two methodological dilemmas in linguistic landscape research, namely, representativity and lack of explanatory depth of quantitative analysis.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to Isván Gergő Székely, for his valuable suggestions on the manuscript, to Szilvia Varga, for her thoughtful insights on research design and analysis and to the anonymous reviewers for providing useful feedback on earlier versions of the article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In this paper structural factors refer to broader political, demographical, or social aspects that positively influence the appearance of bilingualism, while institutional factors involve characteristics of schools that could be decisive in linguistic choices of the institution.
2 For exact numbers see the preliminary results of the 2022 Census (INS Citation2022, 11).
3 Law no. 1/2011 on national education.
4 Emergency ordinance no. 57/2019.
5 The term is borrowed from Brubaker et al. (Citation2006), who use it to describe the taken for granted, or ‘normally used’ language in the community.
6 The research was initiated by NGOs working in the field of minority rights and public policy analysis and was carried out in collaboration with the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities.
7 The two questions used for this study are the following:
1. In which language(s) is the name of the school displayed at the main entrance? Please refer to the official sign on the school façade. (1) Romanian only, (2) Hungarian only, (3) Bilingual Romanian-Hungarian signs, (4) Separate Romanian and Hungarian signs.
2. What is the language of the signs on the following rooms? (1). Romanian only (2) Hungarian only (3) Both Romanian and Hungarian (88) There is no such room in the school (99) The room is uninscriptioned. (Respondents needed to answer the question to each room-type separately).
8 As already mentioned, based on the Educational Law, all institutions with minority language education ought to have a member of the minority in the school management.
9 Data were received from all but four mixed schools, amounting to 339 answers in total.
10 Compared to timetables and official notifications, which are changed regularity, external school signs and internal signage of rooms very stable, as they are only seldomly replaced.
11 Being aware of the current critical literature on the modernist ‘ethnolinguistic assumption’, which questions the arbitrary alignment of one language to one ethnic group (Van Mensel, Vandenbroucke, and Blackwood Citation2016, 428), as already presented, in the case of Hungarians in Romania language and ethnicity can be used interchangeably.
12 This regional typology is standard and widespread categorisation in quantitative research on Hungarians in Romania.
13 Statistical analysis was conducted in SPSS by the author.
14 Data on three types of signs were gathered: education-related (Romanian and Hungarian classrooms, vocational classrooms, gym and ceremonial hall), non-educational services (library, restroom, psychology cabinet, medical room and cafeteria) and administration (principal’s, deputy director’s and financial office, secretariat and teachers’ room).
15 By cluster analysis we understand a statistical method through which cases are categoriszed in such a way that those which presented similarities are included in the same category (Bartholomew Citation2008, 17–53).
16 Logistic regression is used when the outcome variable is of binary nature, that is, captures the presence or absence of a certain event or phenomenon. It can “show the increase or decrease in the predicted probability of having a characteristic or experiencing an event due to a one-unit change in the independent variables’ (Pampel Citation2000, 1–2), therefore with its help the most important influencing background variables can be discovered.
17 For the operationalisation of these variables see the Appendix.