The paper is based on a long-lasting research carried out among the members of Serbian ethnic/national minority in Hungary. The research focused on the topic of ethnic identity. This paper is an attempt to derive the actual concept of ethnic identity out of its results, together with the manner in which it is symbolized in the case of the observed group. The approach assumes that (eth-nic) identity is a socio-cultural construction, whereas the results are based on statements and behavior of the group members themselves - those who declare themselves as Serbs.
The basic sociolinguistic questionnaire survey on some aspects of the present-day ethnolinguistic situation among the youth of the Kalmyk Republic (Russian Federation) confirmed a number of expected facts and hypotheses. In the main it is the considerable domination of Russian over the Kalmyk language. Specific is also the level of ethnic consciousness, at which the declaration of Kalmyk nationality prevails among the respondents of Kalmyk background; this fact, nevertheless, frequently ranges between the confines of ethnic and civil concepts of “nationality” and the link to the Kalmyk language competence is not strict and binding either. At the same time, the statistical processing of the survey, however, showed crucial differences between respondents depending on the type of study, sex and place of origin; the calculation of the (non)homogeneity of responses yielded highly informative findings. It was the students of the lower secondary school in Šin Mer village (one of the few places where Kalmyk is still the language of communication of all generations) which emerged as “the most Kalmyk” out of the investigation. Students of Kalmyk Studies at the Kalmyk University came second. Thus, despite much progress and success in the field of ethnic-linguistic revitalization, the level of Kalmyk identity and language problems of Kalmykia remain a multivalent and open issue.
The text sums up the conclusions of the author’s sociolinguistic investigations conducted
(particularly in the form of questionnaires) in years 1996-2001 and published in the monograph Sprachverhalten und ethnische Identität. Sorbische Schüler an der Jahr tausendwende (Language Attitudes and Ethnic Identity. Sorbian Students at the Turn of the
Millennium) in 2005. Investigations were carried out at many Sorbian schools in Upper
Lusatia and were aimed at ethnic awareness of the students, their choice/use of Sorbian or
German, attitude to both languages, and reception of culture among young Sorbs aged 11-19. The author mainly focused on the Sorbian Grammar School in Bautzen (Budyšin in Sorbian). In order to make the generalisation of the acquired outcomes possible, analogical surveys were also conducted at lower secondary schools in the villages of Crostwitz/Chrósćicy, Ralbitz/Ralbicy, Panschwitz-Kuckau/Pančicy-Kukow, Räckelwitz/Worklecy, Radibor/ Radwor, and in the municipality of Bautzen/Budyšin. The findings presented, analyzed and interpreted in the páper can, to a great degree, be in
general applied to the present-day young Sorbian population as a whole. Simultaneously, they yield data for possible comparisons with the situation of other minority ethnic groups in Europe (e.g. the Welsh, the Romansh, Breton...).
The present-day national structure of Slovakia is, among others, the result of a long-term population and residential development, to a high degree conditioned by migrations, but also by political interventions from above that also influences the formation of linguistic frontiers and regions. The study aims to present a general overview of the ways how ethnicity (ethnic identity) was perceived from the point of view of statistics (official state censuses) to characterize the basic sources for the study of ethnicities in Slovakia and thus to sketch the ethnic composition of Slovakia at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century according to the atributes valid and observed in the studied period.
In late 1980s – early 1990s part of local intelligentsia in Palesse region of Belarus (that is, South-Western part of the Republic of Belarus, which is also referred in English academic literature as Polesia, Polesie, Polesje and Polissya) propagated the idea of existence of independent East-Slavonic Poleshuk nationality different from neighboring Ukrainians and Belarusians. Trying to shape a new Poleshuk identity and spread it among the local population, Poleshuk identity-makers developed a wide range of activities. Alongside with the creation of Poleshuk literary language, reinterpretation of history became one of the most essential tools used by representatives of the local intelligentsia in their identity-building efforts. Poleshuk history-makers readdressed and reinterpreted the whole range of key events in the mediaeval, modern and contemporary history of Palesse tailoring them to their current ideological needs and using historical material for legitimizing alleged Poleshuk distinctiveness from their Ukrainian and Belarusian surroundings. Alternative model of history elaborated by Poleshuk ideologists often contradicted to traditional clichés of both Soviet historiography and national historiographies of independent Belarus and Ukraine and was not easily accessible for the general public.