During time period 2009 - 2016 two interdisciplinary research projects were carried out with focus on the sociolinguistic situation of the Slovakian youth living in the Lowlands. Both projects were interconnected on the base of thematic orientation and methodology and focused on the language-communication behavior of the Slovakian youth in situational context of intra-ethnic use of spoken Slovak in Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, and Romania. The main instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire which consisted of questions oriented on the language/communication behaviour in the formal (public) and informal (family) settings. Obtained data were analysed in SPSS 21 statistical package. Results connected with language behaviour in the formal and informal environment confirmed majority of tendency to communicate very high. Slovak language usage is frequent in communication inside but also outside the school. Significant connection between age and communication outside school settings were confirmed - the younger group more frequently uses Slovak language in ordinary communication. Ethno-cultural indicator also reflected respondent’s predominantly positive attitudes to the national cultural development, mother tongue knowledge improvement, and minority school system development.
The objective of the present study is a) to test the differences/similarities between value systems of Slovak adolescents from three culturally different settings (in Serbia, in Croatia, and in Slovakia); b) to verify the hypothesis that ethnic values play (for members of ethnic minorities in mutual comparison) a more important role. This article is a follow up to an earlier work focused on the values of the young Slovak minority members living in Hungary (Výrost, 2011). The empirical data was collected through questionnaires administered by interviewers. The obtained results of the comparison of value profiles (Kruskal-Wallis test) partially confirmed our hypothesis that minority members (Slovaks in Serbia) will prefer ethnic values more: As far as the Slovaks from Croatia are concerned, their value profile was more or less identical to the Slovaks living in Slovakia. The apparent differences between the two Slovak minority groups value profiles and the need to get a more detailed answer on the raised question, led us to conduct two analyses of binary logistic regression models (in each groups separately) to analyse the influence of value preferences on the attitude to mother tongue usage. In each group (Slovak adolescents in Serbia and Slovak adolescents in Croatia), a set of 10 values was observed as a significant (chi squareRS = 34.223, p < 0,001; chi squareHR = 18.170, p < 0.042), but moderate – about 30% – (Cox & Snell’s RRS²= 0.399; Cox & Snell’s RHR²= 0.315) predictor of the attitude to the mother tongue usage. Ethnic values played an important, but different role in these relations; in the case of Slovak adolescents living in Serbia it is “Mother tongue” value preference which contributes most significantly to the prediction, while in the group of Slovak adolescents living in Croatia it is “Nationality” value preference. Languages do not have the same function in communities, and this fact is especially true for minority languages; ethnic minorities live in a societal bilingualism, in disglossia, and the status of minority language differs from country to country for many reasons. The collected data confirm the necessity to study not only the legal or “objective” position of the mother tongue in life of ethnic minorities, but also its personal reflections.
The phenomenon of Slovaks refers also to the five thousand compatriot minority in Croatia, who retained for more than two centuries their language and identity in different areas of Balkans. Despite the progressive assimilation, the minority group has been trying to maintain their national consciousness, ethnic identity and to cultivate Slovak culture. This effort was carried out against the background of profound geopolitical changes, as well as changes concerning ethnic awareness, that are characteristic for the Balkans in the 19th and 20th centuries and which had large effect on ethnic identity. It also affected Slovak ethnicity, language and its culture, which represent essential attributes of ethnicity. However, it is a means of integration within Croatian majority. Our attention is focused on the Western Srem in the Croatian territory where we have examined language and ethnic identity of Slovaks, particularly in the town of Ilok. Ilok lies on the on the crossing of the borders, cultures and confessions, where Slovaks have a rich cultural past and present.
The author compares the Polish and the Hungarian mentality understanding mentality as the attitude of a common citizen towards their own nation state. He describes turning points in the history of Poland and Hungary since the Middle Ages up till the contemporary times of transformation. He focuses on the most typical differences in the perception of the histories of their own countries paying particular attention to the Jewish issue and the different situations of national minorities. The key corroboration of the theses presented in this article is based on the comparison of the differences between the writing of Polish and Hungarian which reflect distinct attitudes of the nations towards their own state.
Ethno cultural processes belong to the most dynamic, most complicated and most important socio-cultural characteristics of each society. An ethnic definition of culture and society is at present, at a time of multiculturalism and de-ethnicity of culture, an effective and used means of description, genesis, and pursuance of political as well as economic management. The aim of the study is to characterize the Slovak minority living in Croatia and Serbia in the ethno-cultural background of its development, to define the main factors of ethno-cultural progress and the perspectives of their development. At the same time it aims to represent the opinions of the research participants (young Slovak people living in Croatia and Serbia). The study consists of a theoretical as well as a practical part. The theoretical part of the study includes an integrated knowledge of important aspects of the ethno-culture of the Slovak minority, which were gained by long-term ethnological research in the environment. The empirical part focuses on the data gained in field research (2015) within a grant project ‘Verbal-communication behaviour of Slovak youth in Croatia and Serbia in a situational background of intra-ethnic usage of Slovak.’ Based on the quota sampling (age and gender), 170 respondents took part in the research (49 from Croatia and 121 from Serbia). To collect the sample data we used a structured questionnaire. In the theoretical part of the study we specified the display of ethnic identity and the functioning of the minority language, and we characterized the remaining cultural traditions of the Slovak minority living in Croatia and Serbia. Until the members of Slovak minorities living in their environment have a relationship to the ethnicity, Slovak language and traditions they will consider them values. While the language and the traditions represent a practical tool for the profit, they will keep, hand over or develop them. To judge the inner structure of the three items of ethno cultural development of minority, we used the method of factor analysis (extraction method – Principal Component Analysis, rotation Varimex, Varimex normalization). The empirical results confirm that Slovak adolescents in Croatia and Serbia express a higher rate of importance in all three selected aspects of ethno-cultural development of their minority. These can be determined not only by various factors of ethno cultural development of each minority, but also by their specific characteristics (minority size, setting, cultural-social forwardness etc.) and by the ethnic development rate (identity rate, ability to use mother tongue at a communication level, education system, institutionalisation rate etc.).
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