Multilingualism in the Habsburg monarchy and Slavic linguistic heritage in German in Austria

Abstract

Multilingualism on the current territory of Austria has existed for a long period of time. Roughly since the 6th and 7th centuries, Slavs have settled in Central Europe, including much of present-day Austria. The subsequent expansion of the Magyars, as well as the Bavarianisation of the area, separated the northern and southern Slavs. For the former Habsburg state, we must reckon with eleven main languages in addition to numerous smaller ones. Moreover, already the main languages represented several widely divergent languages: German; two Romance tongues, Italian and Romanian; a range of Slavic languages from all the three branches of that family – western, eastern, and southern; and Hungarian from the Finno-Ugric group. Regarding the multilingual setting in the Habsburg state and its repercussions to this day, this paper outlines the basic assumptions, the methodological toolkit as well as the main general findings of our research projects on language contact in this area which have been running since 2016 as part of the special research programme (SFB) "German in Austria. Variation – Contact – Perception". We conclude with possible implications for further linguistic research in multilingual historical contexts and some links to contemporary phenomena.