Introduction to the linguistic study of the Carpathian Basin language region

Abstract

The present study is a chapter of a book in process. It is based on the fundamental premise that conflicts between
Central and Eastern European countries and their minorities often appear in the framework of language policy, language planning and language ideology. In order to understand this, it is useful to carry out region-specific descriptive reviews of certain fields within Linguistics. These fields will, in turn, provide the disciplinary basis for exploring the causes of conflict. It is not possible to aim for fully comprehensive coverage, as this would require all areas of linguistic research to be presented. Those interested in further fields, such as Linguistic History or Semiotics, can refer to encyclopedias and individual reference books. This study briefly reviews those areas of linguistics that can be used to compare several languages, cover their role in the field and provide a sufficiently comprehensive linguistic knowledge to understand the basic linguistic relationships in the area. The first group is an overview of Linguistic Typology and Areal Linguistics – and the rather controversial but historically interesting 'linguistic confederation' based on these two. This is followed by a summary of Contactology and the bilingualism and multilingualism that characterize the region, with a focus on language policy aspects.