About the project

Welcome to the site of project ‘The politics and poetics of toponymy, identity and place in multilingual areas. A comparative study of Carinthia (Austria) and the Tesin area (Czechia)’. Here you will find information about the project itself, the researchers and the two research locations.

‘Bilingual place names in border areas’ project looks at official and unofficial place names used in two border areas inhabited by minority population – Carinthia in Austria (with autochthonous Slovenian population) and Teschen Silesia in the Czech Republic (with autochthonous Polish population). A team of researchers will look at the place names in the public space (predominantly the bilingual signs in the area) as well as unofficial place names used in the daily communication among local populations, both the linguistic majority and minority.

This project is based on understanding of place names as crucial components of the linguistic landscape. Inspired by the seminal works of Tuan and Basso, we look at place names as a way through which people establish a relationship with space they occupy. In this light the place names in multilingual areas are of a particular interest. They illustrate the various processes in the formation of linguistic landscape by different groups of local population. Thus they enable us to explore in great detail the contested nature of place names.

The two research areas share a number of features, from their border location to the presence of autochthonous ethnic and linguistic minority. In both locations the introduction of bilingual signs was marked by political conflict over the representation and visibility of the minority and prompted a wider discussions on historical relations between minority and majority population. The cooperation between Czech and Austrian research teams will allow for a greater depth of the comparative study and will allow to draw conclusions that would not be visible from a single-focus study only. We hope to better understand the discursive and narrative process that accompany the introduction of bilingual signs as well as wider links between place, landscape, name and identity.

The researchers will use a number of methods during the fieldwork in order to gain a better understanding of the politics and poetics of toponymic praxis at it is lived at the everyday level in multilingual / multiethnic situation. During our research we will look place name usage in archival and official sources, we will conduct discourse analysis of the contemporary linguistic landscape with a focus on minority presence and bilingual place names (including photographic documentation, GIS-based analysis and visualization) and extensive fieldwork research focused on the knowledge, preferences and cultural significance of place names (in-depth interviews and questionnaires).

This is a three-year project. During the first year both teams will conduct a broad literature review and research in local archives. In the second year majority of in-depth interviews with people living in the bilingual areas will take place and a subsequent questionnaire will be distributed in selected locations. Finally, during the third year the researchers will prepare a book and two articles for publication as well as organize an international conference on issues of place names, landscapes and minority rights in Vienna.

For more information about the project see the research proposal here