| Alsace is a French province, yet it has a distinctly Germanic identity, resulting from geographic, historical and linguistic factors. The Rhine Valley is and always has been a crossroad for different cultures. Alsace's median location between major European cultures and powers has shaped its history, exposing it again and again to foreign influences and to covetous neighbors. The Celts, the Romans, and various Germanic tribes have passed through or settled here. In the modern era there has been easy and direct contact with German politics, trade and culture. After the rise of nationalism in Europe, Alsace was, in Hessini's (1981: 11) words, 'disputed, coveted, [and] shuffled back and forth' by Germany and France. Between 1870 and 1945, Alsace changed hands four times. After each conquest and reconquest, the victorious state tried to impose its laws, its customs, and its language. These repeated political changes have resulted in a uniquely complex linguistic situation. |
| In Alsace, a German dialect has been spoken for 15 centuries. In 1918 about 90% of the population still used the dialect in everyday situations. But since the end of World War II (in 1945), the Alsatian dialect has rapidly and dramatically lost ground to French because of the social, economic and political dominance of the national language. French is the official prestige language used in administrative offices, in schools and universities, in the courts, in business, and in the news media. The dialect is likely to be spoken in family circles, among friends, in cafes, in some factory workshops, and in senior citizens' clubs. The standard written and cultivated form of the dialect is Hochdeutsch (High German), but the latter is hardly ever spoken among Alsatians. The vast majority of speakers of Alsatian today are also speakers of French. The older bilinguals are often Alsatian dominant, while the younger ones may feel more at home in French. Furthermore, existing studies point to an erosion of the functional distribution of Alsatian and French, which seemed clearer in the past. French is slowly gaining in the traditional strongholds of the dialect, such as within the family. |
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1993