Ideologizacja pojęć naród i język w świetle dyskusji o statusie Ślązaków i ich mowy

Abstract

The article discusses the current situation in Upper Silesia, where an ongoing debate concerning the ways of marking regional identity is taking place. Silesians as a group are significantly attached to their traditions, culture, and language, since these aspects helped them endure the centuries-long separation from the Polish state and Polish culture-forming processes. Despite this complicated history, both the subdialects used in Silesia and the cultural specificity have remained tied with the Polish tradition; however, some divergent elements can be discerned. Regrettably, the only natural aspirations to express their own regional identity demonstrated by the Silesian community are being exploited by local political circles which manipulate the image of Silesians, presenting them as an ethnic group hostile towards the Polish state. In order to do so, concepts such as nation and nationality are reinterpreted, forming a false binary opposition: Polish nationality vs. Silesian nationality. The activism of these separatist political groups consists in attempting to introduce amendments to the “Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and on the Regional Language”. The authors of this project intend to enforce the proclamation of the “Silesian regional language”. This act would generate a new legal and political position, in which Silesian would be given the status of an official language and become fixed in the public space of Upper Silesia. Thus, the debate concerning “the Silesian language” occurs on several planes: political, journalistic, legal, and common – in online discussion forums. It is relatively least observable in scientific discourse as a vast majority of Polish linguists considers Silesian to be a dialect of Polish, which could become a separate language only after having undergone a complex process of standardisation and codification.