Understanding the history of minority groups in the world was a major topic of Randall L. Jones' lecture, Nov. 20.

Jones, a professor of Germanic and Slavic languages, spoke at an international forum series hosted by the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. His lecture focused on the Sorbs, a minority group living in Germany.

"These are not people who migrated here centuries ago from another part of Eastern Europe," said Jones. "Nor are they asylum seekers who have recently fled their homeland for a better life. They have been where they are now for approximately 1,500 years."

Ironically, the Sorbs arrived in Germany even before the German speakers did, he said.

"They are an interesting people who managed to maintain their linguistics and cultural identity against major odds," Jones said. "It is a fascinating culture which time seems to have forgotten."

Despite linguistic and cultural differences, the German government and local German speakers are supportive of their Sorbian neighbors, he said.

"In the case of Sorbian and Germany, one could say there is peaceful co-existence," Jones said. "However, most people outside of Germany have never heard of the Sorbs and can't imagine that the significant sub-culture exists in one of the largest and most powerful nations in Europe."

The Sorbs reside in an area of Germany know as Lusatia or Lausitz, Jones said. The nation of Germany strives to honor the culture and identity of the Sorbs in Lusatia by maintaining all public signs in both languages, despite the fact that Sorbs speak both Sorbian and German.

"Virtually all Sorbian speakers are bilingual: Sorbian and German," Jones said. "And yet this is simply a mark of the cultural identity to help people understand this is a bilingual city."

Although he admitted he doesn't speak Sorbian, Jones said he is interested in the minority group because it exists in Germany, and German is his area of study.

"Because the Sorbian speakers are in Germany it is of interest to me because I have done a lot of work recently with social linguistic aspects of languages," Jones said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 2 Dec 2002