Język śląski w przestrzeni publicznej: zabawa słowem, chwyt marketingowy czy narzędzie emancypacji?
Silesian language in the public space: playing with words, a marketing trick or a tool of emancipation?

Summary/Abstract: The following paper tackles the subject of visibility of the Silesian language – presented here in a sociolinguistic framework as a collateral/contested language – in the linguistic landscape. The author describes the current state of the debate surrounding the status and standardisation of Silesian, with an emphasis on the ideological role of various script choices. In the further part different contexts in which written Silesian is used are presented, together with roles fulfilled by the language: a marker of localness, a link to tradition and historicity, a neutral means of communication, a value in itself and a tool of political emancipation. The summary contains some remarks on the difficulties that have to be faced by an unrecognised linguistic variety to appear in the public space, and the benefits of such presence.

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