Die slawischsprachigen Balkanmuslime: kulturelle Identitäten und Sprachideologien
The Slavic Speaking Balkan Muslims: Cultural Identities and Language Ideologies

Summary/Abstract: The non-equation of linguistic and ethno-national identities among smaller ethnic groups in the Balkans holds true especially for Muslims, whose religion, in contrast to the Serbian, Greek and Bulgarian national movements during the 19th century, was without national connotations. In this way, Balkan Muslims preserve the Ottoman legacy of the millet-system until today, defining ethnicity on the basis of religion. As a consequence, Balkan Muslims have only now really begun to clearly define their ethnic, national and linguistic belonging, using the post-communist liberalisation to shift their language according to their ethno-national loyalties. The article describes how and why Slavic-speaking Balkan Muslims reject identifications offered by the majority that make their mother tongue essential as a marker of ethno-national belonging. For them, language is often the last relic of an unloved ethnicity they try to overcome.

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