Excursion to Großwarasdorf/Veliki Borištof in Burgenland, Austria

In May, Eva Vetter and Stefanie Cajka from the University of Vienna in Austria, together with university students, visited one of the official bilingual areas of Burgenland, Austria, during a two-day excursion. This field trip to Großwarasdorf/Veliki Borištof was part of a university course for linguistics students and also gave the researchers a chance to immerse themselves in the research field, as Burgenland Croatian is one of the five language communities RISE UP will focus on.

The excursion started with a visit of the bilingual middle school Zweisprachige Mittelschule Großwarasdorf/Dvojezična sridnja škola Veliki Borištof. There, the researchers and students had the opportunity to visit bilingual lessons and learn more about the bilingual school. The afternoon offered time for carrying out own research projects (reports on the students’ research projects will soon be available on the Department of Linguistics website). Afterwards, a talk by Joško Vlasich gave insights on the history and current situation of the Burgenland Croats. The day was rounded off with a Burgenland Croatian – German event in the cultural centre of Großwarasdorf/Veliki Borištof, the KUGA (Kulturna zadruga).

These excursions have a long-standing tradition. For many years, the Burgenland Croatian speaking area in Burgenland and the Slovenian speaking area in Carinthia have been visited alternately. This does not only allow generations of students to learn about the autochthonous minorities in Austria, but also fosters a continuous exchange with the communities, which is now proving to be important for the RISE UP project.

Curious about experiencing Burgenland Croatian yourself? Immerse yourself in the language by reading the magazine Novi Glas, listening to the multilingual radio station Radio MORA or attending an event at the KUGA!

Author: Stefanie Cajka

Links

Zweisprachige Mittelschule Großwarasdorf/Dvojezična sridnja škola Veliki Borištof: www.znms.at

Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna: https://linguistik.univie.ac.at/

KUGA: www.kuga.at

Novi Glas: https://noviglas.online/

Radio MORA: www.radio-mora.at

Keywords

Austria, Burgenland Croatian, excursion, field trip, minority languages, bilingual area, bilingual school