NATIONALISM TODAY: CARINTHIA's SLOVENES Part III: "Let the Cat Die
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1978/No. 23 by Dennison I. Rusinow Nationalism Today: Carinthia's Europe [DIR-1-'78] SIovenes Part II1: "Let the Cat Die Quickly" That no one really knows how many Slovenes 120,121a lower growth rate that reflects the there are in Carinthia, and that there is no way of south's relative lack of larger towns during a finding out, is at first glance extremely odd. It century of rapid urbanization in which the popu- would obviously be useful to know, since not lation of cities tended to grow by more and that of knowing has been a primary source of both gen- rural areas by less than natural increase as a uine difficulties and easy excuses for the law- whole. Slovene estimates of their own share in makers and administrators who are supposed to the province's total population in these years design and execute measures to protect the disregarding clearly extreme claimspresent a existence of the minority and guarantee the picture of steady decline from between 96,000 and equality and rights of its members. For more than 116,000 (ca. 33%) in 1846 to 60-70,000 (between a century, moreover, Austrian censuses have 11.4% and 13.3%) at the present time. On the asked questions about language or other criteria other hand, official census results, while close to of national (ethnic)identification, and the pub- agreeing with these estimates for the beginning of lished results regularly include breakdowns of the this period, record a far more precipitous decline Carinthian population into German-speaking, that is especially and suspiciously dramatic in Slovenian-speaking, and other ostensibly national recent decades. According to one version of these categories. On closer examination, however, these official figures, presented in Table 1 (the reasons censuses contain so many anomalies and curious why other versions also exist will be examined or apparently impossible fluctuations over time below), Slovenes now constitute only 3.4 percent of that they are in themselves conclusive evidence the Carinthian population. that the number of Slovenes on any given date is still unknown and in Carinthian circumstances apparently unknowable. The reasons for these Table 1 Year No. of Slovenes anomalies and fluctuations are in turn useful in Carinthia clues to the complex of reasons, both nefarious and natural, why that number (whatever it may 1880 91,927 be) is dwindling and why the minority will some- 1890 92,068 day almost certainly disappear...even if the 1900 85,311 nefarious reasons were to be eliminated, as they 1910 74,210 could be, through an act of political will. 1923 39,292 1934 31,704 In the century between 1869 and 1971 the popu- 1939 ca.42,000 lation of Carinthia increased from about 315,000 1951 22,367 to 526,728, a growth of 66.6 percent. During the 1961 ca. 15,700 same period the population of the southern 1971 17,934 Carinthian districts where most of the Slovenes live increased by 32.5 percentfrom 90,655 to 2/DIR-1-'78 Either set of figures suggests a high rate of language is a Slovene dialect to declare himself (or assimilation into the majority nationality, and at to be encouraged to declare himself) in some other least in the official figures the rate is so high one is category. It is thus instructive to compare the ups inclined to suspect that more than "natural" and downs recorded in Figure 1 with the ways that forces have been at work. More careful examina- the language question has been posed in each of tion also reveals some astonishing fluctuations in the censuses in question "4 individual townships (Gemeinde), and these raise even more questions concerning the validity of 1910 In this last Hapsburg census, as in census results and what they are actually telling us earlier ones, people were asked to re- about the political, socioeconomic, and other cord their "language of communica- reasons for both real and apparent changes in tion" (Umgangssprache), defined as Carinthia's national composition. These fluctua- "the language used in normal com- tions are presented in graphic and dramatic form munications." in Figure 1, which charts the ups and downs in the number of southern Carinthians recorded in cen- 1923 "Language of thought" (Denks- suses since 1910 as speaking Slovenian or prache), defined as "the language "Windisch," singly or in combination with each that one speaks best and in which one other and German. One of the more extreme cases thinks." (This census also asked for thus portrayed is the township of Mieger/ "ethnic adherence" and "race," but Medgorje, where the language spoken by the these results were never published.) majority of the population appears to have changed as follows: 1934 "The language of the cultural envi- ronment (Kulturkreis) to which one 1910 96 percent Slovenian-speaking feels that he belongs" (only one could 1923 51 percent Slovenian-speaking be listed). 1934 97 percent German-speaking 1939 81 percent Windisch-speaking* 1939 "Mothertongue" (Muttersprache) 1951 91 percent Slovenian-speaking* defined as "the language in which 1961 72 percent Windisch-speaking*. one thinks and that one prefers to use 1971 76 percent German-speaking in the family because it is easiest." (*including combinations). Bilingualism was recognized and "Windisch" was admitted as a lan- As Dr. Ernst Waldstein, who compiled much of "An guage category. "Ethnic adherence" the data on these censuses, comments: was also asked who is over 50 (Volkszugeh6rigkeit) inhabitant of this township today in this census taken after the German his of years old must have changed language annexation of Austria; only one V olk in the course of his normal communication 5 times could be listed. life." Spokesmen for the minority and their Yugoslav 1951 "Language of Communication," de- friends call the generation and use of figures like fined as the language exclusively or these "statistical genocide." It is certainly demon- primarily used in normal intercourse. strable that the way the censuses have been de- Multilingualism was recognized (in a signed, and even more the way they have been bewildering plethora of hyphenated carried out, have tended to reduce the number of forms as described below), and those registered as non-German-speakers as well "Windisch" was an admitted cate- as playing an important role in the strange fluctu- gory. ations recorded in Figure 1. For example, the fact that successive censuses have posed the language 1961 "Language of communication," now question in different ways is both one reason for defined as the language spoken in the fluctuations in the results and a clue to the census- family. Multilingualism and "Wind- takers' intentions, since some ways of asking this isch" again admissible. question make it easier and others make it less easy for a bilingual person whose first or usual 1971 "Language of communication," this DIR-1-'78/3 time without definition. Multilingua- wrote and used them(as minority spokesmen and lism and "Windisch" were still recog- Yugoslav critics maintain), or are merely a typi- nized, but only "German" was actu- cally Austrian amalgam of German thoroughness ally printed on census forms. and Balkan sloppiness, the results have been the same: confusion, additional openings for sugges- 1976 The "census of a special kind" (boy- tions or pressure by census-takers who have had to cotted by most of the minority as explain what all this means, and a consequent described in Part II of this series) splintering and further reduction in size of the asked for "mother tongue," defined population recorded as non-German-speaking. It as "the language in which one grew also means that politicians and propagandists up." The forms (for use throughout (and even disinterested statisticians and ob- Austria) provided for five possible servers) have been able to come up with wildly answers: German, Slovenian, Croa- divergent figures for the size of the minority and tian, Hungarian, or Other, with a therefore with divergent views about where space to write in which Other. enough of them live to justify or necessitate bilin- gual schools or topographical inscriptions and Slovenian as a second language in offices and To understand the impact of such changing courtrooms. For example, the postwar census definitions on census results, take the example of results cited in Table 1, which were taken from a a very common phenomenon I have frequently quasi-official brochure published by the Federal encountered on visits to the district: Carinthians Chancellor's Office in 1977, appear to be based on whose first language was a local Slav dialect that the sums of all census categories in which the word some would call "Slovenian" and others "Slovenian" appears, but without those listed as "Windisch," conversing in their favorite caf and "Windisch," "Windisch-German," or "German- unconsciously shifting back and forth between Windisch." If the "Windisch" categories are also that dialect and the local German dialect, accord- includedas in Table 2, from which one can also ing to the changing subject of their discourse. see how wildly the numbers in individual non- Thus the talk will tend to be in a Slav dialect when German categories have fluctuated from one it is about problems with the wife, the cow, or the census to the next--the apparent size of the crops, and in German when the subject is politics minority becomes 42,095 rather than 22,367 in or sports or when the bill is being added up. What, 1951, 25,300 rather than 15,700 in 1961, and then, is their "mothertongue," their "language of 21,918 rather than 17,934 in 1971. On the other communication" (and by which definition), or hand, eliminating the "German-Slovenian" as their "language of thought," and is the answer to well as the "Windisch" categories in counting any one of these questions quite certain and members of the minority eligible for protection, as invariable? Or will it depend instead on the the Heimatdienst and other German nationalist nationality with which one wishes to identify at the sources are wont to do, reduces the size of the moment the question is asked ? residual minority even furtherin 1971 to merely 6,9915.