Mehrsprachigkeit in Europa: Plurilinguismo in Europa ... - EURAC

N. I. Xirotiris, K. Simitopoulou, E. Styliara
The collection of interviews in order to investigate attitudes of young people (aged between
15-25 years) towards the various languages present in the multilingual areas, was one of the
common actions to be performed by the partners involved.
The Border Region Delta-Rhodopi has collected data from two target groups with different
mother tongues (Turkish and Pomak). The data concern their attitudes towards their own
language, as well as towards the other language(s) spoken in the area.
1.2. Methodology:
The structure and content of the interviews have been discussed and mutually agreed among
the partners during the LABS workshop in Thassos (July 2005). The EURAC disseminated a fi nal
version in English to be used as a main grid. (see annex I)
A subtotal of 27 interviews addressed to young students from the prefecture of Rhodopi,
with Turkish as their mother tongue and Greek as their second language, have been performed
in the students´ mother tongue by Mrs. Ainour Rasim, a bilingual university graduate, working
as a tutor.
Another body of 21 interviews concerns young people of Pomak origin, who live mainly in
Xanthi, whereas their parents’ families until recently used to live in various Pomak villages on
the Rhodopi mountain.
The interviews have been performed by Mr. Orchan Boz, a Pomak himself, fl uent in Pomak,
Greek and Turkish, university graduate working in the fi eld of Social Services.
The questionnaires translated into Greek were given to the interviewers with the request
to organize the discussions in the mother tongue of the interviewed persons in a relaxed and
friendly atmosphere, avoiding any possible bias. Anonymity has been kept according to the
wishes of the interviewed persons. Members of the LABS network were not present during the
interviews. This has been a deliberate choice in order to achieve the most unprompted replies.
Even though neither the supervisors nor the interviewers have a purely linguistic background,
the collected data represents a body of original information, useful for further linguistic and/or
educational research.
1.3. Qualitative evaluation of a randomly sampled young population from the
Prefecture of Rhodopi (Komotini)
1.3.1. Sample description:
A total of 27 persons (17 girls, 10 boys), 15-18 years old, following lower and upper secondary
education either at bilingual (Greek-Turkish) or at monolingual (Greek) schools, have been
interviewed. They are all Muslims, with Turkish as their mother tongue, and they all use also
Greek in their everyday life to a satisfactory degree. Their families are settled in villages near
Komotini (Asomatos, Mischos, Mega Pisto, Passos, Thamna, Linos, Kechros, Polyanthos, Sostis),
and Komotini, where both Christians and Muslims are settled. Their relatives (grandparents,
uncles etc.) are living in the area as well, thus the wider family links are quite strong. Some of
their relatives are migrants in Germany. Some have relatives living in Turkey.
Regarding the socioeconomic status of their parents, all professions are represented
(farmers, workers, administrative servants in the public or private sector, entrepreneurs, few
scientists). In terms of income, they could all generally be integrated in the middle class .
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