Languages and language varieties: Comparative research on the linguistic attitudes in four bilingual minority communities in Hungary

A central issue of this paper is to study the patterns in variation of attitudes toward minority language varieties in four minority communities from Hungary: German, Slovak, Serb and Romanian. This study takes part from the research which focuses on how to obtain significant information about the mechanism of the language shift process concerning autochthonous minorities in Hungary. The results demonstrate that in the course of language shift communities at an advanced stage of language shift have less positive attitudes toward their minority languages than individuals from communities where language shift is in a less advanced stage. In Hungarian minority groups speakers’ attitudes toward minority language varieties (dialect vs. standard) are the symptoms of language shift.