The special issue on Georgia of the European Journal of Minority Studies has appeared. My contribution together with Manana Kobaidze is entitled “Language Use among speakers of Tsova-Tush. A field study in the late 1990s.” Many thanks to the editors for a fruitful collaboration. https://biblioscout.net/journal/ejm/18/1-2

Language Use among speakers of Tsova-Tush. A field study in the late 1990s

Abstract

The paper presents earlier unpublished results from a field study conducted in Georgia in the late 1990s among speakers of the endangered Tsova-Tush (Bats) language (also Tsovatush, Batsbi). The aim of the study is to map patterns of language use and language choices in the family and local community in different settings and domains, to study the linguistic repertoire of speakers and how it develops. Based on written questionnaires, the study was conducted in the village of Zemo Alvani in the Akhmeta region of Georgia, where the majority of the Tsova-Tush population lives. The study spans generations of Tsova-Tush speakers from the beginning of the last century to the 1980s, showing the development from a situation with Tsova-Tush as the strongest language among the oldest generation having a firm position as the home language, to a higher fluency in Georgian in the post-war generation, followed by a clear decrease in the command of Tsova-Tush among the youngest generations.