4.3: Multilingual Worlds. Neglected Histories
Why did people make specific linguistic choices? How did they acquire knowledge of three, four, five, or even more languages? What caused – and continues to cause – multilingualism to persist in some places while vanishing in others? Why was it, and is it still, necessary for local communities, sometimes even becoming a condition for their survival? These are just a few of the key questions addressed by the research project Multilingual worlds – neglected histories. Uncovering their emergence, continuity and loss in past and present societies (MULTILING-HIST), conducted at the Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales.”
The starting point for the project, funded by an ERC Consolidator grant (2022–2027), is the knowledge that multilingualism is not a marginal phenomenon, but one of the fundamental aspects of how societies function, both in the past and today. The history of the vast majority of the world’s regions is one of intense cultural and linguistic contact, migration, social, and economic exchange, negotiation of mutual relations, adaptation, and conflict – the linguistic aspects of which have often remained outside the mainstream of research. The MULTILING-HIST project brings these neglected histories to light, presenting multilingualism and linguistic diversity as dynamic processes embedded in specific social, cultural, political, and economic realities.
We conduct research in Central and Eastern Europe, Mexico, South Africa, and on two islands of the Vanuatu Archipelago in Melanesia—regions characterized by a high degree of ethno-linguistic diversity. The project is led by Prof. Justyna Olko, Director of the Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” of the University of Warsaw. Partners include the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the University of Cape Town. The international research team – comprising linguists, historians, anthropologists, and mathematicians – combines qualitative and quantitative methods, utilizing experiments based on game theory and mathematical modeling to capture the complexity of the processes under study.
The goal of the MULTILING-HIST project is to reconstruct, explain, and better understand the cause-and-effect mechanisms behind the emergence, maintenance, and loss of multilingualism. This research serves not only to better understand the processes of the past but also to reflect on the present and future of linguistic diversity. An essential task is also to develop more effective tools and strategies for managing linguistic and cultural diversity in today’s globalized world, where local languages are particularly endangered, and their users frequently experience marginalization and discrimination. In this sense, the project bridges historical research with engaged reflection, showing that multilingualism is not merely a subject of academic study, but also a vital dimension of social and cultural justice.
The Kashubian Language – Interrupted Transmission
One of the groups participating in the project is the Kashubians. The future of Kashubian depends on the young, who no longer inherit the language automatically but choose it as a conscious element of identity and cultural participation. During the Polish People’s Republic (PRL) era, the school was a tool for eradicating Kashubian from social life. The story of Maria Machut, a Kashubian activist and collaborator of the Center, is not just a story about one school or one teacher: “We were beaten for speaking Kashubian. We were hit on the hands with a pencil case, a ruler, and sometimes a pointer used for maps. Wherever it landed. And another thing was that if a child struggled with Polish, they had to go to the front of the class. And that poor soul stood there with their head down. The teacher pointed at them—I remember this—and said to them: ‘You donkey!’. And he laughed. And we, children, not understanding this, laughed along with him. Today, as a mature person, I would say that what happened to us fits the definition of abused child syndrome. And we carry the effects of it to this day. At least in our memory. I feel guilty that this transmission of the language was stopped.”
↑ Language portrait workshops conducted in the Dixon Reef community on Malekula Island, Vanuatu (photo by J. Olko)
↓ FROM THE TOP. 1 Opening of the exhibition From the History of Multilingual Sławoszyn, created as part of the MULTILING-HIST project. Exhibition authors: Maria Machut and Artur Jabłoński (photo by A. Kościukiewicz) 2 The MULTILING-HIST project team 3 Feast of the patron saint of the Totonac community of San Andrés Tlayehualancingo, including the “Quetzales dance” (Danza de los Quetzales), Mexico (photo by J. Olko) 4 Performance by the “Wilamowianie” Regional Song and Dance Ensemble, Wilamowice (photo by J. Olko).