How does a medium-sized city deal with the diversity of languages spoken there and how is it characterised by the multilingualism of its people? Oldenburg Slavicists and their students are investigating this together with HWK Fellow Yaron Matras in Delmenhorst.
New York City, Sydney or Berlin - the linguistic diversity in the world's metropolises is well documented. But what about medium-sized cities? What about Delmenhorst, for example? This was the question asked by Hamburg linguist Prof Dr Yaron Matras and Oldenburg linguist Prof Dr Jan Patrick Zeller when they met at a conference a few years ago. This question led to a joint teaching and research project, which is now in its third semester and is currently being funded by the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK) in Delmenhorst.
During a research stay in the city at the end of 2022, Matras had overheard snippets of conversation in Romani here and there: the language of the Sinti and Roma and thus one of Matras' research focuses. His interest in the city's linguistic diversity was piqued. Zeller and he developed the idea of investigating the multilingualism of the people of Delmenhorst in more detail. In the summer semester of 2025, the University of Oldenburg funded the project as a teaching project as part of forschen@studium, with students from Slavic Studies, English Studies, German Studies and Social Sciences taking part. And Matras temporarily returned to the HWK as an "Associated Fellow" for research purposes.
Contact was quickly made with a grammar school and an integrated comprehensive school (IGS) in Delmenhorst. The project inspired the two schools to create a joint seminar subject, "Multilingualism", which they have been offering in the sixth form since this school year. The most recent highlight of the project: a survey on language skills and language use carried out by Year 11 pupils at IGS Delmenhorst in their school and family environment - as an applied statistics unit in maths lessons taught by teacher Nicola Sager.
First survey on language diversity in a German city for 20 years
According to Matras and his Oldenburg colleagues Zeller and Dr Maxim Makartsev, this is probably the first statistical data on linguistic diversity in a German city for 20 years; possibly the first ever relating to a medium-sized city. "In any case, we're not aware of anything comparable," says Zeller. According to the HWK, it was also the first survey of its kind to be planned and conducted jointly by researchers and young people.
540 pupils aged between 10 and 19 were surveyed, who were also able to provide information on the language skills and use of their family members, friends or girlfriends. According to the HWK, the data collected will be used in the coming months to produce an extrapolation that will also allow statements to be made about the population of Delmenhorst as a whole.
Young people have an average knowledge of three to four languages
The 10 to 19-year-olds surveyed stated that they spoke three to four languages on average. In addition to German and English, they speak one or two languages of origin and/or sometimes another foreign language taught at school, such as French or Spanish. More than 45 per cent of respondents stated a language other than German as their language of origin. The languages of origin most frequently mentioned by the young people as being spoken at home were Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Kurdish, Romanian, Aramaic, Albanian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian. According to the survey, children and young people speak their languages of origin most frequently with their mother, secondarily with their father, less frequently with siblings and rarely with friends.
"The survey shows that multilingualism is an integral part of young people's everyday lives. At the same time, the survey on the language use of different generations showed that the use of the language of origin is increasingly limited to the family sphere, while interest in foreign languages is growing," says Matras. "Knowledge of heritage languages does not come at the expense of language skills in other languages," adds Zeller.
Despite all multilingualism, English remains particularly widespread among the respondents: More than 80 per cent of them said they knew English. Many of them use English in everyday life with friends and use it as part of their media consumption. Media consumption in the languages of origin is particularly prevalent in Polish, Russian, Romanian, Arabic and Turkish. Media consumption therefore appears to play an important role in the preservation of heritage languages.
Teaching project at the University of Oldenburg continues from autumn
To conclude Matras' research at the HWK, the project participants are planning to present further analyses based on the survey data at the end of September - as well as the analyses of interviews that form the core of the student research in the project: with people who deal with language diversity in migration counselling, in schools, religious communities, Sunday schools, football clubs or as so-called integration guides in Delmenhorst.
"In addition to quantitative research, this is also about qualitative research," says Zeller. "We want to know: How do people deal with linguistic diversity, what strategies are there for communication, but also what strategies do communities have for passing on their language of origin to their children? Where do people meet if they want to speak Polish or Kurdish, for example?" In short: "What does the city do with linguistic diversity, and what does linguistic diversity do in the city?" The teaching project of the Slavicists Zeller and Makartsev at the University of Oldenburg is also set to continue in the coming winter semester.
