1st Edition

Polish as a Heritage Language Around the World Selected Diaspora Communities

Edited By Piotr Romanowski, Anna Seretny Copyright 2025
248 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

248 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

248 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Polish as a Heritage Language Around the World provides a timely insight into Polish diaspora communities around the world and their endeavours in heritage language maintenance and education. This edited collection depicts and analyses the unique challenges associated with the intergenerational transmission of Polish as a language that has not had high visibility and status in the surrounding... Read more

List of Contributors

Foreword

Władysław Miodunka

 

Introduction: The Polish Language Scattered All Over the Globe

Piotr Romanowski and Anna Seretny

 

PART I: EUROPE

Chapter 1. Changing Faces of the Polish Diaspora in the United Kingdom

Edyta Nowosielska

 

Chapter 2. A Differentiated Picture of Polish in Germany

Hanna Pułaczewska

 

Chapter 3. The Polish Population and its Language in Sweden

Dorota Lubińska

 

Chapter 4. Polish Heritage Speakers in Norway: Attitudes, Use, and Maintenance

Piotr Garbacz and Toril Opsahl

 

Chapter 5. Multilingualism of the Polish Minority in Ukraine

Helena Krasowska

 

PART II: THE AMERICAS

Chapter 6. Poles and Their Language in the US “Melting Pot”: How Polish is preserved and/or lost in Chicago

Izolda Wolski-Moskoff

 

Chapter 7. The Polish Language and Culture Maintenance in Canada “Scented with Resin”

Joanna Lustański and Magda Stroińska

 

Chapter 8. “We have to respect the language people speak” – Polish heritage language and its speakers in Brazil

Alicja Goczyła Fereirra

 

Chapter 9. The Status of the Polish Language in the Polish Community of Argentina: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective

Adrianna Seniów

 

PART III: OTHER CONTINENTS

Chapter 10. The Presence of the Polish Language in the Polish Diaspora Communities of North Africa: Focusing on the Aspects of Education

Jacek Knopek

 

Chapter 11. The Polish Diaspora in the Republic of South Africa: The Case of Polish as a Heritage Language

Arkadiusz Żukowski

 

Chapter 12. Maintenance of the Heritage Language and Culture in the Polish Diaspora Communities in Australia

Ewa Lipińska

 

Bringing It All Together: The Maintenance of the Polish Language Outside of Poland

Piotr Romanowski and Anna Seretny

Biography

Piotr Romanowski holds a PhD and a postdoctoral degree in Linguistics. He is a Professor at the Faculty of Applied Linguistics, the University of Warsaw, Poland. His academic interests sit at the intersection of multilingual education and sociolinguistics. He is chief editor of the Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices and the book series Language Learning and Multilingualism. He is the founding member of MultiLingNet. In the academic year 2022/23, he was a Research Fellow at University College London.

Anna Seretny is an applied linguists and a Professor at the Faculty of Polish, the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. She has an extensive record of research and publications on vocabulary learning in Polish as a foreign and heritage language. Her major academic interests are language learning and teaching, heritage language maintenance, and education.