Resumen de Urban and rural dialects of Slesvig: political boundaries in the millennial retreat of Danish in Slesvig

Inge Lise Pedersen

• The former Duchy of Slesvig constitutes a border area, linguistically intersectedby the Danish-German border andsince 1920 also by the national border. From the Middle Ages belonging to the Danish hing and Danishspeaking, apart from the southernmost pari, Slesvig used German äs the language ofthe church, apart from rural North Slesvig, and of the secular administration. The article gives a historical survey of Danish and German dialects in the area, discussing the impact from language contact, and the language shift in Middle Slesvig from Danish dialect to Low German.

  The case of Slesvig points to the language ofculture f Kultursprache,) äs decisive for the choice between national identities, not the mother tongue proper.