DOI 10.1515/ijsl-2013-0016 IJSL 2013; 220: 109 – 125 Katharina Vajta Linguistic, religious and national loyalties in Alsace Abstract: In Alsace, a confessionally mixed region with a Catholic majority and quite a large Protestant minority, religion and language have habitually been con- sidered stronger cultural identity markers than national belonging. Since the Ref- ormation, Lutheranism has traditionally been linked to Germany and the German language, while Catholicism has ofen been seen as connected to France and French. The present article investigates salient linguistic, religious and national features in this French border region, mainly drawn from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Furthermore, an account of interviews conducted with a Lutheran Al- satian family makes clear that these matters are still of immediate interest. The informants provide an illustration of how religion still infuences language use, linguistic choices and cultural identity, and how it may contribute both to lan- guage maintenance and to the ongoing language shif from the Germanic variet- ies (German and Alsatian) to French. Keywords: Alsace; Lutheranism; religion; cultural identity; language shif. Katharina Vajta: University of Gothenburg, Sweden. E-mail: katharina.vajta@sprak.gu.se 1 Introduction Alsace is located not only on the linguistic border between Romance and Ger- manic languages, but also divides adherents of Catholicism and Protestantism. This state of afairs entails diferent impacts in this region of eastern France. Un- like the rest of the country, Alsace can be described as a confessionally mixed re- gion. Catholics are in the majority, comprising about 1,300,000 of the total of 1,800,000 inhabitants. Protestants constitute a signifcant minority, amounting to 300,000 persons, or 17% of the Alsatian population, compared to 2% in the Intérieur, Inner France. Most of the Alsace Protestants are Lutherans, but 33,000 are reformed Protestants (Calvinists). Furthermore, there is a Jewish community of about 50,000 and, as a result of more recent immigration, an important Muslim group of about 4%. These fgures are only approximate, since no ofcial census includes questions about the citizens’ religions. Brought to you by | University of Calgary Authenticated Download Date | 5/25/15 10:49 AM