German Language and Identity in Religious Communities of Crimea

Abstract

The paper investigates aspects of German language usage in the ethnic community of Crimean Germans—members of Russian-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran church in Simferopol. The results of a field study conducted in August 2019 indicate that German language is used by members of the community mainly in the course of church ceremonies and home prayers. Methods. Overt observation, questionnaires and interviews with community members were conducted. We have also managed to obtain recordings of church services and collected individual speech samples of the prayer "Our Father" in German. The results. The predominance of women (82%) aged 50 to 87 and having mixed ethnic origin was revealed. Russian is the mother tongue of the vast majority. At the same time, 75% of the respondents understand German, 25% can speak German. All members of the community communicate only in Russian. 88% know the basic prayers and sing in German in the church