On the disappearance of Slovenian in Carinthia's Gailtal valley

How does a multilingual region become monolingual? And why?

These far-reaching questions were explored in two outstanding works by Heidi Janschitz († 1983), who died far too young, and Professor Andreas Moritsch († 2001), who was known far beyond the borders of the province. Despite their significance for Carinthia and the Gailtal valley, both works were quickly forgotten, receiving only modest attention and recognition in the Gailtal valley at the time of their publication. We at the Erinnern Gailtal association want to change this. We have set ourselves the goal of linking the two works and making them accessible again with the permission of the relatives and descendants.

To complete the picture of the ongoing disappearance of the Gailtal Slovenian language and to answer the questions posed at the beginning more clearly, the two works in this book are supplemented by a text on the tragic history of the Carinthian Slovenian organ-building family Grafenauer from Brugg/Moste near Egg/Brdo in the Gailtal valley, written by the editor Bernhard Gitschtaler. . These three works illustrate the painful process of suppression and, in some cases, self-abandonment of the Gailtal Slovenian language in a way that is clearer and more comprehensible than ever before.