Deutsch als Wissenschaftssprache in Litauen: zur Sprachverwendung in den wissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften der Universität Vilnius im Zeitraum von 2004 bis 2013

ENThe aim of this paper is to examine the current role of German as a language of research in Lithuania and the use of other languages in different research areas. The investigation focusses on 24 periodical research journals published at Vilnius University (partly in cooperation with other institutions) in the period from 2004 to 2013. The specific concerns are language(s) of publication, languages of summaries/abstracts and languages of works used for reference. 8 journals cover the area of humanities, 11 the area of social sciences and 5 the area of natural and formal sciences. In order to examine the languages used in these journals, the articles, summaries/abstracts and reference works were counted; the results are expressed in absolute numbers and as percentage values. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that the journals examined can be divided into 3 major groups: English-language journals, journals mainly using the national language (Lithuanian) and polyglot journals. English as the language of publication is dominant in economics, natural and formal sciences and Oriental studies (9 journals in total).Areas such as history, religion studies, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, educational sciences, communication and information and geography prefer to publish articles in a national language (11 journals in total). The area of politics is covered by 2 journals, one of which is in English, the other publishes mostly in Lithuanian. In addition, 3 journals on linguistics and literature and 1 on archeology belong to the polyglot journals. The German language as a language of publication is relevant basically only in humanities, as a language of summaries/abstracts and as a language of works used for reference in humanities and social sciences.