ABSTRACT
The upsurge of linguistic regionalism throughout Eastern Europe after the breakdown of the socialist order has raised questions of linguistic identity beyond the beaten tracks of institutionally implemented national standard language regimes. The revaluation of local and regional ways of speaking throughout most Slavic-speaking countries in Eastern Europe could not fail to also address issues of territory and place. This article is meant to explore the interrelation between language and place in recent Eastern European regional language designs in the field of tension between personally embodied experience and political strife. It is argued that regional language designs tend to fall into familiar patterns of national language rhetoric, instead of elaborating a genuinely regionalist agenda that would be able to address the personal and political needs of our time. By exploring, as broadly as possible, the potentials of regional language use in conceptualizing physical space as a meaningful place, it is also hoped to open up perspectives on alternative pathways of regional language activism.
