Language use and identity in an ethnically heterogeneous deaf community

Within the Hungarian Deaf minority in Romania, a combination of two distinct types of culturally rooted minority identity occurs, which generates a minority situation at several levels. Our research conducted in a multicultural city of western Romania (Oradea) aimed to find out what are the prevailing means of linguistic communication within the local Deaf Association community; what are the linguistic communication opportunities available for ethnic Hungarian Deaf community members; and what resources the ethnic Hungarian Deaf employ to maintain and nurture their ethno-linguistic and national identity. The research is based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches: questionnaire survey, participant observation within the local association Deaf community, and life course interviews with ethnic Hungarian Deaf. We found that in case of ethnic Hungarian Deaf minority members the sense of belonging to the ethnically heterogeneous local Deaf community tends to override the belonging to the ethnically defined Hungarian Deaf sub-community. While assigning a great importance to their own ethnic identity, Hungarian minority Deaf demonstrate a high capacity and willingness to adapt to the specific sign language communicational mode of the ethnic Romanian Deaf majority in order to gain and preserve full recognition as equal members of the community.