Zakaj porabščina in kako dolgo še?

V prvem delu prispevka so opisani dejavniki, katerih součinkovanje je povzročilo, da je bila porabščina edina oz. prevladujoča materinščina Porabcev in jezikovni temelj njihove etnične zavesti. Drugi del prispevka predstavlja porabščino kot literarni jezik, podaja skico porabske literarne scene ter na primeru pripovedne proze Irene Barber in Francka Mukiča opisuje vlogo narodnostne in zgodovinske komponente v porabski književnosti. Prispevek se zaključuje z omembo dveh primerov, ki kažeta na jezikovno-etnične procese, ki vzbujajo resno zaskrbljenost za usodo porabščine in slovenščine v Porabju.In the first part of the article some factors are described which have influenced the people of the Porabje region and led to the Porabje dialect being the only or prevalent native language and the language basis of their ethnic awareness. The second part of the article presents the dialect of the Porabje region as a literary language, sketches the local literary scene and, based on the example of the narrative prose by Irena Barber and Francek Mukič, describes the role of the national and historical components of the literature of the Porabje region. The article ends with a mention of two cases which point to language-ethnic processes that cause serious concern for the fate of the Porabje regional dialect and the Slovene language in the Porabje region