Deaf communities are generically defined as linguistic-cultural communities whose members use sign language as their primary means of communication (Marschark et al., 2017; Higgins & Liberman, 2016) On the other hand, even though in Deaf communities and families Deaf cultures and sign languages tend to act as a decisive unifying force that transcends ethno-cultural differentiation, Deaf cultures also include other cultural elements, such as ethno-national identity (Leigh & Crowe, 2015). In this context, the identity of the Deaf members of the ethnic minority may present specific characteristics compared to that of the Deaf belonging to the majority ethnic community, but also to the ethnic identity of the hearing members of the ethnic minority community (Atkin, 2002). The notion of bilingualism, when applied to the linguistic and cultural characteristics ethnic minority can be misleading, as their case might be in fact a dual bilingualism (Ohna, 2003), which includes the knowledge/use of the oral and the sign languages of both ethnic communities.

In researching the complex relationship between ethnicity and Deaf identity, the analytical framework of intersectionality, which originally focused on gender and race considerations, particularly in African American feminist ideology known as "black feminism" (Crenshaw, 1991) has proved of high relevance. Dunn and Anderson (2020) employed the concept of intersectionality in examining Black Deaf lives within the context of Deaf community, discussing the influence of Black American Sign Language, and what it means to be Black and Deaf. Emery and Iyer (2021) investigated Deaf migration through an intersectionality lens. One of the key issues discussed in this regard is concerning linguistic communication of Deaf belonging to different ethnic groups and using different national sign languages.

For the reasons outlined above the study of the cumulated minority situation of Hungarian minority Deaf in Romania as a specific case of intersection and interactions between Deaf identities and ethnic identities opens up a promising, so far under-research field of investigation. The results of the first phase of our research suggest that due to the special communicational and cultural situation of Deaf, identity development and transmission might present special characteristics in case of ethnically heterogeneous Deaf families compared to the families set up by ethnically heterogeneous hearing partners. Within Deaf culture the visually perceptible sign language is the decisive shared mode of communication, which combines spouses into a cultural unit that transcends ethnic boundaries (Belenyi&Flora, 2022, pp 201-202).

As along with Deaf families Deaf communities are also a privileged scene for the manifestations of Deaf cultures, in the second phase of the research, which is presented in this paper, we shifted our focus from family to local Deaf community life with the aim to explore language use, linguistic socialisation and identity at community level. Starting from the intersectionality analytical framework we aimed to explore the communicational interactions between ethnic majority Romanian and minority Hungarian members of the local Deaf community and their effects on the linguistic socialisation of Hungarian young community members. In this regard, the following research questions have been addressed:

1. How transition from school to adulthood and local Deaf community took place in their life? What linguistic identity related transformations occurred during this process?
2. What are the prevailing ways of linguistic communication and socialization of young Deaf people engaged in local  Deaf community?
3. What language use opportunities are available within the local Association Deaf community for its ethnic Hungarian community members?
4. What are the resources of linguistic socialization employed by ethnic minority Hungarian Deaf in order to maintain and nurture their ethno-linguistic and national identity in and outside the ethnically heterogeneous local Deaf community?

Our research focused on the local Deaf Association community in Oradea, Romania which is the main space of the local Deaf community life. During the data collection process we used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, in view of facilitating methodological triangulation. The following data collection techniques have been applied: 1. Questionnaire based survey conducted among members of the ethnic Hungarian Deaf community in Oradea (including ethnic Romanian spouses). The aim of this survey has been to obtain quantitative data concerning language use within the local association Deaf community, with a special focus on the use of Hungarian Sign Language/Hungarian oral language. It shall be mentioned that this survey has been conducted already in the first phase of the research and included questions concerning family of origin and school socialisation, setting up a family and language use within the family as well. For the purpose of the current phase of research only the items concerning community language use have been included in the analysis. 2.Life-course interviews with ethnic Hungarian Deaf individuals (30 persons), in order to reveal their deeper motives and personal ways of reaching life-shaping decisions, the subjective means of experiencing key events occurred in one's life, and their influence on education, language use, community life and identity. This method was also used during the first phase of the research; some responses considered relevant for the topic of school-adulthood transition and community language use have been included in the current analysis. 3. Participant observation in the Deaf Association Community in Oradea, focusing on the relationship between community inclusion, language use and identity has been conducted specifically for the second phase of the research and shall be regarded as its core data collection method. Participant observation is a field approach to gathering data in which the researcher enters a specific site for purposes of engagement or observation. Participant observation is a method of ethnographic research that seeks to understand and write about a particular culture or subculture (Hurst, 2023). The aim is gaining understanding of three related but not identical complexes. The first is ‘what people do’, the way they communicate, or otherwise interact within the community. The second is what participants understand, are saying, intend and/or value about their activities. The third is what researchers experience as participants and as people informed by previous scholarly work, which they regard to be relevant in seeking understanding.

Our research results point to specific ways of applicability of the analytical framework of intersectionality in the context of the linguistic adaptation and socialization of young ethnic Hungarian Deaf in transition from school to adult life and within the studied ethnically heterogeneous Deaf community. The identity related socialisation of Deaf belonging to ethnic-national minority present specific characteristics which are derivable from the accumulation of disadvantaged generating factors in connection to a specific kind of multiple minority status. At the same time the ways of perceiving minority status by Deaf Hungarian ethnic minority members differs in essential aspects from the typical perceptions of the hearing members of the Hungarian ethnic minority. In the identity structure of Deaf community members the ethnic-national component of identity is intertwined and forms a unified whole with the characteristics of Deaf culture. The latter have a decisive role, both in terms of defining membership in Deaf culture and the ways of experiencing the specific ethnic identities within the shared Deaf identity. The Hungarian members of the ethnically heterogeneous Deaf community are equal participants in local Deaf community life and linguistic socialisation and they also regard and feel themselves as fully equal and accepted, even though their national language/sign language occupies a marginal position during communication within the ethnically heterogeneous communities. On the other hand, the flexible communicational attitude of ethnic Hungarian Deaf within the ethnically heterogeneous Deaf community, their readiness and ease to use Romanian Sign Language in the communication with their ethnic Romanian peers does not diminish in any sense the perceived importance of Hungarian Sign Language as identity marker in their life. They tend to highly value the ethnic-national identity-preserving role of their ethnic Hungarian peer relationships outside the ethnically heterogeneous Deaf communities.

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