Russian Language in Ukraine: Does it Concern Only Russians? (original) (raw)
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A well-known feature of the language situation in contemporary Ukraine is its enormous diversity-that is, sharp diff erences among practices, attitudes, and policy preferences of diff erent ethnolinguistic and regional groups of the population. Apart from observable language practice and voting patterns in the successive elections (i.e., support for those candidates and parties perceived as champions of the language preferred by the group in question), this feature was revealed by a number of mass surveys conducted in various periods of Ukraine's independence. Unfortunately, most of these surveys contained a very limited number of questions; namely, the respondent's native language, language(s) used in the family, and the attitude towards the idea of upgrading the legal status of Russian, which made it impossible to grasp the complexity of practices and attitudes both between and within the groups (Vyšnjak 2008a, 34-35). It was only in 2006 and 2007 that detailed surveys on language practices and attitudes were conducted, respectively, by the sociological center Hromads´ka Dumka and the Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Not only did the results of those surveys demonstrate ethnolinguistic and regional diversity, but they revealed other important characteristics of the Ukrainian population's practices and attitudes as well (Besters-Dilger
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Throughout the twentieth century, inhabitants of Ukraine experienced many drastic changes in linguistic identity as a result of the establishment of the Soviet Union and the attempts to "unify" Russia with its neighboring countries and then once more when Ukraine gained its independence in 1991. As a result of shifting language policies, a situation has presented itself in which some Ukrainians claim Ukrainian as their native language, but not all. Others who feel they are ethnically Ukrainian speak Russian as their native language, and some even speak a variety of mixed language, which many native Ukrainians refer to as surzhyk. Since Ukraine’s independence, political awareness of the current linguistic situation has led to the exclusive use of Ukrainian in an effort to help it reemerge as the official language of the state. Major recent policies have targeted the media especially, due to the fact that media has a major effect on populations, and it had previously been presented almost entirely in Russian. However, an interesting situation has developed in that media outlets are finding ways around these rules by having two presenters: one in Russian and one in Ukrainian, reflecting the linguistic divide in Ukraine. This overview of the current linguistic situation in Ukraine will serve to show the reasons for the current language policies and exactly how far these policies have extended.
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While people of many nationalities live in Ukraine, Ukrainians and Russians constitute the majority of its population. Territorially, the Ukrainian language is spread unevenly, which results in pronounced bilingualism and language bipolarity. The influence of the Soviet policy of the Russian language dominance is still present in Ukraine. Ukrainian prevails in the sphere of public administration and education. Russian dominates in most mass media. Under such circumstances it is important to maintain conditions for the preservation of the language identity of other ethnic minorities, which would promote the development of linguistic diversity in Ukraine.
Following a long-standing sociolinguistic pursuit to investigate language policy through complex non-linear models that analyze historical, structural, political and social processes that produce, contextualize, circulate and negotiate particular ideologies, beliefs and myths about languages and their values through meaning-making activities, this master’s thesis aims to apply an interpretive approach to corpus-assisted discourse analysis and appropriate elements of nexus analysis to an investigation of the status of the Russian in the language policy of Ukraine during the period of 2010 to 2015. Regarding language policies as a complex social phenomenon, this study of Ukrainian monolingual language policy is focused on investigating nexuses involving policymaking, its interpretation by various political players, and implementation aiming to answer the question of how established and circulating discourses mediate, negotiate and regulate relations between Ukrainian and Russian languages. Two specialized corpora were created for a synchronic study of language ideological debates (Blommaert, 1999) in Ukraine’s and Russia’s most popular English-medium editions of online newspapers, designated for a Western audience, regarding the de jure status of the Russian language in the period from the onset of Victor Yanukovych’s presidency in 2010 until 2015. De facto implementations of the language policy regulations and negotiations in the visual environment are studied through linguistic landscape data collected in four diverse regions of Ukraine. The results of this study support the findings of Hult and Pietikäinen (2014) and Kulyk (2009) that language ideological debates are made salient by political elites during elections or times of crisis; moreover, it shows how the claims of discrimination against the Russian language and Russian speakers have been used by the Russian government as a pretext for invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, the analysis of debates in media and the comparative study of linguistic landscapes point out the regional differences and linguistic realities ‘on the ground’, demonstrating the need for a flexible language policy that would take those differences into account and, while aiming at development and support of the state language, would recognize the Russian language as a resource necessary for the nation’s unity at this point in time. Keywords: language policy, corpus-assisted discourse study, Ukraine, Russia, linguistic landscape
Problem of Choosing the Language of Communication: Ukrainian Realities
Cognitive Studies | Études cognitives
The article analyses the situational change in the language behaviour (code switching) of representatives from different regions of Ukraine based on the data of a statistically significant mass survey of the adult population of different regions in 2017. The dependence of language behaviour on the language situation in a region is confirmed and certain patterns inherent in each of the regions are revealed. The use of the Ukrainian language has a similar dependence on the language situation in all regions, but at different levels: it is used more often when communicating with Ukrainian-speakers, officials, in education, etc. It is rarely used in the information sphere. The connection between the degree of Russification of a certain territory and the laws of language choice in a particular situation is revealed. The articles proposes using the results of mass surveys to study language behaviour through the prism of territorial features, which will help to pursue a balanced state langu...