Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse
Russian Federation, being de jure and de facto linguistically diverse multilingual country, can be described, at the same time, as being under a strong influence of monolingual language ideology, with Russian totally domineering in most public spheres. Minority languages and especially languages of...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Eurasian Studies |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665231186636 |
| _version_ | 1827856717587677184 |
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| author | Nam Hye Hyun Fedorova Kapitolina |
| author_facet | Nam Hye Hyun Fedorova Kapitolina |
| author_sort | Nam Hye Hyun |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Russian Federation, being de jure and de facto linguistically diverse multilingual country, can be described, at the same time, as being under a strong influence of monolingual language ideology, with Russian totally domineering in most public spheres. Minority languages and especially languages of migrants lack official recognition and support, and their speakers often have to face prejudices and negative stereotypes. The paper aims at revealing language ideology prevailing in modern Russia through analysis of attitudes to languages other than Russian as they are expressed in discourse about language, i.e. metadiscourse. When approaching it, it is important to distinguish state discourse (manifestation of official language policy) and public discourse (collective attitudes towards certain sublanguages and their users expressed more or less directly). The analysis shows that over the past two decades, official language ideology in Russia has shifted from guaranteeing linguistic equality and diversity to having an emphasis on unity and purity and giving support to the Russian language. This reorientation is realized through status planning, corpus planning, and acquisition planning. At the level of public discourse, analysis of collective attitudes towards the languages used by non-native speakers demonstrates that a significant part of the Russian-speaking population express negative attitudes towards non-native speakers and their poor Russian language skills, which once again confirms that there is dominant monolingualism and purism in public discourse. However, language practices in Russia are gradually becoming more diverse which can become a challenge for monolingualism and purism in future. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T12:29:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9248dc7b18fe4691b654d7a70e752373 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1879-3665 1879-3673 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T12:29:49Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Eurasian Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-9248dc7b18fe4691b654d7a70e7523732023-08-29T14:40:11ZengSAGE PublishingJournal of Eurasian Studies1879-36651879-36732023-08-011410.1177/18793665231186636Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic DiscourseNam Hye HyunFedorova KapitolinaRussian Federation, being de jure and de facto linguistically diverse multilingual country, can be described, at the same time, as being under a strong influence of monolingual language ideology, with Russian totally domineering in most public spheres. Minority languages and especially languages of migrants lack official recognition and support, and their speakers often have to face prejudices and negative stereotypes. The paper aims at revealing language ideology prevailing in modern Russia through analysis of attitudes to languages other than Russian as they are expressed in discourse about language, i.e. metadiscourse. When approaching it, it is important to distinguish state discourse (manifestation of official language policy) and public discourse (collective attitudes towards certain sublanguages and their users expressed more or less directly). The analysis shows that over the past two decades, official language ideology in Russia has shifted from guaranteeing linguistic equality and diversity to having an emphasis on unity and purity and giving support to the Russian language. This reorientation is realized through status planning, corpus planning, and acquisition planning. At the level of public discourse, analysis of collective attitudes towards the languages used by non-native speakers demonstrates that a significant part of the Russian-speaking population express negative attitudes towards non-native speakers and their poor Russian language skills, which once again confirms that there is dominant monolingualism and purism in public discourse. However, language practices in Russia are gradually becoming more diverse which can become a challenge for monolingualism and purism in future.https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665231186636 |
| spellingShingle | Nam Hye Hyun Fedorova Kapitolina Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse Journal of Eurasian Studies |
| title | Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse |
| title_full | Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse |
| title_fullStr | Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse |
| title_full_unstemmed | Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse |
| title_short | Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse |
| title_sort | treatment of and attitudes towards other languages in modern russia evidence from metalinguistic discourse |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665231186636 |
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