LANGUAGE POLICY IN MODERN RUSSIA: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY AND THE LINGUISTIC UNITY

Vida Yu. Mikhalchenko¹, Elena A. Kondrashkina², Svetlana V. Kirilenko³*
¹Prof. Dr., Head Scientific Researcher, Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, RUSSIA, vida-mi@mail.ru
²Senior Scientific Researcher, Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, RUSSIA, e.kondrashkina@inbox.ru
³Scientific Researcher, Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences; Assoc. Prof., MIIGAiK State University, RUSSIA, svetlanavk@inbox.ru
*Corresponding author

Abstract

The article gives an overview of the language policy that is currently enforced in the Russian Federation. The authors consider and evaluate the laws on languages and other legislative acts affecting the status of languages in the republics of Russian Federation where they are state languages, as well as other languages that do not have such a high status.
The article reviews the works of the Research Center on Ethnic and Language Relations at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The area of study focuses on the scientific analysis of language situations which led to the development of a typology of language policy in the considered republics within a given time period.
There have been identified five models of language policy. The selected models take into account the existence of functional dominants in the territorial-state entities (republics). These dominants in combination with non-dominant languages, that are spoken by other linguistic communities, constitute the core, the basis of the language situation – its socio-communicative system. Therefore, the demographic power of each component of the socio-communicative system can be determined.

The article proves that the language diversity and the linguistic unity, which are achieved through the wide functioning of the language of unity (the Russian language), are two aspects of life of the peoples living in the Russian Federation.

The subject of the study was a three-component (trilingual) model of language policy that is characterized by the parallel functioning of three languages: the national Russian language and two variants of one literary language or two literary languages which received the status of the state languages of the republic (Mari El, Mordovia, Kabardino-Balkaria). With that in mind, there are analyzed the sociolinguistic factors that prevented the unification of these forms of language existence into a single literary language, and the presence or absence of tendencies towards their unification.

The analysis made it possible to draw conclusions about the reasons for the lack of noticeable changes in the functional load of national languages in various areas of communication especially in the most important one, the area of education. That gave an opportunity to outline the prospects for further progress in the implementation of different models of language policy.

Keywords: language policy, functionally dominant languages, socio-communicative system, Mari languages (Meadow dialect and Mountain (Hill) dialect), Mordovian (Moksha and Erzya) languages.