Language practices and the language situation in Kharkiv: examining the concept of legitimate language in relation to identification and utility
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Margrethe B. Søvik
Abstract
This article analyzes perceptions of the language situation and reported language practices in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The article utilizes Pierre Bourdieu's concept of legitimate language to analyze a complex language situation in which several languages may be designated as legitimate. This term may not only refer to a language that is endorsed by state institutions, but also to a variety that one is expected to use in certain settings, i.e., the language variety that is seen as constituting the norm. The article demonstrates that the Ukrainian language can be a salient marker of national identification, but that Russian is considered appropriate in most domains. The concepts of identification and utility are introduced, as they may add to an understanding of how the notion of a legitimate language is constructed.
© 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
Articles in the same Issue
- Language in times of transition: an introduction
- Language practices and the language situation in Kharkiv: examining the concept of legitimate language in relation to identification and utility
- Minority language as identity factor: case study of young Russian speakers in Lviv
- Languages for the market, the nation, or the margins: overlapping ideologies of language and identity in Zakarpattia
- Ideologies of language use in post-Soviet Ukrainian media
- Language in the balance: the politics of non-accommodation on bilingual Ukrainian–Russian television shows
- Conflicting abstractions: language groups in language politics in Ukraine
- The impact of ideologies on the standardization of modern Ukrainian
- Book reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Language in times of transition: an introduction
- Language practices and the language situation in Kharkiv: examining the concept of legitimate language in relation to identification and utility
- Minority language as identity factor: case study of young Russian speakers in Lviv
- Languages for the market, the nation, or the margins: overlapping ideologies of language and identity in Zakarpattia
- Ideologies of language use in post-Soviet Ukrainian media
- Language in the balance: the politics of non-accommodation on bilingual Ukrainian–Russian television shows
- Conflicting abstractions: language groups in language politics in Ukraine
- The impact of ideologies on the standardization of modern Ukrainian
- Book reviews
