Minority language as identity factor: case study of young Russian speakers in Lviv
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Anna Wylegała
Abstract
This article presents the results of qualitative research conducted among representatives of young Russian-speaking intelligentsia in Lviv. After introducing the historical background and the current language situation of the city, it examines the role and status of the minority and majority languages in the language practices of the interviewees. Other issues addressed in this text are cultural and ethnic/national identifications, and their relationship with language practice and language identification. The results of the research illustrate that in this particular group of interviewees, there was a tendency to integrate into the majority Ukrainian culture, and in some cases, to change identification. For some, cultural identification was double and did not always correspond with an ethnic or national identification; however, another part of the group preserved both language and ethnic distinction. Also of importance was the existence of a group with a marginal identification, in this case those who felt neither Russian nor Ukrainian.
© 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
