Volume 2009, Issue 198

This article addresses the politics of language planning in post-Soviet Azerbaijan by reflecting upon the trends and challenges inherent in the “language movements” in developing nations. Language policy in general tends to reflect the stages of national priority formation, the level of democratic development in a nation, the vulnerability of national identity feelings, and external factors impacting national language policy formulation. In developing nations, language policy and politics are so inseparably interwoven that language policy can often be relied upon as a mirror reflecting political and social tendencies occurring within these nations. From this point of view, language policy programs of developing nations reveal, in many cases, common aspects of nation-building aspirations as well as possible mistakes involved. We have tried to support our analysis with historical and theoretical backgrounds, which we hope will better elucidate various language policy scenarios, explain certain “language emotions,” and provide a degree of defense against possible prejudgment, which developing countries may encounter from the international community while promoting their language polices.

Budukh, Kryz, and Khinalug are three Caucasian languages spoken in northeastern Azerbaijan near Mount Shahdagh. The speakers of all three languages are highly multilingual; reports are that they have near-native fluency in Azerbaijani. Furthermore, speakers of all three have been migrating from the mountains to more hospitable plains communities where they interact even more with native speakers of Azerbaijani. All three are endangered to some degree, but there are no detailed descriptions of the sociolinguistic situation in any of these languages. In 2000–2001, a research team investigated patterns of language use, language proficiency, and language attitudes in the three communities. The results suggest that the situation is far from uniform for the three language groups. While massive language shift is occurring in Budukh even in the mountain communities, Kryz is used in most village situations. Finally, a stable diglossia is currently in evidence in Khinalug. In all three communities, however, the traditional languages are definitely being replaced by Azerbaijani.

On the basis of data collected from September 2002 to June 2003, this article examines the influence of sex, language of instruction in secondary school, and age on overall reported Russian use by speakers in Azerbaijan. Russian-educated subjects reported higher Russian use than those educated in Azerbaijani, and women reported higher Russian usage than men. The latter is attributed to prestige assigned to Russian, the association of Azerbaijani with a rural/agrarian lifestyle, and with cultural values tending toward the limitation of women's choices. Competing forces account for the changes in Russian use with age: Azerbaijani linguistic nationalism, the breakdown of Russian-speaking friendship networks acquired through Russian language education, and a shift in female gender roles shortly after graduation from university. Through a close analysis of survey data and a review of the sociolinguistic literature, building on an extensive discussion of this data (Zuercher, Language choice in Azerbaijan: A Soviet legacy, University of Texas M.A. thesis, 2004), this article suggests a four-dimensional model for language choice in Azerbaijan, with prestige/formality, cultural traditions, and socioeconomic factors interacting. It also demonstrates that women's language choices change over time as Russian-speaking friendship networks deteriorate and women take on the role as keepers and purveyors of Azerbaijani cultural traditions.

In the last decades, increasing attention has been devoted to the role of socio-cultural identity in the language-learning process. What issues have taken the stage throughout this discussion? What is the relationship between individual, community, and socio-cultural identity in the language-learning process? This article will explore the role of social space and cultural identity in the development of plurilingualism. The emphasis on successful communication skills, motivated by increasing opportunities for interaction and mobility in Azerbaijan and in the rest of the world, remains important, but globalization and internationalization pose new challenges to social cohesion and integration. Language skills remain essential if individuals are to benefit from opportunities in employment leading to economic mobility, but they are also necessary to participate actively in the social processes. This increasing focus on language policies is reflected in the goals of education for plurilingual and intercultural citizens capable of interacting in a number of languages across linguistic and cultural boundaries. In this context, this article recalls the main developments in language education policy and practice in Azerbaijan from the early 1990s to the present.

Russian Imperial and subsequent Soviet policies resulted in the Russian language acquiring a very important role in education and the workplace in both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. The extent of the penetration of the Russian language was shaped by the unique constellation of factors for each republic, including geographic, historical, demographic, and political moments. Even in the Soviet era, however, the titular language maintained a much larger domain of use in Azerbaijan's cities than it did in cities of Kazakhstan. Since 1991, the status of the titular language in both countries has risen and its domains broadened, though only in Azerbaijan does the titular language clearly enjoy a status superior to Russian in urban educational institutions and in the workplace. The difference in the situations in the two countries is due both to the inertia of factors already in place during the Soviet era, as well as to changing environment in the respective countries since their independence, including policies of their leadership.

In this article I explore three interactional strategies in which language choice and code switching frequently occur in the management of interaction. These bilingual practices are used as both inclusive and exclusive social strategies. The focus of this study is Azerbaijani families experiencing ongoing language shift from bilingualism in Azerbaijani and Persian to monolingualism in Persian. The data are drawn from ethnographic research and informal conversations audio recorded in these bilingual and multigenerational Azerbaijani families resident in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. The methods of analysis integrate a sequential analysis with ethnographic information.

This article addresses revitalization of a dormant language whose prospective speakers live in scattered geographical areas. In comparison to increasing the usage of an endangered language, revitalizing a dormant language (one with no living speakers) requires different methods to gain knowledge of the language. Language teaching for a dormant language with a scattered community presents different problems from other teaching situations. In this article, we discuss the types of tasks that must be accomplished for dormant-language revitalization, with particular focus on development of teaching materials. We also address the role of computer technologies, arguing that each use of technology should be evaluated for how effectively it increases fluency. We discuss methods for achieving semi-fluency for the first new speakers of a dormant language, and for spreading the language through the community.