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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 820

Part of Session 130: Language in Multilingual Cities (Other abstracts in this session)

Ukrainian-Russian Bilingualism in Urban Settings

Authors: Tkachuk, Taras
Submitted by: Tkachuk, Taras (Vinnytsia State Teachers' Training University, Ukraine)

In this research, we analyze the language situation in Vinnytsia - a post-soviet city situated in Central Ukraine. According to 2001 census, the majority of Vinnytsia’s residents were ethnic Ukrainians (87.2%) [1]. However, the Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism is a common phenomenon in the city, due to the historically dominant position of Russian [2]. Our main research question concerns current bilingual practices of city residents in various urban settings.
We examined this question with the method of socio-linguistic survey in which respondents answered 16 questions regarding their everyday use of Ukrainian and Russian (e.g., communication with family, friends, or colleagues at school, work, or Internet). The total number of 2000 participants (13-80 year-old) answered our questionnaire. They represent six social groups: school students, university students, service workers, state workers, entrepreneurs and retirees.
The results of the survey confirm a high level of individual bilingualism in Vinnytsia. The participants’ answers to the question about the language used with their collocutors show that they usually respond in the language of the collocutor: 92% of respondents answer in Ukrainian if addressed in Ukrainian, and 74% of respondents answer in Russian if addressed in Russian.
Based on the available information, we define main internal and external factors affecting the language choice of a speaker. The external factors include the general language practices dictated by the urbanized society and the current informational environment of the city (e.g., radio, television, press, and Internet). Among the internal factors we define the language conformity of the city residents and the ‘complex of marginal’, which forces many residents of the city periphery to change their social status by changing the language of their previous environment. The high linguistic conformity of the respondents is evident in their Internet communication. Although 83% of respondents have identified Ukrainian as their native language, the vast majority of them (72%) use Russian in their social webpages. The survey also shows that there is important influence of the city environment on the language of students coming from the city periphery: e.g., among all the respondents that identify Ukrainian as their native language and communicate within their families exclusively in Ukrainian, 22% switch to Russian with their new city friends.
We have also analyzed various areas of language use: e.g., formal, informal, literature, and mass media (e.g., Internet, literature, periodicals, and television). The survey results show that Ukrainian dominates in formal and educational sectors (it is used in official institutions, schools, and universities), but significantly loses in interpersonal communication and in media, where Russian dominates independently of the ethnic or other factors.
To conclude, the analyzed facts show asymmetric nature of the use of Ukrainian and Russian in an urbanized society. The results of the survey suggest that most of the external and internal factors contribute to the intensive development of Russian in all social areas except for official and educational environment.

References:

http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/general/nationality/vinnyca/

Bilaniuk, L. (2005) Contested Tongues: Language Politics and Cultural Correction in Ukraine. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.