scholarly journals Overcoming Aggressive Monolingualism: Prejudices and Linguistic Diversity in Russian Megalopolises

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 672-689
Author(s):  
Vlada Baranova ◽  
Kapitolina Fedorova
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Multilingual Communication ◽  
The One ◽  
Everyday Reality

AbstractThe study deals with linguistic prejudices of citizens of the two main Russian cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, toward speakers of foreign languages. It aims to reveal possible recent changes in the language ideology dominating Russian society. Monolingual and linguistically normative orientations rooted in the Soviet ideological approach are being challenged nowadays by global processes of migration and cultural diversification, which influence the everyday reality of Russian megalopolises. The research is based on the analysis of two sets of data: (1) meta-discourse on language attitudes derived from interviews with labor migrants and native Russian speakers in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and posts and comments on issues of language, migration, and linguistic landscapes, collected from websites and social media and (2) linguistic landscape data collected in 2016–2019, mainly in St. Petersburg, which reflect recent changes in attitude toward linguistic diversity in public space. These data show, on the one hand, that most city dwellers still relate to monolingual speech norms and try to implement control over public space; on the other hand, that the tolerance toward multilingual communication has been increasing over the years. The study suggests that these “first cracks” in monolinguals facades of Russian cities could eventually lead to the establishing of a less rigid language regime.

Between Global and Local Contexts: The Seoul Linguistic Landscape

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kapitolina Fedorova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
Historical Sites ◽  
The One ◽  
Global And Local

Multilingualism in urban spaces is mainly studied as an oral practice. Nevertheless, linguistic landscape studies can serve as a good explorative method for studying multilingualism in written practices. Moreover, resent research on linguistic landscapes (Blommaert 2013; Shohamy et. al. 2010; Backhaus 2006) have shed some light on the power relations between different ethnic groups in urban public space. Multilingual practices exist in a certain ideological context, and not only official language policy but speaker linguistic stereotypes and attitudes can influence and modify those practices. Historically, South Korea tended to be oriented towards monolingualism; one nation-one people-one language ideology was domineering public discourse. However, globalization and recent increase in migration resulted in gradual changes in attitudes towards multilingualism (Lo and Kim 2012). The linguistic landscapes of Seoul, on the one hand, reflect these changes, and However, they demonstrates pragmatic inequality of languages other than South Korean in public use. This inequality, though, is represented differently in certain spatial urban contexts. The proposed paper aims at analyzing data on linguistic landscapes of Seoul, South Korea ,with the focus on different contexts of language use and different sets of norms and ideological constructs underlying particular linguistic choices. In my presentation I will examine data from three urban contexts: ‘general’ (typical for most public spaces); ‘foreign-oriented’ (seen in tourist oriented locations such as airport, expensive hotels, or popular historical sites, which dominates the Itaewon district); and ‘ethnic-oriented’ (specific for spaces created by and for ethnic minority groups, such as Mongolian / Central Asian / Russian districts near the Dongdaemun History and Culture Park station). I will show that foreign languages used in public written communication are embedded into different frameworks in these three urban contexts, and that the patterns of their use vary from pragmatically oriented ones to predominately symbolic ones, with English functioning as a substitution for other foreign languages, as an emblem of ‘foreignness.’

scholarly journals TATAR LANGUAGE:

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinara S. Sultan ◽  
Tatiana G. Bochina ◽  
Atirkul Ye. Agmanova ◽  
Yevgeniya A. Zhuravleva
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ethnic Identification ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The One ◽  
Linguistic Aspect

Conservation and development of minority languages in countries unique in the ethno-linguistic aspect, such as Russia and Kazakhstan, are highly relevant. Wide linguistic diversity, on the one hand, and dominance of the official Russian in Russia and the official Kazakh and Russian languages in the socio-communicative system of society in Kazakhstan, on the other hand, determine the linguistic landscape and peculiarities of multilingualism in these states. Research interest in linguistic contacts of a modern multiethnic society has determined the choice of the processes of linguistic and ethnic identification, related issues of conservation and using the native language and culture by representatives of various ethnic groups living in Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as the specifics of their interaction and mutual influence under new geopolitical conditions as the object of the study

scholarly journals Linguistic Landscapes

Linguistics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jhonni Rochelle Charisse Carr
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Global English ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality ◽  
Road Signs ◽  
Common Definition ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The One

Linguistic landscape studies is the investigation of displayed language in a particular space, generally through the analysis of advertisements, billboards, and other signs. A common definition used in the field is the one posited in the canonical 1997 article “Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study” (Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16(1): 23–49) by Rodrigue Landry and Richard Y. Bourhis: “The language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration” (p. 25). (See Landry and Bourhis 1997, cited under Origins of the Field.) The study of the linguistic landscape (LL) is a fairly new area of investigation, with the establishment of its first international conference in 2008 and first international journal in 2015. An especially interdisciplinary field, it incorporates work from camps such as anthropology, linguistics, political science, education, geography, and urban planning. While the majority of research focuses on particular geographical places, the area of study has expanded to include the linguistic landscape of the Internet. This article highlights diverse works from male and female scholars, researchers of color, and scholarship on minority languages by scholars from all over the globe. Key texts include research presented in various forms including books, articles, conferences, conference presentations, and dissertations. The first half of the article is organized by contribution type. It begins with Key Works and then turns to Edited Collections. It then moves on to journals that commonly feature linguistic landscape work or special issues and then some of the latest dissertations that have been published. Finally, the article turns to conferences dedicated to the subject and important conference papers that have been discussed recently among scholars in the field. The second half of the article is organized topically in the following order: Origins of the Field, Innovative Methodologies, Applications and Approaches in the Field (including subsections Multilingualism, Global English, Minority Languages, Anthropology, Language Policy and Planning, and Education). In the subsection Anthropology, three central themes are considered: Language Attitudes and Ideologies, Identity, and Ethnography. Finally, the article reviews important works from a newer subcamp: The Linguistic Landscape of the Internet.

Linguistic Landscape as standing historical testimony of the struggle against colonization in Ethiopia

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-290
Author(s):  
Hirut Woldemaram
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country and its second largest in terms of population. Apart from a five-year occupation by Italy, which is considered as a war time, the country has never been colonized. The Linguistic Landscape (LL) of Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia and the seat of the African Union, prominently depicts that important history. Erected in the main squares of the city, the various monuments serve as standing testimonies of the struggle, victory and important figures pertaining to Italian fascist invasion of Ethiopia. Moreover, there are different institutions (schools, hospitals) and infrastructures (bridges, streets) officially named after significant historical moments. Visible in the central locations and squares of the city, monuments, statues, and the naming of streets, bridges, schools, and hospitals, keep the peoples’ memory about the struggle against the Italian invasion and the victories obtained. Symbols of the Lion of Judah, cross and national flags are also part of the public exhibit marking identities, ideologies and references to the country’s history. This study aims at showing how the LL serves as a mechanism to build the historical narrative of Ethiopia. It overviews how the LL in Addis Ababa via its monuments depicts the anti-colonial struggle and the victory over Fascist Italian forces. The monuments considered are: the Victory Monument, The Patriots Monument, The Abune Petros statute, and the Menelik II Statue. After presenting background aspects, this paper tackles Ethiopians’ memories of the Italian invasion as expressed in Addis Ababa’s LL and their identity construction and reconstruction. The last section discusses the findings and draws concluding remarks. Methodologically, digital Figures of the monuments were collected coupled with interview. Ethnographic approaches to the LL are used to analyze the selected memorial objects. As Creswell (2003) indicates ethnographic designs like qualitative research procedures, aims at describing, analyzing, and interpreting a culture-sharing group’s patterns of behavior, beliefs, and language. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in 2014 with a sample of 15 pedestrians, males and females, of different ages and educational categories who were standing in front of the monuments waiting for buses. The interviewers wanted to know what people think of the significance and relevance of location of the monuments in the public space. Most of the interviewees tended to support the views of the prevailing popular interpretations. They strongly relate the monuments with memories of brutality of Italian invaders on the one hand, and the strong resistance, patriotism and heroism of the Ethiopian people. The interviews agree that this unique victory needs to keep being celebrated and glorified as part of the history of Ethiopia.

scholarly journals Language attitudes and identity building in the linguistic landscape of Montreal

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 406-422
Author(s):  
Jakob R. E. Leimgruber ◽  
Víctor Fernández-Mallat
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Bilingual Reading ◽  
Visible Language

Abstract Few studies to date have considered the agency of readers in reinterpreting the cultural, historical, political, and social background of the linguistic landscape (LL; visible language in public space) and the ways in which individual and collective identities are discursively conceptualised through the LL. In this article, we present results from a study involving participants from three self-described sociolinguistic identities (Francophone, Anglophone, and Bilingual), reading signs found in the LL of Montreal. Using photographic prompts, we questioned participants about the probable location of signs, their languages, and the languages’ placement on monolingual (French or English) and bilingual (French–English) signs emanating from both governmental and private entities. Further discussions about their emotive responses to the signs presented and the possible responses of “others” reveal the relative degrees of importance attached to these linguistic elements in constructing, negotiating, and communicating various and (more) fluid sociolinguistic identities.

scholarly journals W cieniu GUŁagu. Narracja o represjach w Federacji Rosyjskiej w perspektywie współczesnej

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 221-240
Author(s):  
Magdalena Lachowicz
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Russian Law ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
The One ◽  
Former Ussr

The purpose of this article is to analyse the change in the policy of the Russian authorities regarding the assessment of Stalinist repression and its effectiveness in Russian society. There are two dominant processes: on the one hand, repression is commemorated in public space and, on the other hand, compromising issues from the Stalinist period disappear from public debate and public awareness. The historical debate in Russia has been limited by changes in Russian law. While the percentage of people considering Stalinist repression to have been a historical necessity has increased, the number of those who recognise the state’s responsibility for carrying out mass political repression has decreased. There have been changes in historical policy and in institutions responsible for the narrative of repression. Therefore, the role of non-profit and non-governmental organisations in conducting research and projects popularising the truth about political repression in the former USSR has increased.

Ruler Visibility and Popular Belonging in the Ottoman Empire, 1808-1908

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darin Stephanov
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
The Other ◽  
Group Consciousness ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Point Model ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
National Movements ◽  
Tanzimat Reforms ◽  
The One

‘What do we really speak of when we speak of the modern ethno-national mindset and where shall we search for its roots?’ This is the central question of a book arguing that the periodic ceremonial intrusion into the everyday lives of people across the Ottoman Empire, which the annual royal birthday and accession-day celebrations constituted, had multiple, far-reaching, and largely unexplored consequences. On the one hand, it brought ordinary subjects into symbolic contact with the monarch and forged lasting vertical ties of loyalty to him, irrespective of language, location, creed or class. On the other hand, the rounds of royal celebration played a key role in the creation of new types of horizontal ties and ethnic group consciousness that crystallized into national movements, and, after the empire’s demise, national monarchies. The book discusses the themes of public space/sphere, the Tanzimat reforms, millet, modernity, nationalism, governmentality, and the modern state, among others. It offers a new, thirteen-point model of modern belonging based on the concept of ruler visibility.

Tajik Migrant Religious Poetry

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-177
Author(s):  
Tokhir S. Kalandarov
Keyword(s):  
Labor Migration ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Religious Poetry ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Semantic Translation ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
Political Songs

Today there are hundreds of papers published on the problem of labor migration from Central Asian countries, its political, social and economic aspects, as well as on the problem of integration and adaptation of migrants in the Russian society. However, the topic of migrant poetry is still poorly studied in Russia. At least there is no such research on Tajik labor migrants. The genres of Tajik migrant poetry vary significantly and include such forms as love poems, political songs, songs about migration hardships, religious poems. This paper is based on the results of monitoring social networks «Odnoklassniki», «Facebook», as well as on the results of personal communication and interviews with poets. In the paper we use the poems of three authors written in Tajik, Russian and Shugnani languages. The semantic translation from Tajik and Shugnani was done by the author of this paper

First grammar books in the Habsburg Monarchy: individual initiative and regulatory interference by the state (1760s–1770s)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (2 (11)) ◽  
pp. 137-157
Author(s):  
Olga V. Khavanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
German Language ◽  
Habsburg Monarchy ◽  
Private Initiative ◽  
The One

The second half of the eighteenth century in the lands under the sceptre of the House of Austria was a period of development of a language policy addressing the ethno-linguistic diversity of the monarchy’s subjects. On the one hand, the sphere of use of the German language was becoming wider, embracing more and more segments of administration, education, and culture. On the other hand, the authorities were perfectly aware of the fact that communication in the languages and vernaculars of the nationalities living in the Austrian Monarchy was one of the principal instruments of spreading decrees and announcements from the central and local authorities to the less-educated strata of the population. Consequently, a large-scale reform of primary education was launched, aimed at making the whole population literate, regardless of social status, nationality (mother tongue), or confession. In parallel with the centrally coordinated state policy of education and language-use, subjects-both language experts and amateur polyglots-joined the process of writing grammar books, which were intended to ease communication between the different nationalities of the Habsburg lands. This article considers some examples of such editions with primary attention given to the correlation between private initiative and governmental policies, mechanisms of verifying the textbooks to be published, their content, and their potential readers. This paper demonstrates that for grammar-book authors, it was very important to be integrated into the patronage networks at the court and in administrative bodies and stresses that the Vienna court controlled the process of selection and financing of grammar books to be published depending on their quality and ability to satisfy the aims and goals of state policy.

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