scholarly journals Language Policy: European Criteria and Ukraine

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-31
Author(s):  
Bohdan Azhniuk
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages ◽  
State Language

The article discusses a much-debated in Ukraine issue: what are the principles of language policy that can be labelled European, what are the major sources for the deduction of these principles and to what extent they could be implemented in Ukraine’s current language policy. It is argued that these principles can be deduced from the following major sources: national constitutions and legislative acts on language issues, international legal instruments (The European Charter of regional or Minority Languages), international declarations (The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights) that are not legal instruments at the moment, expert opinions of international committees and other bodies like the Venice Commission, OSCE, etc, scientific publications on language policy and language planning. The analysis of these sources gives justification to the following principles as reflecting the mainstream European conception of language policy and language planning: 1) maintaining the leading role of the official state language as the backbone of national unity, 2) protection of endangered languages and preservation of language diversity, 3) promotion of the bilingualism with sufficient competence in the state language, 4) effective management of the enforcement mechanism. The ratification by Ukraine of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages called attention to its implementation in Ukraine. The comparison of Ukraine with most European countries shows that in terms of linguistic rights the country’s main language (Ukrainian) is in a rather underprivileged position. There is growing awareness in the society that the idea of official or semi-official Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism was designed as an instrument of Russian foreign policy and became one of the key factors that provoked political instability in the country. Nowadays Russian is associated with the annexation of Crimea and justification of further aggression and the official upgrading of its status is perceived as jeopardy for the Ukrainian national identity and statehood. The change of the popular attitude to the idea of the official bilingualism has modified the positions of the major political players.

Ethnic / Linguistic Minorities in Georgia and the Protection of their Linguistic Rights

Law and World ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-114
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages ◽  
Civilized World ◽  
State Language

While discussing the legal framework for the „linguistic rights” of ethnic/linguistic minorities, the Georgian authorities should first consider the position of the ‘fathers’ of the „European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages“ concerning the difference between the autochthonous (historical) and new minorities; However, full realization of the linguistic rights of the Georgian state language, autochthonous minorities or migrant minorities on the territory of Georgia is impossible until the complete de-occupation of Georgia. Academic, depoliticized descriptions and qualifications of the linguistic and ethnic situation of Georgia should be given essential importance in the process of Georgia’s integration with the civilized world. It is desirable to be timely balanced Russian imperial ideologies and qualifications in the field of Kartvelology at the international scientific or information field.

Interpreting and minority language planning and policy

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Neal Baxter
Keyword(s):  
Language Planning ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Planning And Policy ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
Oral Interpretation ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Similarities And Differences

With potential applications for other minority languages, this paper discusses the implications of interpreting to and from Galician, starting with an overview of the current sociolinguistic situation, and the interpreting and translation market in Galicia in the light of political changes. After highlighting the similarities and differences between written translation and oral interpretation, the article examines the role played specifically by interpretation as a prestige-raising activity within the framework of language planning. Finally, the paper also discusses interpreting using minority languages as a tool enabling citizens to exercise their linguistic rights to the full.

scholarly journals The Ukrainian language in the polylingual space of Transcarpathia

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Halyna Shumytska ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The State ◽  
Border Region ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
State Language

This article explores trends in language policies in the Transcarpathian region during 1991–2020 within the general Ukrainian sociopolitical context. It is argued that the status of the Ukrainian language as the state language in the region has become strengthened as evidenced by recent developments in language planning and language policy, including the adoption of the Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Lan-guage as the Official Language”. However, the manipulation of the language question in Ukraine, especially in the border regions, has taken on a political character, spreading beyond the borders of the state, threatening the constitutional order and the state sovereignty of Ukraine, in particu-lar in education, economics, and legal sphere. In Transcarpathia, a multi-ethnic border region in the extreme west of Ukraine, warrants attention of both scholars and politicians. This article looks into the changes in the Ukrainian language policies in the local state administration, and the importance of the Ukrainian president office in this regard. Specific features of the linguo-political situation in Transcarpathia, viewed at different periods of its development from the independence of Ukraine in 1991 on-ward, are presented. This study determines the role of the media in shaping a regional linguo-political situation, including the Internet media language space. The paper provides data of a comprehensive analy-sis of the results of the 2017–2019 external independent evaluation as an indicator of language competence of the participants of EIE, the results of research on the perception of educational language innovations in the region through a survey of different categories of respondents during 2018, the monitoring of experimental experience in implementing elements of multilingual edu-cation in educational institutions in Ukraine, particularly in Transcarpathia. The author outlines prospects for continued research in the framework of the project “Debat ing Linguistic Diversity: Managing National Minority Languages in Ukraine and Russia” (2020–2023). Keywords: language policy, language situation, state language, mother tongue, minority language, multilingual education, mass media.

the View from Below: Exploring the Interface of Europeanization and Basque Language Activism in France

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Heidemann
Keyword(s):  
Study Data ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Ethnic Mobilization ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
Language Activism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages

This article explores how Basque language activists in France have evaluated and engaged with European-level minority language policies in relative terms of "opportunity." Focusing upon the social construction of political opportunity from below, I consider how actors affiliated with a community-based schooling initiative cultivated a strategic stance toward the Council of Europe's Charter for Regional or Minority Languages between 1997 and 2007. Drawing upon qualitative case study data, I show how activist stances toward the European Charter were both motivated and minimized by their institutional containment within the French national state and the educational sector more specifically. The article contributes to scholarship by shedding microsociological light on the ways in which grassroots actors experience the intersection between national and supranational political processes in Europe. The article also contributes to the study of ethnic mobilization in Europe by shedding light on the underexamined field of linguistic-rights activism in education.

TEACHING AND LEARNING IRISH IN PRIMARY SCHOOL: A REVIEW OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. John Harris and Lelia Murtagh. Dublin: Instituid Teangeolaiochta Eireann, 1999. Pp. 515. Ir £8 paper.

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 438-439
Author(s):  
Vera Regan
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Development ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Minority Languages

This volume is an extremely comprehensive research report. It speaks principally to language planning, language policy bodies, and curriculum development units in Ireland, as well as to teachers of Irish in primary schools. Although it targets a quite specific audience, it has many elements of interest to policymakers internationally, especially in relation to minority languages, and to researchers in SLA interested in areas such as bilingualism, immersion, the role of instruction, and input in the classroom.

scholarly journals THE LANGUAGE QUESTION AS A FACTOR OF INFLUENCE ON UKRAINE’S NATIONAL SECURITY

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Maiia Moser
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
National Unity ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Wilhelm Von Humboldt ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
Language Legislation ◽  
Ukrainian Society ◽  
State Language

The purpose of the article is to analyze the linguistic situation in Ukraine and to discuss its relation to Ukrainian statehood. The current language situation mirrors the socio-political situation in Ukraine and interrelates with language legislation as practiced by Ukrainian institutions of state power. As of today, language legislation is one of the most powerful tools to strengthen the state and increase national stability. In Ukraine language was, is and continues to be a cornerstone of national unity and national security. At present, the Ukrainian language is widely believed to be essential for the persistence of the Ukrainian ethnos. It is an important tool for the consolidation of Ukrainian collective consciousness and the spiritual unity of society. Ukrainian society, which is faced with a number of serious problems, needs a revision of its state-building strategy for the sake of national security. A consolidation of Ukrainian society and a clear national idea is key for a prosperous future of Ukraine. The ethnos is the power of the nation. There is no state without a nation. Language plays a significant role for the conservation of the ethnic identity of a nation and its organization in a state. Namely, the civic society of a state has common interests, values, ideas, emotions etc., which are shared in the process of societal communication based on symbolic messages. These symbolic messages have to be codified in a state language, because, according to Wilhelm von Humboldt, language is the expression of the spirit of a people. Language reflects the level of the power of spiritual energy for the consolidation of national strength. All state mechanisms (the governmental apparatus, administrative and financial institutions) should guarantee the effective functioning of the Ukrainian state language in all spheres of societal life of Ukraine. As far as minority languages are concerned, the state can only guarantee their free development and their protection from suppression, but is not obliged to take on maximum obligations. In this study we discuss how linguistic and legal problems interrelate with basic human rights and freedom and how a consolidated language policy serves the national interests of Ukrainian society. The experience of the last decades, namely the period of Russian aggression against Ukraine, shows how different political forces use language legislation, e.g., the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, with manipulative intentions. National identity is constructed by such crucial parameters as language, historical experience and faith. According to current surveys, the majority of Ukrainians share distinctly pro-European views, although modern Ukrainian society is still shaken by disinformation and fake news. We offer a list of proposals that will help to consolidate national security in Ukraine.

scholarly journals Linguistic Rights and Education in the Republics of the Russian Federation: Towards Unity through Uniformity

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-91
Author(s):  
Szymon Jankiewicz ◽  
Nadezhda Knyaginina ◽  
Federica Prina
Keyword(s):  
Education System ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
Judicial Practice ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Russian Education ◽  
The Russian Language ◽  
Federal Center

This article traces the evolution of the debate on the balancing of federal and regional competences in regulating the use of minority languages in Russia’s education system. Taking into account relevant law and judicial practice, as well as developments in center-periphery relations since 2017, the article argues that the federal center has been increasingly depriving Russia’s republics of the ability to self-regulate in the education sphere – particularly over the question as to whether they may require the compulsory study of republican languages (recognized as co-official with Russian) in schools located within their administrative borders. These processes can be located in the context of the centralization of the education system and a corresponding reduction of multilingualism in Russia’s schools. This can, in turn, be seen as part of an underlying drive to promote national unity through uniformity, through the dilution of the country’s linguistic and cultural diversity and a concurrent emphasis on the primacy of the Russian language. The article further argues that the Russian education system’s centralization has been ongoing: while it has intensified since 2017, the trajectory of the jurisprudence shows an earlier movement towards a concern for ‘unity’ that anticipated it.

scholarly journals Language policy in multi-level systems: A historical institutionalist analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-727
Author(s):  
Elin Royles ◽  
Huw Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Welsh Language ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages ◽  
Distinct Field

Efforts are underway to develop a stronger political science perspective regarding the practice of language policy to establish language policy as a distinct field of public policy studies. The article’s original theoretical contribution is to develop a framework, grounded in historical institutionalism, to analyse the multi-level institutional factors that influence language policy choices relating to regional or minority languages within European multi-level states. The framework is tested by applying it to analyse the multi-level factors that condition language policy decisions regarding the Welsh language, and through further investigating the framework’s significance and robustness to analyse language policy trajectories in two contrasting European cases. Overall, the article makes the case for the strengths and adaptability of the framework in producing convincing explanations of the multi-level dimensions of language policy development in different institutionalised contexts and calls for greater investigation of its ability to analyse other regional and minority languages in Europe.

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