Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
Language Planning in Polyethnic Countries
Abstract
The deliberate influence of the society onto the language is the key factor to the functional development of languages. This influence manifests itself in the domains of organized communication which presume the possibility of language planning through the realization of certain principles in the language policy. In a multinational state, the language policy implies the impact of the state onto the language, social, and ethnic factors. This policy is aimed at adjustment of multi-ethnic relations in the regions and promotes the mutual understanding, tolerance in society. The article analyzes the interrelationship between the language policy and language situation. In order to avoid language conflicts in a multinational state, it is necessary to take into account the cultural and language demands of different language communities. Another important part of the language policy is the language unity in a multinational state. These two objectives call forth to take into count both the language diversity and the language unity of the state. However, these two trends come to an opposition to each other which leads to national language conflicts, e.g. in Moldova, Ukraine, and Baltic states. In order to achieve the language agreement, it is necessary to strive for the strict compliance of the language policy with the language factors and the language situation. Following the reasons mentioned above, the legislation on languages is adopted by the state where the languages gain their status. In the Russian Federation, the model of the language policy is multicomponent: the legislation on languages has been adopted in 22 republics, 34 languages gained official status. Along with the system of laws on languages in the Russian Federation, there have been attempts to ratify and apply the European Charter for Regional Languages which was signed by the President of the country but has not been ratified by the State Duma. In this connection, there have been attempts to plan the domains of language functioning in Russia, taking into consideration the main requirements of the European Charter for Regional Languages. One of the attempts has been analyzed in the article, namely the plans to expand the requirements of the Charter onto more than 100 languages in the Russian Federation. These plans were considered at the meeting of the round table at the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation - European Charter for Regional Languages and Minorities: Main Problems and Perspectives of Ratification, 27 November 2006. The languages of Russia are divided into three groups: regional languages with an official status (34), regional languages without an official status (12), regional languages of minorities (44). It was proposed to plan the functioning of the languages in full compliance with the main principles of the European Charter, to consider these languages as the means of expressions of the cultural asset of the peoples, to respect the geographical area of each language, follow the necessary measures in order to protect and preserve the languages and their use in different domains, organize the system of education in these languages. Following the principles mentioned above, there have been attempts to plan the scope of the language functions in education, administration, governmental services, media, culture, economy, i.e. in all domains of organized communication which are to be subject to further planning. It was an example of the language planning in a multinational country. However, the application of the principles of the European Charter in the situation of a recession is quite a challenging task. Nowadays, we see not a positive shift but rather a negative one in the development of social functions in a number of Russia’s languages (see the example of the Khakass language). That is the reason why the European Charter has not been ratified yet in the Russian Federation. Along with the mentioned obstacles, it is considered that the existing legislation of languages in Russia is sufficient enough. However, in the present situation, there have been some attempts to ratify the European Charter by the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
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