Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
Mother Tongue in the Context of a Polyethnic Country
Abstract
The article analyzes the role of mother tongue in present-day polyethnic countries, specificity of ethnic language identity, correlation between the level of ethno-linguistic identity and language competence through the example of the Oirat-Kalmyks. In recent decades, research of the ethno-linguistic factor in ethnic identity of ethnos has become especially urgent that is caused by a trend of growth in ethnicity level world-wide. Each individual perceives reality through language which reflects the entire life experience, history of the ethnos. Language is one of the symbols of ethnic unity, so that when the national identity of an ethnos gets promoted - a revival of the ethnic language comes first. Changes in ethno-linguistic identity and in native language have affected both Russia’s Kalmyks who have a separate administrative territory, the Republic of Kalmykia, and are an integral part of the Russian nation, and Oirat-Kalmyk communities represented by diasporas in different regions of the world. Attempts to form a new ethnic identity of the Kalmyk ethnos at the present time suggest that the revival of ethnic identity - in terms of culture and policy - is urgent for the Kalmyks who lost it due to various objective and subjective reasons. The main social and psychological factor affecting the vitality of a language is ethno-linguistic identity. High level of ethnic identity, as a rule, neutralizes negative factors in the functioning of the language, while its low level results in a loss of the language; moreover, younger generations can sometimes adopt ‘language nihilism’ towards the mother tongue. But this interaction between language and ethnic identity is ambiguous. For example, the Oirats of China and the Volga Kalmyks have a high level of ethnic language identity but the virtual level of language competence in mother tongue among the Kalmyks of Russia as compared to that of Xinjiang Oirats is much lower. The difference is in the approach to the phenomenon of ‘native language/mother tongue’. ‘Mother tongue’ usually means the language of the family in which primary speech skills are formed. ‘Ethnic language’ stands for the language of the ethnos, i.e. it is an ethnic symbol. The Volga Kalmyks in most cases confuse these notions and, unable to speak the native language, by the ‘mother tongue’ mean an ‘ethnic symbol’. Probably, this mother tongue knowledge gap in the high level of ethnic identity of Volga Kalmyks is compensated by other important elements of their ethnic identity, such as common historical past, ethnic traditions, customs, religion, etc. The Kalmyks of Russia have experienced a strong cultural influence of the dominant community, Russification process takes place but the high level of ethnic identity is still retained. For the Oirats of China the ‘mother tongue’ is actually their mothers’ language, the language of family communication which forms their primary speech skills. The main distinguishing feature of China’s Oirats is that they are more integrated into their own ethnos, their native language which is the bearer of traditions, history, culture of the people, functions as an intra-ethnic communication mean. It should be also noted that the significance and degree of use of language depend on historical, social, geopolitical factors. On the materials of the sociolinguistic research performed from 2002 to 2016, the author has considered these peculiar aspects of the role of the native language in the development of Oirat-Kalmyk communities, the structure of their ethnic identity and language transformations in the ethnic groups of the Oirat-Kalmyks residing in different regions of the world.
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