Language as a basic element of culture and a risk zone in the social space

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of some problems of ethnic languages in the social practice of the modern Russia. The risk zone in the ethnic and language sphere of our country is preconditioned by several reasons. On the one hand, the Constitution of the Russian Federation stipulates that the sphere of national cultures and languages is the competence of republics; on the other hand, remembering the 1990 clashes, it is language which is one of the major mobilizing factors developing into the loudest slogans of nationalistic movements in the republics. At that, the constitutional state envisages ensuring observance of human rights and rights of citizens, also in ethnic, cultural, and language spheres. Based on varied all-Russian surveys it can be concluded that language remains one of the most important factors uniting people of a nationality, and this holds true equally for Russians, as well for people of other nationalities. Situations with state languages in the republics have also been considered in the article, some problems of school education from the point of view of state languages were analyzed on the example of Tatarstan.

Keywords

• ethnic languages
• state languages of the republic
• ethno-cultural education