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List of publications on a keyword: «minority language»

  • On the process of standardization in an unwritten language (based on the example of the Shughnani language)

    Research Article
    Ethnic Culture Volume 5 No 4
    Author:
    Leyli R. Dodykhudoeva
    Work direction:
    World languages and literature
    Abstract:
    The article analyses graphic and orthographic variability, as well as issues concerning the standardization process, in an unwritten Pamir language – Shughnani. The source data include a corpus of published and archival Shughnani texts of the 19th–21st centuries and their translation into Russian, as well as dictionaries, and field materials resulting from the author’s field research. We systematise linguistic data by applying an in-depth comparative method, in particular, comparative analysis of culturally marked units, as well as component analysis. There exist no state-institutional structures for regulating social speech activity, and thus no ability to solve theoretical and practical issues in terms of public policy through measures taken in the field of speech culture and language. This situation incentivizes the creation of a written tradition with a unified normative writing system, the compilation of Shughnani-Tajik-Russian, etc. dictionaries reflecting key national vocabulary, and the publication of normative grammars. It also encourages the creation of prose literature, and on this basis, the development of a literary standard. These measures serve to improve the sociolinguistic status of the language and ensure its preservation.
    Keywords:
    Tajik language, norm, minority language, unwritten language, Shughnani language, writing system
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  • Moscow Mari: Ethnic Culture in the Internal Diaspora

    Research Article
    Ethnic Culture Volume 3 No 4
    Author:
    Marina V. Kutsaeva
    Work direction:
    Special Theme of the Issue: Languages and Culture of Finno-Ugric people
    Abstract:
    The article deals with the problem of maintaining and preserving Mari ethnic culture in the conditions of an internal diaspora. The purpose of the article is to identify the conditions for maintaining and to determine the prospects for preserving Moscow Maris’ ethnic culture in Moscow’s multicultural urban space. Methods. In 2019–2021, the author of the article conducted a sociolinguistic survey in the Mari diaspora of the Moscow region; the selective sample includes 106 respondents (100 respondents belong to the first generation of the Mari diaspora, six to the second). One of the aspects of the survey was to study markers of ethnic identity in two generations of the diaspora. Results. The results, obtained in the interviews, reveal that Mari culture (knowledge and observance of Mari traditions and customs) is one of the key markers of ethnic identity in the first generation (coming only third after the small homeland and the Mari language markers). Respondents in the second generation demonstrate remnant knowledge of ethnic cultural practices due to a weak intergenerational transmission of the Mari language. The author concludes that in order to preserve ethnic traditions and customs in the diaspora, it is extremely important to maintain an ethnic language; at the same time, as the world practice of revitalizing minority languages shows, ethnic culture can be viewed as a source of initiation into an ethnic language, and later become a channel for its maintenance.
    Keywords:
    Moscow region, ethnic culture, ethnic identity, Mari language, ethnic language, internal diaspora, revitalization of minority languages
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