Attitudes towards Russian as an official language in Lithuania and Estonia

1. Attitudes towards Russian as an official language in Lithuania and Estonia Martin Ehala University of Tartu 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF APPLIED LINGUISTICSLanguages and people: dialogues and contacts 23-24 September 2010 Vilnius University

2. Research problem • Both Lithuania and Estonia have one official language: Lithuanian and Estonian • Both countries have Russian speaking minorities (2009 data): • In Lithuania ca 216 000 (6,5%) • In Estonia ca 390 000 (29%) • What are the attitudes about the possible official status of Russian in both countries? • What influences these attitudes?

3. The study • Project “Ethnolinguistic vitality and identity construction: Estonia in the Baltic background” 2008-2011 • Researchers: Martin Ehala, Anastassia Zabrodskaja • Quantitative surveys of ethnolinguistic vitality:

4. Sociolinguistic regions • The samples of the surveys were composed so as to reflect the sociolinguistic diversity of regions

5. Attitudes Statement: Russian should be the second official language in Lithuania Statement: Russian should be the second official language in Estonia

6. Lithuania: sociodemographic factors Statement: Russian should be the second official language in Lithuania • Lithuanians’ attitudes: • No gender differentiation; • No age differentiation; • Higher education associates with higher level of disagreement with the statement about Russian as an official language. • Place of residency in Visaginas associates with higher level of agreement with this statement.

7. Lithuania: sociodemographic factors Statement: Russian should be the second official language in Lithuania • Lithuanian Russians’ attitudes: • No gender differentiation; • Young people (15-24 y.o.) have significantly higher rate of disagreement. • Kaunas and Vilnius associated with higher levels of disagreement. • People living in Visaginas had significantly higher rate of agreement. • Those born in Russia had also higher rate of agreement.

8. Estonia: sociodemographic factors Statement: Russian should be the second official language in Estonia • Estonians’ attitudes: • No gender differences; • No age differences; • No education differences; • People living in East Estonia had significantly higher levels of agreement with Russian as official language than people from other regions.

9. Estonia: sociodemographic factors Statement: Russian should be the second official language in Estonia • Estonian Russians’ attitudes: • No gender differences; • No age differences; • No education differences; • Russian citizenship associates with stronger agreement. • East Estonian respondents show stronger agreement. • Residents in rural areas show weaker agreement.

10. Language usage and attitudes Statement: Russian should be the second official language in Estonia • For Russian speakers – the more Estonian used, the lower the agreement rate with the statement (r = .351, p < .001). • For Estonian speakers – the more Russian used, the higher the agreement rate (r = .456, p < .001). • Thus, the closer contact, the more understanding attitudes.

11. Language usage and attitudes Statement: Russian should be the second official language in Lithuania • For Russian speakers – the more Lithuanian used, the higher the disagreement rate with the statement (r=.278 , p<.001). • For Lithuanians – the more Russian used, the higher the agreement rate (r=.304 p<.001) • Again, the closer contact, the more understanding attitudes.

12. Conclusion • In Lithuania, the lesser agreement rate amongst younger generation may lead to wide societal consensus for Lithuanian as the sole official language. • In Estonia, there is no generational shift. • Two possible scenarios for Estonia: • Segregation: Russian as a regional semi-official language in East Estonia. • Societal bilingualism: reduction of ethnic tensions and acceptance of Russian as the second official language.

13. Ačiū! Thank you! Aitäh! Спасибо!