Language Policy in the Soviet Union

1. Language Policy in the Soviet Union Chapter 1: Introduction

2. Former USSR 1917-1991 Deliberate use of language policy to further political goals Two contradictory trends: National languages were manipulated to create a sense of identity among individual groups of people Strong promotion of Russian as single national language

3. Dimensions of USSR 8,649,490 square miles (1/6 of dry land on Earth) 286,000,000 people in 1991 (over 50% Russian, 81% Russian speakers) 130 ethnic groups Approximately 200 languages 15 Republics, each organized around a major nationality

4. Language hierarchy created by USSR 1st tier: Russian, sole official language of administrative, educational and legal practice 2nd tier: titular languages with official status within their Republic 3rd tier: languages with written forms and some gov�t support but no official status 4th tier (bottom): languages without official support

5. 1. Organization of the Soviet State Republics can be grouped as: Baltics (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian) Caucasus (Armenian, Azerbaijan, Georgian) Central Asia (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik Turkmen, Uzbek) Slavic + Moldova (Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Moldovan) Russian Far East (Siberia)

6. 1. Organization of the Soviet State, cont�d. Republics did not follow strict ethno-linguistic boundaries, but had political purposes Some Republics designed to create new identities or destroy old ones Central Asia was pan-Turkic, pan-Islamic, distinction Uzbek vs. Kyrgyz is new Old clan associations of Siberia were suppressed in favor of larger nationality

7. 1. Organization of the Soviet State, cont�d. 1939 census The three largest ethnic groups are all Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian) = 78% Next largest segment of population is Turkic languages (Uzbek, Tatar, Kazakh) Remaining languages of top ten ethnic groups are titular languages of the Caucasus (Azerbaijani, Georgian, Armenian)

8. 1. Organization of the Soviet State, cont�d. since 1939 Birth rates (high for Turkic, esp Uzbek, low for Slavic), genocide, WWII -- all these factors shifted population New top ten list is: Russian, Ukrainian, Belorusan, Kazakh, Tatar, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Tajik, Georgian

9. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Language families: Indo-European Altaic (Mongolian, Tungusic, Turkic) Uralic (Finno-Ugric, Samoyedic) Caucasian Paleosiberian (families and isolates based on location: Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut, Ket, Nivkh, Yukagir) Isolates

10. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Indo-European Over 80% of USSR had an I-E language as native language Baltic � both living Baltic languages in USSR Entire East Slavic subfamily, plus Poles and other West Slavs in Lithuanian & Ukrainian SSRs

11. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Indo-European All four subgroups of Indo-Iranian represented: North-West Iranian (Kurdi, Talysh, Beludji) South-West Iranian (Tajiki, Farsi, Tat) North-East Iranian (Osetin, Yagnobi) South-East Iranian (Rushani, Bartongi, Oroshor, Shugni, Yazgulya, Ishkashimi, Wakhi) Largest is Tajiki, with over 4M in 1989 in USSR

12. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Altaic composition of this family is controversial due to internal complexities, migrations of speakers, lack of clear ethnonyms, language contact Altaic languages: agglutinating, vowel harmony, grammatical number & case, but NO gender, SOV Three major branches in USSR: Turkic (Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Tatar) Mongolian Tungusic

13. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Turkic Most Turkic languages (except Turkish) spoken in USSR, over 50M speakers in 1989 Turkic language continuum from Azerbaijan SSR in W to S regions of Tajik SSR, and from S of Tajik SSR N to the Chuvash SSR � in this area, language is mutually comprehensible More distinct Turkic languages: Chuvash, Yakut, Dolgan, Gagauz (Moldavian SSR), Urum (Georgian SSR)

14. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Mongolian Only 2 Mongolian languages (Buriat, Kalmyk) spoken in USSR Classical Mongolian served as literary language for most Mongolian languages Vowel harmony, vowel length, human vs. non-human (in pl) Case before possessive affix (opposite order from Turkic)

15. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Tungus (these languages spoken in Siberia and China, related to Manchu) Evenki (30K), Even, Negidal; Orok (only 190), Oroch, Nanai, Udihe, Ulch all groups are small, traditionally nomads, dialectal fragmentation Agglutination, vowel harmony, lack of gender, contact with Russian & Turkic

16. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Uralic: Finno-Ugric & Samoyedic Vowel harmony, lots of cases, agglutination, lack of gender Finno-Ugric: 32 languages (includes Finnish & Hungarian), all spoken in USSR Ugric (Siberia): Khanty/Ostyak, Mansi/Vogul Finno-Permic: Komi-Permyak, Komi-Zyrian (Komi ASSR), Urdmut (NE of Moscow); Old Permic recorded by Stephen of Perm 14th c

17. 2. Linguistic map of USSR More Finno-Ugric: Finno-Cheremisic Cheremisic (2 languages) High Mari, Low Mari Finno-Mordvinic Baltic-Finnic (Estonian), Balto-Finnic (Finnish), Lappic (Saami)

18. 2. Linguistic map of USSR Samoyedic (all are indigenous to Siberia): Northern: Enets, Nenets, Nganasan Southern: Selkup Very small numbers of speakers, ranging from only 200 up to 35K Vowel harmony, agglutination, sg/du/pl

19. Caucasian North Caucasian vs. South Caucasian (Kartvelian) may not be related to each other South Caucasian: Georgian, Svan, Laz, Mingrelian North Caucasian: Northwest (Abkhaz-Adyghe) Northeast (Nakh-Daghestanian) (see diagram of all the languages)

20. Caucasian Caucasian languages are famous for: Long consonant clusters (Georgian) Large phonemic inventory (Ubykh) Ergativity Postpositional SOV and SVO

21. Paleosiberian Languages that are relatively isolated and not related to each other Tend to be ergative and agglutinating and to express grammar with prefixes, and to lack gender Eskimo-Aleut covers Siberia, Canada, Greenland, Alaska Chukchi -- different pronunciations of consonants depending on gender of speaker Gilyak -- consonant alternations conditioned syntactically and 5 degrees of near/farness in demonstratives

22. 3. Ethnic composition of USSR No republic was monolingual Language was seen by Soviet state as key trait in identifying ethnicity, and this fact was manipulated both by official policy and by individuals reporting census data The majority of non-Russians declared their heritage language to be their native language, only 15% (1989) declared Russian as their native language Over half of non-Russians speak Russian, total of 75% of USSR spoke Russian

23. 4. Analyzing the USSR Language policy was careful & deliberate, for vast numbers of unrelated languages Goals were not transparent, sometimes contradictory, and always secretive Promotion of Russian accelerated over time, suppression of other languages, squelching of nationalist movements

24. 4. Analyzing the USSR: data Soviet census data Very politicized: 1926, 1937, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, 1989 Number of nationalities recognized varied �Native language� interpreted as language of childhood 2nd Language ability self-reported �From the time of the first All-Union Census, ethnic identity was constructed by the Soviets, not by the people.� Soviet laws & legislation Soviet statistics

25. 4. Analyzing the USSR: names, ethnonyms, and spelling The naming of languages and ethnic groups in USSR was politicized Before formation of USSR, many minority languages and ethnic groups did not have names, and ethnic groups were created by Soviet policy, along with Russified names Lots of confusion�

26. 4. Analyzing the USSR: conclusion Complex interactions of many ethnic groups and local vs. state-level politics meant that policies were not very uniformly implemented For example, all languages (few exceptions) were required to use Cyrillic by late 1930s, but this was variously implemented�