Comparison of Language Policies in the Post-Soviet Union Countries on the European Continent
Comparison of Language Policies in the Post-Soviet Union Countries on the European Continent

Summary/Abstract: Language was one of the most important identity markers and played a crucial role in all the countries of the former Soviet Union. Governments of the newly independent countries were pressed by their ethnic constituencies to pass language laws and new constitutions in favor of the dominant national or ethnic groups. Governments of post – Soviet republics could accept the status quo of the Russian language or make the majority language the only official language of the state and face the national movements of minority groups. New constitutions and legislation severely affected the status of minority languages. Language became a politicized key component in both nation and state-building processes. As the consequence of language policies, minorities received a dramatically smaller share of government, public service and media positions than their share of the population. Thus, very visible ethnolanguage cleavages arose in all surveyed countries. The main conclusion of our article is the special classification of language policies in post-Soviet European states. We differ between two clean types: inclusive language policy and exclusive language policy. From these two basic types several other sub-categories are derived.

• Details
• Contents