CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Kevkhoyan, Manushak |
|---|---|
| Title | Politics of National Languages in the South Caucasus after 1991 |
| Summary | Language along with religion, ethnicity and nation, has become one of the most discussed and studied themes of the modern era. The political and economic configurations are decisive in forging language politics which also display social values and pubic moods. However, populist and nationalist tendencies are not always congruent with public preferences. The status of Russian and attitudes to English and Turkish raised politically and socially sensitive issues in the post-Soviet space. The three republics of the South Caucasus were among the first to reject the domination of Russian as the lingua franca which was associated with communist ideology. The linguistic challenges in the South Caucasus in the past twenty years of independence differed from state to state both in their nature, intensity and implementation mechanisms. However, they also had similar symbolic and populist tones. Russian was marginalized, while the study of English gained momentum. Politicization of the language had little effect on the attitude to foreign languages especially in the era of globalization where the spread of communication technologies makes certain restrictions irrelevant. Interestingly, Russian is enjoying a modest and slightly visible comeback. Accommodation of social and political aspects of language could be a way of both maintaining the national and embracing the global. Despite the focus on the national side of the phenomena in terms of nation-building and nation-preservation, the society at large gives priority to the economic gains offered by languages. |
| Supervisor | Maria Kovacs |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/kevkhoyan_manushak.pdf |
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