Language situation in the Russian Far East: dynamics of Slavonic elements

The article deals with the language situation in Priamurye - one of the Russian Far Eastterritories. The importance of language situation studies is determined by the fact that, firstly, each language situation must be taken intoaccount in the complex typological analysis of language situations as an object of studies; secondly, language situation studies help assessthe prospects of language policy and forecast the tendencies of language life. The author of the article focuses attention on theSlavic component of the language situation in Priamurye. This ethnic component influenced the shaping process of the language situationand as a result predetermined its present state. The author aims at reconstructing the Slavic component and analysing its dynamicsin the language situation of Priamurye beginning with the times when the Slavs first populated this territory. A certain analogy of thisdynamics is likely to be found in comparison with other territories of the late Slavic population. The beginning and functioning of theeastern Slavic languages such as Russian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian in Priamurye is viewed on the wide historical background: thedevelopment of Siberia and the Russian Far East. The languages of the native population of the region and the languages of theneighbouring state China are taken into account while analysing the language situation. The analysis of almost two hundred years oflanguage situation in Priamurye allows the author to conclude that one of the main characteristics of this situation is variety proved bythe existence of many languages and language forms on the territory under study, which differ from each other by origin, typologicalfeatures, communicative force, and status. Socio-historical factors influenced the quality of the language situation in the region andstipulated its dynamics. The dominance of the Russian language together with some relics of Ukrainian and lack of Byelorussian languagevariants which we witness today is the result of objective and subjective factors impact on the development of the language situationin the region. These factors taken together prove on the one hand the unique character of the language situation in Priamurye and onthe other hand they expose the evolutional conformity of it to natural laws which allows researchers to make language forecasts for otherterritories and at different times.

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