УКРАЇНСЬКА МОВА ЯКЗАСІБ ОБ’ЄДНАННЯ СУСПІЛЬСТВАТА ЧИННИК НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ УКРАЇНИ

Abstract

The article highlights the leading role of language in the formation of society through the analysis of its main functions, namely: communication, impact on a person, consolidation of citizens, the formation of national identity. This work analyses the relationship between the change of the language policy vector in Ukraine towards Ukrainian centricity and the strengthening of the Ukrainian language functioning in various spheres. The article raises the issue of the role of language as one of the important factors of national security of Ukraine. The role of the language issue in the Russian occupation of a part of Ukraine as a result of a hybrid war is exemplified. An integral part of this hybrid war is a change in worldview and a change in the national code of the inhabitants of the occupied territories. Based on our sociolinguistic opinion poll of 230 military officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, conducted in 2019, it was specified that among a number of markers of national identity, officers chose a common language. 54 % of respondents gave five points out of five possible to the marker of “common language”, and 20 % gave it four points. 88 % of respondents called the Ukrainian language as one of the main unifying tools in the formation of civil society in Ukraine, and 94,5 % believed that only the Ukrainian language should be the state language in Ukraine. It is important that military officers, born in different parts of Ukraine (and some far beyond its borders) and currently serving in different regions of the country, took part in the opinion poll. It allows us to affirm that officers understand the role of the Ukrainian language as a nation-building factor that is able to unite people in order to defend their country.