미르지요예프 정권의 언어정책과 전망 - ‘언어정책’ 관련 이론들과 우즈베크어의 현실적 언어지위를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Since assuming the presidency on December 4, 2016, Mirziyoyev has been expediting firm language policy from 2018 to the present in order to further underpin Uzbek"s status as the national language. The Presidential Decree “On Measures to Radically Increase the Prestige and Status of the Uzbek Language as the State Language” and the Draft of “New Law on the State Language of Uzbekistan” were declared in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Upon the declaration, Uzbek politicians, artists, and lawyers who stay in line with the language policy of the Karimov’s government oppose Mirziyoyev"s measures. The Russian government, media, and experts articulate strong concerns to the Uzbek government. Consequently, the status of the Russian language in Uzbekistan matters in pros and cons on Mirziyoyev"s policy. The basic goal of language policy of the Mirziyoyev’s government is to develop Uzbek as the national language that all Uzbek can recognize and to effectively block the use of Russian. However, there has been no conflict among ethnic groups due to thirty-year language problems since the “Law on State Language of the Republic of Uzbekistan” enacted by the Karimov’s government in 1989. The current president is prompting his policy sturdily without considering the realistic status of the Uzbek language and the huge budget for developing the Uzbek language. It is questionable whether or not the language policy pursued by the Mirziyoev regime will be successful and his policy has other intentions. This study aims to reveal the goal of the new language policy under the Mirziyoyev regime by analyzing language policy theory and the realistic status of the Uzbek language. For this, based on the comprehension of the previous studies on the Uzbek language, theories of language policy are explored. Then, the linguistic status and level of the Uzbek language are analyzed with seeing Karimov’s language law through language policy theory. Finally, the realistic linguistic status of the language and the goal of Mirziyoyev’s new language policy are scrutinized.