Социальная характеристика языковой ситуации в Республике Тыва

Abstract

Introduction. The article investigates extralinguistic or social factors determining language functioning in modern society. It highlights the effectiveness and relevance of factor analysis to reveal peculiarities of the language situation. Goals. The research primarily aims to reveal and analyze specific social factors for the language situation in the Tyva Republic. Materials. Various census data, such as ethnic and demographic indicators of the Tuvan population, its educational level and professional structure have been examined. The paper also surveys different historical and statistical sources describing social life of the Tuvans. Results. On the basis of all-Union and all-Russian census statistics, the article reports that social parameters of Tuva’s language situation are ambiguous enough. Some factors impact positively while others are essentially dynamic and can gradually lead to a language shift. The positive one is that of Tuva’s geographical features, the latter contributing to the numerical predominance of Tuvans and their compact residence in the given territory. Secondly, it should be noted that in the early 20th century Tuva had been a sovereign state (from 1921 to 1944). The period witnessed the emergence of the Tuvan written and literary language. As a result, different social functions of the Tuvan language were rapidly and significantly expanded. Nowadays the revival and development of traditional culture have also some positive impact on the functioning of the Tuvan language. Research materials show that there are some dynamic factors which can hasten language change processes towards a bilingual situation. The paper concludes one of them is represented by the current educational trend that the Tuvan youth be generally inclined to develop Russian-language competence. Another factor is professional stratification of Tuvans. Most Tuvans are not engaged in traditional types of labor activities. The functional distribution of languages is reflected first of all in the lexicon, and leads to the constant code switching and functional weakening of the mother tongue. Thus, consideration of social or extralinguistic factors is necessary and relevant for corresponding sociolinguistic insights.