Around-language discourse during the Russian-Ukrainian war

Abstract

The goal of this study was to find out how the discourse related to the language issue, which has developed, in particular, in the Ukrainian segment of the Internet, changed after Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine. For this purpose, the material was collected during the period of 2012—2021, with a comparison of theses and arguments in the discussions that arose around the appearing issues of the language situation with those recorded during the year of the Ukrainian-Russian war. Nowadays, the discourse surrounding the language issue has changed. Even those political forces that used it as a tool of pre-election campaigning, speculating on the topic of the division of society on the basis of language, immediately changed their rhetoric. The language-related discourse has lost its former characteristic of debate; it has become more radical, highly symbolised, and sometimes pejorative; the former polarity of thoughts has disappeared. It displays public reflections on the nation-building function of language. More and more Ukrainians are coming to understand that “language matters” and “language is a weapon”. The symbolic “war of languages” has transformed in the physical plane into a “war with the help of language”. The language has become a weapon of the military. At the same time, Ukrainian journalists shock the society by covering scandals surrounding the issue of language, as the term ‘Movosrach’, which is a manipulative denomination for language-related discussions and which emphasises contempt for those who raise the issue of language functioning, arose long before the start of the full-scale war. Many people are convinced that the language situation in Ukraine will undergo a radical change after the war. This refers, at a minimum, to the levelling of the status, prestige, and ultimately the prevalence of the Russian language. Expert opinions carry significant weight when it comes to the language issue. However, a part of society still hopes that in the language policy, the state will adhere to the position of non-interference in the language practices of society. Based on the current language policies and the prevailing language attitudes, the development of the language situation in the country is likely to be influenced by the ongoing events; however, it is expected that the trends related to language communication guidelines and the vision for the language development will remain inertial. Keywords: metalinguistic discourse, Ukrainian language, language issue, rhetoric, RussianUkrainian war.