Bilingualism in Ukraine: defining attitudes to Ukrainian and Russian through geographical and generational variations in language practices

Abstract

This paper examines the question of attitudes to Ukrainian Russian bilingualism in post- Soviet Ukraine. Since the dissolution of the USSR, Ukrainian society has been subject to a new language policy, which reconsiders the status of both Ukrainian and Russian and, thus, contributes to changes in the sociolinguistic situation in the country. The common process of ukrainization is aimed at reconstruction of the titular Ukrainian language and is based on the principle of linguistic homogeneity in Ukrainian society. This paper presents results of an empirical study, which explores changes in the language preferences, attitudes and practices in Ukraine in view of the post-independence language policy. It analyses the distribution of Ukrainian and Russian in different geographical and sociolinguistic zones of the country. It focuses on deviations that contextual and social factors produce in the disposition of speakers to use both languages in contact and searches for corroboration of a generational change. The paper presents a proposal for a geosociolinguistic classification of Ukraine and delimits socio-political, social and contextual factors correlating with the language preferences and attitudes of the speakers.