Abstract
AbstractThe study deals with linguistic prejudices of citizens of the two main Russian cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, toward speakers of foreign languages. It aims to reveal possible recent changes in the language ideology dominating Russian society. Monolingual and linguistically normative orientations rooted in the Soviet ideological approach are being challenged nowadays by global processes of migration and cultural diversification, which influence the everyday reality of Russian megalopolises. The research is based on the analysis of two sets of data: (1) meta-discourse on language attitudes derived from interviews with labor migrants and native Russian speakers in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and posts and comments on issues of language, migration, and linguistic landscapes, collected from websites and social media and (2) linguistic landscape data collected in 2016–2019, mainly in St. Petersburg, which reflect recent changes in attitude toward linguistic diversity in public space. These data show, on the one hand, that most city dwellers still relate to monolingual speech norms and try to implement control over public space; on the other hand, that the tolerance toward multilingual communication has been increasing over the years. The study suggests that these “first cracks” in monolinguals facades of Russian cities could eventually lead to the establishing of a less rigid language regime.
Highlights
Linguistic prejudices that exist in societies are and should be treated as complex social phenomena both reflecting and constructing social inequality
This study aims at two goals: first, to describe the mainstream language ideology that affects language choices made by the Russian speakers of the two Russian main cities, Moscow and St
We have addressed the issue of language ideology shared by the citizens of Russian megalopolises through its manifestation in two data sets
Summary
Linguistic prejudices that exist in societies are and should be treated as complex social phenomena both reflecting and constructing social inequality. When we see people frowning upon foreigners speaking loudly on a bus, we may assume that they do so because of their dislike of foreignspeaking newcomers, maybe from a particular part of the world. It may be because they believe it to be rude to raise one’s voice in public places. And this case is especially interesting, maybe they would tolerate loud utterances in their native language but are not ready to accept the invasive clamor of languages they cannot understand. Negative attitudes to speakers of particular languages may be complemented by strong
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