The Ukrainian language in the business environment after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

The full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022, has caused changes in the cultural, religious, and language areas. Since then, more and more Ukrainian citizens decided to switch to Ukrainian recognizing Russian as the language of the enemy. The study aims to investigate how the full-scale intervention has determined the language attitude, language shift, and language behaviour of Ukrainian businesses and businesspersons. The research data used for analysis includes both written and video interviews with business owners and CEOs of the companies as well as their posts on social media, namely Telegram, Facebook, and Twitter. The stories of Oleh Horokhovs’kyi, Nataliia Jemchenko, Volodymyr Popereshniuk, Vjacheslav Klymov, Oleksii Vadaturskyi, Valeriia Guzema, etc. and their business as well as position of the Ukrainian banks and official institutions form the core of the study. This material has been chosen since it represents demonstrative samples of businesspersons’ language practices and their reflections on the language situation in Ukraine, the role of the language in national building, sovereignty, and national security. The business representatives clarify their language choices and explain how it has influenced identity construction, as well as developing their linguistic personality. Moreover, the change in the status of the Russian language and its role in Ukraine and the Ukrainian business environment has been investigated. The analysis reveals that the concepts of language behaviour, language choice, and language attitude describe the language situation studied during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. Keywords: language situation, language behaviour, Ukrainian language, Russian language, language shift.