This Event Related Potentials (ERP) study investigates auditory processing of sentences with so-called code-switches in Russian learners of German. It has often been argued that switching between two languages results in extra processing cost, although it is not completely clear yet what exactly causes these costs. ERP presents a good method to (start to) answer this question, since different ERP effects provide insight in the underlying processes that take place. We presented three groups of speakers (German first-language speakers, Russian speakers with intermediate and Russian speakers with very good knowledge of German as a second language) with German sentences that either ended 'normally' i.e. with a word that fitted the meaning of the sentence, or with a semantically unexpected word, or with the Russian translation of the semantically normal German word. Comparing the two groups of Russian speakers allows for examining the influence of proficiency on the processing of code-switches. The results showed that the semantically unexpected word elicited an N400 in both the first language (L1) and the more proficient second language (L2) group, but not in the less proficient L2 group. Code-switches resulted in an N400-like pattern in all three groups, and also in a Late Positive Component (LPC), which was most pronounced in the less proficient L2 group. This positivity is, although somewhat later, quite similar to the well-known P300 effect that is found with stimuli with unexpected external properties.

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This study deals with attitudes and opinions of the population on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast in 2020/2021, a good year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The basis is a sociological survey conducted in the regions of Odesa, Mykolajiv and Kherson with 1,200 respondents. These regions are a clear target of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, on the grounds of an alleged ideological and linguistic affinity of these areas with Russia. The attitudes and opinions sought in the study cover three domains: firstly, attitudes and opinions on language policy, secondly, on Ukrainian autonomy and identity and the role played by languages in this context, and thirdly, Ukraine’s geopolitical orientation. Respondents were grouped according to their “ethnic/national” self-identification and language preferences, and a comparison was made. Overall, the attitudes of the respondents showed a clear identification with Ukraine and the Ukrainian language and a skepticism towards the Russian state, but by no means a hostile attitude towards the Russian language. A picture emerges that clearly contradicts Russian propaganda and also puts into perspective the difference between southern Ukraine and the center and the west, which has often been emphasized in the past.

This article investigates the relationship between linguistic preferences, religiousness and religious denomination in Central Ukraine. On the one hand, the Ukrainian linguistic situation is characterized by the co-existence of Ukrainian, Russian and substandard forms of Ukrainian Russian mixed speech, on the other hand, the Orthodoxy in Ukraine is split into different denominations. In Central Ukraine, most notably the conflict between the Kyїv and the Moscow Patriarchate is relevant. For both linguistic and religious affiliation, a correlation with political preferences has been postulated, and, in a similar vein, a connection between religious denomination and the degree of religiousness on the one hand, and different aspects of linguistic affiliation, i. e. language usage and native language, as well as attitudes toward substandard speech on the other hand. Based on field work from 2014, we show that there is no preference for the Russian language among members of the Moscow Patriarchate in comparison to those of the Kyїv Patriarchate, and only a slightly more pronounced preference towards substandard forms of mixed speech among respondents with lower degrees of religiousness. Overall, the results argue against the existence of a “language conflict” in the Ukrainian population, outside the elites.