Overcoming Aggressive Monolingualism: Prejudices and Linguistic Diversity in Russian Megalopolises

Abstract

The 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.

The vicissitudes of bilingualism and plurilingualism in the European Union

“…Each of these nation states has a unique history when it comes to the acquisition of additional languages. Note that there are countries which do not fit neatly into this taxonomy because of the uniqueness of their majority language, such as Greece, and other nation states which are not included for geopolitical reasons, such as Russia and the Ukraine, where native speakers of Russian in Russia and Russian and Ukrainian in Ukraine, like native speakers of English in the United Kingdom, are notoriously monolingual (Baranova and Fedorova, 2020).…”

Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse

“…Despite that evident lack of enthusiasm about linguistic diversity (and some efforts on the part of the state to diminish it), Russian cities, especially megalopolises like Moscow and St Petersburg, are becoming increasingly multilingual (Baranova & Fedorova, 2020). Certainly, this trend may reverse as there was a decrease in both migration and tourism from abroad, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then the war, including sanctions against Russia and their consequences for its economy.…”

“…Despite its evident historical multilingualism, which has even increased recently as a result of labor migration, Russia can be described as being under the strong influence of a monolingual language ideology, with Russian domineering most public spheres in the country (Vanhala-Aniszewski, 2010;. Minority languages, and especially the languages of migrants (e.g., from Central Asian post-socialist countries), lack official recognition and support, and their speakers, thus, often face prejudice and negative stereotypes (Baranova & Fedorova, 2020).…”

Linguistic In/Exclusion in Medicine: Multilingual COVID-19 Communication in Russia

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