Linguae Europaeae

Poster  image from the Ukrainian Taras Sevchenko association, pointing out the risks with using Surzhyk. В.Радчук, В.Білецький ( Source) by Camille Dolce Camille Dolce is a rising junior majoring in Political Science and Statistics and minoring in Russian at the University of Illinois. Camille’s future plans include pursuing graduate studies in Political Science. She wrote this blog post for 418 “Languages and Minorities in Europe” in Spring 2023. Ukraine has come to have a complex history regarding language use in the country. Due to the long standing history of conflict with Russia, the debate over the use of Russian in the country has been a complicated one. This discourse extends to the use of Surzhyk, the term for mixed language composing of Ukrainian and Russian vocabulary and grammar. There are no strict defining rules for what the language looks like, and a lot of times it refers to dialects that differ on the individual level, with the only unifying trait being that it is...

 by Walther  Glodstaf Walther Glodstaf  is a PhD student in Linguistics at the University of Illinois. Walther's future plans include modeling language change in bilingual contexts and using our knowledge of language both at a mental and societal level to develop better policy specifically for minority language protection. He wrote this blog post in 418 'Language and Minorities in Europe' in Fall 2021. ‘Everyone in Karelia has to respect history and know that we are living in an area which has always belonged to these nations…’ (Andrej Nelidov, November 2010; Helsingin Sanomat, 2010) (Scott, 2012). Though Nelidov – the president of the Russian Republic of Karelia – refers to the Finnish ethnicities in his speech, it is noteworthy that his use of the demonstrative ‘these’ can not only be applied to distance Karelia from Finland but also from Russia. Since it is these nations who have often disputed over the territory and have thus made Karelia a pawn in their international...

by Megan Carpenter Megan Carpenter is a Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies M.A. student at The University of Illinois. Her research interests are Soviet history and post-Soviet Russian politics. When she graduates, she hopes to work for the federal government. She wrote this blog post in FR418 ‘Language and Minorities in Europe’ in spring 2019.  For centuries, Russian writers, politicians, philosophers, and rulers have struggled with the question of Russia’s European-ness. Is Russia European? Should western culture be allowed to influence Russians and Russian culture? Given the current political climate, the issue of Russia versus the West is an incredibly relevant topic that has a long, complicated story, and is arguably at the center of Russian history. The extent and limitations of European influences are readily apparent in the history of the Russian language. Figure  1  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/attachments/images...

by Bethany Wages Bethany Wages is graduate student in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (R.E.E.S) at the University of Illinois. When she wrote this blog post in 418 ‘Language and Minorities in Europe’ in the spring of 2015, she was planning on getting her M.A. in R.E.E.S and her MS in Library and Information Science. She is interested in Slavic reference librarianship and pre-Revolutionary Russian history. The Cyrillic alphabet is most commonly associated with the Slavic languages of Russia and Eastern Europe. According to the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages, Omniglot.com: The Cyrillic script is named after Saint Cyril, a missionary from Byzantium who, along with his brother, Saint Methodius, created the Glagolitic script. Modern Cyrillic alphabets developed from the Early Cyrillic script, which was developed during the 9th century in the First Bulgarian Empire (AD 681-1018) by a decree of Boris I of Bulgaria (Борис I). It is thought that St. Klim...

by Eastman Klepper Eastman Klepper is a graduate student in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Eastman will start working for the government after graduation and is interested in the Russian language and culture and the current use and future development of the conventional ground forces of the Russian Federation. He wrote this text as a student enrolled in 418 ‘Language and Minorities in Europe.’ Figure 1 Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltics ( Image Source ) The Russian annexation of Crimea and the Russian-supported separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine have has become a major focus for the Baltic countries of Latvia and Estonia.  Due to their NATO membership, and active support “of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and other countries that have resisted Russia’s pressures” (Bugajski),  these two countries have become a prime focus of Russian activities to gain the support of the Russian-speaking minorities...