Russian

Linguistic identity in times of crisis: The roles of the Ukrainian and Russian languages in the lives of Ukrainian war refugees

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ukraine g1219b0904 1920

In Ukraine, being a bilingual who speaks both Russian and Ukrainian is such a ‘normal’ thing that many people hesitate to even call themselves bilinguals. As a Ukrainian who speaks both languages, I never really regarded this phenomenon as anything special. But after the Russian invasion in 2022, and also thanks to my linguistics studies, I noticed that the question of linguistic identity in Ukraine – and for Ukrainians in general — is a really complex, fine-grained and surprisingly under-studied area. So for the spring semester of 2025, for my sociolinguistics exam project, I decided to investigate the subconscious ideologies and attitudes that Ukrainians have towards the Ukrainian and Russian languages. When I told some of my Ukrainian friends about … ↪

Folk aesthetics in the Russian linguistic worldview

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Zwei russische schoenheiten

Folk aesthetics is an area that has attracted limited scholarly attention. By folk aesthetics I understand the conceptualisation of aesthetics embedded in language and shared by speakers of that language (cf. Apresjan 1992). Aesthetics reflects norms about what is ‘beautiful’ and applies to numerous aspects of life – what people see, do, how they move, speak, what they eat. Overall, aesthetics is about identifying pleasing aspects of living.

The ideals of aesthetics vary from culture to culture, from epoch from epoch and from language to language. People with an interest in history might be aware that the ideals of beauty have changed across time and countries. Yet the knowledge about variation in language regarding the ideals of ‘beauty’ are not … ↪

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL LINGUISTIC CHRISTMAS

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now thats what i call linguistic christmas

It’s Christmas-time again – and what would this time of year be without Christmas music? A lot of us start counting the days ’till Christmas from the moment “Last Christmas” surprises us in a shopping center sometime around November 20th – and let’s just admit it: We can’t get enough of Christmas songs!

Or maybe Christmas music just isn’t your thing. Is it really possible to listen to ”All I Want for Christmas is You” throughout December without losing your mind, you might be thinking. I mean, I’d say it is, but… I get it. You need something new – something different! I’ve dug around on the internet and asked Twitter for help, and now I’m happy to present … ↪