Language Planning in FSU

[Curt Woolhiser]

Dear SEELANGERS,

I am currently teaching an undergraduate-level course at the University of
Texas on "Language Planning and Language Conflict in Post-Soviet Eurasia."
The course, designed for students with little or no background in
linguistics, deals with issues of language standardization and reform as
well as governmental policies regulating language use in different social
domains in the former Soviet republics and the Russian Federation.
        To help put a "human face" on the issues we are discussing, I have invited
students from the former Soviet republics (both titulars and non-titulars)
studying here at UT to come to our class to speak about the impact of
language policy in their own lives and those of their families and friends.
The visitors have been asked to comment on such  issues as education,
access to jobs, language use in various domains, attitudes toward the
official (state) language vs. minority or non-official languages, attitudes
toward language codification and reform, etc. I have actually been quite
successful in finding guest speakers from the former Union Republics here
at UT, and have already lined up visitors from Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. I have had much
more difficulty, however, in finding visitors from the national republics
within the Russian Federation; thus far I have only been able to line up a
group of ethnic Russian students from various cities in the RF to talk
about their reactions to recent language planning initiatives concerning
the Russian language, for example the creation of the Council on the
Russian Language, the current debate concerning the legal status of Russian
within the subjects of the Russian Federation, the efforts of the Russian
government and certain international organizations such as the OSCE to
protect the status of the Russian language in the "Near Abroad," etc.
        It has occurred to me that perhaps SEELANGS listmembers could help us get
up-to-date, first-hand accounts of the impact of current language policies
in the national republics of the Russian Federation. In short, my request
is: if you know of any students from the national republics of the Russian
Federation studying at your institution or currently living in their home
republics who might be interested in answering some questions (via e-mail)
about their perceptions of current language planning issues, please ask
them to contact me at: cfwoolhiser at mail.utexas.edu. We would be
particularly interested in hearing from individuals from the following
republics: Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Mordovia, Mari-El,
Udmurtia, Komi, Kalmykia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachai-Cherkessia,
Dagestan, Chechnya/Ichkeria, Tyva, Sakha, and Buryatia (representatives of
the smaller, "endanged" languages of the Russian Federation, with or
without titular administrative units, are also welcome to respond). If
these individuals are living in the U.S., they should be relatively recent
arrivals (no more than, say, 4-5 years), or should have at least visited
their home region in the last few years.

Many thanks!

Curt Woolhiser

========================================
Curt F. Woolhiser
Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Calhoun 415
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78713-7217 USA

Tel. (512) 232-9133, (512) 471-3607
Fax: (512) 471-6710
Email: cfwoolhiser at mail.utexas.edu
Slavic Department Home Page:
http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/slavic/
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