[lg policy] Ukraine: The Draft Law =?windows-1252?Q?=91On_the_State_Language_Policy=92_?=Relieves Tension in the Language Issue

[Harold Schiffman]

The Draft Law 'On the State Language Policy' Relieves Tension in the
Language Issue
16 January 2012

This was particularly mentioned in the conclusion to the Draft law On
the Principles of the State Language Policy' No. 9073 from 26.08.2011
year (submitted by people's deputies of Ukraine Serhiy Kivalov and
Vadym Kolesnichenko), prepared by a doctor of philological sciences,
professor, Vice Rector for Researches of Gorlovka State Pedagogical
Institute of Languages, Vyacheslav Terkulov.



So, in conclusion it is stated that the Draft law of Ukraine 'On the
principles of the state language policy' provides guarantees of the
linguistic self-determination for citizens of Ukraine prevents
discrimination among citizens on the national-language basis, and the
possibility of controlling the parallel use of the regional languages
and minority languages. Thus, Article 3 of the Draft law provides the
right of everyone to determine freely the mother language, the
language of communication, to recognize themselves bilingual or
multilingual and change their language preferences'.

The Draft law provides the optimal solution for matters of linguistic
self-determination of Ukraine, retains the status of the Ukrainian as
the state language, reduces tension in the language issue, meets the
European standards of the national language policy, and does not
violate the articles of the Constitution of Ukraine.

Doctor of philological sciences also believes that the Draft law also
takes into account and introduces the legislation of Ukraine in the
legal framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages.

However, in the conclusion to the Draft law it is proposed to replace
the concept of the 'language group' that has a stable linguistic
meaning by the 'language - ethnic group'. Also it is considered the
expediency of replacing the term the 'mother tongue' by its
alternative - 'the language of the ethnic self-identification'.

Vyacheslav Terkulov ultimately emphasizes that 'solving the language
matters in the direction proposed in the Draft law 'On the principles
of the state language policy' is the most rational and fair'.

Earlier, the Draft law 'On the principles of the state language
policy' was also supported by:

- Tavria National University named after V.I. Vernadsky;

- The National Linguistic University;

- The Institute of Russian Language and Literature named after M.V. Gogol;

- The Ternopil National Pedagogical University;

- The Interdisciplinary Institute of Management;

- The National Pedagogical University named after M.P. Dragomanov;

- A group of the leading Ukrainian scientists and cultural leaders;

- Odessa National University named after I.I. Mechnikov;

- NGOs of the Russians and Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine;

- Approved by the representatives of the 18 organizations of national
minorities of Ukraine in their letter to the OSCE High Commissioner on
National Minorities;

- Positively rated by the Venice Commission.

http://r-u.org.ua/en/news/436-admin.html

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