[Lingtyp] Special Issue / International Journal of Bilingualism/ Language convergence and diversity in the post-Soviet multilingual diaspora

[vwarditz at uni-koeln.de]

Call for Submissions

International Journal of Bilingualism/ Special Issue

Guest Editor: Vladislava Warditz, University of Cologne, Germany,  
vwarditz at uni-koeln.de

Title: Language convergence and diversity in the post-Soviet  
multilingual diaspora across the world

Description:

With more than 120 typologically different home languages (Ukrainian,  
Belarussian, Kazakh, Tatar, Latvian, Armenian, etc.), the post-Soviet  
diasporas present a special case of transferred bilingualism.  
Continuing the Soviet ‘colonial’ setting with Russian as the lingua  
franca, post-Soviet diasporas can be construed as a postcolonial  
projection of this Soviet setting, with migrants using Russian as a  
lingua franca in subsequential generations. However, unlike Russian,  
other languages of the former SSSR have been hardly studied in the  
context of migration.

The special issue focuses 1) on the use of Russian as a postcolonial  
lingua franca in and between different post-Soviet diasporas, 2) on  
the contact-induced language shifts of home languages caused by the  
contact with dominant societal languages, on the one hand, and with  
Russian, on the other hand, and 3) on the status of the Russian as a  
postcolonial lingua franca in multilingual migrant communities.

As the first of its kind, the proposal considers the migrant landscape  
as a framework for the preservation of endangered languages (e.g.,  
Buryat and Kalmyk languages, Latgalian, etc.) and, in doing so, looks  
at migrant languages as immaterial cultural heritage and as a source  
of European language diversity.

At the same time, the proposal examines postcolonial, lingua franca  
Russian as a global transnational phenomenon that is not exclusively  
linked to Russia as a nation-state. Therefore, the special issue wants  
to contribute to the theory of postcolonial studies, e.g., to the  
understanding of the interplay between the pragmatic and symbolic  
power of languages in the multilingual context of migration.

Important dates:

Abstracts (max. 500 words) should be submitted online through E-Mail  
vwarditz at uni-koeln.de (Vladislava Warditz).

Deadline for abstract submission: 31th May 2024
Notification of acceptance/rejection: 15th June 2024
Deadline for paper submission: 15th October 2024






Vladislava Warditz

PD Dr. phil. habil. Vladislava Warditz
Slavic Studies, University of Cologne

Website:  
https://slavistik.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/personal/privatdozentinnen/warditz

Academia: https://wipcad-potsdam.academia.edu/VladislavaWarditz