"Language demarcation" in Estonian prisons

[Alina Israeli]

Since these are not political prisoners (I believe Estonia, unlike  
Russia, has none), I would like first to inquire if this marking has  
some practical purposes, such as having a non-Estonian speaking guard  
present when addressing these prisoners. After all I don't think  
Russian is any longer an obligatory language in Estonia.

Alina Israeli

On Apr 20, 2012, at 11:38 AM, Elena Gapova wrote:

> Deer SEELANGSers,
>
> I am sharing an article on "language demarcation" (is this the right  
> phrase?) which was posted in an Estonian web-journal:
>
> ...некоторым заключенным на грудь добавили большую букву А, B или C.  
> Эти буквы обозначали, насколько хорошо заключенные знают  
> государственный язык. Русские, которые вообще не говорили по- 
> эстонски, остались не обозначенными – им на грудь не повесили  
> ничего. Те русские и заключенные других национальностей, которые  
> чуть-чуть понимали по-эстонски, были обозначены буквой А.  
> Заключенные, владеющие эстонским на среднем уровне, получили себе на  
> грудь букву В. А эстонцам повесили на грудь букву С...
> http://www.dzd.ee/815170/sutrop-oboznachat-zakljuchennyh-bukvami-po-urovnju-vladenija-jazykom-vse-ravno-chto-veshat-evrejam-zvezdu-davida/
>
> The comments to the article are also interesting.
>
> Elena Gapova
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Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu





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