Resumen de Ukrainian and Russian in contact: attraction and estrangement
This article analyses the language situation in the Ukraine in terms of the coexistence of the Ukrainian and the Russian languages on both status and corpus levels as, correspondingly, a “small” language and a “large” one. During the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, under the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian language was, to a considerable extent, forced out of usage, and its structure was influenced by the Russian language. After the Ukraine became independent in 1991, certain gradual changes in favor of the Ukrainian language have been implemented. In 1989, Ukrainian was declared “the state language” of the Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian-Russian bilingual situation in the Ukraine at the turn of the twenty-first century is still far from stable. One of the languages usually prevails in specific social areas and in specific regions of the country. Language problems are rather politicized in the modern Ukraine. The pro-Ukrainian side appeals to the interests not only of Ukrainophones, but to the whole nation with the message that the Ukrainian language and culture may disappear without state support. The pro-Russian side appeals to the civil rights of Russophones. The pro-Ukrainian side puts an accent on individual bilingualism by saying that if Ukrainophones speak Russian fluently, Russophones should have a good command of Ukrainian as well. The pro-Russian side pushes for state (national) bilingualism and for the equal legal status of Russian as the language of nearly half of the Ukraine's population.
