Civic or Ethnic? A closer look at the form and motivation of Ukraine’s ‘one language policy’
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2022-04-30
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en
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Since 2014, the face of Ukrainian society has rapidly changed. Whereas language was a political and divisive issue before 2014, since 2014 the Ukrainian legislator has unanimously confirmed the primacy of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine. For the Russian-speaking population this means that Ukrainian is required in many domains of life, even though these domains did not require the use of Ukrainian before 2014. By analysing Ukrainian language legislation, facilitation and communication, this research argues that the Ukrainian language policy since 2014 consist mainly – but not only – out of ethnic elements. Although it is argued that the promotion of one language over others may both be civic or ethnic, depending on (1) whether a given legislator awards rights to other minority languages and (2) which arguments are used as a justification, the Ukrainian language policy vis-à-vis the Russian language clearly uses historical arguments. Moreover, other languages that are not spoken in Ukraine are awarded more privileges than Russian: the second language of Ukraine. This research refrains from an moral judgement of Ukraine’s language policy.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen