Lecture: The limitations of assessing the degree of language vitality: the example of Belarusian

Assessing the degree of language vitality is essential to inform language policies, but it also has a lot of limitations. The Belarusian language is a good example of how the existence of dialects and mixed speech varieties, a lack of high quality research, and discounting the role of the current state language policies can lead to an inaccurate assessment of the vitality of a language. The World Atlas of Languages (2021) and Ethnologue (2023) estimate the number of speakers in Belarusian at more than 1 million speakers, which results in Belarusian being considered a stable, or vital, language. This estimation is based on the results of the 2019 Census, which cannot be used as a re;iable resource because of a number of design faults. On the other hand, studies like those by Brown (2007), Hentschel, Brüggemann, Geiger & Zeller (2015), and Douglas et al. (2021) prove that the number of speakers of Belarusian is at least twice as little. Coupled with the discrimination Belarusian faces in education, government administration, and the media, it puts Belarusian at a higher threat than considered by language vitality catalogues.

This talk will be streamed online and shown in the indicated room.

The talk will address the ambiguity of the status of the Belarusian language, which results from the controversy around the actual number of speakers of Belarusian, Russian, and Belarusian-Russian Mixed Speech as well as discriminatory practices by the Belarusian government. It will be shown how scientific research and decision-making can be affected by the lack of reliable sources and the incompetent formulation of language-related questions in the census.

References:
Brown, N. A. (2007). Self-reported Russian and Belarusian language
utilization in key economic, political, and social domains in Belarus. Russian Language Journal/ Русский язык, 57, 59-87. American Councils for International Education ACTR/ ACCELS.
Douglas, N., Elsner, R., Krawatzek, F., Langbein, J. & Sasse, G. (2021). Belarus at a crossroads: attitudes on social and political change. ZOiS Report, 3 (March 2021).
Ethnologue (2023). SIL International. Retrieved from https://www.ethnologue.com/.
Hentschel, G., Brüggemann, M., Geiger, H. & Zeller, J. P. (2015). The
linguistic and political orientation of young Belarusian adults between East and West or Russian and Belarusian. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 236, 133-154.
Itogi perepisi naselenija Respubliki Belarus’ 2019 goda [The results of the 2019 Census in the Republic of Belarus]. (2021). Minsk: Altiora Forte.
Lee, N. H. & Van Way, J. R. (2018). Assessing degrees of langauge
endangerment. In K. L. Rehg & L. Campbell (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages (48-65). OUP.
World Atlas of Languages (2021). UNESCO. Retrieved from
https://en.wal.unesco.org/.

Info

Day: 2023-10-27
Start time: 11:30
Duration: 00:25
Room: Hofburg Raum 1
Track: Sociolinguistics
Language: en

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