Thread: Members of Ukrainian parliament fight over Russian language

Originally Posted by Hanna

What's the point of forcing people to use a different language than they are used to, when it is a local language?

The point is that in fact the positions of Russian language in Ukraine is much stronger than that of Ukrainian language. Russian is the de-facto uniform standard language to speak "outside one's village" while "inside village" they normally speak local dialects. Plus there are many 99%-95% Russian-speaking regions and cities. Pro-Ukrainian people argue that without forced support Ukrainian language will vanish in few generations.

Originally Posted by it-ogo

The point is that in fact the positions of Russian language in Ukraine is much stronger than that of Ukrainian language. Russian is the de-facto uniform standard language to speak "outside one's village" while "inside village" they normally speak local dialects. Plus there are many 99%-95% Russian-speaking regions and cities. Pro-Ukrainian people argue that without forced support Ukrainian language will vanish in few generations.

The sort of "patterns" of when you speak Ukrainian vs Russian are fascinating, I think. When did you, yourself speak Ukrainian last, for example? I remember you saying that you sometimes regret that you don't speak it often enough at home? I suppose there are certain

Perhaps because I study Russian, I have been overly partial to Russian in this discussion. I don't know. And I am aware that it is not my business in any form or shape. With Latvia, I feel I have a right to a small say; after all they are in the EU and there are really strong ties with Scandinavia where I come from.

I approve of these sorts of language-protective-measures when they are done in Wales or in Northern Scandinavia. In both these places it is essentially "too late" anyway, though. Mostly old people and rural people are really fluent in the local language. But this is the first time I have heard of "language protection measures" that are actually perceived as intrusive by speakers of the larger language. I suppose the situation in Ukraine is quite unique.

But I foresee that we will have this situation with local language vs English, in about 50-100 years in places like the Netherlands and Scandinavia unless something change. The really sad things is that some of the biggest English proponents don't even speak English very well! They insist on using English even when there is no good reason, and then they write or speak it poorly, putting themselves at a disadvantage in comparison with native speakers.