SOCIOLINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTIC OF THE SPEECH OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GERMAN ETHNOS OF KOLPASHEVO DISTRICT OF TOMSK REGION
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2020-2-7-13
Introduction. The preliminary results of a sociolinguistic analysis of the language situation in the territory of Kolpashevo district of the Tomsk region are presented. This area is one of the places of compact residence of German immigrants who underwent forced displacement primarily in the XX century. The Tomsk region identifies subjectspecific areas that indicate the communicative power of the studied idiom. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the peculiarities of the sociolinguistic questionnaire of representatives of the German ethnic minority in Kolpashevo district of the Tomsk region. Material and research methods. The material of the study is the analysis of the language situation obtained as a result of a sociolinguistic survey of Russian Germans in Kolpashevo district of the Tomsk region conducted in 2017. The main methods of research are the descriptive method, the method of comparison, interpretation of the obtained data, the method of observation and construction of classifications. Results and discussion. Sociolinguistic survey showed that in places of compact residence of Russian Germans in Kolpashevo district there is a language situation characterized by the loss of the German language spheres of its use. Quantitative calculations show that only 9 % of respondents use German in everyday communication. The dominant role is played by the Russian language (99 %), which serves as the main means of communication among the considered informants. According to the results of the sociolinguistic survey, the question of giving a special status of the German language at the regional and Federal levels is of great importance. 18% of Kolpashevo Germans positively supported the implementation of this initiative at the national level due to the significant reduction of Germanspeaking descendants of German immigrants. Within certain subjects of Russia, in particular the Tomsk region, (27 %) of respondents positively reacted to the equal status of the German language with other languages spoken in the territory of the Siberian region. The survey also found that 81 % of the polled ethnic Germans of Kolpashevo district positively assess the activities of the Russian-German House in Tomsk in terms of providing elderly Russian Germans of the study area with various types of assistance. Interesting is the position of Kolpashevo Germans regarding the teaching of subjects in school for Russian Germans in German. 54 % of the surveyed informants in Kolpashevo district of Tomsk region were in favor of promoting such an initiative in order to achieve a high level of young Russian Germans’ proficiency in the German language. According to the results of the survey, 41 % of representatives of the German ethnic minority identified the German language used for reading the Bible. 27 % indicated Russian, explaining that the transition from German to Russian is due to the factor of forced displacement from the former republics and regions of the Soviet Union to Siberia and prolonged stay in foreign environment that influenced the nature of the use of the Russian language for religious purposes. The theoretical significance is determined by the fact that the obtained results contribute to the further development of the theory of involution of languages, the deepening of the apparatus of sociolinguistics, sociology of language and the provisions of German linguistics in the aspect of the study of small forms of the German-Dutch dialect continuum. The practical significance lies in the possible application of the results to analyze the language situation in other regions of the Russian Federation, where there are places of compact residence for representatives of the German ethnic group. Conclusion. The paper outlines the prospects for research of areas of Tomsk region which previously were not subjected to a sociolinguistic survey.
Keywords: Russian Germans, Tomsk region, involution, status of the German language, survey data
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Issue: 2, 2020
Series of issue: Issue 2
Rubric: STUDIES OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES
Pages: 7 — 13
Downloads: 2074