
The Russian Language Outside the Nation
Lara Ryazanova-Clarke(Editor)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 17. March 2014
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-7486-6845-8 (ISBN)
Description
The collapse of the Soviet Union dramatically changed the global distribution of the Russian language. Apart from Russia, it is now spoken in fourteen successor states of the former Soviet Union, while the increased mobility of Russian speakers has expanded russophone communities across the world.
Taking a broad sociolinguistic perspective, this book explores a comprehensive set of tensions which emerged from the dislocated and deterritorialised position of Russian in the contemporary world. It examines contexts for shaping Russian speakers' identities in various locations across the globe, the shifting attitudes towards Russian language outside the metropolis, emerging new global varieties of Russian, and the use of Russian language as soft power in the transnational russophone media. In order to discuss problems posed by the current stage of globalisation of Russian, a number of non-metropolitan spaces are sampled: chapters take the reader to locations which include both the post-Soviet states, specifically Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Belarus, and the countries of the traditional 'West' - Italy, the US and Israel.
A thought-provoking and engaging book, it is essential reading for advanced students and specialists in Russian and Eastern European Studies, Post-Soviet Studies, Language Studies and Sociolinguistics.
Taking a broad sociolinguistic perspective, this book explores a comprehensive set of tensions which emerged from the dislocated and deterritorialised position of Russian in the contemporary world. It examines contexts for shaping Russian speakers' identities in various locations across the globe, the shifting attitudes towards Russian language outside the metropolis, emerging new global varieties of Russian, and the use of Russian language as soft power in the transnational russophone media. In order to discuss problems posed by the current stage of globalisation of Russian, a number of non-metropolitan spaces are sampled: chapters take the reader to locations which include both the post-Soviet states, specifically Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Belarus, and the countries of the traditional 'West' - Italy, the US and Israel.
A thought-provoking and engaging book, it is essential reading for advanced students and specialists in Russian and Eastern European Studies, Post-Soviet Studies, Language Studies and Sociolinguistics.
Reviews / Votes
Making an important contribution to emerging sociolinguistics of globalisation, this wide-ranging, comprehensive, and up-to-date collection explores political and demographic causes of unprecedented expansion of Russian in the globalised world. This volume offers intriguing insights into legal, social, economic, and sociolinguistic complexities of the ongoing transformation of the Russian linguasphere. * Aneta Pavlenko, Temple University * The volume presents many different aspects of Russian outside the nation. All the chapters present high quality research and the introduction connects them smoothly. -- Liubov Baladzhaeva, University of Haifa * Linguist List * Makes a major contribution to the sociolinguistics of Russian, the study of language diasporas, and the sociolinguistics of globalization. Lara Ryazanova-Clarke has assembled an impressive group of authors who apply diverse sociolinguistic approaches, including frameworks of linguistic vitality, conversational analysis, language policy, language in contact, and sociolinguistic analysis of language regimes, to present a comprehensive study of Russian as the language of the 'accidental diaspora'. An invaluable resource to anyone interested in the sociolinguistics of global Russian. -- Irina Dubinina, Brandeis University * Slavic and East European Journal * Thus, this is a timely, welcome first volume on the current position of Russian outside Russia. The work opens with a thought-provoking introduction [and] should be of interest to those concerned with language, sociolinguistics, and post-Soviet studies. Of course, there is so much more that waits to be explored in this exciting field of Russian and globalization. Hopefully, many new volumes will be forthcoming. -- Isabelle Kreindler, University of Haifa * Slavic Review *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-6845-8 (9780748668458)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Lara Ryazanova-Clarke
Russian Language Outside the Nation
E-Book
03/2014
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
Lara Ryazanova-Clarke is Professor of Russian and Sociolinguistics at the University of Edinburgh. She works in several fields within Russian language studies: sociocultural linguistics, discourse analysis, metaphorical studies, language policy, and the nexus between language, ideology and identity.
Content
Introduction: the Russian language, challenged by globalisation, Lara Ryazanova-Clarke; Part I: Russian and its legal status; The legal status of Russian and Russian speakers in the near abroad, Michael Newcity; The Russian language in Ukraine: complicit in genocide, or victim of state-building?, Bill Bowring; Part II: Linguistic perceptions and symbolic values; The Russian language in Belarus: language use, speaker identities and metalinguistic discourse, Curt Woolhiser; What is Russian in Ukraine? Popular beliefs regarding the social roles of the language, Volodymyr Kulyk; Part III: Russian speaking communities and identity negotiations; Post-Soviet Russian-speaking diaspora in Italy: results of an empirical sociolinguistic survey, Monica Perotto; Ethnolinguistic vitality and acculturation orientations of Russian-speakers in Estonia, Martin Ehala and Anastassia Zabrodskaja; Linguistic performance of 'Russianness' among Russian-Israeli parents: discourse analysis of child-raising practices in immigrant community, Claudia Zbenovich; Part IV: Language contact and globalisation of Russian; Similarities and differences between American-immigrant Russian of the 1970s and '80s and post-Soviet Russian in the Motherland, David Andrews; Predictors of pluricentricity: lexical divergences between Latvian Russian and Russian Russian, Alexandr Berdichevskis; Part V: Globalisation of Russian as soft power; Russian with an accent: globalisation and post-Soviet imaginary, Lara Ryazanova-Clarke; Index