Ethnolinguistic Well-Being of the Russian Population in Yakutia: An Ethnosociopsycholinguistic Dimension
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2025.4.24Keywords:
ethnolinguistic well-being; native language; Russian language; Yakut language; Russians; Sakha; Yakutia; Yakutsk; youth; interethnic relations; language competenceAbstract
The article presents the findings of a study on the ethnolinguistic well-being of the Russian ethnic community in Yakutia within the context of dynamic processes of sociocultural integration. The researcher introduces the concept of ethnolinguistic well-being as a category for objectifying the nature of interethnic relations from the standpoint of the primary cultural marker — ethnic language. The proposed approach was tested through the analysis of field materials obtained via ethnosociolinguistic surveys, interviews, and associative experiments conducted between 2007 and 2024 among the Russian population of Yakutsk. The data are compared with analogous studies of the Sakha (Yakut) population of the city.
The ethnolinguistic well-being of Yakutsk’s Russian population is characterized by several features. As part of the national linguistic and cultural community, this group maintains a stable ethnolinguistic identity and confidence in the favorable prospects of the Russian language in the region—though with a slight decline among the older generation — alongside a reduction in youth involvement in Yakut language competence. The linguistic coexistence of Sakha and Russians is moderately complicated by individual prejudices, specifically by nihilistic attitudes toward the social functions of the Yakut language among middle-aged and older Russian respondents.
Through the joint, long-term adaptation to harsh environmental and climatic conditions, as well as the high value placed on native languages (62% of Russians and 67% of Sakha identify language as the dominant ethnodetermining trait), which shapes social choices and behavior, a harmonious situation of interethnic accord has developed in the region. Young people exhibit flexible language strategies and non-confrontational communication patterns that facilitate integration processes.
A directed associative experiment reflects the identity of the associative fields of the concepts “Russian language” and “Yakut language” within the communicative consciousness of Russians and Sakha. The linguoconceptual content of their core and near periphery fully represents both ethnolinguistic well-being and national-linguistic relations.
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Ivanova N. I. Ethnolinguistic Well-Being of the Russian Population in Yakutia: An Ethnosociopsycholinguistic Dimension. New Research of Tuva, 2025, no. 4, pp. 451-468. (In Russ.). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2025.4.24
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Author Biography
Nina I. Ivanova, Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Doctor of Philology, Leading Researcher, Center for Sociolinguistic Studies, Institute for Humanitarian Studies and Problems of Indigenous Peoples, North of the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Postal address: office 310, 1 Petrovskogo St., 677007, Yakutsk, Russian Federation.
E-mail: haar-haar@mail.ru
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