Staunton, August 7 – Their national
languages under attack by Moscow, non-Russians from Karelia to Sakha to the
North Caucasus held an online conference at the end of July to share the
strategies they have adopted to ensure that young people in each of their
nations retain and develop their languages and thus their cultures.
Organized by the Democratic Congress
of Peoples of the Russian Federation, itself set up in 2018 by activists from
Tatarstan, nine speakers shared ideas from the most ancient to the most
traditional that are helping them in their task (zapravakbr.ru/index.php/analitik/1512-pervaya-onlajn-konferentsiya-peredovye-praktiki-sokhraneniya-yazykov-narodov-rf).
The ideas are interesting and
important but what is perhaps even more important is that non-Russians are
cooperating in this way, ensuring that every initiative one place is shared and
hopefully copied elsewhere rather than remain something isolated within the
framework of a single nationality.
Sandaara Kulakovskaya, a lawyer from
Sakha, described the program she has created to ensure that young people in her
republic learn legal terms in Sakha so that they can navigate the system without
having to shift to Russian. That involves both developing new terminology in
Sakha and ensuring that it is consistent with the principles of the national
language.
Nikolay (Khalan) Pavlov, also from
Sakha, described the way he and others in that republic have worked to ensure
that there are Sakha-language pages on the entire family of Wiki publications
so that young people have a choice and can learn their native language when going
online.
Komi activist Marina Fedina described
how she has worked to create a Center for Innovative Language Technologies to
share within that Middle Volga republic best practices among all concerned with
the survival of that Finno-Ugric tongue.
Natalya Antonova from Karelia
outlined the program she has copied from Finland that establishes in particular
houses places where only the national language is spoken, giving children with
some knowledge of the language the opportunity to develop it without Russian
getting in the way.
Tatarstan activist Tabris Yarullin
outlined his work in creating podcasts in Tatar, and Alina Krestyaninova from
Udmurtia described how she and others in that Middle Volga republic have
created an Udmurt-language blogosphere, drawing in an increasing number of
young people who might otherwise have lost their language.
Aleksandr (Alarukh) Blinoviz, a
Chuvash educator, outlined the efforts in his republic to create summer language
camps. They succeeded between 2017 and 2019 but this year have had to cancel
because of the pandemic. However, they are planning for new and larger camps next
summer.
But perhaps the most intriguing idea
involved not the introduction of new technologies but rather reliance on an
ancient tradition. Because villages are often the only places in republics
where national languages continue to be dominant, many are thinking about
reviving an ancient practice of sending young people to relatives there for
extended periods to learn the languages.
Tembulat Afashagov, a lawyer and
member of the Zhylbez organization in Kabardino-Balkaria, says that he and his
colleagues are working to revive a Circassian tradition of sending young people
away from their own immediate families to more distant ones as part of their upbringing.
In the past, this practice was intended
to strengthen extended family ties and traditional Circassian values; but now,
he argues, it can be used to promote Circassian language knowledge when young
people from urban areas who often speak only Russian are sent to villages where
they need to learn Circassian to function.
The results of this effort have been
impressive, he suggests. Not only are those who take part learning the language
but they are associating the language with their national culture and thus
ensuring that both the language and the culture will survive the current
attacks emanating from Moscow.
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