Paul Goble
Staunton, Nov. 6 – In the latest installment of its series “The Non-Russian World,” the Horizontal Russia portal describes the way in which a Chuvash woman, 37, who spoke only Chuvash as a child, was alienated by Russians who thought her language and identity marked her as rural bumpkin, and then recovered both after she reached 30.
Until the age of seven, Okshchini says, she lived with her grandmother and great-grandmother in a Chuvash village. She didn’t attend kindergarten, and she poke only Chuvash, something that seemed to her at the time “completely normal” (semnasem.org/articles/2025/11/05/nerusskij-mir-chuvashka-okcini).
But then her family moved into another larger village and went to school. There, the other children spoke only Russian. She practiced speaking Russian and one of her friends helped her to do so. By the time she was a teenager, Okshchini says, she was ashamed to speak her native language and even to identify as a Chuvash.
She did take a class in Chuvash, but the teacher didn’t like her; and consequently, she was even more alienated from her past not so much by the criticisms of her friends as by a teacher of a subject who might have been expected to encourage her to identify according to her ethnic roots.
Okschini says she only became interested in Chuvash when her son was born and she decided to speak with him only in her native language and also when she got involved in making jewelry. She says she has incorporated Chuvash elements in her work and that has made her even more proud of her nationality and language.
As a result of her interest in Chuvash, she has been reconciled with her older relatives and that in turn has intensified her interest in and desire to express herself via the Chuvash language and through the use of Chuvash symbols. She and her mother have even appeared together in Chuvash festivals.
No comments:
Post a Comment