The village helps those who help themselves: on the question of language practices and ideologies in the chuvash and mari diasporas in the Moscow region

The article is based on the data obtained through sociolinguistic research in the Chuvash and Mari diasporas in the Moscow region. It examines the linguistic practices of representatives of ethnic groups living in the internal diaspora. These show a high level of linguistic loyalty and a desire to preserve their ethnic language as one of the main features of ethnic identity. Nevertheless, the respondents' linguistic loyalty level does not correlate with the level of language maintenance, as shown by the low level of intergenerational transmission of the ethnic language in the samples. Passing the language on the children is transferred from the diaspora representatives to the ethnic village. Special attention is paid in this paper to the analysis of the language ideologies underlying such practices and to the description of the mechanism of (non)transmission of the ethnic language characteristic of these communities living in urban environments. These are an ideology of legitimacy (authenticity), which confines the language to a specific area where traditional speakers live, and an ideology of anonymity, which is widespread in urban spaces and de facto presupposes the use of Russian as an unmarked linguistic and social norm, regardless of the identity of the speakers. Stereotypes, deeply rooted beliefs, attitudes towards the respective languages, and negative and traumatic experiences traced in the linguistic biographies of the respondents are crucial to ethnic language maintenance in the internal diaspora. The results of the survey provide a comprehensive picture of the language situation in Chuvash and Mari villages in diachrony and synchronicity and show that the ethnic village is currently unable to cope with the task of uninterrupted language transmission, as the village itself, which is considered the traditional compact place of residence of these ethnic groups, is affected by the language shift. The author concludes that there is an urgent need to revise existing language practices in the diaspora in order to develop new and more effective strategies for ethnic language transmission. This requires – in the case of the representatives of the internal diaspora – a conscious adaptation of their current language practices in the village, as well as a growing awareness of their own responsibility for the transmission of their ethnic language to the future generation.

Mari language, Chuvash language, ethnic language, Moscow region, internal diaspora, language practices, language ideologies, language transmission, language management, language policy, language situation, language shift