Authors

Monika Wingender¹;  ¹ Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

Discussion

In violent conflicts and war, language and violence are in multifaceted interrelations. What roles do languages have in times of conflicts and war? How do language situations change under the impact of conflict and war? What is the impact of language ideologies on the interrelationship between language and violence? And how are language ideologies shaped in wartimes (Kudriavtseva 2023)? In answering these questions, the paper aims to examine different phases and types of language ideologies in Ukraine since 2014. With its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine launched in February 2022, Russia has been escalating violence. This is also reflected in the interrelationships between language and violence. Since 2022, decommunisation in Ukraine has become even more focused on derussification in all spheres of society (Rogoża 2022). The aim is to fight against and destroy the “Russkij mir” ideology.  Analysing these developments, the paper aims to reveal the continuity, breaks, and reorientations that the ideologies contain. The case studies on wartime Ukraine are preceded in the methodological part by systematic analyses of the interrelationship between language and conflict as well as violence (Wingender 2021). The fundamental premise is that it is not language that causes or practices violence, but the speakers. Correspondingly diverse are the political, societal, cultural, and other factors that trigger, frame, or intensify the connection between language and violence. 

Kudriavtseva, Natalia (2023), Motivations for Embracing the Ukrainian Language in Wartime Ukraine. In: Ukrainian Analytical Digest, 001, 12-15: https://laender-analysen.de/uad/pdf/UkrainianAnalyticalDigest001.pdf

Rogoża, Jadwiga (2022), Ukraine: from decommunization to derussification. In: OSW Commentary, Centre for Eastern Studies, 455:  https://www.osw.waw.pl/sites/default/files/OSW_Commentary_455.pdf

Wingender, Monika (2021), From Contact and Conflict Linguistics towards Linguistic Conflict Research: Developing a Multifactorial Language Conflict Model. In: Müller, Daniel & Wingender, Monika (eds.), Language Politics, Language Situations and Conflicts in Multilingual Societies. Case Studies from Contemporary Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Wiesbaden, 15-35.