Language attitudes and ‘folk linguistics’ of Russian-speaking migrants in the UK

Abstract

This article discusses language attitudes towards Russian and metalinguistic interpretations of its place, functions and image as expressed by post-Soviet Russian-speaking migrants residing in the north-east of England. By adopting a larger perspective of folk linguistics to tackle the diverse accounts of speakers, it examines the way Russian-speaking migrants perceive and explain main areas of their sociolinguistic experiences as a minority group. General reflections on control, power and standardisation in language maintenance become indicative of overpowering language ideologies embedded in schooling practices and consequently reproduced in personal narratives. Transforming patterns of individual language behaviour demonstrate the developments of new migrant identities, both belonging to wider ‘Russians abroad’ categories and excluded from the ‘mainland’ speech community. More generalised assumptions about language taxonomy and portrayal re-shape their mind-mapping schemata and self-understanding as a distinctive migrant group within the British environment.

Keywords:

• folk linguistics
• language attitudes
• language identities
• language standardisation and variation
• Russian-speaking migrants

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the research participants for their time, collaboration and genuine interest in this project. I would also like to thank Dr Andy Byford for his expert guidance, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. My deep gratitude goes to Faye Gotlieb for her professional help in making this article more reader-friendly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This work was supported by the Durham University under the Durham Doctoral Scholarship (AHU/DDS2011/000181054).

Notes

1. Interview quotes presented in the text are all translated from Russian by the author; switches to English are presented in italics, explanations, translations or omissions are in square brackets, remarks on informants’ behaviour are in round brackets.