Language shift in time of war: the abandonment of Russian in Ukraine

ABSTRACT

The article demonstrates an impressive shift from Russian to Ukrainian in war-time Ukraine. I rely on nationwide survey data from before and after February 2022 to analyze the scale and structure of the recent change in patterns of language use. I demonstrate not only an impressive shift across the practices but also a larger scale of change in public communication than in private use. Next, I examine responses to a small online survey and focus group discussions in different parts of Ukraine for detailed accounts of different categories of people’s patterns of language use in various practices and explanations of the reasons for change – or continuity – in those patterns. I demonstrate a new phenomenon of the predominant reliance on Ukrainian at work and in other public communication by many people who used to speak predominantly Russian and still keep it as the main language of family use.

KEYWORDS:

• Language shift
• war
• Ukraine
• Ukrainian
• Russian

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the US; the Council of Europe; the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the Kule Institute for Advanced Studies, both at the University of Alberta.