Resumen de Language use in a bilingual Adyge‐Russian community
One of the issues widely discussed in the West is bilingualism of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union (Kreindler, 1982; Lipset, 1967). The purpose of this paper is to assess the situation in Adygeya, one of the regions of the North Caucasus which became proverbial for the diversity in languages of its population. In the 1860s Adyge were forcibly removed from their territories and resettled among Russians. According to the 1979 census the indigenous population were outnumbered by Russians by 3 to 1 and are now under constant linguistic and cultural Russian influence. This influence is stronger in urban areas than in the countryside as traditionally Adyge live in villages and work on farms. It was hypothesised that Adyge children would use more Adyge with the change from school to home domain where Russian would tend to be avoided altogether. To test this hypothesis, the speech patterns of 33 school children from a small bilingual community of Shendjii were analysed. Russian has become a language of instruction not only in secondary but in primary schools and nurseries, though in rural areas children have little contact with Russian until they go to school. The study revealed that the use of the Adyge language is a sensitive indicator of nationalistic feelings in Shendjii. It is also a way to counteract a forceful promotion of Russian in the area. These results suggest that though Russian is displacing Adyge, especially among teenagers, traditional Adyge values firmly hold their ground.
