Regional aspects of the dynamics of Russian language use by the population of Belarus in 2009–2019
Abstract
The article examines the spread and use of the Russian language by the urban and rural population of Belarus and their regional features. The relevance and novelty of the study is associated with the emergence of the 2019 population census results, which requires their analysis, interpretation, comparison with data from previous censuses and identification of the trends of the language situation dynamics. Territorial differences between the proportion of the urban and rural population of Belarus calling the Russian language their native language and the language of their home communication in the context of regions and districts, the dynamics of these indicators, and the identification of areas with their maximum and minimum values and its change are considered. A difference between the share of the population calling Russian their native language and the share of the population calling it the language of home communication, and the dynamics and territorial features of this difference for the urban and rural population are shown. Correlations between the indicators of the spread and dynamics of language indicators and a number of other characteristics of the regions have been established. The study showed that the census results in terms of the share of Russian as a native language for the districts of the Brest region in 2019 differ sharply from other regions in many parameters (mean value, standard deviation, magnitude of change, nature of the link between the share of the population who indicated Russian as their native language in 2009 and the absolute value of the change in this indicator in 2009–2019, the difference between the share of Russian as a native language and its share as a language of home communication, etc.); assumptions about the reason for this phenomenon are made. The factors influencing the distortion of the reflection of the real language situation by the census data are revealed.
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References
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