Language as an indicator of the Ukrainian national identity and civilization choice of the Kyivans

Hanna Zalizniak, PhD, Chearmen of the Department of Sociological Research, Monitoring and Forecasting Research
Institute of City Development
37-A Heroiv Sevastopol St., Kyiv 03061, Ukraine

E-mail: zalizniak-h@ukr.net
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5563-8739

Heading: Articles
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract: The article has been the objective of the study of the language factor in formation of the Ukrainian national identity. Ukrainian researchers tended to reduce national identity to a civic model without taking ethnic and linguistic color into account. In circumstances of the full-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine importance of the components of ethnic national self-identification in formation of the Ukrainian na­tional identity has come to be topical. Based on the results of the survey of the Kyivans in 2020 separated out were social groups with different depth of manifestations of civic, po­litical and cultural national identities. A comparison of the share of the Kyivans with the same level of civic identity but differ in language preferences (the language of everyday communication and the language that Kyivans define as their native one) showed diffe­rences in determining the civilizational future of Ukraine. The highest commonality in views on the country civilizational choice is drmonstrated by the people of Kyiv who on condition of common civic identity are Ukrainian-speaking or bilingual but, above all, recognize Ukrainian to be their native language. In addition, for the cultural component of the Ukrainian identity, the indicator of defining one’s own native language appeared to be more demonstrative and important than that of everyday communication. Bilingualism can be considered as a transitional stage in the restoration of Ukrainian national identity. At the current stage of Ukrainian statehood development efforts to limit Ukrainian na­tional identity only to the political component without taking into account cultural ele­ments seem to be short-sighted and contradictory among which language preferences have come to be the leading marker. And the indicator of defining one’s own native language is currently a system indicator in the totality of indicators of the Ukrainian national identity.

Keywords: national identity, national self-identification, civilizational choice, language prefe­rences, native language, the language of everyday communication.

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