The development of the language situation in the field of e-commerce in Ukraine
4 Hrushevsʹkyi St., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1768-2805
Language: Ukrainian
Abstract: This article examines the current development of the language situation in the field of electron-
ic commerce (e-commerce) in Ukraine being impacted by the language legislation which regulates the use of languages in e-commerce. The study focuses on two time periods of the use of Ukrainian and Russian languages in online stores, that is, 2018 — the 1st half of 2019 and 2021.
The language used in the field of e-commerce is regulated by the On E-Commerce Law (2015) and the On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language Law (2019), and the language situation in e-commerce is characterized by the Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism with a predominance of the Russian language. There is a large number of on-line stores in Russian which websites will not feature in the official language. The exceptionsencompass the most popular and most visited online stores aiming for customers from all regions of Ukraine and, therefore, supporting bilingual websites. The Ukrainian language is mostoften used by online stores whose products refer either to the national idea, e.g., embroidery shops, patriotic and national symbols clothing or to the owners’ civic pro-Ukrainian position manifested. The predominance of Russian was established as an outcome of the long-term non-interference language policy of the state in the e-commerce sector. However, the analyzed data reflect some positive changes in the online stores’ linguistic representation, e.g., Ukrainian-language versions added to the significant number of the websites in 2021 and the numbering is rising. Imposing the e-commerce websites in the Ukrainian version, the language law is a major cause of the e-commerce language situation change.
Keywords: sociolinguistics, bilingualism, linguistic situation, e-commerce, Ukrainian, Russian
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