1994년 러시아연방 인구조사의 언어 자료 분석

Abstract

The micro-population census of 1994 is the first full-scale nation-wide survey on population structure, economic situation and language since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The language data of this census has valuable information on the language situation of the Russain Federation. However, the publicized form of the language data does not represent the language situation properly and in detail. A statistical method, named "Speaker-composition analysis" provides us with a much more useful information and insight into hidden aspects of the language situation.

This study provides basic data on the speaker composition of major nationalities and its change between 1989 and 1994. It also contains data on the language use of the urban and the rural population, at different social domains such as home, school and work places.

The study shows that the linguistic assimilation among nationalities to the Russian language has been under way since the start of the new Russian Federation. Another challenge to the maintenance of national languages comes from the fast spread of Western foreign languages, especailly English, which has gained an ever more importance since the adoption of market economy system. One can speculate from this that the language situation of the Russian Federation would change to the Russiannational- English multilingualim or the Russan-Enghsh bilingualism. In this respect, surveys on language in the future should contain data on the

influence of foreign languages.