Linguistic Behavior and Competencies of the Adyghe Students

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-4/75-91

Abstract

The linguistic competencies of the Adyghe students and, more specifically, the Adyghe language proficiency and its use have been a concern of the Adyghe community for a long time. The media and the Internet occasionally discuss the danger of “losing the Adyghe language” within young people and its “close death.” Based on the results of a mass survey conducted in the city of Maykop, the author examines the language competencies of the student youth of the Republic of Adygea and how they use different languages in different spheres. The study revealed that the Russian language prevails in street communication, in class, and at work. The Adyghe language is mostly spoken at home. At the same time, it is shown that urban youth, in contrast to the rural one, less often uses the Adyghe language, giving preference to Russian. Almost all respondents have an excellent command of Russian, i.e., they think, read and write in it, while the share of Adyghe students who equally estimated their command of Adyghe is less than 2/3. Based on literature review and interview materials, the author explains the processes of displacement of the Adyghe language into the home environment and the reasons for the significant imbalance in the language proficiency and use between the urban-born and village-born respondents. These reasons include economic changes, active urbanization and internal migration, a more multi-ethnic environment in villages, problems in schooling and higher education.

For Citation: Donezhuk, M.Yu.  2021. Linguistic behavior and competencies of the Adyghe students. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 4: 75-91.