Search results

Background. The article highlights the pecularities of language legislation in three Post-Soviet countries: Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. The historical perspective of language policies discourse is defined from the times of the Soviet Union collapse. Special attention has been paid to the description of constitutional statuses of the state languages, recently adopted laws and bills, to the role of constitutional courts in language conflicts regulation. Purpose of this research is to analyse the current language legislation in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova and examine the peculiarities of language policies in these countries. As material for the research, we use the texts of laws and bills on language issues and mass-media texts that show public reaction to these laws. Special attention has also been paid to cultural and historical peculiarities of language policies formation. Methods. Methodological base of this article are as follows: language policy and language planning theory, language management theory and critical discourse-analysis approach towards language policy. In the frame of these theories, it is underlined that language policy has different stages – creation of the policies, its interpretation and implementation through concrete legislative mechanisms. Results. Therefore, in this article, we examined the main legislative pecularities of language conflict regulation in contemporary Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. Many common features have been observed in language policies of the above-mentioned countries. First of all, we notice attempts to introduce new language laws or make amendments into old ones. Secondly, problematic implementation of the legislative decisions is related to financial problems; as a result, it leads to lack of real legislative mechanisms of language conflict regulation and to state control of language legislation implementation. Thirdly, in these countries different actors (parliaments, constitutional courts, political parties, and civic activist organizations) are fighting for power in general, and for influence on language policies in particular. Discussion. In this article, we focus our attention on the issues of state language functioning in different spheres of public life. Furthermore, the perspectives of our research are the issues of minority languages protection and development, the aspect of languages and language policies conceptualisation in the above-mentioned countries. ; У статті висвітлено особливості мовного законодавства трьох пострадянських країн – України, Грузії та Молдови. Окреслено історичну перспективу мовно-політичного дискурсу з часів розпаду Радянського Союзу. Особливу увагу приділено конституційному затвердженню статусу державних мов, нещодавньо ухваленим чи напрацьованим законам та законопроектам, ролі конституційних судів у регулюванні мовного питання. На додаток, розглянуто специфіку регулювання вжитку мов національних меншин.

Background. The article highlights the pecularities of language legislation in three Post-Soviet countries: Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. The historical perspective of language policies discourse is defined from the times of the Soviet Union collapse. Special attention has been paid to the description of constitutional statuses of the state languages, recently adopted laws and bills, to the role of constitutional courts in language conflicts regulation. Purpose of this research is to analyse the current language legislation in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova and examine the peculiarities of language policies in these countries. As material for the research, we use the texts of laws and bills on language issues and mass-media texts that show public reaction to these laws. Special attention has also been paid to cultural and historical peculiarities of language policies formation. Methods. Methodological base of this article are as follows: language policy and language planning theory, language management theory and critical discourse-analysis approach towards language policy. In the frame of these theories, it is underlined that language policy has different stages – creation of the policies, its interpretation and implementation through concrete legislative mechanisms. Results. Therefore, in this article, we examined the main legislative pecularities of language conflict regulation in contemporary Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. Many common features have been observed in language policies of the above-mentioned countries. First of all, we notice attempts to introduce new language laws or make amendments into old ones. Secondly, problematic implementation of the legislative decisions is related to financial problems; as a result, it leads to lack of real legislative mechanisms of language conflict regulation and to state control of language legislation implementation. Thirdly, in these countries different actors (parliaments, constitutional courts, political parties, and civic activist organizations) are fighting for power in general, and for influence on language policies in particular. Discussion. In this article, we focus our attention on the issues of state language functioning in different spheres of public life. Furthermore, the perspectives of our research are the issues of minority languages protection and development, the aspect of languages and language policies conceptualisation in the above-mentioned countries. ; У статті висвітлено особливості мовного законодавства трьох пострадянських країн – України, Грузії та Молдови. Окреслено історичну перспективу мовно-політичного дискурсу з часів розпаду Радянського Союзу. Особливу увагу приділено конституційному затвердженню статусу державних мов, нещодавньо ухваленим чи напрацьованим законам та законопроектам, ролі конституційних судів у регулюванні мовного питання. На додаток, розглянуто специфіку регулювання вжитку мов національних меншин.