Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 March 31

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March 31

To what extent are the titular languages of the Russian republics still official?

Appears that there's been a move to impose Russian, esp. since 2018. But not a lot of detail in our articles. Wondering if (a) the titular languages are still technically official, and (b) whether that means anything in practice. Chechnya might be an exception to the trend, given that it's still autonomous (unlike AFAICT all the others), and maybe Tatarstan, but are the others actually bilingual anymore at an educational or governmental level, or is it just window-dressing? — kwami (talk) 06:54, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

According to Tuva § Ethnic groups, the vast majority of the residents of Tuva are Tuvan people, and "in general, Tuvans use their original language as their first language".  --Lambiam 18:22, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

Yes, but I meant as an official language. People could speak Tuvan at home, but still be effectively required to speak Russian at school, govt offices and the courts, which wouldn't happen if it's truly an official language of the republic. — kwami (talk) 19:08, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

@Kwamikagami: According to this news article from 2018, they are still supposedly state languages used at the governmental level (При этом принятые поправки никак не меняют понятие государственного языка национальных республик. Его по-прежнему будут использовать в органах местного самоуправления, в СМИ и учреждениях культуры национальных республик.), but they have become optional subjects at the school level. However, the first assertion appears to only be partly true. The website of the Tatarstan government is indeed available in Tatar, but in 2022, the website of the Sakha government was not available in Yakut, and the website of the Bashkortostan government was not available in Bashkir. Considering that in 1994, only Tatar, Bashkir, and Yakut languages had native-language education from 1st to 11th grade (stated on Russian Wikipedia, ru:Образование на языках народов России, though note that a 1994 date leaves the status of Chechen in question due to the First Chechen War), this suggests that with the exception of Tatar, they are in practice not used at the governmental level even though they are technically official. There also seems to be a lack of teaching resources for many of them: the 2018 article claims that there was a plan to create a foundation to support their teaching (e.g. creating high-quality textbooks – Наша идея заключается в создании Фонда поддержки родных языков России за счет федерального бюджета, который мог бы разработать образовательные программы, концепции и методики преподавания родных языков, качественные и лицензированные учебники.), but it's not clear how this is supposed to have much effect if the law has made their teaching optional. According to this documentary from 2022, Yakuts in Sakha learn Russian, English, and Yakut at school, and fragments of a Yakut language class are filmed: the posters shown at the back of the classroom appear to have Yakut language on them. However it is also stated by the narrator that "for daily life, studying and working, knowing the Russian language is essential". So presumably Yakuts learn Yakut at school while Russians in Sakha don't have to.

Ramzan Kadyrov in November 2022 called it a tragedy that Chechen is endangered, and called for using all opportunities to preserve it (education from kindergarten to university, production of local content, and making it the main language of communication in families). Presumably this means that when he said that, Chechen was not the main language of communication in families. I don't know if he has put any policies into practice to preserve the Chechen language, but then again that was only a few months ago.

Note that this is just information I got from searching around, which may not always be up to date, and that my Russian reading skills are only intermediate. Double sharp (talk) 05:22, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks!

I understand that one reason for the 2018 law was specifically so that Russians would not be forced to learn the titular languages, though I don't know if that even happened at the time or was just a jingoistic rationalization.

It's also my understanding that the negotiations ending the Chechen war gave Chechnya a degree of autonomy that the other republics don't enjoy. Also Chechnya is nearly 100% Chechen, so I wouldn't expect people to have shifted to Russian.

Tatarstan had a president after that post was abolished in other republics, but I think in 2018 Russia formally abolished it there as well. — kwami (talk) 05:41, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Head of Tatarstan explains that he remained a president until less than two months ago 82.166.199.42 (talk) 06:00, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! Still wonder about the language, though. My impression from the few contacts I have is that people were already worried about the robustness of Tatar several years ago. — kwami (talk) 06:48, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

Japanese term for "spoiled girl"

I'm trying to remember a term in colloquial Japanese that means something like "a girl raised with tender care" that refers to a young girl that's spoiled due to being too pampered in young childhood, but I'm drawing a blank and google turns up nothing. 98.116.249.122 (talk) 07:21, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

A wild guess: could it be Shōkōjo, the Japanese title of Frances Hodgson Burnett's book A Little Princess ?  --Lambiam 18:15, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

Are you thinking of amae? That's not 'spoiled', in that there's no negative judgement, but we don't have another word for it in English. Parents worry if a child does not amae. Even adding 'too much', for amasugiru, gets translated as "so sweet". — kwami (talk) 19:09, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

I think it was a 2 word phrase, the first word started with は or maybe へ. I was told it by a friend in Osaka in 1996 so it's possible it was a regional or time period specific bit of slang? It's a very vague distant memory so I may just be entirely mistaken tho. 98.116.249.122 (talk) 02:06, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

All I can think of is something like wikt:甘えん坊, but I'm not a good person to ask. — kwami (talk) 05:51, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

The phrase I was thinking of was "hakoiri musume", though it turns out it doesn't mean quite what I remembered. It means more 'sheltered' or 'naive', rather than 'spoiled'. 98.116.249.122 (talk) 18:16, 4 April 2023 (UTC)