The Russian language and new media

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the development of the Russian language, particularly as used in the public sector, has been spectacular.

“Our research on the development of language in Russia is also of interest for studies of Russian politics and social life,” says project manager Professor Ingunn Lunde. Foto: Ellen Lande Gossner

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the development of the Russian language, particularly as used in the public sector, has been spectacular. For some years, a research group led by Professor Ingunn Lun de of the Russian Section of the De partment of Foreign Languages at the University of Bergen has been studying the development of Russian during the 1990s. Professor

Lunde has recently been awarded a further NOK 12 million for a project that will study Russian language culture in the light of new technology and new media. The central topic of the study – the consequences of new technology for language and language development is a global phenomenon, and the project could pave the way for collaboration on other aspects of the study of language.

As in their previous project, “Landslide of the Norm”, the researchers have adopted a linguistic perspective, while at the same time examining language culture in the broad sense of the term. “A highly centralised language policy, strict control of all use of language in the public sector, and a significant amount of resources devoted to measures aimed at cultivating language usage in education for several decades helped to put standard language in an unusually strong position in Russia. When
language liberalisation finally arrived at the end of the 1980s, it was a fairly turbulent process, as were the reactions to it,” says Ingunn Lunde.

The large amount of financial support given to the project “The Future of Russian” has enabled the research group to advertise post-doc. and PhD positions, and well as grants for Master’s degree students to write up their theses. This will enable a research group to be built up along the lines of the “Landslide” model, in which,
according to Lunde, recruitment and internationalisation go hand in hand.

An international group of researchers is also involved with the project. Research on language development in Russia is also interesting for studies of Russian politics and social life, and through international conferences it creates links with other fields of Russian studies.

The article is published in Features 2009/2010