Nro 6 (2014): An Official Status for Minority Languages? A Study of State Languages in Russia's Finno-Ugric Republics

This book is part of a dissertation by Konstantin Zamyatin. The dissertation focuses on the phenomenon of granting minority languages official status. The concepts of official languageand minority language do not seem to be outright compatible and how they are linked to one another needs specification. Why are some minority languages nominated as official languages? This study explores the formation and configuration of the official status of state languages in the Finno-Ugric republics of the Russian Federation, in order to understand the reasons for their designation and to shed light on the specifics of the official status in the case of minority languages.

This is the first comprehensive study in more than two decades that focuses on the formation of language policies in the Finno-Ugric republics. It will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of Finno-Ugrian and Russian studies, especially to those interested in Russia's language policy as well as its nationalities policy. Moreover, the findings may pique the interest of scholars and students who study ethnicity and nationalism as well as ethnic and national dimensions in political science and law.

This contents of this book comprises the introductory part of the dissertation and its findings.