The Language Situation among Buryat Schoolchildren of Russia, Mongolia and China

The Language Situation among Buryat Schoolchildren of Russia, Mongolia and China


Badaraev D.D.

Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Assoc. Prof., Leading Researcher, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of SB RAS, Ulan-Ude, Russia. damdin80@mail.ru

Dyrkheeva G.A.

Dос. Sci. (Philol.), Prof., Leading Researcher, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of RAS, Ulan-Ude, Russia. an5dag1@mail.ru

Antonova N.S.

Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Assoc. Prof., Buryat State University, Ulan-Ude, Russia nsantonova@yandex.ru

ID of the Article: 8512


The article was prepared within the framework of a state assignment (project “Russia and Inner Asia: dynamics of geopolitical, socio-economic and intercultural interaction”).


For citation:

Badaraev D.D., Dyrkheeva G.A., Antonova N.S. The Language Situation among Buryat Schoolchildren of Russia, Mongolia and China. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2021. No 2. P. 146-151




Abstract

In the transboundary conditions of the globalizing world, the Buryat language found itself in a difficult situation: territorial dispersion and dialectal fragmentation causing a rapid decrease in the number of active speakers and narrowing the scope of its application. The sociological survey (2015– 2017) conducted among Buryat schoolchildren in Russia, Mongolia and China shows that even those who consider Buryat their native language and have known it since childhood, use mainly the majority language of the ethnic majority outside the narrow family circle. Today the family remains practically the only agent for preserving the Buryat language and its transmission to the next generation. The school, on the other hand, performs rather an auxiliary function: it hinders the process of linguistic assimilation of children and adolescents – active speakers of the Buryat language.


Keywords
Buryat language; language assimilation; monitoring of the language situation; Buryat schoolchildren; Russia; Mongolia; China
Content No 2, 2021