Russophone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See also Russophone (novel)
A Russophone (Russian: русскоговорящий, русскоязычный, russkogovoryashchy, russkoyazychny) is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial distinctions.
Many refer to Russophones as "Russians". For example, Brighton Beach is often described as a "Russian community." In fact, the majority of Russophone Brighton Beach are ethnically Jewish Russian speakers that have resided not just in Russia, but in the Soviet Republics of Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, and others.
The largest and most populous Russophone country is Russia, where the language originates. There are sizable Russophone communities in many neighbouring countries that were parts of the former Soviet Union, of which Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Latvia. Additionally, there are large Russophone immigrant communities in Israel and various parts of the United States.
There are an estimated 280 million Russophones worldwide.
Russophony is a controversial phenomenon. Throughout Russia and the former Soviet states, the languages of many different ethnic groups were suppressed by Russification, as Russian attained its status as a de facto language that unified the ethnic groups and that was used in all official and interstate affairs. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the situation was reversed in the countries of the "Close Abroad" (ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye) — the term used in Russia for the post-Soviet states — where the use of Russian was discouraged, with the notable exceptions of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and parts of Moldova and Ukraine, where Russian is today an official language. The breakaway republics of Abkhazia (Georgia), South Ossetia (Georgia), and Transnistria (Moldova) have also declared Russian as official in the territories under their control.
[edit] See also
- Language adjectives
- Russians in Latvia
- History of Russians in Estonia
- History of Russians in Lithuania
- Rossiyane
[edit] References
- Pål Kolstø, "The new Russian diaspora - an identity of its own? Possible identity trajectories for Russians in the former Soviet republic." Ethnic and Racial studies, July 1996, pp. 609-639
- Pål Kolstø, "The price of stability. Kazakhstani control mechanisms in a bipolar cultural and demographic situation", paper presented at conf. Democracy and Pluralism in the Muslim Areas of the Former Soviet Union at The Cummings Center, University of Tel Aviv, 7-9 November 1999 [1]
