Talk:Languages of the Soviet Union

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	Languages of the Soviet Union is part of WikiProject Soviet Union, an attempt to better organise information in articles related to the Soviet Union. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
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[edit] What's the Purpose of This Article?

What is the purpose of this article? This article's basic organizational principle is not at all clear. The classification of languages seems to be a political one and not a linguistic one (e.g., by language family). It tells us nothing about the geographic distribution of the linguistic areas. (No map.) It provides scant historical perspective or sensitivity to classification issues: What is a language, and what is a dialect? Were the "languages of the Soviet Union" preexisting when the country was established, or were some of the languages "constructed" (e.g., in the Caucasus and in Siberia)? How many native speakers of the languages were there? How many languages were there in different censuses (the only way the number of speakers could be counted)?--Mack2 23:28, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Take into consideration the "constructive" aspect of the listing of nationalities and languages in the Soviet censuses. See, for example First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union.

I believe this "Languages of the Soviet Union" article needs complete reconstruction, or else should be deleted.--Mack2 (talk) 18:10, 20 November 2007 (UTC)