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CHALLENGES OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: FATHER OR MOTHER LANGUAGE? // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2021. Issue 3 (33). P. 31-40

The article is focused on the transmission of native languages to the next generation among the population of the Mountainous-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, Tajikistan. The article is based on data collected during field research in Tajikistan and Russia, using observational methods and interviews, in particular focus groups. It also draws on monitoring of social media in the Pamir languages and on publications addressing the mother tongues and linguacultural identity of the Pamir ethnic groups. Particular attention is given to the areas where language contacts are especially active. First, the steadily shrinking fragmented zones of distribution of various minority Pamir languages (Wakhan, Ishkashim) mixed with the Tajik language; here, fragmentation of the population in the contact zones is aggravated by socio-cultural practices and intensified by specific marriage patterns, whereby men marry women from neighbouring villages speaking languages other than their own. Another area where language contact and linguistic shift are most apparent concerns members of these ethnic groups who undertake internal or external migration. The analysis of linguistic situations is based on Edwards’ typological model employing a set of sociolinguistic and demographic factors which affect the viability of a language group. We examine the ways in which mother tongues are transmitted to the next generation among members of these ethnic groups in conditions of compact residence; we consider their specific bilingual model, when the native language turns to be a father’s language. We also trace multilingual models in the context of increasing translocal and transnational migration, with its variety of approaches. It has been established how family life support strategies, such as the type of settlement and marriage patterns or the choice of a certain type of migration, influence the transfer of language skills to children, as well as the choice and preference of languages by parents, and later by children themselves. Among our outcomes, we reveal the types of bilingualism of certain groups (passive/early bilingualism, multilingualism), the reasons for this bilingualism and the specific means of its maintenance (such as settlement and marriage patterns). We reveal a recent development whereby a neutral attitude towards native (Pamir) languages has given way, among the younger generation, to linguistic activism, the promotion of these languages in the digital space and the creation of educational products on them.

Keywords: Pamir languages, Shughnani, Wakhi, Ishkashimi, Tajik, Western Pamir, Mountainous-Badakhshan Autonomous Region

ON LANGUAGE NAMING IN THE MOUNTAINOUS BADAKHSHAN AUTONOMOUS REGION // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2022. Issue 3 (37). P. 20-30

This article discusses the history and development of the names of languages spoken in the Mountainous Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan as they appear in Russian and Tajik texts. The focus is on the nomenclature of minority Iranian languages known as Pamir languages, including the various names of individual local languages, the reasons for the displacement of some language names by others, and the presence of variants and their coexistence. The article also covers the linguistic and historical background of this nomenclature in Russia/USSR, Tajikistan, and elsewhere, and discusses how changes in the interpretation and application of this terminology, which have acquired the character of trends, are manifested in socio-political discourse. The analysis is based on statutory documents, official statements, scholarly discourse, and social media data related to language policy in Tajik and Russian. The article also examines the use of ethnonyms and glotonyms formed in the Soviet period during the national demarcation of borders and the impact on Iranian and Turkic peoples in Central Asia. The article utilizes sociolinguistic methods to monitor modern trends in language nomenclature and identify retrospective tendencies, revealing the causal relationships underlying changes in language designation in relation to extra-linguistic factors and identifying key ethno-political moments that trigger differentiation of individual terms.

Keywords: Iranian languages, Pamir languages, linguistic minority, language policy, Tajikistan, Mountainous Badakhshan Autonomous Region, Pamir