The Russian Language in Turkmenistan
The author of the Nähili.com blog I have already written about devoted one of his posts to the problem of the Russian language in Turkmenistan. He wonders why many Turkmen use the Russian rather than their native Turkmen language in their everyday life. Indeed, it was one of the things that struck me when I was in Turkmenistan. Almost all the signs and inscriptions that I could see everywhere in the streets were written in Turkmen (using the Latin alphabet) but everyone in Ashgabat spoke Russian!
The roots of inappropriate speaking of Russian in Turkmen families or Turkmen workplaces:
· older generation’s Russian education;
· wanting to be Russian, and feeling a second-class human being;
· laziness to force oneself to learn Turkmen better after Independence.
I think that there is one more reason. After Turkmenistan became independent in 1991, its authorities started to eliminate the Russian language from public use (and at the same time violate the rights of the Russian minority) hastily replacing it with the Turkmen language. But as it turned out, the Turkmen people were not ready for this. The inhabitants of big cities accustomed to the Russian language out of spite refused to speak Turkmen. When something is forced upon people, the result is often contrary to what it is expected to be.
What should the people who really care about the development of the Turkmen language do in this situation?
My suggestion to patriotic Turkmens on how to fix this;
· create technical Turkmen dictionaries;
· digitize and spread existing Turkmen dictionaries;
· read Turkmen literature and promote it;
· show everyone advanced Turkmen technical achievements (you’re the tech savvy ones).
I fully agree with this. But is a natural, spontaneous development of a language possible in a country that controls every aspect of social life and does not allow writers, journalists and artist to freely express themselves? I think it is not, because it is difficult to develop a language by repeatedly reprinting the “Ruhnama” or writing another article extolling the president’s achievements.
on February 26th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I believe the majority of Turkmen speaking Russian in Ashgabat and other large cities actually speak Turkmen at home. Russian has always been and remains a second language for ethnic Turkmen. Is the fact that many Turkmen are bilingual a ‘problem’? Young students are taught Turkmen, Russian, and English in school (or German if the programs survived). Instead of eliminating their widely-used second language and struggling to teach the young generations English, wouldn’t it benefit Turkmenistan to retain Russian as a regional language?
on February 27th, 2008 at 2:43 am
no one said we should promote Turkmen language by printing Ruhnama, and it is a fact, even if you don’t want to admit, majority of Turkmenistan speaks Turkmen, so why should we abandon our own language to some foreign language? Russian language does not control every aspect of social life, that is a big lie, and one does not become democratic by accepting a foreign language, and finally you have no idea about Turkmen language if you think it is insufficient, read some Turkmen literature like B. Kerbabayev. I am not against learning Russian language though.
on February 29th, 2008 at 9:18 am
mofo who da fuck deleted my comment
on February 29th, 2008 at 10:35 am
to mofo
Turkmenbashi the Great has deletad your stupid comment.