CC BY
51
https://doi.org/10.29013/EJLL-19-4-18-22
Makarets Iuliia Serhiivna, candidate of philological sciences, the Faculty of Ukrainian Philology and Literary Creativity
named afted Andrii Malyshko National Dragomanov Pedagogical Universit E-mail: makarets_iuliia@ukr.net
LANGUAGE SITUATION IN UKRAINIAN PRINT MEDIA
Abstract. The article is aimed at the analysis of language situation in Ukrainian print media in statistical aspect. The correlation between published on the territory of Ukraine print media in Ukrainian and in other languages is shown.
Keywords: media, print media, periodicals, language situation, language policy.
Media are an important indicator of dominant in society views, values and settings. Although today electronic media are the irrefutable leaders in spreading of information, print media still have not completely lost their positions, especially in the regions of Ukraine, where they have a large readership. Therefore, the analysis of the language situation in print media is a significant component for understanding a general picture of the language landscape of the country. For Ukraine as a multiethnic state, the reality of which is marked by a developed Ukrainian-Russian diglossia, this issue is of special importance.
In the context of the analysis of the language situation in media attention of Ukrainian researchers is focused primarily on culture of speech. They are interested in different sorts of lingual interference phenomena and infiltration of surzhyk into the language of media. Works of N. Babych, V Rusanivskyi, O. Ser-benska, O. Ponomariv, S. Yermolenko, M. Bilous, M. Voloshchak, I. Farion, I. Vykhovanets, K. Goro-denska, etc. are devoted to this issue. However, despite studying typical disadvantages of the press language, the question of proportionality of representation of languages in print media remains unclear. Even in studies of L. Masenko, R. Lozynskyi, G. Yevsieieva, Y. Radevych-Vinnytskyi, O. Rud, S. Savoiska, etc. on the issues of the language policy and the language
situation of Ukraine only general judgments are expressed, which are not relied on analysis of statistics. A single attempt to deal with it was made by Y. Besters-Dilger within the INTAS project 'Language Policy in Ukraine: Anthropological, Linguistic and Further Perspectives' (2006-2008). Since then the language legislation of Ukraine has been changed several times. In 2012 the Law of Ukraine 'On the Principles of State Language Policy' replaced the Law 'On Languages in the Ukrainian RSR' (1989). In Art. 24 it established, that founders could determine the language of periodicals in constituent documents on their own without any quotas or restrictions [6]. In 2018 this law was declared unconstitutional because of the violation of the adoption procedure. In 2019 a new language law 'On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language' was adopted. Art. 25 sets that print media in Ukraine should be published in the state language, and periodicals in other languages should have the same circulation in the state language. However, it has no actual impact on the current language situation in Ukrainian print media, since the transitional provisions set that Art. 25 will enter into force for national and regional press in 30 months and for local ones in 60 months [5].
Monitoring of the language situation in the Ukrainian print media is a difficult task. When Ukraine rati-
fied the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, it made a commitment to submit periodical reports on the implementation. In the Conclusions of the Committee of Ministers on all three reports submitted so far by Ukraine it is stated, that
the reports are missing information about the use of
languages in media, so 'the Committee of Experts asks again the Ukrainian authorities to include such information in the next periodical report' [2, 17]. It is not easy to obtain such data in Ukraine, although there are some possibilities for this. According to Ukrainian legislation print media must be registered in the Ministry ofJustice of Ukraine. Among the information that must be submitted for registration is a language of edition. However, Y. Besters-Dilger remarks, that 'significant percentage of registered periodicals are
never published or published only once just before an election' [3, 243]. In addition, the Ministry ofJustice 'does not verify if a publisher holds to the language stated at the time of registration. There are no consequences for those, who have registered a newspaper or a journal as bilingual, but publish it only in one language (mainly in Russian)' [3, 243]. The researcher estimates the percentage of Russian-language press in Ukraine at 85-90% (2006-2007).
Nevertheless, from the website of the Book Chamber of Ukraine at least an approximate idea of the language situation in today's Ukrainian print media can be obtained. According to it, in 2019 about 2000 newspapers and 2700 journals are registered in Ukraine [7]. The information about the language in press is tabulated.
Oblast (an administrative division) Type of edition
Local Regional Nationwide
U R U R O U R UR O U R U R O
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
West. Total: 370
Volynska 57 31 - - - 12 - - 1 13 - - -
Zakarpatska 29 13 - 1 6 7 - 1 1 - - - -
Ivano-Frankivska 42 29 - 1 - 11 - - 1 - - - -
Lvivska 52 32 1 1 - 5 1 2 - 8 - 2 -
Rivnenska 32 19 - - - 9 - - - 2 - 2 -
Ternopilska 60 29 - - - 15 - - - 5 4 7 -
Khmelnytska 66 33 - 1 1 26 1 - - 2 1 - 1
Chernivetska 32 14 - 1 2 11 - - 1 3 - - -
East. Total: 190
Donetska 60 3 10 23 - - 4 4 - 1 7 8 -
Luhanska 35 3 4 18 - 1 - 5 - 1 1 2 -
Kharkivska 95 22 8 20 - 6 10 5 1 8 8 7 -
South. Total: 267
Zaporizka 89 18 12 27 1 2 9 11 - - 6 3 -
Mykolaivska 50 18 15 9 - 2 3 2 - 1 - - -
Odeska 61 7 12 21 1 - 7 4 - 1 2 5 1
Khersonska 67 24 8 17 - 8 1 - - 4 5 - -
Center. Total: 449
Vinnytska 88 55 1 8 - 11 1 9 - - - 3 -
Table 1. - Language of newspapers, that are registered in Ukraine
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Dnipropetrovska 165 42 27 47 1 6 15 8 - 5 8 6 -
Kirovohradska 34 14 1 3 - 6 - 2 - - - 8 -
Poltavska 86 53 1 7 - 21 - - - 4 - - -
Cherkaska 76 46 1 5 2 14 - 1 - 4 3 - -
North. Total: 667
Zhytomyrska 48 36 - 3 - 8 - 1 - - - - -
Kyivska 94 71 2 6 - 6 1 1 - 4 3 - -
Kyiv 441 25 10 3 - 2 7 11 1 155 177 36 14
Sumska 42 24 4 6 - 4 1 3 - - - - -
Chernihivska 42 23 6 1 - 8 - 2 - - - 2 -
Note: U - in Ukrainian, R - in Russian, UR - in Ukrainian and Russian, O - in other languages
Calculations show that the newspapers, registered as monolingual in Ukrainian, prevail. According to the registration data among monolingual newspapers 56.9% are in Ukrainian (65.2% of local, 59.1% of regional, 40% of nationwide), 21.1% are in Russian (11.7% of local, 17.9% of regional, 40.7% of nationwide) and 20.2% are bilingual, in Ukrainian and Russian (21.8% of local, 21.2% of regional, 16.4% of nationwide). The situation varies depending on a region: in West, North and Center Ukraine monolingual editions in Ukrainian prevail. In the East most periodicals are monolingual in Russian, in the South there is the same number of monolingual Ukrainian, monolingual Russian and bilingual Ukrainian-Russian editions. There are only 36 periodicals in Ukraine, that are published in other languages (mostly they are registered as bilingual, also in Ukrainian) such as English, Polish (Volynska, Ivano-Frankivska oblasts), Hungarian (Za-karpatska oblast), Romanian (Chernivetska oblast), German (Chernivetska, Khmelnytska oblasts), Moldavian and Bulgarian (Odeska oblast).
Thus, according to statistics, in print media the state language dominates. However, it is significant,
Table 2.- Language of journals,
that the number of monolingual nationwide newspapers in Ukrainian and in Russian is almost the same, and the majority of monolingual newspapers in Ukrainian is local periodicals. Indirectly this ratio reflects predominance of Russian in many big cities of Ukraine.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to keep track of the actual circulation of newspapers in different languages. Usually, the circulation of newspapers in Russian is larger than in Ukrainian, which results in decrease of advertiser's interest in the latter [3, 243] and their lower financial viability. In addition, a publisher, when he registers a newspaper as bilingual in Ukrainian and Russian, does not indicate, whether some materials will be printed in Ukrainian and other in Russian or whether there will be two circulations - in Ukrainian and Russian - with identical content. Mostly the first case takes place, so that one part of content is available only in Ukrainian and the other one only in Russian, and to read the whole issue one must know both languages.
Trends in choosing a language by journals are tabulated below.
that are registered in Ukraine
Oblast Languages
U R O UR UO RO URO
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
West. Total: 492
Volynska 39 12 - - 3 11 - 13
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Zakarpatska 33 11 — — 4 12 — 6
Ivano-Frankivska 38 18 - 2 1 9 — 8
Lvivska 203 81 16 13 7 65 — 21
Rivnenska 38 17 1 1 3 5 — 11
Ternopilska 61 27 12 2 6 11 — 3
Khmelnytska 47 21 — — 5 10 — 11
Chernivetska 33 11 1 — 2 12 — 7
East. Total: 332
Donetska 29 1 4 — 10 — — 14
Luhanska 15 - 1 1 3 — — 10
Kharkivska 288 50 19 5 47 20 1 146
South. Total: 242
Zaporizka 56 5 5 1 12 2 — 31
Mykolaivska 25 10 1 — 6 3 1 4
Odeska 128 9 12 — 17 9 2 79
Khersonska 33 11 — — 4 1 — 17
Center. Total: 277
Vinnytska 48 15 — 2 7 7 — 17
Dnipropetrovska 138 17 15 1 34 10 — 61
Kirovohradska 15 4 2 — — 1 — 8
Poltavska 29 6 1 — 5 2 — 15
Cherkaska 47 27 2 — 3 4 — 11
North. Total: 1395
Zhytomyrska 13 4 — — — 5 — 4
Kyivska 50 18 3 — 9 11 — 9
Kyiv 1278 415 224 33 194 125 13 274
Sumska 31 10 — 3 3 3 — 12
Chernihivska 23 9 1 — 3 3 — 7
Note: U - in Ukrainian, R - in Russian, O - in other languages, UR - in Ukrainian and Russian, UO - in Ukrainian and other language(s), RO - in Russian and other language(s), URO - in Ukrainian, Russian and other language(s)
About 83% of all journals in Ukraine are scientific editions, that partly determines their language policy. 29.54% ofthem are registered as monolingual in Ukrainian, 11.68% - as monolingual in Russian. These numbers vary depending on region, and 70% of monolingual editions in Russian are registered in Kyiv. 21.18% of all journals in Ukraine are bilingual, in Ukrainian and Russian. The highest percentage of them is in the South (54.13%) and in the East (51.2%), in the West they make up only 16.26%. On the whole, in Ukraine
monolingual journals are only 43.57%, of them only 5.36% are in a language other than Russian or Ukrainian. Only 63 editions in Ukraine, 2.3%, are monolingual in English and 1edition in Polish. Among journals registered in several languages 48.18% are bilingual, 51.8% are registered in three or more languages. Except for Russian, publishers often choose English. 41.5% ofjournals that are registered in Ukraine, are in Ukrainian and English. Polish and German are next by popularity (78 journals among others languages
are also registered in Polish, 38 in German). There is also small amount of them in French (18 ed.), Spanish (6 ed.), Belarusian (5 ed.), Czech (4 ed.), Slovak (4 ed.), Serbian (2 ed.), Italian (2 ed.), Hungarian (2 ed.), Bulgarian (2 ed.), Chinese (2 ed.), Romanian (1 ed.), Slovenian (1 ed.) and Turkish (1 ed.).
In Ukraine during the years of independence the state almost have not interfered in the language policy of print media. The relevant norms of a new language legislation adopted in 2019 will come into force only in a few years, so they have not yet had an impact on the current situation. The required registration data about language of editions can only contingently indicate the language situation in this field, since in Ukraine there is no actual control over publishers regarding the compliance of periodicals with the declared provisions. But this data is eloquent when it goes about status and public assessment of languages, since the choice of the language(s) for the periodicals is subordinated to the desire to attract the largest possible audience and to
have greater authority (that is why publishers need to take into account the language tastes of potential readers). In Ukraine newspapers in Ukrainian prevail, but it is achieved on account of local editions, however, there is almost the same number of nationwide monolingual editions in Ukrainian and in Russian. The language policy of journals also attests to the widespread use of Russian. However, if in case of newspapers it is related only to historical and cultural factors, in case of journals, most ofwhich are scientific editions, the fact that Russian is one of the languages of international communication also plays an important role. If the percentage of periodicals in Russian in Ukraine is quite large and there is also a small amount of newspapers and journals with materials in English, the situation with periodicals in languages of national minorities despite of commitments made by Ukraine under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is unsatisfactory, whereas there are still only few periodicals which take into account their language rights.
References:
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2. European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Application of the Charter in Ukraine. 2nd Monitoring Cycle. URL:https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMConten t?documentId=09000016806dc600
3. Language Policy and Language Situation in Ukraine: analysis and recommendations / ed. Y. Besters-Dilger.- Kyiv, 2008.
4. Law "On Languages in the Ukrainian RSR" № 8312-11 from 28.10.1989. URL:https://zakon.rada.gov. ua/laws/show/8312-11
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6. Law of Ukraine "On the Principles of State Language Policy" No. 5029-VI from 03.07.2012. URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/5029-17tn137
7. URL:http://www.ukrbook.net/zmi.html
