Ethnic identity and language attitudes of young people in the Kalmyk Republic (Russia)

The basic sociolinguistic questionnaire survey on some aspects of the present-day ethnolinguistic situation among the youth of the Kalmyk Republic (Russian Federation) confirmed a number of expected facts and hypotheses. In the main it is the considerable domination of Russian over the Kalmyk language. Specific is also the level of ethnic consciousness, at which the declaration of Kalmyk nationality prevails among the respondents of Kalmyk background; this fact, nevertheless, frequently ranges between the confines of ethnic and civil concepts of "nationality" and the link to the Kalmyk language competence is not strict and binding either. At the same time, the statistical processing of the survey, however, showed crucial differences between respondents depending on the type of study, sex and place of origin; the calculation of the (non)homogeneity of responses yielded highly informative findings. It was the students of the lower secondary school in in Mer village (one of the few places where Kalmyk is still the language of communication of all generations) which emerged as "the most Kalmyk" out of the investigation. Students of Kalmyk Studies at the Kalmyk University came second. Thus, despite much progress and success in the field of ethnic-linguistic revitalization, the level of Kalmyk identity and language problems of Kalmykia remain a multivalent and open issue.