Code-switching in Latvia

Nathaniel Worthman
Professor. Dadak
Writing 101
16.2.19

            By definition, code switching is “[The]process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting.”[1]So, why would I write a language log about it? Well, code switching is a really interesting and controversial topic. Some people believe that code switching is the reason why people speak an “impure” form of a given language. In order to illustrate this opinion, I will share a personal anecdote that I think will really help illustrate why some people have this opinion or least in the Latvian-Russian relation. 
            Living in Southern Latvia, I had made friends with many Latvian nationals whose first language was Russian. This is a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. While speaking Russian and only Russian is extremely normal in southern Latvia this is an issue that many people in northern Latvia fear is a threat to nationalism. What I mean by this is that when I was home in Daugavpīls, Latvia you could say « Ябудусидрzemeņu пожалуйста. » (I’ll have a strawberry cider please.) or “Vai tu runāsi русский?”(Do you speak Russian?) and be completely understood. Unfortunately, however, when my friends and I took a trip to the north we were speaking Russian with each other but once the waitress came to our table everyone switched to Latvian. I honestly didn’t understand so when we all went around ordering everyone was ordering their food in Latvian and when it was my turn I had to ask a question about a specific item on the menu. For me however, it was easier to ask in Russian. When I did, all my friends got kind of tense and the waitress quickly switched to English to say, “I’m sorry but we only speak Latvian here.” Shocked I just ordered something else in Latvian and when the waitress left, I asked my friends what that was about. They said that it is a common belief in the north that the Russian language’s presence in Latvia is a threat to the development of the Latvian language as well as the idea of nationalism in Latvia.  
            This was one of the biggest social changes I made when living in Latvia because eventually I started buying into the belief that the Latvian language shouldn’t be bastardized by the Russian language because of the soviet influence that looms over Latvia. It was shortly after a conversation with my best friend in Latvia that I realized that this was just one of many beliefs of linguistics and code-switching in particular within Latvia. She expressed to me that she was upset that she never felt that she could freely express herself through her own languages in the capitol of her nation and how that’s something she loved about America. How even if you were judged for using a language other than English it wasn’t as big of a political statement to use one language over another. Because of this I have been interested in the study of how the Russian language has affected nationalism in Latvia.  

[1]Morrison, Carlos D. “Code-Switching.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 30 May 2017, www.britannica.com/topic/code-switching.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Music and Language

Nathaniel Worthman Professor. Dadak 10.4.19 Music and Language For my final language log I want to talk about how music has affected my language learning process. For my whole life, music and language have been important to the development of who I am asa person today but almost exclusively separate. It wasn’t until 6th  grade when I decided to dedicate my summer to perfecting my knowledge of the Spanish language that I mixed the two. At the end of my 6th grade school year, I asked Señora Perez for her advice. “How can I accelerate the language learning process and become fluent this summer.” Looking back now I can laugh and can understand why sra. Perez was so taken aback. She had told me that in order to get better at Spanish over the summer I could do a couple of things: watch tv in Spanish, read an article everyday in Spanish and finally, listen to spanish music. While I did all of the things she recommended, I focused on listening to Spanish music. To me, this was th
Read more

Latvian: What is it?

Image
Latvian.... What is that? Who speaks that? Ohh that's what they speak in Libya right? These are all real questions I have been asked when talking about the Latvian language. For this Language journal entry please allow me to talk about my favorite language in the world! Latvian (Latviešu valoda in Latvian) is an Indo-European language (Balto-Slavic, Baltic, Eastern-Baltic to be more specific) with a population of about 2 million native speakers. Latviešu valoda is written in the Latvian alphabet and is the official language of The Latvian Republic, and the European Union. Latvian in one of the two last living Baltic languages with Lithuanian ( Lietuvių kalba ).               Linguistically, Latvian is broken up into three main dialects: the Livonian dialect, High Latvian and the Middle dialect. In addition to these Latvian dialects there are also four “ethnic” languages spoken by various ethnic groups of people in Latvia on a smaller scale: Livonian, Curonian, Semigallian a
Read more