UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE IN WAR TIME

Abstract

The article analyzes the specifics of the status of the Ukrainian language and the attitude to it, features of its functions and changes in the internal structure of the language due to the socio-political situation in Ukraine, in particular the military aggression of the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022.
Language is a catalyst for socio-political realities, so it reflects the objective historical changes taking place in the state in its specific way. Since the beginning of the war, the national media space has abandoned Russian as the language of the occupiers. Celebrities (musicians, bloggers, presenters, etc.) have announced that they would speak Ukrainian in public and private life. Many free state language courses have been opened for temporarily displaced persons and general public. The so-called “gentle Ukrainization” is taking place in our society.
The Russian military invasion has intensified three crucial functions of the Ukrainian language, which were less significant in peacetime, namely the ethnic, identification and cultural functions, i.e. language determines a person’s belonging to a certain ethnic community with its inherent values, views and stereotypes. In this context, using shibboleths (palianytsia, nisenitnytsia (nonsense), zaliznytsia (railway) etc.) to identify “friend or foe” is quite indicative.
Since the beginning of the war there have been changes in the internal structure of the language, namely more frequent use of military vocabulary, new words (Orcs, Mordor, rashysm, Putler, cybersoldiers, e-grave, to Macron, etc.), the ban on obscene vocabulary has been partially lifted. The spelling system has also undergone changes, some words, in particular russia, the russian federation, putin, moscow, and others, undergo the process of codifying the lowercase letters.