ETHNOSPECIFIC FEATURES OF CONCEPTS “HOMELAND” AND “NATIVE LANGUAGE” IN THE DISCOURSE OF RUSSIAN-GERMAN SHWANKS

Abstract

The formation of the world picture of an ethnic group, and, consequently, its linguistic picture of the world, is influenced by many factors. Among them, the key ones are the socio-cultural and historical conditions in which this ethnic group exists. Concepts such as “homeland” and “native language” are of considerable relevance for the world picture of the Russian-German ethnos, since these concepts are key to the ethnic identity of any people, and the unique ethno-cultural historical past of Russian Germans gives them special value. The phrase “people on the way”, which researchers of the history and culture of Russian Germans use to denote an ethnic group, describes its migration history quite accurately. At the same time, ethnic Germans who have lived for centuries in a foreign-speaking and foreign-cultural environment on the territory of Russia, like any other minority ethnic group, have always sought to preserve their native language and culture, i.e. their own ethnic identity. Based on the analysis of shwanks written by Russian Germans, the most striking features of the concepts “homeland” and “native language” are identified. The results of the study indicate the ethnospecificity of the linguistic picture of the world of Russian Germans, which comprises such features as contamination, i.e. the mixing of elements of two world pictures – Russian and native German, as well as identity due to sociolinguistic processes.