Specific features of the language usage and linguistic expression of internally displaced people from Ukraine living in Hungary
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58423/2786-6726/2024-2-30-52Keywords:
refugees from Ukraine, Russo–Ukrainian war, Hungary, language usage, language attitudesAbstract
The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014 has escalated into the Russo–Ukrainian war that broke out on February 24, 2022, leading millions of Ukrainian citizens to decide about leaving the country and seeking temporary and, in many cases, permanent shelter abroad, including in Hungary. The threat to their existence posed by the military actions, the general mobilisation of men aged 18–60, and the economic downturn have led to a significant increase in the number of Ukrainian citizens leaving their homeland behind. At the same time, it is also important to highlight that the mobilisation law banned men of military age from leaving the country as of February 25, 2022, so that men who left the Eastern Ukraine region have predominantly found temporary shelter in the Western part of the country, including in Transcarpathia. At the same time, many men who were not obliged to mobilise because of a medical condition (e.g., disability) or family status (e.g., having at least three children) and who still had the right to leave the country also decided to go abroad. Their numbers are, of course, negligible compared to the number of women and children, who have left Ukraine.
On the basis of the results of an online questionnaire survey conducted among internally displaced Ukrainians currently residing in Hungary, the paper aims to show how the Russian and Ukrainian native speakers of the data, having been exposed to a language environment with which they are completely unfamiliar, have developed language usage strategies and attitudes towards their mother tongue, Hungarian, and the various intermediary languages used during everyday communication.
In the first part of the work, the migration processes that developed in the context of the war and the measures taken by the European Union in response to them are presented. The second part provides general information on the distribution of respondents by place of residence in Ukraine and by place of residence in Hungary, as well as other sociological indicators. The next section describes the respondents’ language skills and characteristics. This is followed by a presentation of respondents’ opinions on their attitude towards Hungary, the Hungarian language, learning the Hungarian language, and the possibility of returning to Ukraine. The paper also includes comments from respondents in the form of narrative texts, which help to provide a more balanced picture of the statistics.
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