The Affective dimension of language attitudes in Lithuania

• Leidėjo tinklalapis: leidinio tekstas

ENHaving analysed the online survey data that show emotional attitudes towards various languages, it can be concluded that more than half of the inhabitants of Lithuania consider the state language – Lithuanian – to be the most beautiful and even a higher percentage see it as the dearest one. This is the opinion not only of those who are native speakers of Lithuanian but also a large portion of those who are native speakers of other languages. This emotional attitude demonstrates a favourable disposition, a close bond, and sincere feelings towards the state language. The languages of the largest ethnic minorities in Lithuania – Polish and Russian – do not receive high emotional ratings from the inhabitants of Lithuania. Polish is considered to be the most beautiful or dearest language quite rarely. The emotional assessment of Russian is somewhat higher; however, it is important to bear in mind that the survey was conducted before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, this study does not reveal the change in the opinion of Russian following the start of the war on the February 24, 2022. This study confirmed that the positive aesthetic assessment of a language and especially recognition of a language as the dearest is closely related to one’s native language and ethnic identity. This is evidenced both by the evaluation of Lithuanian and in the evaluation of Polish and Russian, as these are the languages of Lithuania’s largest ethnic minorities. The inhabitants of areas where more Lithuanians live more often evaluate Lithuanian positively, while the respondents living in ethnically mixed areas give a more positive evaluation to Russian and Polish. Therefore, native language and ethnic identity are factors that impact emotional language attitudes.This study has shown that the aesthetic evaluation of language attitudes is emotionally less intense than the assessment of a language as the dearest. The latter is much more related to sincere feelings and a sense of closeness than the more abstract aesthetic evaluation of beauty. Foreign languages, even those that are not part of the respondents’ repertoire, are assessed as the most beautiful but very rarely as the dearest. This is clearly evidenced by favourable aesthetic evaluations in the case of the Romance (French, Italian, Spanish) languages. The results of the analysis confirm that the affective component of language attitudes is not necessarily directly related to the cognitive and behavioural components of attitudes. Some languages, which are well known and used by the inhabitants of Lithuania, receive little emotional assessment. This is foremost true about English, which is rapidly gaining popularity and enjoys great social value, but is poorly emotionally assessed. Russian and Polish, which are known and used by a large portion of the inhabitants of Lithuania and are the native languages of some of its population, receive a low emotional assessment. [Extract, p. 54-55]