Impact of change of the language environment on the extent of language shift in the context of linguistics

Abstract

The article analyses the influence of the language shift and social processes on ethnic identity, whereby the study, on which the article is based, was motivated by processes in today’s Estonia, which cause the low usage of the Estonian language in the Russian-speaking language environments. Also there can be seen a tendency of the language shift in favour of the Russian language. The goal of the article is to describe the development of ethnic identity of the Russian-speaking people, living in the segregated areas in the post-Soviet country Estonia, and the influence of the language choice and shift on the development of ethnic identity of Estonian ethnic minorities. A written questionnaire was used as a method for this study.