• Alla Nedashkivska, PhD (University of Alberta)
• Anna Kudyma, PhD (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Svitlana Malykhina, PhD (Boston University)

In many communities the use both of Ukrainian and Russian is accompanied by political, social and ideological discussions, tensions, conflicts, and debates. In addition, the Russian war against Ukraine has resulted in a heightened focus on language questions in Ukraine and Ukrainian-speaking communities. In this session, we will introduce Ukraine’s language situation in its sociopolitical context, particularly since the country’s independence. We will also share recent data on Ukrainians’ language practices, focusing on three interrelated themes:

1. the use of language during the war in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora;
2. language practices and attitudes towards heritage Ukrainian and Russian languages among recent immigrants;
3. maintenance of Ukrainian by bilingual/multilingual children in U.S. immigrant communities, paying particular attention to linguistic, cultural, and educational issues in communities affected by the war.

In the first section, we will explore the ways in which language is influenced by political actions and accrues sociopolitical meaning during war, focusing on the use of language by Ukrainians, including those displaced during the war. We will present narratives about language use during the current war, examine shifts in language attitudes and practices, discuss the relationship of narratives and changing practices to language ideologies being constructed and foregrounded due to the war, and argue that these processes contribute to the construction of ‘new’ or shifting social identities through language.

In Parts Two and Three we will focus on new challenges during the war related to the maintenance and acquisition of heritage languages. In Part Two, we will analyze diaspora media narratives about the patterns of interaction between speakers of Ukrainian and Russian to demonstrate their sometimes binary coverage. We also will share preliminary results of a survey that show contested attitudes and multiple opinions about defining heritage identity through traditional family practices and socialization experiences in the local Ukrainian and Russian diasporas.

Part Three will focus on the results of our study on how bilingual/multilingual children in families of Ukrainian immigrants and recent Ukrainian refugees maintain their Ukrainian language and culture in California, USA. We will focus on the language attitudes of parents, children's language exposure, and the results of attending the Ukrainian Saturday school "Ridna Shkola" (Los Angeles) in terms of supporting families’ language policy objectives. Additionally, we will discuss the school’s support of Ukrainian refugee children in preserving their culture providing a secure environment for families affected by the war in Ukraine.

We will conclude our presentation with a discussion of the war causing us to re-evaluate the relationships between languages and its effect on languages and the community, and suggesting potential venues and questions for new research.