ETHNICITY AND NATIVE LANGUAGE: PROBLEMS OF YOUTH SELF-IDENTIFICATION (ON THE DATA OF THE ASSOCIATIVE EXPERIMENT IN CRIMEA)
The article investigates the influence of the state language on the personal national identification of an individual living in a multicultural environment. On the data of Crimea, formation of ethnic self-awareness is proved to be based on the system of values with the choice of national identity being caused by ethnic and cultural factors, one of which language is. Deprivation of the national language under the influence of the language of the dominating population group by number is considered to be a reason for losing ethnic identity, since existence of a nation without a language community is unlikely to be possible. The author concludes that preserving languages of national minorities in a multicultural region depends not only on the current state language policy, but also on the activities of non-governmental organizations, which are due to aim at popularization and increasing status of national languages, inside their ethnic groups in particular.