Ethnic identity and language choice in the family: sociolinguistics analysis of data from a survey of teenagers in the Republic of Bashkortostan

Doklady Bashkirskogo Universiteta. 2026. Volume 11. No. 2. pp. 28-34.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33184/dokbsu-2026.2.7

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Based on a survey of adolescents aged 14–18, the article analyzes the relationship between ethnic identity and the language of everyday family communication. It is shown that, despite the high proportion of respondents who identify themselves as Tatars and Bashkirs (46%), the Russian language dominates family communication in three quarters of the respondents. A significant gap has been identified between ethnic identity and actual language practice: among Tatars, only about 24% use native language in their family, and among Bashkirs, about 31%. The social and structural causes of this phenomenon are discussed, including urbanization, the prestige of the Russian language, mixed marriages, and the functional distribution of languages.