Sedlářová, Lenka. “Kists Facing Language Policy in Georgia.” In The Scale of Globalization. Think Globally, Act Locally, Change Individually in the 21st Century, 292-302. Ostrava: University of Ostrava, 2011. ISBN 978-80-7368-963-6 http://conference.osu.eu/globalization/publ2011/292-302_Sedlarova.pdf. Kists Facing Language Policy in Georgia Lenka Sedlářová Lenka Sedlářová University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic E-mail: [email protected] Abstract On one hand the Russian language seems to continue to function as a lingua franca in Georgia in the Caucasus even 20 years after the split-up of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, new needs and governmental educational reforms reflect the recent pro-Western and pro-European policy of the Georgian government. Georgia has been a multiethnic country for centuries. The ethnic diversity poses challenges to the effective communication of the members of the ethnic groups in the Georgian society. The current Georgian policy focuses on the reintegration of the country. The state language policy thus seems to be addressing the minority integration issues. This paper aims to present the results of the original sociolinguistic research using the method of the semi-structured interview. Firstly, it attempts to clarify the goals of the Georgian language policy and the methods of their implementation. Secondly, it will present the results of the investigation into the linguistic situation of Kists in Pankisi Valley, whose mother tongue is the Chechen language, who receive their education in Georgian and can often speak Russian fluently as this is another language taught at local schools, along with English. Situation and language policy and reforms in Georgia Georgia in the Caucasus has been a multiethnic country for centuries. It is a country where the Russian language continues to function as a lingua franca even 20 years after the split-up of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, the recent and current governmental educational reforms reflect the pro-Western and pro-European policy as well as new needs of the members of Georgia's linguistic minorities who had previously managed to communicate by means of Russian. The linguistic minorities' limited knowledge of the Georgian language has become a hinder to their integration into the Georgian society. The present paper aims to describe the ethnic and linguistic composition of the population in Georgia, the Georgian language policy concerning the Georgian language and linguistic minorities' rights, and establish the objectives and reveal the results of the research conducted among the Kists in the Pankisi Gorge in summer of 2011 in relation to Georgian legal framework. Out of the total population of over 4,300,000 inhabitants (GeoStat 2011a), the Georgians (84%) make up the largest ethnic group in Georgia, including Megrelians (or Mingrelians) (the estimate is 10-18%), Svans (0.1%) and Laz, living in Western Georgia. In addition to the Georgians, there are the following ethnic groups: Azerbaijanis (6.5 %) and Armenians (5.7%), Russians (1.5%), and others with the population of less than 50,000 people such as Abkhazians, Ossetians, Greeks, Yezidi Kurds, Ukrainians and the others. One of the smallest ethnic groups are the Kists. The ethnic composition of the country only vaguely points to the linguistic situation. There are linguistic groups in Georgia whose languages belong to distinct language families and their respective branches (Caucasian Kartvelian and Nakh, Indo-European Slavic and 292 Sedlářová, Lenka. “Kists Facing Language Policy in Georgia.” In The Scale of Globalization. Think Globally, Act Locally, Change Individually in the 21st Century, 292-302. Ostrava: University of Ostrava, 2011. ISBN 978-80-7368-963-6 http://conference.osu.eu/globalization/publ2011/292-302_Sedlarova.pdf. Iranian, Turkic, and others), but there are also those whose languages are genetically related although not mutually fully understandable (Georgian, Megrelian and Svan). There are linguistic groups in Georgia whose members learn distinct native languages in childhood, but who, despite this, share common national identity (Georgians, Megrelians and Svans). Moreover, there are linguistic minorities whose members learn non-official languages as their native languages, but who have been achieving education either in Georgian, the current state language, or in Russian or their mother tongue (Azeris, Armenians, Ossetians, Kists, Russians, etc.). As the main aim of the paper is to present the results of the research concerning the Kists, the following section of the paper will focus on the position of the linguistic minorities whose native languages are other than Georgian, and who do not identify themselves with the Georgian nationality. The terms native language, the mother tongue and the first language are used synonymously hereafter. The Abkhazians and Ossetians living in the separatist regions will not be covered by the present paper. How many Georgian citizens are there who do not have Georgian as their native language? Carine Bachmann (2006: 7) estimates that "thirteen percent of its [Georgia's] population does not speak Georgian, the state language, as a first language". Obviously the percentage only seems to take into account national minorities of Azeris and Armenians, but neglects the fact that some Megrelians and Svans, who declare themselves Georgian by nationality (Kurtsikidze and Chikovani 2002: 16), often acquire non-Georgian language as their native language too or they are bilingual in Georgian/Megrelian or Georgian/Svan (Vamling 2001). Therefore my own estimate is that about 20 to over 30% of Georgia's population's native languages are other than Georgian. The largest national minorities belonging to the estimated group are the Azerbaijanis and Armenians. The two minority groups, the Azerbaijanis and Armenians, live in the border areas of their kin countries, the Armenians in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is close to Armenia, and the Azerbaijanis in the region of Kvemo-Kartli, neighboring Azerbaijan to the south. Until recently the government has run the "national schools in the regions, which had been the inheritance from the Soviet era. The positive aspect of such schools is the opportunity for the children to be educated in their mother tongue, which enhances the children's chances to learn successfully (Dutcher 2003: 1). Their negative aspect has appeared in the present disintegration of the linguistic minorities from the Georgian society because of limited knowledge of the state language, also due to negligence of the Georgian language education at such schools. The disintegration is now considered to be a threat to the state's integrity. It shows at several levels; it is an obstacle to communication with the authorities and state administration, entering universities, finding employment as well as entering the active political life in Georgia. The disintegration of the above-mentioned ethnic groups led to the unrests in the Javakheti region in 2005/06, and resulted in the government's concerns about irredentism. Irredentism is a sensitive topic in Georgia after the Abkhazian and Ossetian conflicts arose several years ago, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia got out of control of the Georgian Government. As a consequence of these events, the Georgian Government's goal is the re-integration of the country as well as the integration of the disintegrated people. Considering the Georgian language policy, transition towards the Georgian language education thus became the fundamental aim of the language reforms. The language reforms are being implemented primarily through the body of the Ministry of Education and Science (hereafter MES) of Georgia and its programs. The implementation of the state language into general education is stipulated by law. As Articles 4 and 7 of the Law of Georgia on General Education (2005) (Mekhuzla and Roche 2009: 8) stand, all Georgian citizens are entitled to receive general education in the state or in the native language. The same law, however, requires that the state language is used as a language for conducting the subjects of the 293 Sedlářová, Lenka. “Kists Facing Language Policy in Georgia.” In The Scale of Globalization. Think Globally, Act Locally, Change Individually in the 21st Century, 292-302. Ostrava: University of Ostrava, 2011. ISBN 978-80-7368-963-6 http://conference.osu.eu/globalization/publ2011/292-302_Sedlarova.pdf. Georgian language and literature, history and geography. The reform ensuing from the law was to be implemented by the school year 2010-2011 (US English Foundation 2006). However, the reforms have only been initiated recently, and it will take a few years to finish the transition towards the state when the Armenian and Azeri children will be able to speak Georgian fluently. In 2010/2011 only 40 multilingual schools started teaching history and geography both in the native language and Georgian (there are still over 100 national schools where the implementation of the reforms has not been initiated) as there is an apparent shortage of Georgian language teachers. Approximately one third of the learnt content was to be taught in the Georgian language (Kilasonia 2010). The amount of the curriculum taught in Georgian should rise to two thirds in the next school year (Barabadze 2010). In a 24 Saati daily newspaper interview, Akaki Seperteladze, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science explained the process of supporting the state language, enumerating its following stages: "Teaching will be held in the state language as well as the native language in order to achieve the equivalent competency in the native and state languages. ... But studying the subjects in the state language will increase after time. Transition to the state language will be held step by step. ... subjects envisaged in the national curriculum will be taught in the state language, but the native language will be taught as the subject and it will be given maximal hours" (Kilasonia 2010). On one hand, the importance of multilingual education as "the main supporter of human rights protection and integration" is emphasized by Seperteladze.