Kształtowanie podobieństw językowych i etnicznych oraz reakcja na nie

Abstract

This article reflects on the relationship between languages and the process of nation formation. The researcher argues that the crystallisation of ethnicity requires constant development of a literary language, a national culture, but this process must be implemented by people of letters, poets, and the intelligentsia of a given nation, and not by external political intervention. The paper includes an analysis of ethnos separation processes, the origins of which are not fully known. Most often they result from taking over some features of neighbouring ethnos and continuing them in their ethnos. However, a new ethnos always arises from other ethnos, through the realisation that, despite similarities, it is fundamentally different from its neighbours. The article finishes with a reflection on the 2022 situation arguing that the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, is a classic example of the conflicts resulting from the convergence and emergence of ethnic and linguistic differences with the overlapping conflicts on lifestyle choices. For the first time is this aspect relating to political and cultural choices visible in the process of nation-building on such a large scale.