REGIONAL IDENTITY AND THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN THE IDENTIFICATION PROCESS

The article examines a type of personality identity – regional identity, the formation of this concept in science is attributed to the second half of the twentieth century. The relevance of the article is due to the interest of a modern person in who he is and where he comes from. The influence of globalization in the field of language and culture has led to a crisis of the doctrine of national and cultural identity and even self-identification of the individual. Identification with people close in spirit, language, culture, lifestyle, religion, ethnic and national, regional characteristics will be able to resist globalization. The aim is to show the existence of a regional linguistic personality and to trace the role of language in the formation of regional identity in the communicative space of the region. The cognitive basis for the formation of regional identity can be considered, first of all, the language and the components of the material and spiritual culture of the region fixed in it. The article presents the "Short linguistic and cultural dictionary-reference book: the cultural space of Vitebsk region", which contains various information about this region. Moreover, from the whole variety of facts, such entities were selected that best represent the cultural space of our region. The cultural space includes all the existing ideas about the cultural phenomena of a linguistic personality, acquired by it in the process of socialization and activity. These are the architecture of the region, literature, regional folklore with its customs, rituals, songs; spiritual culture, nature reserves, famous people of Vitebsk region, material culture (monuments, castles, fortresses), the unique nature of the region (abundance of lakes). The language in the article is considered as a linguistic and cultural phenomenon, as an expression of national and regional culture.