The Language of the Witness, the Language of the Researcher

When research is conducted involving the collection of testimonies from a wartime, emergency, or crisis situation, the language used by the witness and the researcher is particularly important. The researcher should ensure an unhindered exchange of information by allowing the witness to speak in their preferred language. The situation becomes more complicated when witnesses speak two languages that are commonly used in their country. In the case of Ukraine, the use of Ukrainian or Russian can be politically charged. Interviews conducted with Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking people from Ukraine as part of the project “24.02.2022, 5 a.m.: Testimonies from the War” show the importance of giving the interviewee the right to choose the language in which the interview is conducted. A nonjudgmental approach to the preferred language, as well as the linguistic competence to hear testimonies in both languages, creates the possibility for an in-depth interview. The article also addresses more abstract issues related to the language of the interview. The interviews with witnesses also revealed the difficulty of finding appropriate terms for new social, legal, and psychological phenomena that had not previously been reinforced to such an extent by the context of war. The war revealed new aspects of the linguistic worldview that should be taken into account when recording interviews in a language other than one’s own. Particular attention should be paid to the nonverbal and nontextual aspects of communication. The researcher should be prepared for the dialogical nature of the interview.