The concept of mother tongue in the consciousness of internally displaced Ukrainians: interpretation, reconception

Background. The full-scale Russian invasion of the territory of Ukraine greatly affected the lives of Ukrainian people. The war led to changes in Ukrainians’ interpretation of their mother tongue and, in general, the modification of the understanding of this concept. There is no doubt that studying such changes is an important task in the context of the transformation of the language situation in Ukraine during the war analysis.Contribution to the research field. These findings may help us understand how temporarily displaced people define their mother tongue and describe this phenomenon.Purpose. The study aims to discover which language Ukrainians call their mother tongue, how they interpret this concept, and whether their understanding of the concept of their mother tongue has changed throughout their lives.Methods. The method of language biography is used. Our research material is the language biographies of temporarily internally displaced Ukrainians (27 dictaphone recordings) recorded during language interviews.Results. It is found out that now the concept of mother tongue can be modified in the consciousness of Ukrainians. These modifications relate to the main factor, which is the basis of the definition of the term “mother tongue”. The interviewees most often mean mother tongue as mother’s language, parents’ language, first language, childhood language, the language of the society, language you think in, the language of your country, the state language. After analyzing the materials of the language biographies, we define 6 main models of describing the mother tongue.Discussion. The revealed trends point to the need for new research to record changes in language behavior and consciousness caused by the impact of the full-scale Russia-Ukraine war.