Resisting language shift: Scaling and rescaling Circassian and Russian across urban and rural Adygea

Abstract

This article employs scalar analysis to explore the language practices of Circassians in Adygea, a republic in Russia situated on the traditional lands of the Indigenous Circassian people. Paying attention to language ideological assemblages in urban and rural areas, I examine how Circassians navigate and attempt to reconfigure linguistic hierarchies across the urban–rural continuum in response to the ongoing language shift to Russian. The paper questions the analytical usefulness of the urban–rural dichotomy, which may be diminishing as communities increasingly engage with digital media and online platforms, where content in the ancestral language remains limited. It also suggests possibilities for rescaling a minoritized language away from its association with bounded rural settings and toward its value as a resource for connecting with transnational diaspora communities.