This study investigates the sociolinguistic significance of orthographic preferences in English-speaking contexts, specifically the tendency to favour “K” over “C” in female names. Drawing on mixed-methods data from the Oxford Dictionary of First Names (2003), the Top 1,000 Baby Girl Names in the US (2025), and discussions on Reddit (r/namenerds), we examine how language, gender, and cultural perceptions shape orthographic choices. We identified 14 name pairs (e.g., Catherine/Katherine) for comparative analysis, each pronounced with the same /k/ sound despite the different spelling. Quantitative comparisons of name frequencies confirm a recent shift towards “K”, while a thematic analysis of 481 user comments highlights four main social meanings assigned to “C” vs. “K”: (1) modernity vs. tradition, (2) gendered symbolism, (3) cultural or heritage authenticity, and (4) practical clarity. These findings demonstrate how surface-level spelling decisions reflect broader sociocultural dynamics – from the ways parents “do gender” through naming choices to the ways digital forums shape linguistic trends. Grounded in social constructionism and digital identity frameworks, our study illustrates how naming norms reveal both evolving ideas of prestige and the tensions between individuality, tradition, and cultural identity in contemporary onomastics, sociolinguistics, and digital culture studies.
Surzhyk, as a Ukrainian–Russian mixed subcode, has long been a subject of extensive research. Despite this, it remains an ambiguous phenomenon that elicits diverse assessments and attitudes. Within Ukrainian academic circles, a tradition has emerged of evaluating this communicative subcode through the prism of linguistic norms, predominantly characterising it as a negative phenomenon. However, in everyday communication, Surzhyk functions dynamically, reflecting the varied attitudes of its speakers. Significant shifts in its perception became particularly evident following the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Consequently, Russian-speaking individuals have increasingly adopted Surzhyk as a means of distancing themselves from the Russian language, which is widely perceived as the language of the aggressor. This article presents the results of a sociolinguistic study conducted in 2020–2021 and 2023–2024 among residents of the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions. The study examines the evolution of attitudes towards Surzhyk in the wake of the invasion, with particular attention given to the role of mass media discourse in shaping these perceptions. The analysis reveals a growing tendency towards a more favourable view of mixed speech; in the context of war, Surzhyk has come to symbolise solidarity and serves as an informal linguistic bridge for transitioning from Russian-dominant to Ukrainian-speaking communication.
This text examines German census statistics as a mechanism through which the state defines national belonging. It explores the interplay between the statistical categories used to assign collective identities and the underlying language ideologies that both shape and are influenced by these taxonomies. Historically and currently, official statistics have employed language not only to identify population affiliation but to actively construct it. Consequently, language serves as a ‘proxy characteristic’ – a statistical category standing in for national identity. The analysis traces how language-related questions have been formulated in German censuses from the foundation of the German Empire in 1871 to the present, with a particular focus on the contestation inherent in state-led categorisation.
The aim of this paper is to analyse and discuss the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine for the use and ethnolinguistic vitality of the Mansi language. Mansi is a severely endangered language spoken in Western Siberia. It has no official status; its use is partly supported and partly contested by the state. The direct and indirect consequences of the invasion have resulted in the declining use of the Mansi language and the strengthening of its position as a secret language, used for discussing sensitive or taboo subjects.
This article provides a contrastive analysis of English and Ukrainian existential sentence patterns as a means of expressing the syntactic concept of existence. The investigation is grounded in the theoretical framework of Charles Fillmore’s Frame Semantics and Marvin Minsky’s frame theory. The paper conceptualizes the existential sentence pattern as a typical proposition in which the predicate requires two mandatory actants (specifically, Patient and Locative) to form a grammatically correct utterance in both English and Ukrainian. Employing both frame modelling and comparative methods, the author compares the ‘default’ assignments of the ‘Locative slot’ and the ‘Patient slot’ in these languages. The study’s findings indicate that the ‘Locative slot’ has identical ‘default’ assignments in both English and Ukrainian. However, speakers follow different ‘default’ assignments when filling the ‘Patient slot’ with nouns representing specific classes. In English, both singular and plural forms are acceptable, whereas in Ukrainian, the plural is the preferred option.
