An official status for minority languages?: a study of state languages in Russia's Finno-Ugric Republics

This study focuses on the phenomenon of granting an official status for minority languages. The aim of this research is to explore the formation and configuration of the official status of state languages in Finno-Ugric Republics of the Russian Federation, in order to understand the reasons for their designation and to shed light on the specifics of the official status in the case of minority languages. In the case of minority languages their official status functions foremost and often exclusively as a national symbol. Unless the minority language is the sole official language of the region, the official status proves to offer only a partial tool of language revival.