Language is traditionally considered as a basic reality connected with
such terms as ethnos, ethnicity and nationality. The role and functions of
language in forming and determining ethnicity vary a lot in different research
traditions and schools. For primordialists, it is a natural basis for the formation
of an ethnos, i.e. an “objective” and “natural” characteristic of its bearers.
For constructivists, language is an “ethnic marker”. In the instrumentalist
school, it is viewed as one of the main ethnicity translating channels and
so on. But approaches notwithstanding, language is recognized as a major
ethnos founding factor and a basis of ethnic identity which also performs a
number of realizational functions and axiological connotations.
The contemporary social and humanities studies distinguish between the
terms “ethnic identity” and “ethnicity”. While ethnic identity is subjective,
the term “ethnicity”, on the contrary, includes objective features: the ethnic
background of parents, place of birth, culture and so on. Ethnicity is a
characteristic prescribed or constructed by society, whereas ethnic identity is
formed as a result of social reality construction on the basis of ethnicity, but is
not equal to it. And “ethnic identity” is considered to be a more plastic term
than “ethnicity”