Imperialism without prestige: The Russian language, chronotope, and the paradoxes of linguistic decolonization in Lithuania

Abstract

While in postcolonial contexts the language of the former imperial power is often associated with modernity and prestige, in Lithuania, which has a history of Russian domination, the Russian language indexes backwardness and vulgarity. In this article, I argue that this semiotic inversion is due to the coexistence of competing chronotopes linked to divergent political orders, the functioning of languages as indexes of chronotopes, and linguistic alignments precipitated by the Russia–Ukraine War. Based on ethnography and interviews, this article shows how linguistic practices can become charged sites of chronotopic contestations and exclusions in contexts situated along the intersection of geopolitical orders.