Four Generations, Three Languages, One Island: Language Shift and Identity Negotiation among Sakhalin Koreans

Russian Journal of Linguistics. 2026. Vol. 30. No. 2. P. 417–441.

Zoumpalidis, Bergelson M.

The Sakhalin Korean community presents a particularly interesting case for examining the dynamics of language shift  and identity negotiation, shaped as it has been by successive waves of displacement, colonial experience, and political transformation across nearly a century.

The community’s linguistic repertoire spans three languages, each carrying distinct ideological weight: Korean functions as a heritage language tied to ancestry and cultural continuity; Japanese persists in memory as the language of colonial subjugation; Russian operates as the language of institutional legitimacy, prestige and modernity. 

The Sakhalin Korean community presents a particularly interesting case for examining these dynamics, shaped as it has been by successive waves of displacement, colonial experience, and political transformation across nearly a century.

Keywords: языковая политика, multilingualism, мультилингвизм, language policy, языковой сдвиг, language shift, multiple identities, language attitudes, Sakhalin Koreans, Сахалинские корейцы

Publication based on the results of: Language, literature and culture in historical and social perspective (2025)