Role of Tourism in Preservation and Support of Minority Languages: Russian and Global Context

This article explores the role of tourism in the preservation and support of minority languages in Russia, focusing on the Karelian, Tatar, and Buryat languages. The study is framed within the methodological scope of language commodification research, language landscape, and language economy. Fieldwork data from Tatarstan, Karelia, and Buryatia in 2021, 2022, and 2024, as well as findings from other researchers, form the basis of this investigation. The article highlights the uneven use of minority languages as a tool for ethnographic branding from region to region. The authors conclude that minority languages exist in the language landscape through the naming of various realities, from toponyms to gastronomic terms, serving ethnographic branding and symbolic functions by providing specific words and morphemes. Contrary to expectations, tourism does not contribute to an increase in the number of speakers of minority languages or their use in discourse, both in Russia and globally. However, the increased presence of these languages in public spaces, including for marketing purposes, indirectly enhances their prestige and aids in their normalization.

language commodification, tourism, minority languages, ethnographic branding, Russia