Homo loguens and ethnic identification processes

The article analyzes functions and possibilities of language in the processes of social identification of an individual. Language as a marker of socio-cultural behavior is involved in definition of an ethnic in-group. This function of language is actualized in a multicultural social environment. A foreign-language environment determines the special significance of ethnoconsolidating function of the language. Linguistic and cultural contacts in a multi-ethnic region are simultaneously a form of dialogue of cultures; “social mirror” providing the identification of specific features of the culture of native ethnic group; means of interaction, which allows for the reflexive projecting of culture's sameness; ethnoconsolidating factor; condition for the development of cross-cultural competence. The interaction of languages in a common territory is a manifestation of the disposition “native language - another language”, which forms auto-stereotypes and contributes to the awareness of hetero-stereotypes of the ethnic group. These findings are based on the results of our research aimed at establishing the criteria for determining the native language of respondents living in Irkutsk Oblast (2011-2018). Despite the objective spread of the instrumentalist approach in philosophy of language, the philosophical and culturological approach that considers language as a unity of emotional-value, sensory-receptive, discursive, value and moral components of the ordinary consciousness of a native speaker has no less significance in modern conditions. The priority of a philosophical understanding of language attributes to ethnicity a value of communicative resource that determines not only verbal, but also social behavior. Language is the dominant factor in the system of ethnic identification of an individual.