Features of functioning of the Russian and Erzyanian languages among indigenous of Mordovian village

The article is fully devoted to the problem of the switch codes of Russian and Mordovian (Erzya) languages in various professional and gender groups. The main task of the research is to find out whether Erzya and Mordovian languages in a modern village are in functional additionality in regard to the professional occupation and gender of the native speakers. The study object is the representatives of the older generation one of the Mordovian (Erzya) village. Conclusions are made in virtue of the questionnaire done by a hundred of respondents who are the total population of a formerly big village. It is found out that the choice of the language in various age groups depends upon the influence of the extralinguistic and cultural linguistic factors, primarily upon the differences in the sphere of communication (formal setting, household, production, family ties). The usage of Russian language is on the rise in all age groups in the situations of passive communication (an appeal to the mass media, reading books). But in the cases of active communication (in household, at work, with the representatives of government institutions) Russian language recedes and mother tongue language becomes correspondingly the main means of communication.