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of successful activities in this field. Over the past two years institutions of the
Russian Academy of Sciences prepared and published for the first time ever a
18,000 Avakh-Russian dictionary and a Tsakhur-Russian dictionary comprising
over 10,000 native and adopted words. The dictionaries are currently being
digitized by one of the enthusiasts of Dagestan web resources development
with the agreement of the copyright holders. Digital versions will be accessible
online in addition to the 14 Dagestan-Russian dictionaries available there.
In terms of the problem at hand, how mass media define the role and time to
be provided for regional languages is of vital importance. Today a language can
maintain its position as long as it actively penetrates into new communication
modes. Despite new opportunities for regional languages emerging due to the
development of broadcast techniques, active support by the state is required
for Dagestanian languages to find a niche in digital media.
A web portal for various Dagestanian newspapers in 13 local languages has
been running since 2009, providing information on social, political, economic,
academic, cultural and sports life of the republic. The Dagestan State TV
and Radio Company broadcasts in six local languages, and two state radio
companies broadcast over four hours daily in 13 languages. Almost every town
and district has its own TV production companies funded by local budgets
and broadcasting for the most part in one of the local languages. The number
of private radio companies has increased significantly, that include national
programmes in their line-up. Some of these channels have already created their
own web pages with access to valuable archives of ethno-cultural materials.
However these costly measures are not always efficient for tackling the
pressing problems that regional languages are facing today due to a lack of
qualified experts and the passivity of management unable to keep pace with the
rapid changes of media environment. The just-completed educational project
supported by the Council of Europe and European Commission was aimed at
the elimination of these two problems. The results are yet to be summarized, but
for now it is obvious that the project has equipped the republic’s leading digital
media with powerful tools for preserving and developing local languages.
According to social surveys, Russians spend over 10 hours per month in social
networks, being second only to Israelis. Networks are quite popular among
Dagestanis as well, especially among younger generation. It is notable, that many
prefer using their mother tongue for communication on Facebook and similar
social network sites “Odnoklassniki.ru” and “VKontakte.ru”. Blogs in regional
languages have appeared recently and are actively developing. Languages
of Dagestan peoples are widely used in various chats and forums. Possible
negative impacts of promoting social networking in regional languages, like
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