ZMIANY SYTUACJI POLSZCZYZNY W WIELOJĘZYCZNYM REGIONIE KOWIEŃSKIM NA LITWIE W XX WIEKU
Shifts in the Position of Polish in the Multi-Linguistic Kaunas Region in Lithuania in the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to describe the shifts in the 20th-century situation of Polish in the Kaunas region in the context of other linguistic changes occurring at the same time in this multi-linguistic, multi-national and multicultural region. Polish language contacted there mainly with Lithuanian and Russian, but also with Yiddish, German and Belarusian. In the course of the 20th century, the situation of Polish underwent dramatic changes; from the language - inter-dialect of various national groups inhabiting the Kaunas region, it became the home-spoken language of the oldest generation of Poles (the middle and the young generation does not use it normally, and usually does not know it). The article also presents reasons for the changes, as well as shifts in other languages coexisting in the region, the history of Polish society there and the contemporary sociolinguistic situation in the region.

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