Peculiarities of the functioning of island dialects (on the margins of research into the russian dialect of the Old Believers in the Suwałki–Augustów Cover Image

Osobliwości funkcjonowania gwar wyspowych (na marginesie badań rosyjskiej gwary staroobrzędowców w ośrodku suwalsko augustowskim i polskiej gwary...
Peculiarities of the functioning of island dialects (on the margins of research into the russian dialect of the Old Believers in the Suwałki–Augustów

Author(s): Dorota Paśko-Konieczniak
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Vershina; Old Believers; island dialect; bilingualism; borrowing; calque

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the functioning of island dialects: the Russian dialect of the Old Believers from the Suwałki–Augustów region and the Polish dialect of the inhabitants of Vershina in Siberia. The former functions in the Polish-language en¬vironment, and the latter in the Russian-language environment. The speakers of is¬land dialects do not have any contact with their nationwide languages. The foreign language environment influences the linguistic condition of island dialects to a con¬siderable degree. On the one hand, it contributes to cultivating distinct features of the dialect; on the other, it facilitates the process in which elements of the surround¬ing language permeate the dialect. The major peculiarity of the island dialect is its vocabulary. It is also the most rapidly changing linguistic element. Each and every aspect of reality will sooner or later be reflected in language. Island dialects ‘fill’ their linguistic gap by means of borrowing words from the surrounding language. Both dialects studied in this article borrow lexical items in such fields as health, jobs and professions, household management, education, transportation, and farming, which then at various degrees are subject to adaptation processes.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 36
  • Page Range: 41-49
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Polish