scholarly journals Vershina – a Polish village in Siberia. Factors influencing language maintenance under changing social, cultural, economic and political conditions

Author(s):  
Michal Gluszkowski

The article discusses factors influencing language maintenance under changing social, cultural, economic and political conditions of Polish minority in Siberia. The village of Vershina was founded in 1910 by Polish voluntary settlers from Little Poland. During its first three decades Vershina preserved Polish language, traditions, farming methods and machines and also the Roman Catholic religion. The changes came to a village in taiga in the1930s. Vershina lost its ethnocultural homogeneity because of Russian and Buryat workers in the local kolkhoz. Nowadays the inhabitants of Vershina regained their minority rights: religious, educational and cultural. However, during the years of sovietization and ateization, their culture and customs became much more similar to other Siberian villages. Polish language in Vershina is under strong influence of Russian, which is the language of education, administration, and surrounding villages. Children from Polish-Russian families become monolingual and use Polish very rare, only as a school subject and in contacts with grandparents. The process of abandoning mother tongue in Vershina is growing rapidly. However, there are some factors which may hinder the actual changes:the activity of local Polish organisations and Roman Catholic parish as well as folk group “Jazhumbek”

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Michał Głuszkowski

Changes in the language situation of Vershina near Irkutsk in the conditions of Polish-Russian bilingualismVershina was founded in 1910 by Polish voluntary settlers from Lesser Poland. There are three main periods in Vershina’s history, with different social conditions affecting the language choice. During its first three decades the settlers preserved Polish language (a mixture of dialects from their regions of origin), traditions and the Roman Catholic religion. The effects of the Revolution of 1917 and political changes came to a village in taiga only in the late 1930’s. Vershina lost its former ethnocultural homogeneity because of Russian and Buryat workers in the local kolkhoz. It was the beginning of the increasing role of Russian language in the village’s life. The process of intensive sovietization as well as heterogeneous marriages affected language choice in many domains. In the late 1980’s the inhabitants of Vershina regained their minority rights: they can pray in their own church, learn Polish in a local school and found cultural organisations. However, during the years of communism, the language situation changed irreversibly. There are some factors which may hinder the increasing domination of Russian language, such as activity of local Polish organisation, Roman Catholic parish and folk group “Jazhumbek” but their influence is limited. Изменения языковой ситуации в Вершине Иркутской области в условиях польско-русского билингвизма Вершина была основана в 1910 г. польскими добровольными переселенцами из Малой Польши. В истории деревни мы можем выделить три основных периода, характеризирующиеся разными социальными условиями, влияющими на выбор языка. За первые три десятилетия жители Вершины сохраняли польский язык (смесь диалектов из их родных регионов), традиции и римско-католическое вероисповедание. Вершининцы (как они сами называют себя) почувствовали последствия Октябрьской революции и политические изменения только в конце 30-х гг. ХХ века. Вершина потеряла прежнюю этнокультурную гомогенность из-за присоединения к местному колхозу бурятских и русских хуторов. Роль русского языка в жизни деревни стала постепенно увеличиваться. Процесс интенсивной советизации, а также смешанные браки повлияли на выбор языка во многих сферах жизни. В конце 80-х гг. ХХ века жителям Вершины вернули их права меньшинства: они могут молиться в своем костеле, учиться польскому языку в местной школе и создавать организации, но время коммунизма неотвратимо изменило языковую ситуацию общины. Увеличивающееся преобладание русского языка может остановить лишь активная деятельность местной польской организации, римско-католического прихода и фольклорного ансамбля «Яжумбек» („Рябчик”), но их влияние ограничено.


Author(s):  
Helena Krasowska

The Process of Becoming Multilingual: Individual Language Biographies of Poles in BukovinaThis article focuses on multilingual female speakers born in Bukovina in the 1920s using the language biography method. Analysing selected language biographies of Poles living in southern and northern Bukovina entails focusing on a heritage language. The language biography method shows the development process of individual language awareness. The cases analysed in the study indicate that it is difficult to preserve the linguistic and cultural identity of an individual in mixed-language marriages. For Bukovinian Poles, the Polish language and the Roman Catholic religion are factors of identification and indigenous values symbolizing their belonging to the culture of their ancestors. These two elements are at the core of their identity and are fundamental cultural values which are passed on to children. All the language biographies presented in the article show the speakers’ multilingualism and the way and time in which they learned subsequent languages. Their acquisition was voluntary on the one hand, but imposed on the other. Proces stawania się wielojęzycznym. Indywidualne biografie językowe Polaków na BukowiniePrzedmiotem analiz są wielojęzyczne rozmowy prowadzone przez rozmówców urodzonych na Bukowinie w latach dwudziestych XX wieku. W badaniach zastosowano metodę biografii językowej. Analiza wybranych biografii językowych Polaków mieszkających w Południowej i Północnej Bukowinie wiąże się z skupieniem się na języku dziedzictwa kulturowego. Metoda biografii językowej pokazuje proces rozwoju indywidualnej świadomości językowej. Przypadki analizowane w badaniach wskazują, że trudno jest zachować tożsamość językową i kulturową jednostki w małżeństwach mieszanych. Dla bukowińskich Polaków język polski i religia rzymskokatolicka są czynnikami identyfikacji i wartościami rodzimymi, symbolizującymi ich przynależność do kultury przodków. Te dwa czynniki identyfikacji są podstawowymi wartościami kulturowymi, przekazywanymi dzieciom. Wszystkie biografie językowe przedstawione w artykule pokazują wielojęzyczność mówców oraz sposób i czas, w jaki nauczyli się kolejnych języków.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-188
Author(s):  
Michał Głuszkowski

Abstract The present article attempts to describe the social evolution of the community of Vershina, a village founded in the beginning of the 20th century by voluntary settlers from Little Poland, from a cultural island to the stage of assimilation. The social, economic, cultural, political and language situation of the community changed several times. The most significant historical moments of Russia and the Soviet Union set the borders of three main periods in Vershina’s history. During its first two-three decades Vershina consisted a homogenous Polish cultural and language island. The migrants preserved the Roman Catholic religion, Polish language and traditions as well as farming methods and machines. Collectivization and the communist system with its repressions made the Polish village assimilate to its surroundings. With the flow of time, the generation of first settlers died and some of the traditions of Little Poland vanished or got modified by the elements of the Soviet, Russian or Buryat culture. After the Perestroika the minorities gained some rights, which strengthened in the 1990s. Thanks, to the political changes and the collapse of the SU the inhabitants of Vershina can found cultural organisations, cultivate their religion, and learn Polish in local schools. However, in spite of the regained rights, over the decades of mass sovietization and ateization, the culture and customs of the Polish community became similar to other Siberian villages. Young people from the group of our interest abandon their mother language and are not eager to leave Russia and move to Poland. The process of assimilation is intensifying while there are practically no factors protecting the local culture and language.


Author(s):  
Ambalegin Ambalegin ◽  
Tomi Arianto

This research aimed to find out the mispronunciation of English vowels and consonants of the seventh president of Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Joko Widodo in his official English speeches based on the standard of British English Received Pronunciation (RP) and the factors influencing his English vowels and consonants mispronunciation. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. In collecting data, the researchers used observation method with non-participatory technique (Sudaryanto, 2015). In analyzing the data, the researchers used articulatory identity method (Sudaryanto, 2015). It was found that the consonant sounds /θ/, /ð/, /v/, /z/, /ʃ/ were pronounced incorrectly, the vowel sounds/ə/, /ɒ/, /ɛ/, /i/, /e/, /ɪ/ were pronounced inconsistently, and the diphthong sounds /ɪə/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/ and /aʊ/ were pronounced incorrectly. The consonant sound /l/ in the middle of the word was not pronounced. The consonant sound /j/ in the middle of the word is omitted. The consonant sounds /g/, /tʃ/, and /r/ were pronounced the same as the spelling. The consonant sounds /t/, /s/, /k/ at the end of the words were omitted. The letter y sounded /ɪ/ at the end of the word was pronounced as /e/. The diphthong sounds /ɪə/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/ and /aʊ/ were pronounced as /ɪ/, /ʌ/, /ɛ/, /ə/, /e/, and /ͻ/. The factors influencing the mispronunciation of English vowel and consonant sounds were mother tongue interference, sound system differences between Indonesian and English, the influence of spelling on pronunciation, educational background, and environmental background.


2020 ◽  
pp. 93-101
Author(s):  
TADEUSZ LEWASZKIEWICZ

Zygmunt Krasiński devoted much if his attention to the “philosophical” essence of the language and the origins of various tongues. His conjectures, based on speculative and mystic philosophy, are of no scientific importance; rather, they reflect the author’s strong attachment to religion. While not original, his views on the role of a mother tongue in preserving national identity are correct. The writer was interested in spelling and correct grammatical usage of the Polish language. He also focused on assessing the style of texts written in Polish and French. His views were hardly innovative, offering some value in comparison with the 19th century theory of style. Other language-related mentions: the sophistication of Juliusz Słowacki’s language and proposals of baby names based on “inspired” etymological ideas, are inconsequential.


1965 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  

David Brunt was born on 17 June 1886 at Staylittle, Montgomeryshire, a small village in the heart of the Welsh countryside. He was the youngest of the five sons and four daughters of John Brunt, a farmworker, and his wife Mary ( née Jones). Both his parents were of Welsh farming stock and there is no record of any of his forebears having been in any way connected with or even interested in science. As a child Brunt spoke little but Welsh and until the age of ten was taught in the village school by one master mainly in that language. In 1896 John Brunt moved his family to the mining town of Llanhilleth, in the densely populated Western Valley of Monmouthshire, where he worked as a collier. By then the language of that part of the South Wales coalfield had become almost entirely English. For the next three years David attended the local elementary school, and it must have been a considerable effort for a boy accustomed to being taught mainly in Welsh by one man in a tiny rural school to follow lessons in English in a school of large classes and many teachers. It is clear that he quickly overcame these difficulties for in 1899 he secured first place in the list of entrance scholarships (value £2 5s. 0d. a term) for the Intermediate School at Abertillery, a larger mining town a few miles up the valley. Although he never forgot his mother tongue his facility in Welsh naturally declined as opportunities for speaking it became fewer, and in later years, except for a characteristic use of emphasis in argument, there was little in his speech to reveal that, as he often said, he was born ‘west of Offa’s Dyke’. As a part of his education he had to commit to memory long passages from the Authorised Version of the Bible, which no doubt did much to shape the taut prose of his scientific writings.


Author(s):  
K. G. Vasantamadhava

Karnataka has rich epigraphical sources. The entire edifice of Karnataka history from the 3rd century B.C. down to the end of Vijayanagara rests on epigraphical records. A volume of information concerning the political conditions, government and administration, political geography, the social structure and the life of the people, the religious faiths, economic conditions and many other topics, can be derived from a critical study of the inscriptions.The inscription under discussion is a copper plate from the village of Pejavar, Mangalore Taluka, South Kanara District, Karnataka State. The copper plate is now in the possession of K. Venkatraya Achar, Suratkal. It belongs to the period of the Vijayanagara emperor Immadi Devarāya (1424–1446 A.D.). The copper plate is in the Kannada language and script. The script seems to belong to a later period. The epigraphic department of the Government of India noticed this inscription in its annual report in the year 1967–68. Sri Venkatraya Achar, the discoverer of the inscription, made a few observations in the year 1957. This paper seeks to provide fresh information on political, religious and land transaction procedures on the basis of the contents of the copper plate.


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