LTTaigi visas kalbinis arealas vertintas naujai surinktų kalbinių kraštovaizdžio faktų ir sociokultūrinių tinklų kontekste. Įvardytam kolektyvinės mokslo studijos tikslui ir uždaviniams pasiekti pasitelktas visas pluoštas metodų: deskriptyvinis, rekonstrukcinis, anketų ir interviu, kalbinio kraštovaizdžio analizės ir sociokultūrinių tinklų analizės. Taikant šiuos metodus kolektyvinėje mokslo studijoje 'Lietuviškumo (savi)raiška Šalčininkų rajone: aplinkybės ir galimybės' apžvelgiama, kaip tiriamajame areale realizuojamas lietuviškumas plačiąja prasme. Iškelti uždaviniai: 1) išanalizuoti pirmųjų kompleksinių ekspedicijų po Šalčininkų rajoną eigą; 2) ištirti jų metu surinktą kalbinę ir sociokultūrinę medžiagą; 3) atlikti XXI a. pradžios kalbinės medžiagos analizę; 4) sudaryti sociokultūrinius tinklus ir juos išanalizuoti kalbos (kalbų) kaitos aspektu; 5) išskirti ir apibūdinti svarbiausius vietinio kalbinio kraštovaizdžio bruožus; 6) apibendrinti tyrimą įžvalgomis, atspindinčiomis susiformavusią lokaliąją tapatybę ir jos slinktis. Taigi daugiausia analizuoti ankstesnių ekspedicijų metu surinkti, bet iš esmės dar nuodugniai neaptarti duomenys, kurie leido geriau atskleisti, kaip kalbinė rajono padėtis keitėsi nuo XX a. antrosios pusės iki XXI a. pirmųjų dešimtmečių. O kelių kalbinio kraštovaizdžio ir sociokultūrinių tinklų aspektų analizė padėjo aiškiau suvokti, kaip tie kalbiniai (o kartu ir kultūriniai) bruožai atsispindi viešajame diskurse, išreiškia vietos žmonių tapatybę bei galimas poveikio kalbiniam paveikslui ir jo korekcijos galimybes. [Iš Įvado]
ENINTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Lithuania’s political, social, cultural and demographic situation continues to alter the functioning of languages in the 21st century, particularly in peripheral areas, some of which display very obvious changes. Historical data shows that the Lithuanian language spoken in the south eastern region of Šalčininkai experienced a particularly challenging period in the early 20th century. As a result, today Lithuanian is the official state language but not the tongue spoken at home or during everyday interactions across the region’s towns, villages and settlements. Thirty years after the restoration of Lithuania’s sovereignty, it is important to analyse the current condition of its official language in Šalčininkai, to track changes and forecast future trends. This analysis will also help identify the best tools and methods for modelling the progress of the Lithuanian language spoken in the region. Historical research data combined with linguistic materials collected in Šalčininkai throughout several decades of the 20th century and the early 21st century show how the status of the Lithuanian language and the Lithuanian identity in general has changed across the region. The current study reassesses this linguistic data in the context of newly collected facts of linguistic landscape and the sociocultural networks within the region. Historically, the ethnic and linguistic situation of Šalčininkai has always been slightly different from the rest of Lithuania. Statistical data show that this region is dominated by Slavic-origin (Polish, Belarussian, Russian) residents who mostly speak their mother tongues (and their local variants). According to the 2021 census, the area is populated by 79.5% of Poles, 10.4% Lithuanians, 5.0% Russians, and 2.9% Belarussians (see the Lithuanian Department of Statistics).The current study, therefore, aims to overview the realization of Lithuanian identity in its broad sense within the region. HISTORICAL CONTEXT. The current sociolinguistic and ethnolinguistic situation of Šalčininkai is the result of a series of historical events this peripheral region of South East Lithuania has been caught in for hundreds of years. During the 14-17th centuries, the Lithuanians of Šalčininkai (and the entire Grand Duchy of Lithuania) were being deprived of their national identity via two channels – through the spread of the Belarussian language and the expanding use of Polish in the region. The Belarussian language has been spreading from Slavic-populated territories into those inhabited by the Balts for the last two millennia. It accelerated further when Ruthenian became the official written language of the GDL. It was used to produce the Three Lithuanian Statutes which functioned in the country’s courts throughout the 16th century. This prompted a proportion of local residents to take up Belarussian. The arrival of the Polish language to Lithuania from the west was not only more sudden but fiercer too. The impulse to use it came with the advent of Christianity in the 15-16th centuries, with its subsequent spread pushing the Baltic paganism out. Polish was also penetrating socially. After the two states – the GDL and the Kingdom of Poland – joined to form one federal aristocratic monarchy (the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita in Polish) by signing the Union of Lublin in 1569, the spread of the Polish language met virtually no resistance from the public as it came to be associated with higher social status. After Lithuania lost possession of Vilnius in 1920 (until 1939), the residents of Šalčininkai and Eišiškės were still speaking Lithuanian.The south eastern border of Lithuanian-populated settlements was located further to the east and south east from the present-day territory of Šalčininkai. Polish was more commonly used in towns and manors – the region’s stronger social centres. Lithuanian gentry were more likely to swap Lithuanian for Polish in those areas of life which were relatively closer to the large centre Vilnius. A considerable proportion of nobility (szlachta) in Šalčininkai had therefore adopted Polish from the aristocrats of Vilnius and Poland by the middle of the 17th century. In rural areas peasants continued to speak Lithuanian, and it was not until the 18th-19th centuries that the manors of already Polonised gentry became the centres of Polonising the peasants serving there. Historical facts indicate that the Polonization of Lithuanians in Šalčininkai was not a quick process. At the time Polish was only being used in church, while Belarussian, easier and quicker for peasants to learn, became their second language. Overall, the 18th century use of both Belarussian and Polish was mainly episodic in the area around Šalčininkai. After the fall of the Commonwealth and the divisions of its territory, Lithuania was incorporated into the Russian Empire. The Russian administration of regions and rural districts began demanding that locals spoke Russian, at which point it started competing with the Polish language. However, Lithuanian peasants found learning both of these Slavic languages too difficult and preferred communicating in the local Belarussian variant. Much easier to master, this language spread quickly in the 19th century through direct human contact. The Belarussian language widely used in the towns and villages around Šalčininkai, Lyda, and Ašmena was and still is called poprostu, i.e. a simple language (prosta mowa in Polish). [...]. [From the publication]