Emigrantai: kalba ir tapatybė

LTMonografijoje, remiantis sociolingvistinio projekto „Emigrantų kalba“ duomenimis, analizuojamas lietuvių kilmės emigrantų deklaruojamas kalbinis elgesys, kalbinės nuostatos ir ryšys su tapatybe. Atskiruose skyriuose pristatoma tyrimo metodologija, lietuvių diasporos struktūra, nagrinėjamos bendrosios kalbinio elgesio ir nuostatų tendencijos, šeimos kalbų politika, vadyba ir paveldėtosios kalbos išlaikymo ypatumai, tautinė, kalbinė ir kultūrinė tapatybė ir sąsajos su kalba. [anotacija knygoje]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Dvikalbystė; Emigrantų kalba; Kalbos išlaikymas; Linguistic behaviour; Emigrant language; Knowledge and use of Lithuanian by Lithuanian emigrants.

EN[...] The aim of the present monograph is to describe the linguistic behaviour of representatives of different waves and generations of emigrants living in different countries as well as to analyse the relationship between language and identity. The monograph presents data collected by a team of researchers within the project “The Language of Emigrants” which was carried out at the Vilnius University between 1 February 2011 and 31 December 2013. The project was funded by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language. The main tasks of this sociolinguistic project were the following: to survey Lithuanian emigrants and collect quantitative data on their linguistic behaviour, linguistic repertoire, choice of language varieties in different communicative domains, linguistic attitudes and relationship with ethnic identity as well as ethnolinguistic vitality; to perform a qualitative analysis of the knowledge of Lithuanian, the use of language varieties in different communicative domains, linguistic attitudes, relationship with national identity and its preservation in conditions of globalization and emigration as well as ethnolinguistic vitality. [...] The current monograph offers an interpretation of data on linguistic behaviour, language attitudes and language-based identity within the Lithuanian diaspora scattered around the world over several historical periods. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches was used to account for the dominating tendencies and future perspectives for the maintenance of the Lithuanian language and ethnic identity in different emigration waves and generations residing in different continents of the world. Our study aimed to shed more light on the linguistic features of emigrant language and the perception of identity in contemporary emigration which keeps changing the current social, cultural, and psychological context of Lithuania.For the first time in Lithuanian sociolinguistics, a study involves such a large sample of emigrants (2026 respondents) and such a broach geographical coverage. The data represent people of Lithuanian descent who have, or had, at least one Lithuanian grandparent and who have been permanently living outside Lithuania (in any other European country, North or South America, Australia, Africa or elsewhere) for at least three years. As it is pointed several times throughout the book, the authors do not make any claims about the (non)representativeness of the study – the respondents were those emigrants of Lithuanian origin who volunteered to participate in the online survey or agreed to be interviewed. Hence, our study mostly reflects the opinions of those who cherish their ethnic identity and to whom the Lithuanian language and identity are important issues. It should also be stressed that the majority of the respondents are educated people (73% of them have a university degree) who are skilled in modern technologies rather than those who rarely use computers, email or the Skype. Our study highlighted the importance of Lithuanian which was acknowledged by the respondents across all emigration waves and generations. Only 1% of the respondents said that proficiency in Lithuanian was totally unimportant to them. These positive language attitudes could be seen as one of the major factors contributing to the maintenance of the heritage language and the decision to use it as a tool of communication at home when living away from Lithuania. It is also obvious that to many first-generation emigrants (98%) Lithuanian is the first language. 84% of second- and 34% of third-generation respondents indicated Lithuanian as their L1, which suggests that their positive attitudes towards Lithuanian encourage them to resort to more concrete measures or make deliberate choices which help retain the language and pass it over to the future generations. [...].The maintenance of language requires a conscious and determined decision which is usually made in the family environment, yet a mere decision is not enough because its implementation is also troublesome. Language policy and management in the family is a matter of all family members, children among them. The bigger number of children usually means more policy makers in the family, and the decisions may often reflect preferences of the children rather than of their parents. [...] Study revealed a number of language models among emigrants. First-generation emigrants most often use Lithuanian for communication at home (78%); the second largest area where Lithuanian is used (by 61% of the respondents) is socializing in the community; the other areas are communication with friends (23%), work (22%), and church (13%). The behaviour of the second and third generation is different from that of the first generation. Here, Lithuanian is most often used for communication in the community (89% for the second generation and 84% for the third); the second most frequent area is communication at home (71% and 64%), which is followed by the use of Lithuanian in the church (51% and 41%). [...] Both quantitative and qualitative analyses reveal that the majority of Lithuanian emigrants perceive their ethnic identity in our modern diaspora around the world seems to be quite promising. The study also allows us to delineate future research in this field, which could focus on the links between the maintenance of the heritage language and emotions; the role of different family members (mother, father and children) in the language management and policy in the family; formation of language ideology; actual rather than reported language behaviour and related identity perception etc. The linguistic behaviour deserves to be investigated in an interdisciplinary complex perspective in the context of real and dynamic emigration [...]. [From the publication]