Raštingumo link : keli sociolingvistiniai XX a. pradžios lietuvių išeivių portretai

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Emigrantai (Diaspora); Laiškai; Laiškas; Lietuviai emigrantai; Lietuviškas raštingumas; Raštingumas; Rašyba; Sociolingvistika; Sociolingvistinis portretas; Emigrants; Letter; Letters; Literacy; Lithuanian emigrants; Ortography; Sociolinguistic profile; Sociolinguistics; Vernacular literacy.

ENIncreasing emigration from Lithuania to the North and South Americas at the turn of the twentieth century fostered the spread of letter writing practices among the ordinary Lithuanians. Emerging letter writing and reading practices became socially embedded in peasants’ everyday life, and they helped to shape their vernacular literacy practices. This paper deals with the linguistic analysis of five letters written by three emigrant writers (Pranas Zykus, Pranciškona ir Juozapas Terbokas, Ignas Kupšys) at the beginning of the twentieth century by focusing on the correlations between literacy and orthography. Several vernacular literacy practices employed by emigrant writers were highlighted in the paper. The polyphonic nature of Terbokas’s letters points to the collective writing practices employed by ordinary writers at that time, while Kupšys „individualized“ orthographic practices and borrowings from English indicate that his literacy practices were shaped by his everyday life as a miner. Terbokas’s and Kupšys writing manifest the features typical for grassroots writing, namely, heterography (inconsistent spelling or use of lower and upper case letters, preference of phonetic spelling, erratic punctuation, etc.) and formulaic (ritualized) writing.Zykus relationship to writing and literacy was different from Terbokas and Kupšys. Zykus’ orthography was shaped by both– traditional, or pre-standard, and standard– orthographic practices. Thus, different from Terbokas and Kupšys, Zykus was trying to adhere to the writing norms. Analysis of Zykus letters reveal the influences of institutional literacy practices, i.e. features of pre-standard orthography reflect the traces of the illegal schooling, while the use of Russian, as well as adoption of Russian handwriting norms point to the official schooling (in Russian). Features of standard orthography most probably indicate the growing influence of the orthographic practices employed in Lithuanian press. [From the publication]