Lietuvybė ir lietuvių kalba Argentinoje

LTPastaraisiais metais suintensyvėję lietuvių diasporos tyrimai kol kas labai menkai teapima išeivių, pasklidusių po Pietų Amerikos žemyną, situaciją, o tyrimų apie kalbinį šios išeivijos dalies elgesį nėra arba jų nežinoma. Verta pabrėžti ir tai, kad nėra bent kiek nuodugniau tyrinėta pirmosios lietuvių emigracijos bangos, apimančios XIX a. pabaigos ir XX a. pradžios išeiviją, kalbinė situacija. Šiame skyriuje analizuojama keletas lietuvių kalbos ir lietuvybės Argentinos lietuvių bendruomenėje aspektų. Remiantis kokybinių pusiau struktūruotų interviu duomenimis, surinktais 2015 m. lapkričio mėn. Argentinoje, norima pažvelgti į lietuvių kalbos kaip paveldėtosios kalbos vietą ir vaidmenį šios šalies lietuvių diasporoje, į kalbines emigrantų nuostatas ir sąsajas su lietuviškąja tapatybe. Šio skyriaus tikslas yra atskleisti tankiausiai Argentinoje susibūrusios lietuvių grupės sociolingvistinį vaizdą, nustatyti, kaip Argentinoje gyvenantys lietuvių kilmės žmonės moka ir vartoja lietuvių kalbą, kokie veiksniai yra nulėmę kalbos išlaikymą ar praradimą, kokios kalbinės nuostatos yra padariusios didžiausią įtaką paveldėtosios kalbos išlaikymui ir lietuviškosios tapatybės konstravimui. [Iš teksto, p. 87]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Dvikalbystė; Emigrantų kalba; Kalbos išlaikymas; Linguistic behaviour; Emigrant language; Knowledge and use of Lithuanian by Lithuanian emigrants.

ENThis chapter deals with several aspects of the Lithuanian language and identity in the Lithuanian community residing in Argentina. Drawing on the data collected via qualitative semi-structured interviews in November 2015 in Argentina, the chapter aims at examining the status and role of Lithuanian as the heritage language in the Lithuanian diaspora living in Argentina, linguistic attitudes held by emigrants and the relationship with the Lithuanian identity. The main goal of this chapter is to reveal the sociolinguistic profile of the Lithuanian community most densely concentrated in Argentina, to determine the extent of the proficiency and use of Lithuanian by Argentinian residents of Lithuanian descent, to identify the factors that have determined language maintenance or attrition and the linguistic attitudes that have had the major impact on the maintenance of the heritage language and the construction of the Lithuanian identity. The chapter analyses 67 direct semi-structured in-depth interviews recorded in three cities in Argentina, namely Buenos Aires, La Plata, and Berisso. The largest share of the respondents consists of emigrants of economic necessity who moved to Argentina from Lithuania prior to the Second World War and who were descendants of the former young, illiterate or nearly illiterate residents of poor villages or small towns in Lithuania. The chapter devotes most attention to the narratives of emigrant experiences and linguistic practices of the second generation Lithuanian emigrants that reveal their linguistic biographies and features of the Lithuanian identity. The study of the Lithuanian diaspora in Argentina and the analysis of emigrants’ narratives have revealed the features of the first (pre-war) wave of Lithuanian emigration, the nature of the emigrants’ linguistic behaviour and their perception of the Lithuanian identity.The majority of the people of Lithuanian descent based in Argentina belong to the second generation or subsequent generations of emigrants, i.e. they were already born in Argentina. Members of the second generation have mostly acquired Lithuanian from their parents since Lithuanian was most often used by the parents at home. Some respondents claimed they (had) always used Lithuanian in interacting with their parents, grandparents and other elder relatives and sometimes with their siblings. However, natural passing down of the heritage language (Lithuanian) to the younger generations in this diaspora essentially has decreased or discontinued altogether. The majority of the youth participating in the activities of Lithuanian communities have acquired the knowledge of Lithuanian in various language courses organised in or outside Lithuania, whereas they never or almost never use Lithuanian naturally. Rather than using the standard variety representative of the status of the 20th century Lithuanian language, Lithuanian emigrants who came to Argentina spoke the dialect of the region in Lithuania they had resided in prior to their emigration. The examples of the second generation emigrants’ language use shows that in those families whose members had originated from the areas representing different dialects and in communities whose members represented a variety of dialects, the use of Lithuanian resembled a mixture of the features of different Lithuanian dialects. However, it is beyond the scope of the present study to provide a detailed analysis of what features of the dialects and sub-dialects characteristic of those that were used in the early 20th century in Lithuania are still present in the language used by Lithuanians based in Argentina, the ways they have intertwined and affected each other when used in such an enclosed community of people whose social interaction with Lithuania has been relatively limited.Such points of inquiry thus remain to be explored in future research. Members of the Lithuanian community in Argentina who acquired such an archaic and dialect-based Lithuanian from their parents or grandparents, tend to evaluate the quality of their Lithuanian in rather cautious terms. Some respondents stated that they felt their vocabulary in Lithuanian was lacking, they realised that the lexis they used was archaic and that they had insufficient communication skills in Lithuanian. The majority of the respondents admitted that interacting in Lithuanian was rather difficult to them, that their use of Lithuanian was fairly infrequent and some respondents reported that they no longer had the possibility to use Lithuanian after their most senior Lithuanian-speaking family members had passed away. Although some of the respondents claimed that they read different types of literature, media texts, browsed the Internet in Lithuanian, they nevertheless evaluated their Lithuanian writing skills in rather sceptical terms. The majority of the interviewed subjects reported they frequently switched codes, a considerable amount of clear code switching was also observed in the social interaction among the members of the Lithuanian community in Argentina. The majority of Lithuanians in Argentina very clearly manifested their Lithuanian identity, emphasised their close relationship with the Lithuanian culture, customs, and with Lithuania which many of them had visited after the restoration of Lithuanian independence. The idea of the Lithuanian identity and emotional bond with Lithuania in the communities of Lithuanians in Argentina is very vivid and it is reflected in practically every narrative that we have recorded. However, language is not given the status of an essential component of the national identity. [From the publication]

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