Aspects of Lithuanian identity in the works written by Lithuanian Canadians

ENDue to the historical, economical and political development, the world today has become ‘a melting pot’, a mixture of cultures and nationalities. Each of the world’s nations has groups of individuals living within its borders who use other languages in addition to the national language to function in their everyday lives. Bilingual people are met in every community, and bilingualism is considered as a norm. According to B.Spolsky, the term ‘bilingual people’ is used in sociolinguistics as people who have some functional ability in a second language. This may vary from limited ability in one or more domains, to very strong command of both languages. This article deals with bilingualism of Canadian immigrants of Lithuanian descent from the sociolinguistic point of view based on the literary works. Three novels have been taken as the object of sociolinguistic study, viz. “Buying on Time” by Antanas Šileika, “The Embrace” by Irene Guilford and “Mountain Shadows” by Magdelana Eggleston. However, only these three novels were written by Canadian authors of Lithuanian descent and published in Canada in the 20th century.