Tarmė, bendrinė kalba ir raštingumas: trys asmeniniai laiškai
Dialect, standard language and literacy: the case of three personal letters

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this publication was to analyze and to compare the relationship between dialect, standard language, and literacy in three letters written in three different dialects— North Panevėžiškiai subdialect (E. I. letter), Vilniškiai subdialect (J. S. letter), and Šiauliškiai subdialect (S. P. letter). The comparison of the letters revealed that better literacy does not necesserally indicate higher impact of the standard language. As the analysis exposed, the least literate letter (E. I.) had the largest impact of the standard language, while the most literate letter (J. S.) was the least influenced by the standard language. This may be related to the environment and the influence of the local dialect that was spoken in the place where the authors lived. E. I. spent most of her life living among the non-native dialect speakers, while J. S. lived all of his life surrounded by the speakers of his native dialect. Therefore, I suggested that during the process of the blend of the dialect (language) systems written standard language is not as important as the spoken dialect of the changed local environment.

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