Polska młodzież na Litwie: o Pulakach i Wilniukach
Young Poles in Lithuania: about Pulaki and Wilniuki

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the blog and the corresponding Facebook group: Pulaki z Wilni. The members of the group are mostly young people from Vilnius area in Lithuania, who consider themselves Poles. The group’s main aim is to use their regional variety of Polish, also in a written form. Since the members of the group also call themselves Wilniuki, the presentation of the Pulaki starts with this term and the way how Wilniuki characterize themselves. Furthermore, the article presents the self-description of the group Pulaki z Wilni on Facebook and continues with an analysis of the users’ language in numerous online discussions. We can note that the cited posts use much (self-)irony and over-use not only of regional attributes of Polish, but also Russian words and grammar. The users play with the language and communicate with a variety of Polish different from the generally recognised standard – they even sometimes create entirely novel words or expressions. The texts show a clear demarcation between Poland and the Polish language used there and the Polish language spoken by Wilniuki. They raise the value of regionalisms, but also of mixed languages and cultures. Yet, most of all it shows that many young Poles in Lithuania use Polish in a creative way, and that their language is a living language.

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