Instytucjonalne wsparcie międzypokoleniowej transmisji języka mniejszości (na przykładzie staroobrzędowców mieszkających w Polsce)
Institutional support of intergenerational transmission of minority language (on the example of Russian Old Believers in Poland)

Summary/Abstract: Since Poland is an ethnically and linguistically homogeneous country, the lack of knowledge of the mother tongue in minority communities occurs much often than of the Polish language. The intergenerational transmission of language in a small community (ca. 1000 people) of the Old Believers in North-Eastern Poland differs from bigger minorities, such as Germans, Lithuanians or Belarussians, who have the possibility to teach their mother tongue as a school subject. Young Old Believers are more proficient in the Polish language, and the traditional dialect fulfills the function of the 2nd language, and in some aspects can be even treated as a foreign language. Due to the structural and lexical differences, resulting from the influence of the Polish language, the Old Believers’ dialect significantly differs from the literary variety of Russian which is taught as a school subject in Poland. Despite of the demographic and administrative problems (there is no possibility to establish a school teaching of the Russian dialect in Poland), the Old Believers have elaborated some mechanisms of teaching their traditional language, which will be characterized in the article, as well as their effects and future perspectives for the self-made language education system in the minority community.

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