THE LANGUAGE OF THE YOUNG GENERATION OF OLD BELIEVERS FROM THE VILLAGES OF GABOWE GRADY AND BÓR

The language of young Old Believers is analyzed in this paper on the basis of records gathered during scientific camps organized in Gabowe Grady and Bór near Augustów by Nicolas Copernicus University (Torun) in 1999, 2001, 2004, and 2005. The Russian dialect of the investigated villages is nowadays strongly influenced by the Polish language. There are numerous loan words (adapted and non-adapted) and loan translation from Polish in the speech of our informants. Some phenomena can be considered typical for the sociolect of young Old Believers. The differences between individual cases (idiolects) are caused by socio- and psycholinguistic factors, such as personal attitude to the traditional dialect, and cultural and religious heritage, the individual language competence, the ability to produce elaborated code, prestige of the Old Believers dialect in primary groups, the unity of religious conviction in the informant's family and the dialect's social position at school and at work. Although some of the informants were recorded several times, no serious changes have been noticed: further long-term research is needed.