The Lithuanian national minority in Poland: language and community

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to Lithuanians, one of the smallest national minorities in Poland. It characterises the Lithuanian community, which densely populates the Podlasie region in three clusters (Puńsk, Sejny, Suwałki). The study presents the last century’s history of the Lithuanian education and culture, including differences between the Puńsk and Sejny centres. Lithuanians’ strong sense of national identity is closely connected with their mother tongue, culture and traditions. The minority’s community nature is evidenced by the high prestige and broad scope of use of the native dialect. The functions of the primary and secondary languages are clearly specifi ed by the Lithuanian- or Polish-speaking recipient. The transformations occurring in the Southern Aukštaitian dialect are aimed at unifi cation of the Sejny and Puńsk dialects in younger people’s speech and creation of a regiolect. Interference under a strong infl uence of the Polish language is noticeable at all levels of the primary language