New speakers versus old speakers. O akwizycji języka niemieckiego dwóch pokoleń na Mazurach

Abstract

NEW SPEAKERS VERSUS OLD SPEAKERS: ABOUT GERMAN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN TWO GENERATIONS IN MASURIA

This article presents part of the results of a field study carried out in Masuria in Summer 2018, in the framework of the international Beethoven 2 project: “Generational language differentiation: morphosyntactic changes resulting from Polish-German language contact in the speech of bilingual persons” financed by Narodowe Centrum Nauki (National Science Centre), project no. 2016/23/G/HS2/04369, affiliated with the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Science. The author focuses on two different linguistic situations connected with acquisition of German language by new speakers, or adults who learn a language during organized educational classes, in relation to old speakers, or those who learnt the language in their childhood, in the context of their homes or families. The members of both groups were born in Masuria, which was part of East Prussia before World War II, and was incorporated into Poland after 1945. The language change in that territory has had an important effect on the acquisition process of the Polish and the German languages, and on the language biographies of the speakers. However, the notion of generation included in the title of this paper does not necessarily have to refer to changes in the diachronic approach, but can also address synchronically occurring conditions, as both old and new speakers can be representatives of various generations of the same family or members of the same community and of similar age.