Ego-documents in Lithuanian
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Aurelija Tamošiūnaitė
Abstract
Following the language history from below approach, this article aims to take a closer look at the scope of the script and spelling reforms for Lithuanian at the turn of the twentieth century and their effect on the writing strategies of “ordinary” population. The data consists of 122 Lithuanian letters written by 42 individuals between 1894 and 1939. The analysis reveals that at the turn of the twentieth century at least one generation of Lithuanians employed two scripts (Cyrillic and Latin) for Lithuanian. The distribution of pre-standard and standard orthographic variants in lower class letters points to the conclusion that pre-standard (“Polish”) graphs did not have as strong a symbolic (ideological) power for the “ordinary” population as they had for the Lithuanian intellectuals of that time.
Abstract
Following the language history from below approach, this article aims to take a closer look at the scope of the script and spelling reforms for Lithuanian at the turn of the twentieth century and their effect on the writing strategies of “ordinary” population. The data consists of 122 Lithuanian letters written by 42 individuals between 1894 and 1939. The analysis reveals that at the turn of the twentieth century at least one generation of Lithuanians employed two scripts (Cyrillic and Latin) for Lithuanian. The distribution of pre-standard and standard orthographic variants in lower class letters points to the conclusion that pre-standard (“Polish”) graphs did not have as strong a symbolic (ideological) power for the “ordinary” population as they had for the Lithuanian intellectuals of that time.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface & Acknowledgements vii
- Ego-documents in a historical-sociolinguistic perspective 1
- A lady-in-waiting’s begging letter to her former employer (Paris, mid-sixteenth century) 19
- Epistolary formulae and writing experience in Dutch letters from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 45
- From ul to U.E. 67
- Flat adverbs and Jane Austen’s letters 91
- Letters from Gaston B. 107
- Written documents 129
- The rhetoric of autobiography in the seventeenth century 149
- “All the rest ye must lade yourself” 165
- Cordials and sharp satyrs 183
- Self-reference and ego involvement in the 1820 Settler petition as a leaking genre 201
- Ego-documents in Lithuanian 225
- The language of slaves on the island of St Helena, South Atlantic, 1682–1724 243
- Index 277
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface & Acknowledgements vii
- Ego-documents in a historical-sociolinguistic perspective 1
- A lady-in-waiting’s begging letter to her former employer (Paris, mid-sixteenth century) 19
- Epistolary formulae and writing experience in Dutch letters from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 45
- From ul to U.E. 67
- Flat adverbs and Jane Austen’s letters 91
- Letters from Gaston B. 107
- Written documents 129
- The rhetoric of autobiography in the seventeenth century 149
- “All the rest ye must lade yourself” 165
- Cordials and sharp satyrs 183
- Self-reference and ego involvement in the 1820 Settler petition as a leaking genre 201
- Ego-documents in Lithuanian 225
- The language of slaves on the island of St Helena, South Atlantic, 1682–1724 243
- Index 277
