hrvatski

Između zaborava i asimilacije: dalmatinski govori na Novome Zelandu

Research of the Dalmatian dialect’s maintenance in New Zealand has confirmed the initial hypothesis that there are almost no active speakers present today. However, using the historiographical and sociological results of previous research, this research has undoubtedly confirmed that former inhabitants of central and southern Dalmatia have been settling on New Zealand’s territory in several immigration waves (Trlin 1980 ; Čizmić 1981 ; Walrond 2005 ; Dragicevich i Vinac 2017 ; Šunde 2018). Today they are recognised as Dalmatian immigrants. Their language (speech) belonged to one of the Dalmatian dialects from the time of emigration and in the research it was classified as ancestral Dalmatian dialect (DD). The research respondents were descendants of the aforementioned immigrants and for them DD is an ancestral language. Based on the geographical area from where their ancestors’ emigrated, the respondents’ origins are traced back to the following Dalmatian areas: Makarska Riviera, Zabiokovlje, islands Brač, Hvar, Korčula in central Dalmatia and Pelješac peninsula. Ancestors began emigrating from these areas to New Zealand in the 1880s and continued to do so in several waves, last of which happened during the post-war years after WWII. New research should examine the maintained language based on the emigration wave. During the emigration waves, which lasted about sixty years from the 1880s until the 1940s, thousands of people left Dalmatia for good. Leaving the Dalmatian land was followed by the loss of language in the land of immigration. That especially holds true for passing the language on to new generations far away from homeland. In such a situation the language took on new forms, adapted and eventually shifted towards the dominant language – English. In an emigrant’s preserved letter from New Zealand which is dated in 1906 and was mailed together with some money to his relatives the following is stated: “We are forced to leave our home and kin, wives, children, parents, brothers and sisters and everything else that is dear and sacred to us in this world. Maybe never again, or maybe not for a long time shall we see our dear karst and our blue sea, which thousands of ships sailed, taking away and bringing all sorts of godly treasures (…)” (see Čižmić 1981: 23 – 24). It was evident upon the ancestors’ arrival that they would never return to their homeland. Leaving Dalmatia’s karst was a road with no return, and it marked the beginning of language loss as well. In order to understand and form a clear image of the ancestral language, which is today preserved mainly in the descendants’ memories, the research had to take into account the historical and social elements of the extralinguistic context. Over the course of more than hundred years since the start of emigration, these extralinguistic elements have led towards ancestral language loss in New Zealand. They were present since the second half of the 19th century up to the complete adaptation of new generations of DD inheritors into New Zealand’s social and linguistic life.

Novi Zeland, dalmatinski govor(i), jezični identitet(i), predački jezik

nije evidentirano