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ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND SHIFT AMONG THE RUSSIAN OLD BELIEVERS OF ERIE. PENNSYLVANIA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment o f the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jeffrey David Holdeman. M.A. The Ohio State University 2002 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Brian D. Joseph, Adviser Dr. George Kalbouss Adviser Dr. Anelya Rugaleva Department o f Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3059263 __ ® UMI UMI Microform 3059263 Copyright 2002 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Jeffrey David Holdeman 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT From the last quarter o f the nineteenth century until 1914, several hundred Russian Old Believers emigrated from the Suvalki province o f Russian Poland and ultimately settled in Erie. Pennsylvania. During the course o f the last one hundred years, the Erie Old Believer community has faced the problems and difficulties associated with maintaining their ethnic language (Russian) and their church language (Russian Church Slavonic) in the United States. Differences in the community led to a split in the congregation which resulted in two separate churches. One congregation in the community has resisted the use o f English in their church: the other church decided to switch to English in an act o f self-preservation. The present research investigates the community's origins and history, its variant o f Russian, and the status of Russian, Church Slavonic, and English, focusing on history, domains of use, attitudes toward the languages, proficiency, etc., and examines the process o f language maintenance and shift in the community. This research is significant in that I) very little research o f any kind has been done on the Erie Old Believer community: 2) no linguistic research has been conducted in the community: 3) the community is in a late stage of language shift—a linguistic situation which is often passed over for study: 4) it represents the last research involving the first and second generations o f the ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. community, as these members are quickly passing away; and 5) it contributes to present knowledge about the field of language shift and maintenance, as well as about the first major wave of Russian-speaking immigrants to the United States—both of which are areas needing further research. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To my parents iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Looking back on the six years spent on this project and the help and generosity shown to me by countless people, I find that expressing my gratitude to all involved is almost as complex as describing the sociolinguistic process that I am studying. I would like to thank the Sister Mary Lawrence Franklin Archival Center at Mercyhurst College and archivist and librarian Earleen R. Glaser, the Gannon University Nash Library Archive and archivist Anita Smith, and the Erie Co. Historical Society and Museums and archivists Annita Andrick and Stephanie Gaub for helping me find my way through the maze of available holdings throughout the city. I would also be remiss if I did not mention the institutional support of Aromas Coffeehouse (Erie) and Stauf s Coffee Roasters (Columbus) and their employees for providing a clean, well-lit place befitting of Hemingway in which to spend long days and late nights reading and working. I am indebted to Steve Rogers o f the Ohio State Main Library Map Room for finding obscure maps with even more obscure villages on them; Keith Johnson o f the Ohio State Department of Linguistics for sharing his knowledge and expertise in matters phonetic and mechanical: Kathryn Plank for computer technical musings and database inspiration: Natalie Anderson for suffering through excruciatingly tedious v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. data entry; my many dear friends, classmates, and colleagues at Ohio State fo r making life during graduate school not just bearable but enjoyable; Richard Morris and Roy Robson for sharing their Old Believer scholarship and expertise with a wide-eyed neophyte; Fr. Larry Evanoff and Fr. Steven Simon fo r many hours o f interesting discussion and for the support and blessings that they gave to this project; Joe and Anita Robson for more than I can list; Catherine Federoff for sharing her memories, language, voluminous knowledge o f Erie Old Believer genealogy, and shoe leather expended in distributing and collecting surveys; and the hundreds o f people o f Old Believer descent who talked to me. opened their homes to me, fed me. and shared their memories which might have otherwise gone unrecorded and thus lost to future generations. I received funding for my research from many sources: the Ohio State department o f Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures and its chair Daniel Collins, providing me with flexible work assignments that allowed me to work from the Field: Faculty and T A Development under the direction of Alan Kalish. providing me with employment and a stimulating work environment when I had overstayed my funding welcome in the Slavic Department: Brian Joseph, making funds available for data entry costs: the Ohio State Graduate school which awarded me a Graduate Student Alumni Research Award to cover some housing and travel expenses: and my parents, making untold financial sacrifices to cover the rest. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I wish to thank my advisor, Brian Joseph, for his time, patience, kindness, encyclopedic knowledge, patience, calming effect, insight, and most o f all patience. And calming effect. Finally, I wish to thank my parents for instilling in me curiosity and a love o f learning, and for their emotional and Financial support, without which I could not have embarked on or completed this research. I see their contribution in every page and every waking moment. vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V IT A May 31, 1970 ................................................... Born - Lansing, Michigan. USA 1992 ................................................................... B.A. Russian Language, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 1993 ...................................................................B.A. Russian Area Studies. University of Tennessee, Knoxville 1993-2002 ....................................................... Graduate Teaching, Research, and Administrative Associate. The Ohio Sate University PUBLICATIONS 1. Jeffrey D. Holdeman, ed. 2001. Teaching at The Ohio State University: A Handbook. Columbus. OH: Faculty and TA Development. 2. Jeffrey D. Holdeman. 2000. Czech Preposition Vocalization: Towards an Articulatory Approach. In Brown Slavic Contributions. Volume XIII: Modern Czech Studies , pp. 53-65. Alexander Levitsky and Masako Ueda, eds. Providence. RI: The Department of Slavic Languages, Brown University. viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3. Jeffrey D. Holdeman. 1999. The Czech Teaching Resources and Materials Project. In Brown Slavic Contributions, Volume XI: Modern Czech Studies . pp. 158-165. Alexander Levitsky and Masako Ueda, eds. Providence, RI: The Department of Slavic Languages, Brown University. FIELD OF STUDY M ajor Field: Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures ix Reproduced with permission of the