A Few Remarks about Parallel Polish-Belarusian Phraseological Units in the Old Believers’ Russian Dialect in Poland

Abstract

The Old Believers are an ethnic-religious group that appeared as a result of the schism in Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century. They arrived in the Polish territory in 18th century. The Old Believers’ Russian dialect contemporarily is full of signs of the Polish language influence. Elements deriving from the Belarusian language are also observable in their dialect. These elements could permeate into the Russian dialect among others as a result of an immediate neighbourhood of the Belarusian-speaking population with areas where Old Believers came from. They could also permeate in the course of the migration or already after settling on Polish lands. One of the language systems most susceptible to Polish interference is the phraseological system. In this scope a lot of phraseological calques and half-calques are noticeable. However, among them exists a certain set of parallel Polish-Belarusian phraseological units, therefore establishing their provenance in an unequivocal way is difficult. The aim of the article is to present main questions associated with the existing units and an analysis of the parallel Polish-Belarusian phraseological units, observed in the Old Believers dialect in Poland.