Consanguinity#inne określenie niz w innych profilach# and identity

the Indo-European languages → the Slavic languages → the East Slavic languages → the Russian language
(as in: Lewis 2009Lewis 2009 / komentarz/comment/r /
Lewis, Paul M. (red.) 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
)
The language varieties used by the Old Believers belong to the Pskov- type dialects of Russian. The Pskov group of dialects belongs to the Western part of the East-Central Old Russian dialects (so-called akające in Polish – applying typical for Russian vowel reduction) (Grek-Pabisowa i Maryniakowa 1972: 114Grek-Pabisowa i Maryniakowa 1972 / komentarz/comment/r /
Grek-Pabisowa Iryda & Irena Maryniakowa 1972. „Teksty gwarowe rosyjskie”, w: Antonina Obrębska-Jabłońska (red.) Teksty gwarowe z Białostocczyzny z komentarzem językowym. Warszawa: PWN, s. 113-131.
). In the akające (vowel-reducing) dialects, vowels [o] and [a] are pronounced alike before an accent.

Identity

The identity of Polish Old Believers is based on athe sense of religious and language separateness; the awareness of ethnic separateness is not important to them (Zielińska 1996: 45-46Zielińska 1996 / komentarz/comment/r /
Zielińska, Anna  1996. Wielojęzyczność staroobrzędowców mieszkających w Polsce. Warszawa: Slawistyczny Ośrodek Wydawniczy.

). They are brought together by the Pomorian Old-Orthodox Church of Poland which represents the bespopovtsy denomination (faction with no clerical hierarchy) in the old ritual tradition. In principle, they lack strong identification with Russia or the Russian nation. They do, however, feel athe bond with their coreligionists from the Baltic countries (Zielińska 1996: 46Zielińska 1996 / komentarz/comment/r /
Zielińska, Anna  1996. Wielojęzyczność staroobrzędowców mieszkających w Polsce. Warszawa: Slawistyczny Ośrodek Wydawniczy.

). The Old Believers from Masuria consider (or did in the 1990s) their nationality as German and identify themselves as a part of the German minority, distinguished by their religion (Zielińska 1996: 46Zielińska 1996 / komentarz/comment/r /
Zielińska, Anna  1996. Wielojęzyczność staroobrzędowców mieszkających w Polsce. Warszawa: Slawistyczny Ośrodek Wydawniczy.

).
The Old Believers living in Hamburg identify themselves with the community of immigrants from East Prussia, also with people of other religions (such as evangelists or the Orthodox).
In Masuria, there also live the Edinovertsy, descendants of the Old Believers, who joined the Orthodox Church maintaining, however, their own ritual (Zielińska 1996: 30Zielińska 1996 / komentarz/comment/r /
Zielińska, Anna  1996. Wielojęzyczność staroobrzędowców mieszkających w Polsce. Warszawa: Slawistyczny Ośrodek Wydawniczy.

). Russian authorities settled the Edinovertsy in the Suwałki Region in hope thatof the Old Believers would joining the official Russian Orthodox Church under their influence. In 1842, the Edinovertsy were given the Karolin grange (where village Pokrowsk was founded) and the Cieszkinie backwoods (Sosna i Troc-Sosna 2002: 139Sosna i Troc-Sosna 2002 / komentarz/comment/r /
Sosna, Grzegorz & Antonina Troc-Sosna 2002. Zapomniane dziedzictwo. Białystok: Orthdruk.
). In 1921 in Sejny county, the Edinovertsy still outnumbered the Old Believers and other Orthodox (Sosna i Troc-Sosna 2002: 142Sosna i Troc-Sosna 2002 / komentarz/comment/r /
Sosna, Grzegorz & Antonina Troc-Sosna 2002. Zapomniane dziedzictwo. Białystok: Orthdruk.
). After World War II almost all of the Russian population moved to the Soviet Union; in 1970, only a dozen Old Believers families remained in the area (Sosna i Troc-Sosna 2002: 142-143Sosna i Troc-Sosna 2002 / komentarz/comment/r /
Sosna, Grzegorz & Antonina Troc-Sosna 2002. Zapomniane dziedzictwo. Białystok: Orthdruk.
).


#Tłum JS# The centre of Wodziłki village – photo T.Wicherkiewicz


#tłum. podpisu#Molenna cmentarna w Suwałkach, photo A. Jorroch.