A Review of Field Research among the Slavic Communities of Argentina and Brazil

Abstract

The paper discusses the results of a field study carried out in 2024 among Slavic communities living in Argentina and Brazil. The purpose of the expedition was to identify the primary dialectal features of the migrant Slavic dialects, as well as to identify and analyze the contact features that arose under the influence of the dominant Romance languages – Spanish and Portuguese. During the field research, the dialects of the descendants of Slavic immigrants in the Argentine provinces of Misiones and Chaco, as well as in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, were examined. The researchers’ archive includes narratives in Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Serbo-Croatian. The informants have as their basis eg. the Dniestrian dialect of the Ukrainian language, Hrodna-Baranavichy dialect of the Belarusian language, and South Čakavian dialects of Croatian. Examples of phonetic, lexical, and syntactic interference are recorded. In particular, the phenomenon of betacism is widespread, as well as the substitution of [c] with [s]. Numerous cases of code switching have been attested, as well as adaptations of Romance vocabulary: cz. po čakrax (sp. chacra ‘farm’), ukr. f'ižón (port. feijão ‘beans’), ukr. dósy (port. doces ‘sweets, candies’). The informants talk about the traditional spiritual and material culture of the regions where they live. The most common stories are about pombero, lobisón, local legends about a black shepherd boy and the traditions of the San Juan (São João) holiday. Stories about Slavic traditions, about celebrating Christmas, New Year, and cooking festive dishes have also been recorded. The perspective of the research is to elaborate a typology of contact phenomena in the migrant Slavic dialects and in the Slavic traditional culture under the influence of Romance languages and traditions of the region.

Funding

The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation project No. 20-78-10030 «Language and cultural contacts during the social transformations among national minorities in Alpine-Pannonian region».

Gratitudes

The authors express their gratitude for assistance in conducting the research to Z. Zabczuk, Fr. Pablo, Fr. Bartolomé Oviedo, A. Milović, M. Kapetanić, S. Lukasevic, S. Kniz, J. A. Zabolotsky, Fr. Oleg, O. Marusiak, J. Grzeczynski, E. Vastik.

Received 28 December 2024

Revised 3 May 2025

Accepted 10 May 2025

For citation: Pilipenko, G. P., Borisov, S. A., Nemchinov, V. A., 2025. A Review of Field Research among the Slavic Communities of Argentina and Brazil. Slavic World in the Third Millennium, 20 (1–2), pp. 161–186. https://doi.org/10.31168/2412-6446.2025.20.1-2.09