Field Research in the Veselovsky District of the Rostov Region among the Descendants of Repatriates from Uruguay

Abstract

The paper discusses the results of fieldwork in the Veselovsky district of the Rostov region among the descendants of repatriates from Uruguay, Russians by origin, followers of the religious movement “New Israel”. The researchers were interested in the Russian-Spanish bilingualism and Uruguayan customs and traditions brought by the settlers to Russia. These traditions have been preserved in the Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) colony for almost a century. Good preservation of food practices brought from Uruguay is attested. The largest number of Spanish words is attested in the everyday cuisine. The colony residents still drink mate tea, they cook puchero. We have not witnessed active Russian-Spanish bilingualism, only some lexemes and quotations, which nevertheless allow us to get an idea of the disappeared sociolinguistic situation in Krasny Oktyabr. Spanish language was spoken by the first generation of migrants and those who were born and educated in Uruguay. Besides interview recordings, the work was carried out with written sources, in particular, with a handwritten collection of spiritual songs of the New Israel community. Many of the songs are identical to the songs in the collection that the researchers found in San Javier. Important data on ethnic and religious nicknames that referred to repatriates from Uruguay were collected. In the future, the authors plan to compare the dialect features of the Russian speech of the informants living in Krasny Oktyabr and in San Javier.

Received: 08.08.2024.
Revised: 09.08.2024.
Accepted: 24.09.2024.

Citation
Pilipenko G. P., Saenko M. N. Field Research in the Veselovsky District of the Rostov Region among the Descendants of Repatriates from Uruguay // Slavic Almanac. 2024. No 3–4. P. 179–193 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2024.3-4.08