Informatologia, Vol. 45 No. 2, 2012.
Preliminary communication
COMMUNICATION AND IDENTITY OF CZECH IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Alena Jaklová
; Faculty of Philosophy, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Abstract
Large numbers of Czech immigrants started to arrive in the USA at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century. The new foreign-language environment made their situation very difficult. As they did not speak English, they tried to integrate and retain the original Czech cultural traditions and values: they set up municipal communities, Czech clubs, libraries, schools, they started to publish periodicals in the Czech language. However, the economic dependence of the immigrants conditioned their assimilation, and this fact considerably influenced the language of the Czech immigrant press. From the beginning of the existence of immigrant periodicals, the Czech-American communication in the media developed in three main stages. In the course of these three periods it was gradually transformed from purely Czech communication focused on Czech topics to current communication conducted mainly in English or (with an aim to demonstrate the original ethnic roots) in Czech, but with the use of numerous lexical as well as grammatical Americanisms. The Czech immigrants were fully assimilated during the third stage and finally became Czech-Americans, whose life is completely determined by American culture.
Keywords
communication; identity; Czech immigrants in the USA; interculturality; assimilation; Czech-American periodicals; language; culture
Hrčak ID:
84801
URI
Publication date:
28.6.2012.
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