Dwujęzyczność polsko-ukraińska w Strzelczyskach na Ukrainie (na przykładzie młodzieży i najstarszego pokolenia)

The article concerns selected aspects of bilingualism among Poles in Strzelczyska. Strzelczyska (ukr. Стрілецьке) is a village located near Mościska in Ukraine; almost all of the village’s current residents are Poles (499 Poles and 5 Ukrainians). The basis of the article consists of semi-structured interviews with 20 respondents representing two generations: the youth (14–16 years old) and the oldest generation (66–86 years old), recorded in 2017. A comparison of these two generations showcases the changes that have occurred in this community since the end of World War 2, when the village became USSR territory. The research leads to the conclusion that Polish is the first language of the inhabitants, they learn Ukrainian at school age (their bilingualism is successive). The level of knowledge of Ukrainian changes at different stages of their lives: young people are in the phase of ascendant bilingualism, seniors are in the phase of recessive bilingualism (they lose their skills due to a lack of contact with the language). Some of the older residents understand Ukrainian, but speaking Ukrainian is an issue (their bilingualism is receptive). The inter-language interactions of the inhabitants of Strzelczyska are accompanied by Polish-Ukrainian receptive communication, as well as the phenomena described as code-switching or translanguaging.