Szili Ferenc: Kivándorlás a Délkelet-Dunántúlról Horvát-Szlavónországba és Amerikába 1860-1914 (Kaposvár, 1995)

Résumé

had lived in villages and only had elementary education. They did not know the language and the spelling correctly, so in their letters virtually they stuck to the way of writing that closely followed their pronunciation. Anyway, the letters sent to their wives and relations did not require a formal style, so they kept using their own words, their dialects, and therefore their letters are suitable for the analysis of the folk language of Somogy at the turn of the century from a sociolinguistic point of view. Similarly, it is also worth paying attention to the songs related to America because they present us the joys and sadness of the emigrants and the ones who remained home. The ones who had lived in America for a longer time gradually began to come to terms with the opportunity of remaining out there. They gave more and more critical remarks to the Hungarian conditions, the social unequality and spoke highly of the democratic conditions of the USA. It was also done by those who did not intend to settle down in America for good. But the feeling of homesickness always shines through their letters. That they stayed out longer or permanently was sometimes due to the lack of choices, the restrictions of the emigration laws. Many did not return for fear of the three-year military service. Of course, there were cases when the minor did not get a passport as a matter of course because the chief constable did not see any guarantee that the person concerned would come home when his conscription was due. The thesis also examines historicultural, sociological and ethnic data and correlations through which our picture about the emigration has in any event become more colorful. This work can be useful in both historiography and education. The researchers of ethnic groups, cultural history and agrarian history can see these processes in coherence. Politologists, too, can make use of the historical experience.