Admirer of the „native language”, linguistic purist… on linguistic reflections preserved in Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Letters from a journey to America (Listy z podróży do Ameryki)

The text is devoted to those Sienkiewicz’s letters-features, letters-reports, letterscommentaries, letters-articles, letters-reviews in which the author of Quo vadis:1) verbalizes the situations of the „American Polish people” in the contemporary United States of America, 2) describes the Polish language they used, 3) expresses anxiety about its state, 4) analyzes the phenomenon of denationalization of the compatriots living abroad, 5) pays attention to the progressive Germanization and the linguistic-cultural Anglicization, 6) shows conflicts in the Polish organizations and institutions in America, 7) displays attachment to the Polish language of Helena Modrzejweska – distinguished theatrical personality. Letters from a journey to America (Listy z podróży do Ameryki) is a source of very valuable and diverse (also linguistic) information about the life of the 19th century Polish diaspora in America struggling not only with the material, but also spiritual, including linguistic, problems.Publikacja finansowana przez Wydział Filologiczny Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego oraz Zakład Wodociągów i Kanalizacji Sp. z o.o. w Łodz