page_title: Olga T. Yokoyama
section_title: Russian Peasant Letters
hierarchical_section_title: Olga T. Yokoyama / Publications / Russian Peasant Letters
caption_attribution_description: "Vjatka" im russischen Fernstraßennetz
context_page_description: Olga Tsuneko Yokoyama is a Distinguished Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of California in Los Angeles. Her research interests include topics in Slavic philology, functionalist constraints in the syntax, word order and intonation of Russian.
context_section_description: Yokoyama's book Russian Peasant Letters include a collection of letters exchanged between members of  the Stafanovs/Zhernakovs family, which represent an invaluable primary source for studying dialectal speech typical of the Vyatka region in the second half of the 19th century.
  Most of the letters were addressed to Yokoyama's grandfather Vasiliy Zhernakov, who in 1881, at the age of 17, left home in the former Vyatka Province for Siberia to earn money and eventually became a successful merchant and philanthropist. Yokoyama recognized that this is a valuable source for studying the language and economic conditions of common people in  Russia in the late 19th century.
  The first volume contains original facsimiles of the letters with comments on phonological and orthographic variations; and their translation into modern Russian with comments on grammar and meaning of some words. The second volume provides the English translation of these letters with practical cultural comments, explaining different farming terms or relationships within the family.
  Yokoyama's study is important both linguistically, presenting the original north-eastern dialectal speech of peasants in the 19th century, and historically, showing the real struggles of peasants striving for upward mobility in pre-revolutionary Russia. Yokoyama conducted a thorough linguistic analysis of the language of the letters, covering such aspects as phonology, word change, word order, syntax, discourse, pragmatics, poetic aspects and variations . However, historiographers may find the historical part of research incomplete, but still a valuable source for research on life of Russian peasants in the 19th century.
caption: Vjatka region marked red
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