Feliksas Vereika – Nowenas pri Jezaus Kristaus (1857) rengėjas
Is Feliksas Vereika the author of Nowenas pri Jezaus Kristaus (1857)?

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the language of two books NOWENAS pri JEZAUS KRISTAUS, szwencziausies MARIJOS PANOS ir KITU SZWENTU and GRIESZNIKAS PRIWERSTAS METAWOTIES arba Kałba użkietejuse griesznika su WIESZPACZIU DIEWU. The author of the first prayer book is unknown. The second book was translated and prepared by Feliksas Vereika. The main goal of this article was to prove the hypothesis that Feliksas Vereika could be the person who prepared Now1857. Analysis of the language showed that many of the linguistic features are used very similarly in both texts. Only the most noticeable Lowland Lithuanian features were changed into the Highland Lithuanian in both texts. The least noticeable features were not changed in Now1857, and only Highland Lithuanian forms of 1 cond. sg. were used in VeGr1853. There was only one occasionally noticeable feature changed from Lowland Lithuanian to Highland Lithuanian form in both texts. A comparison of the texts showed that there are certain individual linguistic features common to both texts, such as the dat. pl. of the pronoun tas―tiems, the use of the grapheme <e> after <l> to express [ie], the usage of Highland Lithuanian forms in most common words and usage of the digraph <ej> in liežuvis (‘tongue’). There are only three clear differences between both texts. However, there is a 4-year gap between the first publication of the two books. During this time Vereika could have changed his own linguistic orientation. Very individual linguistic features and the reconstructed territory of the dialect of the author of Now1857 have proved that the author of both books could be the same―Feliksas Vereika.

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