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Review of: Aušra Žičkienė - Галина Кутырёва-Чубаля, Белорусский жнивный напев: архетипы, инновации, диалекты, Bielsko-Biała: Wydawnictwo Akademii Techniczno-Humanistycznej, 2009, 264 ss.
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As late as the seventeenth century, Saliamonas Slavočinskis’ hymnal (SlG) gave a certain impetus to the spread of the Lowland Lithuanian dialect in church poetry, although generally this hymnal represented the central Highland written variety of Lithuanian. This Lowland dialect impulse is very clear in later editions of Balsas Širdies (The Voice of the Heart, 1726; BŠ), which replaced Slavočinskis’ hymnal. The editor of the BŠ is very likely to have been a Lowlander, who was quite familiar with the Highland dialects of Lithuanian. Thus, although his intentions were to write in central Highland written Lithuanian, there remain many traces of the Lowland Lithuanian dialect. The heterogeneity of the language of BŠ was also determined by the three sources of the hymnal: SlG (Central Highland written Lithuanian and the Lowland dialect), Knyga Nobažnystės (Book of Devotion, 1653; KN) (Central Highland written Lithuanian) and the anonymous translation of Bellarmin’s Catechism (1677; BK) (Eastern Highland written Lithuanian). In some cases these three sources were used in a rather peculiar way. The adopted hymns and psalms had not only been greatly revised but they had been often composed from the text fragments of various sources. Out of 154 texts of BŠ (114 hymns and 40 psalms) obviously only 29 (25 hymns and 4 psalms) are new. It seems that for the editor it was most important to revise those already existing texts but not to create new ones.
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The purpose of the article is to determine the origin and senses of the word pareigos and thereafter analyse the history of standardisation and actual usage of the word in the locative case pareigose. The article also aims to evaluate the rationality behind the current codification.In the writings, the word pareiga is a verbal abstract from the verb pareiti. Although initially the suitability of the sense 'obligation' raised doubts, it however became entrenched in the standard language, while the sense denoting service became established in the plural form pareigos.At the beginning of the 20th century, the locative form pareigose was preferred as it could be justified by examples of the Lithuanian language, i.e. denoting an almost specific location. Later on, in the middle of the 20th century, several expressions with the locative case were corrected: dirbti pareigose, pažeminti (paaukštinti) pareigose, būti pareigose. These instances were criticised, first, on the basis of stylistic purposes as they were used annoyingly and without any real need; in addition, they made the utterances vague. It was also considered that this locative form is foreign to the Lithuanian language, i.e. non-characteristic, ungrounded and unmotivated.Locative forms pareigose regarded as inappropriate occur rather frequently in the current administrative language, especially in non-edited texts; they are used to express mode, state, feature. The analysis of the definitions of the word pareigos in the Lithuanian dictionaries and actual usage showed that one of the semes of this word is the figurative sense of location associated with certain area, nature or status of service or work. Therefore, it is worthwhile to reconsider the standard evaluation of the locative pareigose as the locative case of the word having a figurative sense of location should not be strictly corrected.
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The article discusses the origins of the word vienok, its use and codification. It is considered that this word is not a loan-word but an own word resulting from autonomous Lithuanian language. Its use in the standard language should not be reprehended.
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The aim of the article is to discuss the presentation of the words peržiūrėti (to review) and peržiūra (a review) in dictionaries and to analyse their actual use in administrative texts as well as to provide recommendations on the definitions of these words in dictionaries. The verb peržiūrėti and its derivative peržiūra are often used in administrative language; it is also confirmed by the results of the search in the databases of legal acts. These words are characteristic of administrative language because they express matters relating to the change of legal regulation recorded in documents. The definitions of these words in the dictionaries of the Lithuanian language (Dictionary of Modern Lithuanian, Dictionary of Lithuanian) are not sufficient; therefore, attention should be paid to the changed use of these words in administrative language when compiling new dictionaries.Four meanings of the verb peržiūrėti, characteristic of contemporary administrative language, can be distinguished: 1) to take a look at, to scan through, to revise data, information, entry; 2) to inspect, i.e. to determine the state, condition in order to change it; 3) to change, update for specific purposes; to adapt to the new circumstances; 4) to reconsider, to consider one more time.It is likely that the spread of the word peržiūra in Lithuanian is driven by the impact of translations. Such a conclusion is prompted by the dates of approval of documents that mark the beginning of the use of the word peržiūra and the translation type of such documents as well as statistical data of the database of EU legal acts and other public documents EUR-lex.
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Both old fashioned words have been subject of several different etymological readings. The present paper focuses on semasiology and the context of custom and ritual background. In Latvian and Lithuanian folklore the bride is compared with the Sun. Lithuanian tekėti means ‘course (sun), flow (river)’ and ‘marry (about a woman)’. Consequently, the marriage equals the solsticium. Latvian līgava ‘bride’, līgot ‘stagger, sway; course (sun); celebrate St. Johannis (summer solsticium)’, Lith. lingti ‘swing’ are reflexes of the zero grade of IE *leig- ‘to jump’ with generalized n- infix. For Lith. Laigonas an initial meaning as ‘bridesman’ is suggested, the one who leads the bride.
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The aim of the article is to connect the model of cognitive metonymy with the model of types of denotative equivalence on word level to check out the explanational potential of the model of cognitive metonymy for describing and explaining the use and occurance of word equivalents in the Lithuanian translations of the fairy tales of the Brothers’ Grimm by Juozas Balčikonis (1938–1939) and Adomas Druktenis (1999–2001). The Brothers’ Grimm fairy tales (GFT ) can be seen in a wide sense as a source of the history of culture and social life in the German speaking countries of the 19th century. Culture-bound words a) refer to a special cultural knowledge, which is in a historical sense not or not completely compatible with the structure of knowledge in our present days, and b) refer to a common cultural knowledge of the community of German speaking countries. The translations of the GFT present ways of handling of German culture-bound words for foreign readers. In this article I want to show, if and how the translators achieved a correct and appropriate understanding of the culture-bound words by choosing equivalents. This allows to show what semantic and cognitive procedures stand behind the use of certain equivalents. By comparing the German original with the two Lithuanian translations it is possible to work out if and how the culture-bound words of the original texts are rendered in the translations, and finally to inductively conclude how far the conceptual metonymy takes part in rendering of culture-bound words in the target texts. Investigating this, there can be established modifications in the theory of conceptual metonymy in the framework of cognitive linguistics.
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The first complete translation of the Bible into Lithuanian from the end of the 16th century by Johann Bretke contains many complex units (idioms, proverbs etc.). Regarding biblical phraseological units it is important to distinguish between two categories: 1) units, which go back to biblical idioms; 2) units, which go back to certain situations. One of the efficient methods to investigate idiomatic expressions in ancient translations is described by Harald Burger in his Handbook of Phraseology. Among other things, he pointed out the following type of equivalence of idiomatic usages: “source language: a word – target language: a phrase”. In Luther’s translation of the Bible a single word can correspond to a prepositional phrase in the translation of Bretke. Phraseological units often occur in different variants. Finally, I mentioned examples of phraseological units with the function of sentences like the greeting formula.
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The article considers the results of the comparative research of the Belarusian and Lithuanian terminographies according to a number of criteria. The advantages and drawbacks of each of the mentioned terminographies are analyzed. The necessity to introduce the amendments into modern Belarusian terminographic practice has been substantiated.
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The paper analyses the memoirs written in 1953 by the author’s grandfather (born in 1883 in Dinaburg – today Daugavpils, Latvia). The memoirs were written in Moscow, but describe a childhood spent in the Eastern Borderlands of the former Polish territory Kresy. The text, which is written in Russian with many Polish insertions, may be regarded as an attempt to reconstruct a kind of heterotopia of one of the historical, cultural and ethno-linguistic border areas which existed in Central and Eastern Europe a century ago, as well as the heterotopia of a “childhood spent not here”. The basis of this heterotopia was the concept of “remembered home,” which had a symbolic value for the memoirist, and one of the main elements of it was the local form of the Polish language, which had both a “rural” and a “town” variant of usage according to the extent of penetration of Russian and influence of the Russian language on Polish. The first variant, predominantly Polish, was typical of the landed gentry (and apparently also of the Polonised peasants in the surrounding area), whereas the second variant was significantly Russified, and served as a means of communication among the officials and similar groups of the townspeople. The role of Belarusian and Lithuanian language elements in this heterotopia was not as significant, though Lithuania is present in the analysed memoirs as a constant counterpoint. It is represented by the cultural notions connected with Lithuanian history and mythology, on the one hand, as well as some aspects of everyday life on the other (e. g., some names of foods).
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В соответствии со стандартами обучения РКИ (русскому как иностранному) от иностранных студентов требуется овладение письменными (прописными) буквами наряду с печатными. И начинать обучать письменным кириллическим графемам рекомендуется с первого занятия. Однако сегодня положение дел таково, что зачастую студенты заканчивают изучение русского алфавита лишь освоением печатных букв. Большинство уже на этом этапе испытывает определённые существенные трудности, которые нередко становятся причиной прекращения изучения русского языка или, в лучшем случае, ослаблением мотивации его продолжать. Как показал проведённый нами опрос, обучающиеся принципиально настроены на изучение печатных букв ввиду отсутствия достаточного количества учебных часов и практической необходимости научиться писать на русском языке. Преподаватель РКИ вне языковой среды вынужден приспосабливаться к реальной ситуации и аудитории, и исключать использование курсива. А иногда и вовсе исключать кириллицу. В языковой учебной аудитории максимальное внимание уделяется обучению восприятия звучащего текста и говорению в ущерб развития письменных (начертательных) навыков. Глобализация, коммерциализация, языковая политика привели к активизации тенденции отказа от кириллических скриптов и перехода на транслитерацию, вариантов которой, впрочем, на сегодняшний день имеется не один. Всё это ведёт, думается, к дальнейшему нивелированию роли кириллического письма на уроках РКИ, что в свою очередь ставит новые методические задачи перед преподавателем РКИ. Безусловно, стоит не забывать, что кириллический алфавит является бесценным национальным достоянием русского народа, стержнем русской культуры, частью культурно-образовательного пространства. Поэтому любое посягательство на русский алфавит мы рассматриваем как противоправное и недопустимое. According to the standards of teaching RFL (Russian as a foreign language), students have to acquire the written language in the following way: cursive and printed letters should be mastered simultaneously. It is strongly recommended to start teaching the Cyrillic alphabet from the very first class. However, nowadays the situation is the following: very often students complete the studies of the Russian alphabet having mastered the printed letters only. It is at this stage of language acquisition that the majority of students experience certain serious problems, which result in the fact that the students stop learning the Russian language or their motivation to learn it decreases. More often, according to our research results, the learners are inclined to study the printed letters due to the shortage of a sufficient number of teaching hours and lack of practical necessity for them to learn to write in Russian. The teachers of Russian as a foreign language (RFL) have to adjust to the real situation and the audience: they have to avoid using the cursive letters. Sometimes RFL teachers have to exclude the use of the Cyrillic alphabet at all. Globalization, ...
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Review of: Оярс Бушс - Latviešu-igauņu vārdnīca. Projektijuht [Manager of the project] Arvi Tavast. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2015, 737 pp. Оярс Бушс - Igauņu-latviešu vārdnīca. Atb. red. [Ed.] Valts Ernštreits. Rīga: Latviešu valodas aģentūra, Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2015, 1096 pp.
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The article analyzes deantroponymic toponyms of Grodno land, recorded in written materials of 15th–17th centuries in comparison with current data. The origin, structure and evolution of the areal features of Slavic and Baltic names are investigated to conform the language, cultural and historical features of the region. From the historical and etymological point of view different time strata can be allocated. An extensive group was formed by oikonyms of the Baltic and Slavic origin, derived from personal names and nicknames of appellative character. A significant part in the oikonyms group is the group based on foreign-language Christian names. The third group includes settlement names, derived from the ancient complex Indo-European names. The fourth group consists of hybrid of Balto-Slavic names; a typical feature of which is the reconstruction of a Slavic-Baltic bases, which corresponds to the chronology of the development of this territory. Baltic names in the investigated territory, in the form of phonetic and morphological substitution, are the evidence of close Balto-Slavic linguistic and cultural contacts. Many oikonyms of Baltic origin are preserved in the investigated territory as part of modern Belarusian surnames.
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Various consecrated symbols play a special role in folk culture and folk religion. In the Christian liturgy, the verba (palm) is a symbol having a concrete religious meaning. In the second half of the 20th century, in Western Belarus and Eastern Lithuania, a tendency to consider verba from the aesthetic point of view emerged. An exceptional case among the verba (between Belarusian, Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian believers) are the decorated symbol, which may be called palm-shape verba. Amongst the believers of Belarus, regardless of confession, the decorated verba (with flowers) has become a symbol of the contemporary religious identity. Verbas with decorations in Eastern Lithuania are more popular amongst Polish believers; in Western Belarus, they are blessed regardless of confessional and nationality differences. In the beginning of the 21st century, three main variants of palm-shaped verba may be found. The first variant is made from willow or juniper twigs decorated with dry and green flower blossoms (or the twigs of both trees are used together). The second and very popular decoration variant is artificial flowers attached to a willow twig. In the third variant, the blossoms made from threads are arranged along the whole length of a willow twig. An exceptional case among the decorated verbas in Eastern Lithuania are the Vilnius verba. This variant of decorated verba first appeared at the start of the 19th century in the surrounding areas of Vilnius. Originally, these verbas were associated with the Polish religious and folk culture of Southeast Lithuania. In the second half of the 20th century, the Vilnius verbas were strongly linked with the Catholic Lithuanian and Polish folk culture of the Vilnius region, but have not been popular amongst the believers of Belarus. Considerable differences may be noticed in the scope and content of decorative elements in the verba of Lithuania and Belarus. In Lithuania, decorated verbas are more popular among urban Catholics. Thus, verba reveals the diversity of the Christian tradition, which comprises the exceptional features of the contemporary folk religion in Eastern Lithuania and Western Belarus. Through the link between the verba and the ethnic and confessional communities, these variants of the symbol become an important identity-forming factor for the inhabitants of Western Belarus and Eastern Lithuania in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century
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The use of phonetic and semantic criteria in solution of controversial problems of loanword reconstruction is discussed on the example of such words as mētelis ‘coat, cloak’, miers ‘silence; peace; harmony; end; termination of something’, which are traditionally referred to the oldest Slavic loanwords in Latvian. In the language of the East Slavs (Old Russian language), the word ìò2ëü [m’at’el’] as a Germanism was borrowed before the loss of nasals but in Latvian the word mētelis as a Slavic loanword was transferred later, at a time when the loss of nasals had already begun. This is indicated by the nature of phonetic substitution when the stage of sequential phonetic evolution of the East Slavic nasal sound was reflected. The use of a phonetic (accentologic) criterion during the historical reconstruction of Latvian miers as a possible loanword allows us to attribute the borrowing of this word to the same historical period of contacts when the borrowing of Latvian mētelis took place, but also makes us reconsider the status of this lexeme as a loanword and makes us assume Latvian miers and Slavic *mirъ to be a common Balto-Slavic lexeme. The original denotative meaning of Latvian mētelis reflects the specific features of the realia and was associated with the meaning of the corresponding word in the source language. Latvian mētelis initially meant ‘cape’. The meaning ‘peace as the absence of war, concluded on the basis of the contract; peace as a result of the termination of a certain state’ contributed to the development of abstract meanings of Slavic *mirъ as well as Latvian miers ‘peace, harmony’. In the semantics of the Latvian word (‘peace, end, the termination of something’), the initial (authentic) meaning is exhibited.
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The article analyzes the principles of transcription of Lithuanian anthroponymy and toponymy in the Russian language. The existing guidelines for Lithuanian-Russian transcription are examined in light of the current writing practices. The analysis is primarily concerned with the rendering of the Lithuanian letter e after consonants and the spelling of borrowed names in Russian. Suggestions for the improvement of the principles of transcription are also provided.
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This article deals with etymologies of five hydronyms in the basin of the Upper Don that, according to the author, are of Baltic origin: Kosorža (the old form is Kosoža)< the hydronymical stem Kas- (or, if we proceed from the form Kosorža, Kasar-) (from *kasti ‘dig’) + the final -(o)ža that occurs in several other Russian hydronyms of the Baltic origin; Polsen’< *Palš-in- : *palšas ‘light grey’; Šušpanka – etymologically identical to the Lithuanian river name Šiáuš-upis and the related ones: cf. Lith. šiušénti, šiùšinti ‘rustle’, ablaut šiáušti ‘tousle’, Lett. šaustiês ‘stand on end (about hair)’ + *upė ‘river, stream’; Strutiľnoe – related to Lithuanian Strautẽlis and others: Lith. dial. sraũtas, sriaũtas, straũtas, striaũtas, Lett. straũts ‘brook’; Usman’ – cf. Lett. Ausmaņi, Ūsmanis, Usmaņus strauts; Set’ma – cf. Sietas: Sieta, Sietuvà, and others: Lith. sietuvà, dial. siẽtuva, sietis, Lett. siets, sietis, sietava ‘deep (or wide) place of a river; middle of a river; ford’. These hydronyms characterize various natural features of a reservoir. Their word-formative structure is easily clarified by comparison with the data of the Baltic languages: in all of them (except the compound name Šušpanka) formal elements corresponding to the Baltic nominal suffixes can be distinguished. These names (except Kosorža) are located on the left bank of the Don, and apart from the hydronyms Šušpanka, Usman’, and Set’ma, significantly extend the south-east border of the Baltic hydronymical area known so far. The hydronyms investigated in this article increase the number of the Baltic river names in the basin of the Upper Don, mentioned by V. N. Toporov, that are significant in making a more accurate definition of the Baltic settlement area in this region (if we take into account the fact that the total number of reliable Baltic etymologies in the hydronymy of the basin of the Don is extremely small).
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The article provides dialectological recordings of Polish (the so-called polszczyznа kresowа) from the Trakai region, specifically Bražuolė and its surroundings, made during the expeditions in the 1990’s organized by the Department of Slavic Philology at Vilnius University. The Polish recordings are from an areal characterized sociolinguistically by the interface of four languages: the Polish dialect, Belarusian (po-prostu), Russian, and Lithuanian. These recordings reflect crucial and previously unidentified features of the sociolinguistic environment, as well as constitute historical evidence of language contact in Bražuolė and its surroundings. The data presented in the article can be used for further work on the history of language contacts in Lithuania.
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One of the most controversial problems in Polish historical dialectology is the ques¬tion of the genesis of the Polish language in the North-East Borderland of Poland, i.e., the variety of the Polish language which has developed in the former territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). Some important aspects of the evolution of this language – first of all – its dialectical substrate and the chronology of the development of its different variants, have still not received an unambiguous interpretation, and this has inspired fur¬ther scientific research. The article deals with the systematization of the main approaches to the chronology of the formation of Polish dialects in Lithuania. It includes a system¬ic survey of the concepts made by important researchers of the Polish language of the borderland, such as K. Nitsch, H. Turska, J. Rieger, I. Grek-Pabisowa, I. Maryniakowa, V. Chekmonas and others. Historical circumstances in the GDL created a special relationship between the local Polish subdialects and the standard (cultural) dialect. Within the conditions of the autoch¬thonic development of the language, its official sub-system is formed on the basis of the dialects, while we can observe the reverse process in Lithuania, as the Polish standard dialect was formed there much earlier than the rural dialects. The areas of the Polish rural subdialects had been formed in the GDL around the second half of the 19th century as a result of the gradual polonization of the Lithuanian and Belarusian countryside. The at¬tempts of several scholars to shift the time of their formation to an earlier period of time, namely to the 16th-18th centuries, seem to be insufficiently convincing.
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This article analyses the absolute duration (ms) of stressed Russian vowels /a/, /o/ (graphs: “a”, “o”) and their allophones in unstressed positions after the hard consonants in the pronunciation of native and non-native Russian speakers in Lithuania. The results of the conducted spectral analysis reveal the specificities of quantitative reduction in the speech of the Russian speakers in Lithuania and the Lithuanian speakers that are learning the Russian language. These specificities are influenced by the two phonetic systems interaction. The speakers of both languages by the realisation of “a” and “o” violates the relation of unstressed vowel duration that is peculiar to the contemporary Russian language: the post-stressed vowels in closed syllables are shorter than the pre-stressed vowels; the first pre-stressed syllable differs from the second pre-stressed and post-stressed syllables by a longer voice duration. Both Russians and Lithuanians pronounce vowels longer in poststressed syllables than in the pre-stressed syllables. This corresponds to the qualitative reduction of the Lithuanian language vowels /a:/ and /o:/. There are certain differences between the pronunciation of qualitative vowels “a” and “o” reduction among the native and non-native Russian speakers in Lithuania. The Russian speakers in Lithuania pronounce the second pre-stressed vowel longer than the first pre-stressed vowel; this corresponds to the degree of reduction of pre-stressed vowels “a” and “o” in the standardised Russian language. These degrees of quantitative reduction in the Lithuanian pronunciation are peculiar only for “a” in the Russian language. According to the duration ratio, the unstressed allophones “a” and “o” in the Russian language are closer to the unstressed /a:/ and /o:/ in the Lithuanian language in the pronunciation of Russian-Lithuanian bilinguals than in the pronunciation of Lithuanian speakers.
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