Nauji nekaitomi žodžiai dabartinėje lietuvių kalboje

ACTA LINGUISTICA LITHUANICA LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI XLII (2000) Asta RY KLIENĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Vilnius NEW INDECLINABLE WORDS IN CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIAN 1. Introduction In grammars, indeclinable Lithuanian nouns1 are described rather briefly (LKG 1965: 169; DLKG 1994: 82), while textbooks, among other things, state that they are “words from other languages” (Jakaitienė et al. 1976: 60) and that “only a small proportion of words of foreign origin remain indeclinable in Lithuanian” (Jakaitienė 1980: 64). This is probably because there are relatively few indeclinable nouns in Lithuanian in general: DŽ3 lists 46 of them, and TŽ lists 2672. However, this group of nouns should not be considered closed, since recently new indeclinable words have been observed in Lithuanian—not only borrowings, but also words formed from word-formation elements found in Lithuanian. To answer the questions of what these words are, why precisely these words are indeclinable in Lithuanian, and how many there are, this article discusses the following: the origins and thematic groups of indeclinable words included in dictionaries (DŽ3 and TŽ); the tendency of recent borrowings to function as indeclinable words in Lithuanian; cases in which non-Lithuanian prepositional elements are used as separate indeclinable words; and Lithuanian symbolic indeclinable names. 2. The origins and thematic groups of indeclinable words recorded in dictionaries An analysis of the origins of words included in dictionaries that are indeclinable in Lithuanian shows that most of them derive from French. They make up more than a third 1Foreign words used in Lithuanian texts but not yet adapted to Lithuanian either phonetically or morphologically are not considered Lithuanian words and are not examined in this article. These are words written in non-Lithuanian form, so-called quotations, e.g.: credo, reggae, rave, ravioli, mozzarella, etc., as well as personal names written in the original language and non-Lithuanian symbolic names. 2Indeclinable words are listed inconsistently in DŽ3 and TŽ: TŽ lists 17 names of letters of the Greek alphabet (there are 24 in all); some musical terms are indeclinable words (e.g., trio), while others are presented as quotations (e.g., solo), whereas DŽ3, solo is classified as an indeclinable noun, and so on. Moreover, TŽ does not indicate which words are considered indeclinable, so the figure of 267 mentioned is only approximate. However, this is very close to the figures given in other sources (cf. Pakerys 1991: 91). 22 of all indeclinable words. A considerable number of indeclinable words derive from Italian, Latin, and Greek. A few have come from English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and German. From twenty-three languages, one or two indeclinable words have entered Lithuanian, for example: kakadu (Malay), mango (Tamil), moa (Maori). There are also several indeclinable nouns derived from place names or personal names, that is, proper nouns, for example: bordo (from the name of a French city), galifė (from a French surname), makao (from the name of a Chinese city), etc. The percentage distribution of indeclinable words by origin is shown in Figure 1. Words derived from proper names are assigned to the languages in which those names are used. Fig. 1 Distribution of indeclinable words by origin The high percentage of indeclinable words originating in French indicates that French loanwords pose the greatest threat of expansion to the group of indeclinable words in Lithuanian. The persistence of their indeclinable form is influenced by the fact that many of these French words have a stressed final syllable, which is particularly difficult to make inflectable, since this usually also requires a change in the position of the stress. Grammars also classify indeclinable words on this basis—according to whether their final vowels are stressed or unstressed (cf. LKG 1965: 169; DLKG 1994: 82). An examination of the indeclinable nouns recorded in dictionaries shows that they form fairly clear thematic groups: letters of the Greek alphabet, for example: alfa, beta, gama; clothing and fabrics, for example: buklė, manto, mini; food products and dishes, for example: mango, piurė, ragu; economic terms, for example: damno, marko, stormo; music and musical notes, for example: solfedžio, skerco; do, re, mi; terms for people and titles, for example: efendi, frau, ledi, madam, maharini, mesjė, mis, ševaljė; dances, for example: ča-ča, lansjė, tango; languages, for example: hindi, jidiš, koinė; money, for example: 23 dziao, ekiu, su, names of games and sports, for example: džiudo, karate, domino, loto, makao (see Fig. 2). Fig. 2 Thematic distribution of indeclinable words The largest group, comprising 24 words, consists of the names of Greek letters, which are conventionally considered indeclinable in Lithuanian. The clearly defined nature of this group and that of the names of musical notes suggests that certain groups of indeclinable words entered Lithuanian at the same time and established a new type of word used in the language. The thematic groups identified also show that words in the aforementioned domains are the most likely to remain indeclinable in Lithuanian. 3. Analysis of New Loanwords3 (Nouns) with Respect to Inflection With respect to inflection, new loanwords (nouns) can be divided into three groups: 1) inflectable; 2) used in both inflectable and indeclinable forms; 3) indeclinable. The first group consists of new Lithuanian noun loanwords that became inflectable as soon as they entered the language, for example: auditas, serveris, singlas, trileris. This is by far the largest group. 3 In discussing new loanwords, the study draws on the New Loanword Database, which collects loanwords from periodicals (compiled by Jurga Girčienė). 24 The second intermediate, or transitional, group consists of nouns used both as indeclinable and as declinable words, e.g.: fines and finesas, karaoke and karaoke, kivi and kivis. The third group comprises words that, in all recorded instances, appeared in an indeclinable form, e.g.: džakuzi, fondiu, grafiti, šou. The proportions of these groups are shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 Groups of new loanwords by inflectability The smallest is the middle, or transitional, group of words. These are loanwords recorded both as inflectable and as indeclinable words. Each case should be considered separately, but the existence of an inflectable variant suggests that, over time, the words in this group will become established as inflectable. There are already examples of words from other languages that, even after entering Lithuanian dictionaries as indeclinable, nevertheless eventually adapted to Lithuanian morphology. For example, in the 1936 “Dictionary of International Words,” kakao, kolibri, viski were indeclinable, whereas in the 1969 and 1985 editions they were already inflectable: kakava, kolibris, viskis (cf. Balkevičius 1976: 23). The data examined here also support this claim: two words described in dictionaries as indeclinable belong to the transitional group: spageti (TŽ 1985: 459), e.g.: only in Italy can you get real spaghetti LR, and želė (DŽ3 1993: 952, TŽ 1985: 520), e.g.: start treating the wound with gel L, the gel contains dermolipids L. The inflection of the latter word may also have been prompted by its expanded meaning: it was used only in the culinary domain, but is now a medical and cosmetic term. That the inflectable form nevertheless tends to prevail over the indeclinable one is shown by an analysis of examples illustrating the use of the aforementioned word spageti. The New Loanwords database records four variants: spageti occurs in 24 percent of examples, spagetti in 5 percent, spaghetti in 30 percent, and the inflectable spagečiai in 41 percent of all examples of this word. 25 The third group of new loanwords, recorded only in indeclinable form (as shown in Fig. 3), comprises 6 percent of new loanwords. However, as many as 24 percent of these nouns are recorded only once, e.g.: kombi, bagi, bonus, izaiko, todi. These are somewhat exotic words, with very specific meanings, used in a narrow context. It is also noteworthy that 63 percent of new indeclinable loanwords (excluding those recorded only once) are words with a stressed vowel in the ending. Like those included in dictionaries, new indeclinable words can be divided into very similar thematic groups. The largest thematic group of new indeclinable words consists of names of Eastern martial arts, e.g.: aikido, bušido, džiu džitsu, hyohushinkai, kung-fu, reiki, tai-chi, taikvondo. Next come names of dishes, e.g.: barbekiu, charakiri, čiuno, fondiu, fri, tažin; games and sports, e.g.: bingo, lego, pačinko, polo; clothing and fabrics, e.g.: boa, flokati, paero, pikė, and groups of names (see Fig. 4 and compare with Fig. 2). Fig. 4 Thematic distribution of new indeclinable loanwords A comparison of Figures 2 and 4 shows that a substantial proportion consists of names of foods, games and sports (the Eastern martial arts group would also be included here), as well as clothing and fabrics. Lexical researchers generally describe the words in the latter group as “extraordinarily mobile” (Sabaliauskaitė 1995: 100). These new indeclinable loanwords are the most likely to augment the group of indeclinable words in Lithuanian. Two points are important here, however: first, they are relatively few in number; second, some of these loanwords are being replaced altogether by new Lithuanian words (e.g., fri – potato sticks, darts – smigis). Thus, usage data from recent years confirm the claim that only a small number of words of foreign origin remain indeclinable in Lithuanian. Moreover, at present there are particularly few loanwords from French, the language that has contributed the largest number of indeclinable words to Lithuanian. 26 This study also revealed another important phenomenon: even some words established as indeclinable are used in inflected forms. 4. Translation of non-Lithuanian prepositive elements as indeclinable words In contemporary Lithuanian, which retains the general tendency to inflect words, a new phenomenon is encountered—paradoxical and contrary to this general tendency: non-Lithuanian prepositive elements are translated as indeclinable words. The tendency to inflect is illustrated by the discussion above of new borrowings from the perspective of inflection, while the emergence of indeclinable words within Lithuanian itself is demonstrated by several instances of the use of non-Lithuanian prepositive elements: their translation as indeclinable words (retro style – retro, video equipment – video; extra class – extra) and the adjectival use of non-Lithuanian elements expressing quality (super breed, extra case, top 50). It is well known that non-Lithuanian prepositive elements “are not used independently in the Lithuanian language” (RS 1992: 53) and are not written separately from the word they qualify. The recommendation is unequivocal, so the persistent repetition and abundance of these errors seem incomprehensible. These departures from the rules are also unambiguously regarded as spelling errors (see Keinys 1975: 40). However, there are also cases in which a non-Lithuanian prepositive element is written not separately from some qualifying word, but occurs alone, e.g.: Then—a sudden leap from photography to v i d e o KB; At present, we all experience Hollywood’s dominance everywhere—in film, television, v i d e o KB; T e c h n o – a flash of the new generation’s culture R, or is used postpositively, e.g.: The results of activities are shown in technical (a u d i o, v i d e o, computer) or other manipulations Š; Television broadcasts the largest number of documentary films (film and v i d e o) ŠA. First, they cannot be regarded as spelling errors; second, it is apparent that non-Lithuanian elements are used in place of a compound word and either replace it entirely or have an even broader meaning. For example, in the sentence When t e c h n o climbed the charts, the word techno means “techno music”; in the advertisement We repair a u d i o, v i d e o, computers, etc. advert., audio and video means “audio equipment” and “video equipment,” while the word video in the sentence That is why I am so interested in v i d e o N can be understood as referring both to a particular kind of technology and to a kind of art. Among non-Lithuanian elements occurring without a qualifying word, the element video stands out in terms of frequency, being used with as many as two meanings: 1) the general meaning of a particular art form, e.g.: At present, Renja Leino teaches at the Institute of Art and Communication (dance, drama, v i d e o, poetry, etc.) in the city of Turku ŠA, and 2) the meaning of video equipment and video technology, e.g.: We repair a u d i o, v i d e o, computers, etc. advert. Non-Lithuanian elements denoting music and fashion styles—pop and techno—are being used as indeclinable words, functioning as the names of those styles. The latter still has two fairly active competing variants—as a prepositive element, 27 e.g.: Almost a year ago, the techno music fans’ club “Dūžiai” was formed Mk; Trousers of this cut will be made from elastic techno-fabrics that accentuate the body’s shape S, and as an indeclinable word, e.g.: This is techno, with many different styles LA; [...] and techno brings people closer to technology, computers, and the virtual world LA, as if following the established country, e.g.: [...] popular dance music and country music played on Saturday afternoon KV; [...] sooner or later country will come knocking at your door C, and the established retro, e.g.: A man from Vilnius Street gives the retro opera a precise vocal dimension [...] LR; Also very fashionable are retro cardigans that button at the front, fit slightly close to the body, and have a rather deep triangular neckline L. Pop has two forms—declinable and indeclinable. In this case, however, the declinable and indeclinable forms are not equivalent: the declinable form popsas (often – popsiukas) carries a disparaging nuance and cannot supplant the indeclinable pop, cf.: She tried a new style—pop [...] KV; I don’t want to single out either pop or rock music, and Dima is still too young to choose valuable music for himself and distinguish it from lightweight “popsiukas” TV. In advertising and promotional texts, elements expressing distinction and quality are observed to be used as indeclinable adjectives, e.g.: ultra wild style P, super sport motorcycle M, super advertisement R, express lunch LR, extra advertisement – in 8 hours, advert. The new element top also belongs to this group. It is used with the meanings “best,” “most popular,” or “best-selling,” not only in music and fashion but also, for example, when talking about contemporary renovation trends, e.g.: top 10, what is fashionable today I, and even derivatives such as ekstop – 10 things it’s time to say goodbye to—they are already going out of fashion I, or games, e.g.: We’re compiling the top 20 games online. Top is assigned to the group of indeclinable elements used adjectivally because a comparison of instances of indeclinable top and declinable topas shows that when used as a noun meaning “a certain list of the best or most frequent,” the word topas is declined, whereas top is used adjectivally, most often with numerals: top 10 (the ten best), top 20, top 50, and so on. The adjectival use of non-Lithuanian elements and indeclinable adjectives may seem entirely new in Lithuanian, but the indeclinable nouns maxi, midi, and mini, included in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, are used adjectivally more often than nominally. This is especially true of mini, e.g.: mini biker gatherings in Suvalkija R; TV mini-series “Jane Eyre” TVA; The awards for best light-industry product also went to [...] “Sparta” for its mini collection of women’s outerwear LR. The least likely to become indeclinable are non-Lithuanian elements denoting types, such as bio-, cardio-, etc. They always occur together with the word they describe, and even when written separately, this is precisely in cases that can be considered spelling errors or at least proofreading errors. 28 5. Indeclinable Lithuanian symbolic names Although the Rules for the Formation of Company Names do not allow “the creation of symbolic names without morphological marking (i.e., without endings)” (Rules for the Formation of Company Names 1997: 46), many such names nevertheless exist. Of the 1,840 symbolic names of Lithuanian companies beginning with the letter A listed in the company directory “Visa Lietuva ‘98,” 12 percent are indeclinable. The proportions of the groups of indeclinable names are shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 5 Indeclinable symbolic company names Excluding company names shared with other countries; abbreviations consisting of individual letters and numbers, e.g., “A 3,” “3 G. K,” “AZ”; expressions in Latin, Italian, and other languages, e.g., “Animus novandi,” “Ave vita”; names formed from indeclinable words already present in Lithuanian, e.g., “Amplua”; non-Lithuanian prepositive elements used as separate words, e.g.: “Auto,” “Auto jums,” “Auto Sabina”—about 7 percent of the names (out of 1,638) remain, consisting of artificial indeclinable words, e.g.: “Albo,” “Amko,” “Arvi,” “Asko.” Another way indeclinable words arise, related to indeclinable symbolic names, is shortening words to create an indeclinable word. This can be described as follows: a name, most often a symbolic one, is formed from a long word by shortening it and retaining the first part of the word. One supplement to the daily newspaper “Respublika,” whose full title reads “A joint project of ‘Respublika’ and the Delegation of the European Commission in Lithuania,” is usually referred to and printed in newspaper headlines simply as “Euro.” 29 The headings of the sections in this supplement are formed with the indeclinable word euro, e.g.: Euro fact, Euro letter. In the name of the “Ekonomija” store chain, the first part of the word is graphically highlighted, Eko, and is used on its own in advertising: buy “Eko,” the best Christmas gifts from “Eko” advert. In the magazine “Ei, labas,” the section about cars—sales, purchases, parts—is called “Auto”4. Several examples can be given of the latter phenomenon, in which common words, rather than symbolic ones, are shortened in the same way. One such example, which has already not only become widespread but also entered dictionaries (Rudaitienė, Vitkauskas 1998: 50), is demo, formed from the adjective demonstracinis, e.g.: This is the demo version of the program! computing, advert.; others have so far been recorded only a few times: repro (from reprografijos), e.g.: All repro services advert.; Repro equipment: for color separation, scanning, proof printing advert.; toto (from totalizator), e.g.: TOTO—these are betting pools for Formula 1, basketball, football, and ice hockey competitions online; This is TOTO about the European Cup competitions of basketball clubs in 1998–1999 online and info (from informacija), e.g.: A little info about me online; You can find the original info here online. How should such linguistic facts be assessed? And what are they: abbreviations, indeclinable words? Most likely, they are nevertheless another type of borrowing, entering Lithuanian in the form in which they are used in the respective language. 5. Conclusions According to the data in DŽ₃ and TŽ, most indeclinable words in Lithuanian derive from French (39 percent); many have come from Italian (11 percent), Greek (10 percent), and Latin (10 percent). The largest thematic group consists of names of Greek letters (9 percent), followed by words relating to fabrics and clothing (7 percent), and words in the fields of food products and dishes, economics, and music (6 percent each). Among the nominal borrowings currently entering Lithuanian, 6 percent have an indeclinable form in all recorded instances. The largest thematic group here consists of names of Eastern martial arts (12 percent); food (9 percent), games and sports, and clothing and fabrics (6 percent each) also form thematic groups. About 3 percent of new borrowings constitute an intermediate, or transitional, group: both inflected and indeclinable forms are used. However, fewer words can actually add to the group of indeclinable nouns in Lithuanian: some of those 6 percent 4 Although the beginning of this article set aside foreign words written in non-Lithuanian script, the magazine “Cosmopolitan,” which began publication in Lithuanian and is colloquially called kosmo, may also be mentioned as an example of this kind of shortening. The magazine’s sections, however, are not named simply with Lithuanian words, but with the element cosmo: cosmo test, cosmo career, cosmo survey, cosmo diet, cosmo body, cosmo health, cosmo hair, cosmo beauty, cosmo profile, cosmo interview, cosmo cover, cosmo letters, cosmo dating, cosmo debate, cosmo fair, cosmo interior, and cosmo about everything, cosmo presents, and so on. 30 some words are recorded only once, while others are replaced altogether by Lithuanian equivalents. Moreover, at present there are particularly few borrowings from French, the language that has contributed the greatest number of indeclinable words to Lithuanian. Evidence from current usage confirms the claim that only a small number of words from other languages remain indeclinable in Lithuanian. New phenomena therefore seem illogical and paradoxical: the use of non-Lithuanian prepositional elements as separate indeclinable words, the shortening of long symbolic names to an indeclinable word, and the formation of indeclinable symbolic names. The primary reason for this should be considered to be precedent: indeclinable words already exist in Lithuanian and are regarded as normal. Another important factor may be that the foreignness of indeclinable words is simply not sufficiently felt—as their numbers grow, they are increasingly perceived as natural in Lithuanian. However, it seems that more persuasive recommendations and more active explanations that indeclinable nouns and adjectives are foreign and should be avoided would reinforce the language system’s tendency to inflect words and prevent the group of indeclinable words from expanding significantly. Particular attention needs to be paid here to the unclear and confusing issue of indeclinable words formed within Lithuanian itself. Received 1999 05 25 ABBREVIATIONS OF SOURCES C – “Cosmopolitan” I – “Ieva” internet – internet KB – “Culture Barometer” computer programs – computer programs KV – “Language Vilnius” L – “Laima” LA – “Echo of Lithuania” LR – “Lithuanian Morning” M – “Mobilis” Mk – “Student” N – “Nemunas” P – “Miss” R – “Republic” advert. – advertisement S – “Style” Š – “Lighthouse” ŠA – “Northern Athens” TV – “Your Child” TVA – “TV Antenna” 31 LITERATŪRA Ambrazas V. 1976: [Diskusijos]. – Mūsų kalba 4, 31. Balkevičius J. 1976: Nelinksniuojamųjų daiktavardžių giminė. – Mūsų kalba 4, 21–23. DLKG – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla, 1994. DŽ₃ – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla, 1993. Firmų vardų darymo taisyklės – Valstybės žinios, 1997 11 26, Nr. 107–2711, 46. Jakaitienė E. 1980: Lietuvių kalbos leksikologija, Vilnius: Mokslas. Jakaitienė E. ir kt. 1976: Jakaitienė E., Laigonaitė A., Paulauskienė A. Lietuvių kalbos morfologija, Vilnius: Mokslas. Keinys S. 1975: Tai ne korektūros klaidos! – Kalbos kultūra 28, 36–42. LKG – Lietuvių kalbos gramatika 1, Vilnius: Mintis, 1965. Pakerys A. 1991: Tarptautinių žodžių kirčiavimas, Kaunas: Šviesa. RS – Lietuvių kalbos rašyba ir skyryba, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1992. Rudaitienė V., Vitkauskas V. 1998: Vakarų kalbų naujieji skoliniai, Vilnius: Enciklopedija. Sabaliauskaitė D. 1995: Vokiškos kilmės drabužių ir apavo pavadinimai lietuvių kalboje. – Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai 35, 100–120. TŽ – Tarptautinių žodžių žodynas, Vilnius: Vyriausioji enciklopedijų redakcija, 1985. NEW UNINFLECTED WORDS IN MODERN LITHUANIAN Summary There are not so many uninflected words (nouns) in the Lithuanian language: DML (1993) gives 46 items, Dictionary of International Words (DIW) (Tarptautinių žodžių žodynas) – 267 items. Borrowings from French, Italian, Greek and Latin make up the largest part of these uninflected words. The names of the Greek alphabet letters, as well as words referring to fabrics and clothing, foodstuffs and dishes, terms of economics and music constitute the most abundant thematic groups of uninflected words. There are some new uninflected borrowings in the Lithuanian language; the largest group pertains to the names of Oriental forms of combat. A separate group of new borrowings consists of either inflected or uninflected word forms. The analysis has shown that the inflected form tends to become established. The facts of the current usage of Lithuanian confirm our contention that only a few borrowings remain uninflected in the Lithuanian language, which testifies to the tendency of the language to inflect words wherever possible. In this context, the usage of the non-Lithuanian prepositive elements as uninflected separate words, the formation of uninflected names of products and companies, the abbreviation of long names to uninflected short words seem to be an illogical and paradoxical practice. Such a process could be supported by a precedent, as the Lithuanian language has already got some uninflected words, and they are considered standard. An important factor of this misuse may be the insufficiently perceived ‘foreignness’ of uninflected words in Lithuanian: an increasing number of uninflected words come to be taken as natural to the Lithuanian language. The article includes some statistical data. 32