Dėl sąvokos „periferinės tarmės“

LITHUANIAN KALBOTYROS QUESTIONS, XXX (1993) PERIFERICAL DIALECTS OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE Kazys CARROT ON THE CONCEPT OF PERIFERICAL TERM * 1. 0. When speaking about peripheral dialects of Lithuanian language (respectively, spoken language), it is necessary to know which dialects this term applies to or by what characteristics they are distinguished from other dialects. The direct meaning of the word peripheral, -ė, would say that they are to be considered dialects, mostly far from the center. However, not always and the concept of the center is unambiguous. In the case of peripheral dialects, this concept can be understood from both a geographical, administrative and purely linguistic point of view. It is true that in the first and second cases, it is also impossible to detach oneself from the linguistic aspect — to discuss a region that is somehow separated from the entire language area without considering the linguistic situation that has historically developed there. 1. 1. The geographical and ethnographic center of modern Lithuania is the Kėdainiai area. These dialects, together with the dialects spoken there, occupy about the middle part of today's Lithuanian language area. In the 16th-17th centuries Kėdainiai was one of the most important cultural centres of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first Lithuanian publications, which appeared almost 400 years ago in Greater Lithuania, were written in the so-called middle variant of the written language, close to the dialect of Kėdainiai!. ir iš This is the classical old writing fund attributable to Mikalojus Daukšos (about the 1527-1613), followers of the Reformation Merkelis Petkevičius (approx. 1550-1608), Jakuba Morkūno (Vilnius printer, about 1550 - po 1611) ir other publications. With the change of political, economic, cultural and religious situation, ir tų the dialect of Kėdainiai no longer played an exclusive role in Greater o Lithuania, and some of the surrounding areas ir were significantly affected by the wave of bending. 1. 2. The second historically formed center — Vilnius, for many centuries, has been and ir remains the most important centre of politics, economy, culture, education, science and other areas of social life of the Lithuanian nation. In the 17th a. century, Konstantinas Sirvydas published important works of Lithuanian literature in the Vilnius (Eastern) written language, which was formed on ir the basis of the Eastern Altay dialect. (approx. 1579-1631), Jono Other (1598-1668) ir publications to prepared by Jaknavičius' representatives of the region for the Diocese of Vilnius. Z. In Zinkevičius- 's words, "otherwise the historical conditions of the Lithuanian state ir Vilnius city conditions, oriental The a. 17th-century written language, which emerged in the economic and cultural centre of the ir country in the state capital of Vilnius, "Lietuvos bendrine". | Plg. Zinkevičius Z. On the Origin of Lithuanian Writings // Baltistica, 1977. T. 13(1). P. 239. a Zinkevičius Z. Oriental XVII a. Lithuanian written language, its origin ir disappearance / Baltistica, 1972. T. 4 Due to the difficult and very unfavorable conditions for Lithuania, especially after its annexation to the Russian Empire in 1795, which lasted over 120 years, the nearest Vilnius districts gradually became Slavic, the Lithuanian language used there (the schnekts of these districts) disappeared. This process basically continued in the 20th century: in the interwar years the Polish occupation authorities carried out the polonization of Vilnius region, and after the Second World War the Soviet regime created favourable conditions for Slavification. The Lithuanian dialect of the nearer and somewhat further Vilnius surroundings does not play a special role in the whole dialect system of the Lithuanian language. 1. 3. From a linguistic point of view, the most important — central — place in the Lithuanian dialect system, one could say, is universally and justifiably recognized for the dialect, on the basis of which the common (literary) language of the whole nation was created. The present-day common Lithuanian language is based on the Kaunas dialect of the western Altai people. Since it became one of the main variants of the first Lithuanian scripts, the subsequent historical circumstances were much more favourable to it than to the variants of the scripts that formed the basis of other dialects (central and eastern Highlands, and in some cases also Žemaitija). Already the author of the first grammar of the Lithuanian language, written in Latin (Grammatica Litvanica) and published in 1653 in Karaliaučius, Daniel Klein, in his "Speech to the reader with greetings", after briefly reviewing the diversity of Lithuanian dialects, remarked insightfully that the Prussian Lithuanians are closer to the "inhabitants of Kaunas region" than to others in their dialect and that "in Kaunas dialect, as the best and most suitable, we follow the Principality of Prussia". Much later this opinion was confirmed by the author of another "Grammar of the Lithuanian language" Fridrichas Kuršaitis south of (1806-1884), į Nemunas — between Kaunas ir "Slovenski — jezik v slovenskem jezikoslovju" (in Slovenian). Finally, the present common Lithuanian language was formed on the basis of the aforementioned western Highland dialect Second a. half of the 19th century — XX a. at the beginning of the 20th century, during the national, political, cultural revival, other processes of consolidation of the Lithuanian nation, after publishing grammar for schools and various Lithuanian language practice works (here especially much determined the father of the Lithuanian written language Jono "Jablonski's Works". Geographically, some Kaunas dialects are among the closest to the common — language jų Griškabūdžio, Kudirkos The neighbouriir ng districts — of Naumiestis and iš Vilkaviškis are now on one of the edges of the Lithuanian language area, i.e. on the jo south-western edge. But not so long ne before — World War II — ir The tų geographical position of the Šnektai was different: Lithuanian-speaking ancient inhabitants were farther į west and southwest. The latter, t. y. Small Lietuvos (Eastern Prussia) Lithuanian schneckets, mainly forming a continuation of the western Altay dialect (excluding narrow The Curonian Spit, near the west — The "Lithuanian — language" is a dialect of the to Lithuanian language spoken in the southwestern part of Lithuania. 3 The first grammar of the Lithuanian language. 1653. Atsak. red. J. Krupas. V., 1957. PP. 406. 4 Plg. Kurschat F. Grammar of the Lithuanian Language. Halle, 1876. P. 9-11. 5 Plg. Gerullis J. and Stang’as Chr. Lithuanian fishermen's dialect in Prasai. K., 1933. When comparing Lithuanian dialects from different places, it is easy to notice that the more they are geographically distant from each other, the greater the number of distinctive linguistic features in them. The ir most distant and most different from Kaunas are the northern Žemaičiai, and from the Altai — the eastern (especially the northern part) Altai. The latter dialects occupy a peripheral position in relation to the Kaunas dialect — the central dialect — although the Kaunas dialect, like all western Highland dialects, is also a geographical and linguistic intermediary between the eastern Highland dialects and the Zemgale dialects. 3.0. In Lithuanian dialectology, distinguishing peripheral dialects from other dialects, other peculiarities are also taken into account. One of them is the direct connections (contacts) of certain Lithuanian dialects with other languages (their dialects). 3. 1. Perhaps most often the concept of peripheral dialects applies to dialects of the eastern and southeastern edge of the Lithuanian language area, to which the Vilnius area now belongs. The Lithuanian dialects of this region, as well as those of Belarus and Poland, are strongly influenced by the Slavic languages (Belarusian, Polish, and in some places Russian). 3. 2. According to the same characteristics, another group of peripheral dialects was formed by the aforementioned dialects of Lesser Lithuania, which over several centuries experienced a great influence of German (East Prussian German dialects). The latter Lithuanian dialects were in many cases intermediaries, helping to spread various Germanisms into other Lithuanian dialects. 3. 3. The interaction of the dialects of the northern edge of Lithuania with the adjacent Latvian dialects is not as strong. The results of this ne interaction are ir always obvious because some phenomena in the dialects of the — two ir Lithuania- — n-Latvian languages, which are very close in origin, may be common. t. y. inherited iš from ancient times. Somewhere Lithuanians exist (if any) ir In the territory of Latvia: Aknīste, Ciskoda, Daugpils, ir Kraslava, etc. in the surrounding area. Jų language (dialect) has been much more influenced by Latvian or su ja fully assimilated®. 4. Iš of all peripheral dialects of Lithuanian language, the eastern southeastern dialects ir have been the most studied in various respects. This is clearly shown by the published "Index of literature on the study of peripheral dialects of Lithuanian language" (composed of Ana "Romance". However, this index presents only the current už territory of Lithuania — Latvia, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania In Lithuania (Eastern In Prussia) — iš old living (old) or newer times (XIX-XX a.) in some countries (in Belarus, Russia, America) colonies (expatriates, exiled) Lithuanians more important languages (dialect) studies. It may be assumed that some of the peripheral Lithuanian dialects (not only the mentioned index compiler) tends to hold only those that are už Borders of Lithuania. However, The present borders of Lithuania usually separate very close or iš essentially the same dialects be that have experienced similar development processes, cf. eastern and southeastern edge of the territory of Lithuania ir Apso, Kamėjų, Gervėčių, Pelesos, Rėdūnios, Lazūnų (Belarus), Puunsko, Seinų district (Lithuanian) Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas. Jų 6 About Lithuanian language (dialects) prevalence už of current The borders of Lithuania (In the small Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, envelope į A ir for extinction see : Garšva K. Development of the linguistic situation in peripheral dialects : Ral gyšiai sąveikos ir (Lithuanian linguistics issues. T. 28). V., 1989. P. 12-38 (with referen- : ce to a). Language Relations ir Interaction. P. 215-230. In the past few years, the t bibliography of iferiniai į lietuvi research has been somewhat enriched. 4 The links between the post-Slavonic lies and 6 peripheral Lithuanian dialects are clearly shown in the works of linguistic geography- ®. Therefore, peripheral dialects are to be called dialects of the entire stretch on both sides of the Lithuanian border. 5.Peripheral dialects are also called the dialects of larger dialects, the most distant from their centre, which have many other dialect characteristics, e.g., the southeastern dialects of the southern Zemgale (Raseiniai) with numerous highland characteristics. Some of the larger dialects (respectively, Patarmian) schnecks, located in the middle of the Lithuanian language area, have more characteristic features of peripheral dialects (respectively, schnecks) — strong interaction with Slavic (Polish, Russian) languages, for example, in the Šiauliai area — Šėtos, part of Jonava neighborhood schnecks; in Kaunas area —Vandžiogala and other neighborhoods. However, these Lithuanian dialects (respectively, schnekts) have been little studied in various respects. 6. Other terms are often used in Lithuanian dialectology: border/border dialects (respectively, schnekts), edge dialects. It is true that the first of them — the paribio/paribio dialects — does not always clearly say what is being spoken about: the dialects of the outskirts of the current territory of Lithuania, the closest dialects in other states beyond the borders of Lithuania, the dialects of the outskirts of former ethnic Lithuanian lands, etc. The second term, peripheral dialects, is less associated with administrative, political, or other boundaries, and may in many cases be synonymous with the term peripheral dialect. ON THE NOTION OF THE PERIPHERAL DIALECTS Summary The West High Lithuanian dialect (or Kauniškiai, dialect spoken in and around Kaunas) occupies the central position in the system of Lithuanian dialects and forms the basis of Standard Lithuanian. Dialects that are remote from the KauniSkiai dialect geographically and differ from linguistically it occupy peripheral position. A characteristic peculiarity the of peripheral dialects that they get into is direct contacts with other languages (or their dialects), for example, Slavonic languages (Byelorussian, Polish, Russian) the at Eastern and South-Eastern border, German (until the WW II) the at South-Western and Lettish at the Northern border of Lithuania. Subdialects that are remote from the centre larger dialects, of with some admixture other dialects can also of described peripheral. be as For example, the South-Eastern subdialects of South Samogitians (or RaseiniSkiai) have lot a features of characteristic the of High Lithuanian dialect. These subdialects interact with other languages (Polish, Russian), for example, the subdialect of the environs of Vilnius the at borders the of Kauniskiai dialect speaking area. One and the same notion of Lithuanian dialectology can be expressed differently, for example, paribio/ paribiy tarmės, pakraščių tarmės. The latter term least associated is with political, administrative and other boundaries. In most cases it is synonymous with the term ‘peripheral dialects’. 8 Plg. Atlas of the Lithuanian language. T. I. Lexicon. V., 1977; T. 2. Phonetics. V., 1982; T. 3. Morphology (printable). 7