Apie XIX a. lietuvių kolonijų kalbą Baltarusijoje

LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXVIII (1989) KALBŲ RYŠIAI IR SĄVEIKOS MARIJA KINDURYTĖ-SIVICKIENĖ ABOUT THE LANGUAGE OF LITHUANIAN COLONIES IN BELARUS IN THE 19TH CENTURY There are two kinds of Lithuanian-language islands within the territory of the Byelorussian SSR. Some of them are “survivals,” that is, they became separated from the main Lithuanian-language area due to historical circumstances that developed in one way or another. They were studied and described extensively as early as the late 19th century and thereafter, in the 20th century. Research intensified especially in the 1960s, when interest arose in Lithuanian dialects and in contemporary contacts between Baltic and Slavic languages and their interaction. However, there are also Lithuanian-language islands of a different kind in Belarus. These are small colonies—individual villages settled by Lithuanians who moved here in the late 19th century (1885–1890) from the former Vilnius and Kaunas governorates. A dozen or so larger and smaller villages were scattered across the present-day Vitebsk, Mogilev, and Minsk regions (as well as the neighboring Smolensk region). Not all the colonies have survived to this day. Much is known about how Lithuanian villages came to be in Belarus from the accounts of the residents themselves. There are now none among them who were born in Lithuania and came here with their parents. The last of them died about 20 years ago. Smallholding peasants formed associations and left their homeland for these governorates of tsarist Russia, hoping to find cheaper land, which was most often sold at auction. The tsarist government made certain arrangements for those who were leaving. They could obtain a long-term loan from the Moscow Peasant Bank. It was in this way that the Lithuanian village of Málkava (Belarusian: Ма́лькаўка) was established on the estate of the landowner Termanas (the birthplace of the author of this article; see Киндурис 1956), in Mstislavl district, Mogilev region, 35 km west of Mstislavl. In 1885, 42 farming families arrived here, having bought the Malkava estate, which included about 3,200 hectares of forested land. Most of the residents came here from Linkmenys and its environs, now situated on the border of Utena, Švenčionys, and Ignalina districts. On settling here, they used part of the estate’s forest to build dwellings and cut down or burned much of it to create arable land. At the beginning of the 20th century, the people of Malkava moved into isolated farmsteads, but in 1939 the farmsteads were abolished and everyone returned to the site of the old village. Malkava was one of the larger villages of this origin in Belarus. Until 1929 it had about 80 farms and 525 residents; later, in 1956, it had 45 farms and about 280 residents. Their numbers dwindled over time. Interesting information can be found in the only booklet of its kind by V. Skardis (Скардзіс, 1929), which lists and briefly describes Lithuanian settlements and gives the number of residents and their origins. The period 1927–1937 was very significant in the lives of the Lithuanians of Belarus. At that time, primary or seven-year schools were established and operated (in larger 123 Lithuanian schools in the villages). In the Vitebsk region settlement of Dimanovos, a Lithuanian boarding school operated from 1928 to 1938, gradually expanding from a seven-year school into a secondary school. Young people came there to study from all the Lithuanian villages in Belarus, as well as from other parts of the USSR (Smolensk and Saratov regions). National collective farms were organized in the villages. Clubs and reading rooms operated, and evenings and meetings were held. The older generation was also taught to read and write in Lithuanian. Many villagers read the newspaper „Raudonasis artojas“, published in Minsk, as well as the magazine „Priekalas“, printed in Moscow. All this greatly revitalized the Lithuanian character of the colonies. During this period, the standard Lithuanian language directly influenced the speech of villagers who had come from various places. Perhaps this is why some prominent dialect features were not passed on to the next generation, their children, nor were features of the older speakers’ speech. In the Malkava dialect, dzūkavimas may serve as an example. A considerable number of neologisms appeared in the vocabulary: darbdienis, klubas-skaitykla, kolektyvas, soclenktynės, pirmininkas, pirmūnas and so on. Many words from the standard language became familiar to members of the older generation, too. The latter did use them, though, depending on the situation. In general, they made do with dialect forms (e.g., instead of erzinti, mindžioti, kiemnas, liesas, svirdukliuoti, šiukšlės they said trotint, trápint, atšláimas, skriaužnas, svirdukuliuoti, šėgžmas) or loanwords (e.g., not bjaurus, bùlvė, gañdaras, kolektývas ‘collective farm’, žiūrėti, but ‘ugly, potato, gander, collective farm, to look’: špėtnas, bùlba, bučionas | bùsilas, kalkūozas, dabót and the like (see Сивицкене 1963). The situation began to change after the Lithuanian schools were closed (March 1938) and the national collective farms were incorporated as brigades into neighboring Belarusian collective farms. The upheavals of the Great Patriotic War scattered the inhabitants of these villages considerably. Many returned to Lithuania. War refugees and people from elsewhere settled in the deserted farmsteads of Malkava. Those who no longer attended Lithuanian school can neither read nor write in Lithuanian. They write letters to their relatives in Lithuania in Lithuanian, using Russian (Belarusian) letters. Bilingualism is spreading and deepening, although it is not uniform. Increasingly, villagers speaking Lithuanian use loanwords—words and expressions such as pretsedátelius ‘chairman’, spasuõbნას ‘capable’, staršinìčia ‘chairman’, dirba un praizvuõdstvas ‘works in production, at a factory’—председатель, способный, старшина, работает на производстве. The functions and sphere of use of the native language have narrowed. Yet even now, a century later, the native speech remains the only means of communication among Lithuanian villagers in Malkava. There are very few such residents now, however—about 20 people. The situation is similar in other Lithuanian villages that have survived to this day. In 1964, the author of the article visited two Lithuanian villages in the Minsk region, Krupki district (Крупки, Крупски р-н): Litvinka (Литвинка) and Asinauka (locally called Бальшая Асінаўка). At that time (20 years earlier), many people in the villages still spoke Lithuanian, although not all residents were Lithuanian. The speech of the two villages differs. The Lithuanians had moved there from different localities. The inhabitants of Litvinka call themselves Vilnians, that is, people originating from the former Vilnius Governorate, Trakai County. At first, 12 families settled there. Dzūkian dialect features are very pronounced in Litvinka—for example, the preservation of short stressed i and u and long unstressed vowels; t’ > c’, cf. prašom aic’ válgyc’. The illative is widely used; the adessive and allative forms seem to 124 have become fossilized; the only common forms are namiepi, namópi. In Litvinka, an old Dzūkian custom has survived: in the evenings, people light a fire outdoors, gather around it, and cook supper. The people are sincere and trusting. The inhabitants of the other village, Balšāja Asinauka, located 30 km from Litvinka, came from the former Kaunas Governorate; they mention Troškūnai and Raguvėlė in Anykščiai. They have preserved dialect features characteristic of those localities, for example, the pronunciations kórvė, atómėna, dęga, rėžginės. The village is different ethnographically, too: the buildings are well built, and the yards are fenced. The people are less trusting and more reserved. The inhabitants of these villages, too, use Belarusian words and combinations that have simply not been assimilated into their speech. Bilingualism is characteristic of them. People of younger generations work and live in cities (Borisov, Minsk, Mogilev) and rarely visit the village. Many mixed families have formed, and their children no longer know Lithuanian. Fewer and fewer older village residents remain. These and other extralinguistic factors mentioned above determine how long the Lithuanian enclaves will survive. LITERATŪRA Киндурис 1956 — Киндурис М. К. Литовский говор в белорусском окружении. (Говор дер. Мальковка в БССР): Дис.... канд. филол. наук. Л.: ЛГУ, 1956. Киндурис 1956а — Киндурис М. К. Литовский говор в белорусском окружении. (Говор дер. Мальковка в БССР): Автореф....дис. канд. филол. наук. Л.: ЛГУ, 1956. Сивицкене 1963 — Сивицкене М. Семантические особенности славянских лексических заимствований на материале изолированного литовского говора // Kalbotyra (Языкознание). Вильнюс, 1963. Т. 6. С. 99—107. Скардзис 1929 — Скардзис В. Литовцы на Беларуси. Минск, 1929. О ЯЗЫКЕ ЛИТОВСКИХ КОЛОНИЙ XIX В. В БЕЛОРУССИИ Резюме Кроме „остаточных“ островов литовского языка, расположенных в соседней с Литвой Гродненской обл., на территории Белоруссии имеются литовские острова иного происхождения. Это небольшие колонии, отдельные села литовцев-переселенцев в Витебской, Минской, Могилевской областях, прибывших сюда в 80-е гг. XIX в. из разных мест бывш. Ковенской и Виленской губерний. По данным переписи населения 1926 г., в Белоруссии проживали 6863 литовца. Несомненно, большинство их приходилось на литовские села. О времени, причинах и условиях появления литовских колоний в Белоруссии известно из рассказов самих жителей, из немногих печатных источников. Малоземельные литовские крестьяне организовывались в товарищества и уходили из родных мест в поисках земли. Земля приобреталась у разорявшихся помещиков при посредничестве Московского поземельного банка. Банк предоставлял переселенцам долгосрочную ссуду. Так, напр., на месте имения помещика Термана появилось и литовское село Мальковка (Мстиславский р-н Могилевской обл., в 35 км на запад от Мстиславля). Это одно из наиболее крупных литовских поселений. Сюда пришли выходцы из бывш. Свенцянского уезда Линкмянской и соседних волостей Виленской губ. Исходную территорию уцелевших литовских колоний можно легко определить по диалектным данным, несмотря на то, что минуло около 100 лет со времени их основания. 125 Наиболее значительным периодом в жизни литовских переселенцев были 1927—1937 гг. Тогда были открыты и действовали начальные и семилетние литовские школы. А в мест. Диманово Витебской обл. (Богушевский р-н) была средняя школа-интернат, куда съезжалась молодежь из всех литовских сел Белоруссии и даже из Смоленской, Саратовской обл. В литовских селах были организованы национальные колхозы, делопроизводство в них велось на литовском языке, работали клубы-читальни, проводились вечера и т. д. Старшее поколение обучалось литовской грамоте в ликбезах. Сюда доставлялась газета „Raudonasis artojas”, которая печаталась в Минске, и журнал „Priekalas“, издававшийся в Москве. Именно в то время говоры литовских сел получили большую поддержку со стороны литературного литовского языка. В них появился целый ряд новообразований — советизмов, параллелизмов (диалектное — общенародное). Некоторые диалектные особенности в речи старшего поколения не нашли поддержки в речи последующих поколений. Положение резко изменилось после того, как (в 1938 г.) были закрыты литовские школы, реорганизованы национальные колхозы. Все меньше молодежи оставалось на селе. После Великой Отечественной войны многие жители литовских деревень выехали в Литву. Появилось пришлое население, участились смешанные браки. Сфера и функции литовского языка все больше сужаются. Младшие поколения, еще говорящие на литовском языке, письменным литовским не владеют. Все больше развивается билингвизм. Кроме старых славизмов, в речи литовцев появляется много новых белорусских слов и неосвоенных выражений. Однако литовский язык остается единственным средством общения коренных жителей между собой. Нам неизвестны случаи смены языка индивида. Экстралингвистические факторы предопределяют длительность существования подобных языковых островов.