BELARUSIAN–RUSSIAN DICTIONARY

Academy of Sciences of the Belarusian SSR, Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics, Belarusian–Russian Dictionary, edited by Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR K. K. Krapiva, Moscow, 1962, 1048 pp.

The Lithuanian and Belarusian peoples are linked not only by centuries of neighbourly relations, but also by many shared pages of history. The cultures and scholarly development of these friendly peoples also have many features in common. It is enough to recall that the official written state language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was Old Belarusian¹. Consequently, today, when studying the past of their people and language, Belarusians must constantly engage with Lithuania’s past as well².

The history of Belarusian lexicography is similar. As in Ukrainian lexicography, its beginnings are considered to be the glossaries compiled in the second half of the 16th century to explain unknown words or terms in various writings. The first such glossary was appended to a Bible translation and was entitled “Лексись съ толкованіемъ словенскихъ мовъ просто” (1581). More valuable was the “Лексись сиречь речения, выкратцѣ събраны и изъ Словенскаго языка на просто рускій діалектъ истолкованы (Вільня, 1956)” prepared by the philologist L. Zizanius and appended to a grammar.

Many Belarusian words are also found in P. Berinda’s dictionary of the western East Slavic languages, published in Kyiv³, which appeared at about the same time as our K. Širvydas’s “Dictionarium trium linguarum”⁴.

Among the more valuable dictionaries based on the foundations of the Old Belarusian language are the following: the 17th-century manuscript dictionary “Синонима славеноросская,” printed in Kyiv by P. Žytecki in 1889; the large unpublished dictionary prepared by I. Nosovich in 1853–1857, “Алфавитный указатель старинных белорусских слов, извлеченных из актов, относящихся к истории западной России”; N. Garbachevsky’s “Словарь древнего актового языка северо-западного края и царства польского,” published in Vilnius in 1874; and a considerable number of other unpublished or printed, smaller dictionaries.

In the 19th century, dictionaries of the common Belarusian language began to be compiled on the basis of the written language of the time and individual dialects. These included J. Grigorovich’s “Словарь западнорусского наречия” (1847–1851; only the beginning was printed), S. Sokolov’s “Собрание белорусских слов” (1854), A. Kirkor’s “Словарь белорусско-кривичанского наречия” (1856), and I. Nosovich’s “Словарь белорусского наречия” (1870, about 30,000 words). Besides I. Nosovich’s dictionary, many shorter bilingual dictionaries were also published for practical use, for example:

¹ The term Old Belarusian language is provisional; cf. “History of Lithuanian Literature” (ed. K. Korsakas), I, Vilnius, 1957, pp. 51–52. Some propose calling this language Western Russian; see Л. Л. Гумецкая, Вопросы украинско-белорусских языковых связей древнего периода, “Вопросы языкознания,” № 2, 1965, pp. 39–44.

² Plg., Хрэстаматыя па гісторыі беларускай мовы, I, Мінск, 1961.

³ П. Беринда, Лексиконь славеноросскій, 1st ed. 1627, 2nd ed. 1653. A photographic edition of this dictionary was prepared by the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR: Лексикон словеноросскій Памви Берынды, Київ, 1961.

⁴ See K. Pakalka, “From the history of K. Širvydas’s Dictionarium trium linguarum dictionary,” “Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai,” III, Vilnius, 1960, pp. 277–287.

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M. Gareckio „Невялічкі беларуска-маскоўскі слоўнік“ (Вільня, 1921), M. Baikovo ir M. Gareckio „Практичны расійска-беларускі слоўнік“ (Менск, 1924), V. Lastovskio „Расійска-крыўскі слоўнік (Kaunas, 1924), M. Baikovo ir S. Nekraševičiaus „Беларуска-расійскі слоўнік“ (Менск, 1926) ir kt.

At the same time, regional dictionaries were also being written, such as M. Fedorovski’s „Слоўнічак правінцыялізмаў“ (1889), V. Dobrovolski’s „Смоленский областной словарь“ (Смоленск, 1914), M. Kaspiarovič’s „Віцебскі краёвы слоўнік“ (Віцебск, 1927); E. Karski’s „Краёвы слоўнік Чэрвеншчыны“ (Мінск, 1929), and others.

In 1932, with the establishment of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR, lexicographic work was expanded and begun on a collective basis. As early as 1937, the „Русka-беларускі слоўнік“, edited by A. Aleksandrovič, appeared. A huge Belarusian dictionary card index of 3 million slips had been compiled from written sources and dialects, but it was entirely lost during the Great Patriotic War.

After the war, the collection of lexicographic material had to begin anew. Several card indexes began to be compiled at once: that for a dictionary of the Belarusian literary language (about 1.5 million cards have now been collected from works by Belarusian writers of the 19th and 20th centuries), that for a dictionary of the Old Belarusian language (about 0.5 million cards collected from old Belarusian written sources), and a card index for regional dictionaries (in all, eight regional dictionaries of the most important Belarusian dialects are planned⁵). Material is also being collected for a Belarusian etymological dictionary.

The first work by Belarusian lexicographers in the postwar years was the „Rusų-baltarusių kalbų žodynas“ (about 86,000 words), published in 1953 and edited by J. Kolas, K. Krapiva, and P. Glebka. Published in 1962, the „Baltarusių-rusų kalbų žodynas“ (about 90,000 words) is by far the largest dictionary in the history of Belarusian lexicography.

Both of the aforementioned postwar dictionaries are works of great practical value. They provide many synonyms and phraseological expressions, indicate which words are acceptable and which are not, and mark the stress on headwords. Thus, both dictionaries contribute significantly to the development and standardization of the literary language. They partly serve in place of the four-volume dictionary of contemporary Belarusian that is still being prepared. These dictionaries, being bilingual (the meanings of Belarusian words are explained in Russian, and vice versa), are useful for the scholarly and practical needs of people of other nations as well.

For us Lithuanians (translators and linguists), the „Baltarusių-rusų kalbų žodynas“ is more significant. Translators need it for practical purposes, while for linguists it provides much material for broader studies of language history and for illuminating linguistic ties between Lithuanian and Belarusian. Finally, it makes it possible to trace which words have entered Lithuanian from Belarusian and vice versa.

For example, the words found in the aforementioned dictionary that, in the opinion of many linguists, are Belarusian borrowings from the Baltic languages (especially Lithuanian) include: апу́д←aruodas, баланда←balanda, до́йлид←dailidė, дзёгаць←degutas, eipca←diršė, дзірван←dirvonas, янтарь←gintaras, ядоўка←indauja, гўня←jauja, коўш←kaušas, клыша-ногі←klišas, клуня←kluonas, кулеша←kulšė, кумпяк←kumpis, пакульне, пакля←pakulos, парасё, парасок←paršiukas, рэгені←regzinės, рупец←rūpėti, сцірта←stirta, свірэн←svirnas, шакалана←šakalai, шишок←šeškas, шуля, шу-

⁵ See Інструкцыя па збіранню матэрыялаў для складання абласных слоўнікаў беларускай мовы, вып. I, Мінск, 1959, p. 3.

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ло←шулас, твань←tvanas, потувнис, вагаць←vagoti, венецрь←venterīs, жлукта←žlugtacand so on⁶.

The following Belarusian words should also probably be considered borrowings from the Baltic languages: атоса←atsaja, атасіея, бамбіза “a clumsy person, a tall person,” бурбалка “1. bubble, 2. water lily,” мянта, мянташка “a distaff”←mentė, шыпулька “a thorn”←šipulysand so on⁸. In the future, especially once a complete Belarusian dictionary has been published, more such borrowings will undoubtedly be identified, since the limited scope of the dictionary under review meant that some Baltic borrowings already known were not included; for example, it does not contain дулькі “dust from tow”⁹, лаума, лузме “a laumė, a witch,” путра←putra, свер, свіриня←svirtis, жэгіні←žaginys, and so on.

On the other hand, it contains many words known in Lithuanian as Slavicisms. Thus, it can help Lithuanian etymologists determine the direct origins of individual Slavicisms in Lithuanian. Among the old, direct Belarusian borrowings used in literary Lithuanian and lacking Lithuanian equivalents, the following may be mentioned: barščiai←борщ, bulvė←бульба, noragas←нарог, smuikas←смык, and so on. Many more borrowings from individual Belarusian dialects are used in our dialects, for example: kožnas “each”←кожны, skūpas “stingy”←скупы, skūra “skin”←скура, trivoti “to endure”←трываць, and so on. It is to be hoped that the Belarusian dictionary will also help to clarify the origins of borrowings used in individual Lithuanian dialects.

Despite its many merits, the “Belarusian-Russian Dictionary” unfortunately also has shortcomings. In our view, it is quite unnecessarily overloaded with international words of little use (фанадізацыя, фантом, паліцыянія), names of places and cities around the world (Сан-Хуан, Сарэма, Сарэнта), and so forth. It would have been better to include more Belarusian folk words and synonyms in their place, many of which occur in dialects but were omitted from the dictionary, for example: грыўшына “rutabaga, fodder beet,” калубель “cradle,” крошні “creels,” плоскуны “flakes, hemp,” зопка “a basket for carrying grain,” and so on.¹⁰ Moreover, there are quite a few instances where rare synonyms have been included in the dictionary: гладыш “pot,” кухцік “small pot, ladle,” мэндлік “haystack,” рамень “belt,” сірма “rick, cone-shaped stack,” жеродка “haymaking rake,” and so on, while their more widely used forms (ладыш, кухлік, мэндля, рамень, скірда, жердзь, and so on) are entirely absent. Not all meanings of certain words are given; for example, ўсхода also means “harvest,” among other things; загон means “hayrack”; and хлуд and тын mean “the above-ground part of a well lining,” and so on.

The dictionary contains many morphological and phonetic variants that should be standardized, for example: блішчаць; блішчаць, крутануць: крутануць, прыстасованы: прыстасаваны, and so on.

Nevertheless, despite the shortcomings noted, the “Belarusian-Russian Dictionary” is a significant contribution to Belarusian lexicography and a great aid to Lithuanian linguists and translators.

A. Vidugiris

⁶ Cf. A. Sabaliauskas, Naujas etimologinis rusų kalbos žodynas, “Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai,” IV, Vilnius, 1961, pp. 319 ff., and also pp. 84 ff. of this volume.

⁷ The Lithuanian origin of this word was also indicated by V. Urbutis, Senieji latvių kalbos žodynai, “Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai,” VI, Vilnius, 1963, pp. 298–929.

⁸ Many of these words are used in neighboring Polish dialects around Białystok; cf. Cz. Kudzinowski, Jaćwingowie w języku, “Acta baltico-slavica,” Białystok, 1964, pp. 223–235.

⁹ The word дулькі (cf. наглыкацца дулькой) is used in Belarusian dialects around Zietela (Diatlova), Lida, and elsewhere.

¹⁰ The lexical section of “Дыялекталагічны атлас беларускай мовы” (Мінск, 1963) is used as the source.

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