Nauji duomenys apie Skaistgirio tarmės konsonantizmą

LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, III LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA NEW DATA ON THE CONSONANT SYSTEM OF THE SKAISTGIRIS DIALECT A. JONAITYTĖ During the dialectological expedition in July 1959, a distinctive northwestern Highland Lithuanian speech variety was discovered in Žagarė District, near the border with the Latvian SSR. It differs from neighboring northwestern Highland Lithuanian speech varieties (Šakyna, Dameliai, Dilbinai) in that it does not have at all the consonants š, ž, č, dž. Speakers of neighboring varieties (Šakyna, Dameliai, Dilbinai) have long noticed this feature of the Skaistgirian speech, though perhaps they have not listened closely enough. According to them, the Skaistgirians (and even the people of Joniškis) mix up these consonants: where one should say s, z, they say š, ž, and vice versa; for example, the sentence “Mama said to bring a fork” is pronounced by the Skaistgirians as māma šāke, atnešė sāke. But nowadays the consonants are no longer mixed up; s, z, c, dz are pronounced everywhere. Neighbors call speakers of this variety šlekiai or by the name Skaistgirians. They call them šlekiai because, in the opinion of people around them, they speak with their tongues pressed down—“slékuoja” (Dilbinai)1. The name Skaistgirians is geographical: this variety is spoken mainly by people in the environs of the town of Skaistgirys. Since the name šlekiai was given because of the features of the speech variety, this work will use that name for the Skaistgirian speech variety. The area of the šlekiai speech variety is small. It begins right at the town of Žagarė and extends east to the village of Lankaičiai, a distance of about 13 km. To the north, the šlekiai border the Latvian SSR. South of Žagarė, the dialect boundary reaches the Žagarė–Joniškis highway (in the village of Stungiai, on both sides of the aforementioned highway), while near the town of Skaistgirys it lies three to four kilometers south of the highway (the villages of Kems[ių] and Domeikiai). The eastern and southern boundaries of the šlekiai area are only approximate, since the limited time available for the expedition did not permit them to be determined precisely 1 The Lithuanian Dictionary’s card index provides material for explaining the name Šlekiai. On cards from Šakyna, a person who pronounces l instead of r is called a šlekis. M. Slančiauskas also knows the word with this meaning, for example: Lmp. 1, 191 writes “when they would pour cold water into his bathhouse, he would immediately say (would šlekiȧvęs), ‘vylai, nusukit, neštukavokit’; ‘he would speak in this way, šlekiuodavęs’ LTA 1208B 375 p. In Meškučiai, “šlekiuoti” means to speak in a slurred (unclear) way, for example: “You can’t understand what that blabbermouth is šlekiuodamas”. Thus “šlekis” generally means, to speakers of the surrounding dialects, a person with a speech defect. From there, it may have been generalized to the Skaistgirys dialect as well, whose speech, from the perspective of the surrounding dialects, also has a defect (it lacks š, ž, č, dž). “Šlekis” or “šlekys” is also found in many other Lithuanian dialects, but there it means a broken egg or Easter egg with a pierced end (Dusetos, Kamajai, Kuktiškės, Lyduokiai, Utena, Tauragnai, Vyžuonos, etc.) or an unhealthy, feeble person, for example: “Minkas is a laborer, and what a šlekis he is” (Anykščiai). Thus this meaning can hardly be associated with the Šakyna šlekis. 79 …not established. The following villages definitely speak Šlekiai: Pabaliai, Daukšiai, Rukūžiai, Žūčiai, Bandūriai, Ramōškiai, Petraičiųiai, Kemšiai, Lānkaičiai. Only half of Stungiai village speaks Šlekiai, since there used to be two or three separate villages, which later merged into one. It seems that the town of Skaistgiris used to speak Šlekiai too, as it lies almost at the very center of the Šlekiai dialect area, but now, after its inhabitants have become very mixed, Šlekiai is no longer heard there. The village of Reibiniai, located next to Kemšiai, may also have spoken Šlekiai. Some traces of Šlekiai speech can still be observed in Reibiniai, but they are very few, and it is difficult to say whether this is a disappearing old feature of Šlekiai speech or a new feature acquired through contact with the Šlekiai-speaking area. Domeikiai, south of Kemšiai, also speaks Šlekiai, but in a very peculiar way (see below). As already noted, Šlekiai speech differs from the neighboring northwestern Highland dialects with generalized stress retraction in certain features of its consonant system; in morphology, syntax, and vocabulary, it more or less coincides with the neighboring dialects (Dameliai, Dilbinai, Šakyna). The difference that distinguishes Šlekiai not only from the neighboring northwestern Highland dialects with generalized stress retraction, but also, in general, from almost all other Lithuanian dialects, is the complete absence of the consonants č, dž, š, ž. In their place, the dialect uses the consonants c, dz, s, z, for example: bažnì'ce ~ bažnyčia, čebā'tai ~ čebatai, čè ~ čia, giminaìčei ~ giminaičiai, išpè'ce ~ įspėčia „įspėčiau“, ko'pļi'ce ~ koplyčia, nebėkènc ~ nebėkenčia, nevažiūoce ~ nevažiuočia „nevažiuočiau“, pā'ces ~ pačios, pè'sces ~ pėsčias, tū'sces ~ tūščias; didzā'usis ~ didžiausias „didžiausias“, graūdzei ~ graudžiai, prādze ~ pradžia, skaūdzei ~ skaudžiai; astuōnò' lika ~ aštuoniolika, pūš'ne ~ pušynė, širdis ~ širdis, sienapjū'te ~ sienapjūtė, višta ~ višta; á'zuols ~ ąžuolas, è'žers ~ ežeras, žagā're ~ Žagarė, zmò'gus ~ žmogus, zvaizdā'la ~ žvaigždelė „žvaigždelė“, and so on. Domeikiai village speaks Šlekiai in a peculiar way. There, the opposite phenomenon can be observed: not only are the standard Lithuanian consonants č, dž, š, ž preserved intact, but š, ž are also pronounced in place of standard Lithuanian s, z; for example, a dialect sample: tė'vai, tū papā'sako:k, tū daugau žinai ~ tėvai, tū papā-sakok, tū daugiau žinai; jauna kaip apsižē'nijau, tū pā'saku· i nežìno'jau labāi ~ jauna kaip apsižėnijau (ištekėjau), tų pasakų ir nežinojau labai; dāba vī'landas, mū'su a'ugime adì'nas ~ dabar valandos, mūsų augime adynos; išā'ugo baišā'usīs krū'ms ~ išaugo baisiausias krūmas; škāust i škāust kō'žna diena ~ skausta ir skausta kožną (kiekvieną) dieną; pasirō'de aki'se vī'skrups, a'uksa krī'žu an_krū'tines, a'uksa lāžda rānkō', aš vī'skupa šūtikau ~ pasirodė akyse vyskupas, aukso kryžium ant krūtinės, aukso lazda rankoje; aš vyskupą sutikau; mū'su didela šeklī'če būva ~ mūsų didelė seklyčia buvo. (Recorded from Feliksienė Paugienė, about 70 years old, born in Domeikiai village and married into Reibiniai.) The inscription on the cross in Skaistgiris cemetery can also be added; it seems to be in standard Lithuanian: čon ilses kunas Kazimiero Gunčio kaim. Kemšių (=Kemsių). This inscription, although made even in standard Lithuanian, also preserves such features of Šlekiai speech (the inscription was made around 1920). It is unclear how to explain this variant of šlekiavimas. But perhaps this is because Domeikiai tried to eliminate šlekiavimas by aligning it with neighboring standard dialects, and thus went as far as hypercorrection. If the claim by speakers of the surrounding dialects were true—that the šlekiai at least formerly confused the consonants s, z and š, ž—then Domeikiai would have generalized š, ž everywhere, and the entire remaining area s, z. That these consonants may indeed have been confused in the past is partly confirmed by other “šlekiuojantys” Lithuanians 80 data on speech varieties, e.g., the villages of Ašašnykai, Kabeliai, and Musteika (Varėna district)2. Overall, it should be emphasized that all forms of šlekiavimas have by now become considerably less common. Only older people speak this way, and even they do not all do so anymore. There are several reasons for the decline of šlekiavimas. First, the influence of the standard language, which affects the local speech through schools, various institutions, radio, the press, etc. In addition, population mixing has had a significant effect on the decline of šlekiavimas: after the First, and especially after the Second, World War, many people moved to this area from elsewhere. The third reason is that all the surrounding speech varieties greatly mock the people of Skaistgirys for šlekiavimas and imitate them; a well-known saying used for this purpose is, for example: sė˙ses sė˙ses, sėsi žė˙nai i sutaisė sō˙ki ~ šėsios sėsės, šeši ženai (boys) and put on a dance. Šlekiavimas has been best preserved in the villages of Ramoškiai, Rukuižiai, and Kemsūčiai. It is difficult to explain this characteristic of the people of Skaistgirys. The neighboring speech varieties have no such consonantal features. Nor are there any particular natural barriers that might have separated the speakers of šlekiavimas from those of the other neighboring varieties and thereby contributed to the emergence of linguistic differences; in the past, however, there may have been more forests. It is probably also impossible to regard šlekiavimas as the result of Latvian influence, because: 1. If so, the entire border area of the Latvian SSR should exhibit šlekiavimas, but this is by no means the case. For example, the village of Pabaliai, about one kilometer east of Žagarė, exhibits šlekiavimas, while the people of Žagarė themselves and the Latvian-border villages on the western side of Žagarė do not exhibit it at all. 2. In the Latvian speech varieties bordering the area where šlekiavimas is spoken (Tērvete, Bukaiši, Mežamuiza, Vilce), the consonants š, ž, and even č occur, and no mixing of them is observed, e.g.: čupa — pile, čūška — snake, četrdesmit — forty, ižāvē t ~ izžāvē t — to dry, žāutuve — drying room, šūdovakar — this evening, šūplis — cradle, ni patikšanas — troubles3. It may also be mentioned that during the Latvian Academy of Sciences’ dialectological expeditions in 1958, no consonant mixing of this kind was observed in the places mentioned. (This account is based on information from M. Graudinia and M. Brencė, dialectologists at the Institute of Latvian Language and Literature of the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences.) Nevertheless, to rule out Latvian influence conclusively, the speech varieties of Latvian villages bordering the šlekiavimas villages should be examined very carefully once again, and parallels sought. On the other hand, both the Latvian localities mentioned and the area where šlekiavimas is spoken form part of the ancient area inhabited by the Semigallians4; therefore, even if an examination of the Latvian border area were to reveal parallels, they would favor not Latvian influence but rather Semigallian influence, since the absence of š, ž is characteristic not of Latvian but of Semigallian. Speaking of how long ago the Lithuanians settled in Semigallia, Būga writes: „...If the Lithuanians had come to Semigallia only after 900 years, they would now pronounce those place names as *Sesevė, *Svėtė, *Mūsa...“5. And this pronunciation is precisely what characterizes the speakers of šlekiavimas today. 2 E. A. Volter, Traces of the Ancient Prussians and Their Language in Grodno Governorate, Proceedings of the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vol. XVI, book 4, 160, St. Petersburg, 1912. 3 Livija Bičole, The Mežamuiža Dialect, FBR, volume XII, Riga, 1932; J. Tambergs, The Bēne Dialect, FBR, volume XVI, Riga, 1936. 4 See Būga’s dictionary, pp. 133–141, and B. T. Пашуто, Образование литовского государства, map Литовское государство в XIII веке и в первой половине XIV века, до 1341 г. Moscow, 1959. 5 K. Būga, Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, I, 141, Kaunas, 1924. 6. Kalbotyros klausimai, III 81 Thus, it would follow that šlekiavimas could very well be a remnant of the ancient Semigallians. But one thing gives rise to doubt here: the territory inhabited by the Semigallians was much larger than the present-day area of the šlekiai, so it would be difficult to explain why Semigallian features did not survive over a wider area. It should also be mentioned that the speech of the šlekiai is not the only Lithuanian dialect in which s, z are pronounced instead of š, ž. The same phenomena are also found in a completely different part of Lithuania: for example, in the village of Ašašnykai (Šašininkai), in the Kabeliai area of Varėna district, most people of the older generation almost always pronounce s, z instead of standard Lithuanian š, ž, for example: zūsis ~ žąsis, zėmė ~ žemė, zuvis ~ žuvis, asarūkas ~ ešeriukas, sasz ~ šeši, salis ~ šalis, sitas ~ šitas6. Moreover, the same feature is also found to some extent in words on the distant Lithuanian-language island of Zietela, for example: za˙sis ~ žąsis, zve˙ris ~ žvėris, bazni˙če ~ bažnyčia, žuvis || žuvis ~ žuvis, žvaizdė || žvaizdė “star”7. The absence of š, ž in these dialects is associated with the Yotvingians who lived in those areas8 or even with the Prussians (Zietela)9. And if some features of the Yotvingian language could have survived there to the present day, perhaps the šlekiai could also have preserved traces of the Semigallians. To determine the origin of šlekiavimas definitively, all historical data relating to that area and the entire place-name corpus of the region would need to be collected. So far, this has not been possible, and therefore the conclusion concerning the origin of šlekiavimas remains hypothetical. Texts I. Riddles 1. juoc kai_spo˙ks, vī˙na smo˙ks, a˙kmina širdis (vī˙sne) 2. a˙zuols a˙zuols a˙zuoli˙ns, an_tu˙ šaku˙ sako˙ti˙ns, an_tu˙ šaku˙ po˙_lizdė˙li, kàtram lizdė po˙_kaušėli (kanàpe) 3. šīrūks būks vo˙kietūks po˙_pusī˙nes kāulas gā˙na (šėpėti˙s gā˙lva sukūoj) 4. Skā˙mb skambūtis ant_a˙uksta kā˙lna, susauke vaikus, ne_sava gimi˙tus (bazni˙ces vā˙rps) 5. dù ji˙uodvarnei kėlu ein (cebā˙tai) 6. sto˙ kėrtė kai_po˙pūtės, isein lauka — kai_po˙sūtės (sā˙utūns) II. Songs 1. where little lights shine, bright little lanterns, there wait for me, my dear mother, as I return from the journey | daughter10 by the meadow, mother at the gate, I will return from the journey with your wreath | 6 E. A. Volter, Traces of the Ancient Prussians and Their Language in Grodno Governorate, Proceedings of the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vol. XVI, book 4, 160, St. Petersburg, 1912; J. Senkus, New Material on Lithuanian Dialects, LTSR MA Scientific Works, series A, 1, Vilnius, 1955; J. Otrębski, Grammar of the Lithuanian Language, I, 353–354, Warsaw, 1958. 7 The material was taken from A. Vidugiris’s dissertation in progress, “The Zietela Dialect.” 8 J. Otrębski, Grammar of the Lithuanian Language, I, 354, Warsaw, 1958. 9 E. A. Volter, p. 157 of the article cited above. 10 In songs, the old unstressed word-final ē after l changes to a much more rarely than in everyday speech. In songs, word endings are also shortened much less often for the sake of rhyme or rhythmic fit. 82 daughter woke up, weeping and crying, I laid down the flowers, the morning wreath, I laid down the young days until this evening | (Wedding song, sung upon returning from the wedding ceremony) 2. A little grass blade, as it grows, spreads in the meadow; a rider comes riding, riding.11 a little troop across these fields | The young maiden comes out, her white hand holding a white kerchief; do not scold me, mother dear, I am still young, still a young girl | They adorned the little horses in these fields, and two young brothers parted from that young troop | I have not yet raised the rye, have not yet kindled the fires, have not yet made the new looms, have not yet woven the cloth | by the little manor, by the little hill.12 by the little gate, and here I’ll go out to the old little house, open the little gates that I would go to the little rye field, that I would kindle a little fire, that I would weave new little stockings, that I would sew little shirts (Wedding song, sung by the girls while awaiting the bridegroom) 3. our sister, our young one, why are you leaving (from) your mother’s home? | until the grey little horses grow tired, until the little horses pull the wagon | a_nemi'lē'je tāve's tetūšis, a_nemi'lē'je ir_mo'tinē'le | our sister, our young one, where will you find them, when they ask insistently | you loved and cherished, you laughed in the manor house, and now, alas, you will go away, | you will find your father, hard to love, and your mother, impossible to persuade | 11In the singer’s memory, the young man would ride on horseback to his bride, accompanied by men, all on horseback. 12According to the singer’s explanation, the gates were colorful because at weddings they would be adorned with wreaths and decorated with greenery and flowers. 83 you weep, sister, your heart aches for the young bridegroom’s green rue you rise, my dear, unadorned; you kindle a fire, unseen with your little tears you wash your mouth, with your hand you wipe your face (Wedding song) 4. without an oak leaf budding, without a sun rising, without a head growing don’t cry, mother dear, don’t cry, old mother dear, where will your daughter go out where will my little mother go, where will my old mother go, where will my daughter go out the green firs’ branches are beautiful, the black earth is a sacred place, there, my fatherland whether by a hill’s little hill, whether by a new manor, whether by the city of Vilnius whose little braid shines, a green rue wreath rustles; there, my path to my parents’ home Recorded from Elzbieta Pranciulytė, born in 1875, illiterate, in Kemsių village, in 1959. 5. that I rode along the birch tree; beyond the birch tree stood two, one was my mother, the other my beloved by day at the pattern, by night at the gate; by day I embroidered, by night I kept watch at the gate the beloved wept bitterly, and my mother wept even more bitterly: “Oh, mother, mother, why did you raise me amid hardship, in sorrow, amid bitter tears?” a musket costs a hundred coins; here is another board beside the fence; it must be carried farther away and thrown deeper I would have floated with the fish, with green grass in my braids; then I would have had no hardship or troubles, no suffering or grief (Rekrūtinė) 84 6 I praised, praised in the middle of the yard, awaited a great crowd | but when I saw them, I was frightened: “Oh, what a great crowd!” | Do not be afraid, young maiden; no, it is not such a great crowd | Oh, there are five of them, and they are sixth and seventh—my little horse | Oh, look around, young lad, I have no mother | I am an orphan, I am parentless; I have no mother | on a high little hill, in a deep little hollow, lies my dear mother | I will go to the little hill, I will fall into the little hollow, I will become my dear mother | Rise, dear mother, solace of my heart; I will bow down to you | actrāuk, dukterē'la, māna siratē'la, tū mā'n aciklō'nō'jei | no' lenē'lu ē'mei, i grabē'li dē'jei, tū mā' aciklō'nō'jei | niuveik i girē'le, zalō'ji liepē'le ta'n tāva mo'tinē'la | rūmpis ne mo'tūse, sā'kas ne rankē'les, lapē'lei ne zo'dē'lei | Recorded from Joana Jarienė, aged 65, in Rukužiai village, 1959. NEW DATA ON THE CONSONANTISM OF THE SKAISTGIRIS DIALECT А. П. ИОНАЙТИТЕ Summary During a dialectological expedition in 1959 in the Žagarė district, in the vicinity of the town of Skaistgiris, near the border of the Latvian SSR, an interesting dialect of the northwestern Aukštaitians was discovered. It differs from neighboring Aukštaitian dialects in its consonantism. This dialect has no consonants š, ž, č, dž; instead, s, z, c, dz are used throughout (e.g. cebā'tai ~ čebātai ‘boots’, džāukšmas ~ džiaugšmas ‘joy’, sā'utūņus ~ šāutūvas ‘rifle’, ziema ~ žiemā ‘winter’). Although this dialect occupies a small area (13 km long and 5–8 km wide), it also has its own varieties. Thus, in the village of Domeikiai, 85 At the southernmost point of the dialect, the reverse phenomenon occurs: there are no consonants s, z there; they are replaced everywhere by the consonants š, ž (e.g., krū’mš ~ krūmas ‘bush’, lāžda ~ lazda ‘stick’, etc.). This variation can be explained either by hypercorrectness or—if we take into account the assertion of speakers of neighboring dialects that this dialect confuses (or rather, confused in the past) the consonants s, z and š, ž (this is partly confirmed by evidence of corresponding phenomena in the dialects of southern Lithuania)—by the uneven generalization of this confusion: one part of the dialect generalized s, z everywhere, while the other generalized š, ž. For now, it is difficult to say anything definite about the origin of this phenomenon. No traces of it have yet been found in neighboring Lithuanian- or Latvian-language dialects. The author hypothesizes that this may reflect traces of the dialect of the ancient Semigallians, who had long lived in these areas; however, until all the historical and toponymic data for this region have been collected, no definitive conclusions can be drawn. Furthermore, it should be noted that the Skaistgirys dialect is not the only Lithuanian dialect in which š, ž are absent. The same features are also characteristic of some dialects of southern Lithuania (the village of Kabėliai-Alašnikai and others in Varėna District; partly, the same phenomenon also occurs in the village of Zasiči, Dzyatlava District, Byelorussian SSR). The absence of ž, š in these dialects is explained by some linguists as traces of the ancient Yotvingians. Examples of dialectological texts from the Skaistgirys dialect are appended to the article.