Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos

BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 THE STATE COMMISSION OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES (Prepared according to the 2013 report of the Language Commission) Language Programs & Courses The main objectives and tasks of the language commission are implemented through language programs. According to the State Language Standardization, Use, Education and Dissemination Programme 2006–2015, a study of the state of Lithuanian language in higher education institutions has been started: it is planned to analyze the descriptions of the subject of the specialty language course taught there, to assess the language correctness of master’s theses defended in 2013 and textbooks published in 2010–2013. The Institute of Lithuanian Language has completed the preparation of two monuments of ancient writing significant for Lithuanian language and culture – the Bible of Samuel Boguslavas Chylinskis. II toms. The New Testament and George Ambraziejus Emphasis of the manuscript Tayslós augumyynis kóremy taalpynas augimys... part 2. From the late 19th – early 20th century written sources, a dictionary has been compiled: The lexicon of the narrative folklore collections of Mato Slančiauskas and his assistants. 4 dialect publications relevant to teachers, pupils and students have been published: Lithuanian language dialects for school (2 books) and Textbook of dialects (2 books) with CDs. The bibliographical index of literature Lithuanian Linguistics 2006-2010 has been completed. Furthermore, specialty language teaching in higher education institutions, scientific research projects, state language courses for foreign-speaking residents of Lithuania were supported. The project also supported the preparation of the Lithuanian version of the daily news summary of the Visaginas public television station “Russkaja volna” and the preparation and publication of the thematic pages of the magazine “Gimtoji kalba” (“Mother’s Language”) entitled “Lithuanian common language norms functioning, dialects and their change”. According to the 2011–2020 programme of research on the functioning and change of the Lithuanian common language, dialects and other language variants, in 2013 the research on the language of emigrants, the eastern Highlands Utenis and eastern Highlands Vilnius borders was completed, and dialect data were collected. 685 Lithuanian publications of 16 titles were purchased from the funds of both programmes, and they were given free of charge to public libraries of higher university schools, colleges, county, state and municipal libraries. The draft law amending the Advertising Act of the Republic of Lithuania proposes to include a provision according to which, when installing outdoor advertising, the legislation governing the use of the state language must also be followed. By adopting the law, the Seimas approved the proposed amendment. Comments on registered civil laws of the Republic of Lithuania submitted to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania Amendment of Article 2.40 and Amendment of Article 16 of the State Language Act BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 2 draft laws aimed at legalizing the possibility of registering non-Lithuanian names of legal entities. In the opinion of the Language Commission, such provisions should not be approved, since the Lithuanian language has sufficient resources to form the names of legal entities. A draft resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania “On the use of original Lithuanian or localized (translated into Lithuanian) computer programs in state and municipal institutions and institutions, in all public Internet access points” has been prepared. Before preparing the project, a survey of state institutions and institutions, municipal administrations was carried out. The answers received show that the overall situation is not satisfactory, in a significant part of the state and municipal institutions and bodies employees are not guaranteed the opportunity to work with Lithuanian or localized programs (where such versions exist). IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TERM BANK OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA STATUTE During the year, 893 approved term articles used in legal acts or submitted for use were published in the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania (http://terminai.vlkk.lt). In addition to terms of legal acts, more than 5000 terms articles were published from the NATO training and exercise financing terms dictionary submitted by the Ministry of National Defence, which was positively evaluated by the Language Commission, the Agricultural plant breeding and seed production terms dictionary by A. Sliesaravičius, J. Lazauskas, V. Stanis, S. Keinis, G. Klimovienė, lists of names of ornamental and other plants, plant families. At the end of 2013, the Terms Bank comprised 212,233 terms: 9,519 approved, 201,549 to be submitted, 1,165 not to be submitted. NORMATIVE AND EXPERT ACTIVITIES In 2013, there were 9 meetings of the Language Commission and 87 meetings of expert subcommissions. More than 300 expert opinions were prepared on the correctness of personal names, place names, words and their combinations, the interpretation of the meaning of words and sentences, etc. Termination. During the meetings of the Terminology Subcommittee, 1282 terms of legislative acts and their drafts were discussed, 27 terminological queries submitted by the European Union institutions through the one-stop system, 7 manuscripts of new term dictionaries, 1 corrected and supplemented term dictionaries, 1 draft term standard, names of Lithuanian nomenclature of botany and zoology, discussion of the European dictionary Eurovoc was started. Version 4.4. During the meetings of the Language Commission, 4 manuscripts of terminology dictionaries and 1 draft terminology standard were evaluated positively. 893 terms articles were approved, which contain the terms of legislation and their drafts in the areas supervised by state institutions (finance, public security, culture, law, economy, transport, communications, agriculture, fisheries and food, energy, environment, health, pharmaceuticals, social security, defence, etc.). 4 protocol resolutions on Lithuanian names of ornamental plants were adopted. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. 3 In the joint meetings of the Subcommissions of Terminology and Dictionary, and later of the Language Commission, together with the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Lithuania, the Faculty of Economics of Vilnius University, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, UAB „Pačiolis“ and other specialists and experts, the request of the Ministry of Finance regarding the equivalents of the English term cost in the Lithuanian language was discussed. It has been agreed that the term debt costs may be used as a term of economic and management accounting in Lithuanian (the Lithuanian equivalents proposed so far are not accurate), but in accounting this term should continue to be considered unpresentable. More than 600 consultations on terminology and foreign words have been provided by e-mail and telephone. Translators, editors, terminologists of the European Union institutions, as well as officials of Lithuanian institutions, employees of private institutions and other interested parties were consulted. Personnages et personnages. The resolution “On the amendment of Decision No. 60 of the State Lithuanian Language Commission to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania of 19 June 1997 “On the spelling and punctuation of the Lithuanian language” was adopted. In Spelling and punctuation provisions Point 3.2 includes another area – official documents – where authentic forms of personal names in other languages may be used (exception – identity documents of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania). In order to determine the actual practice of the use of personal names in other languages in documents of state institutions and bodies, a survey of those institutions and bodies was carried out before the decision was adopted. The answers showed that authentic forms are most commonly used in documents. The representatives of the European Union institutions discussed some problematic aspects of the grammar of personal names in Lithuanian language. The name of the lake is a variant of the name Plocis and the names of the ethnic areas of the country are included in the list of Lithuanian placenames. 9 resolutions were adopted on the change of names of states, their capitals, as well as counties and regions. The World's Placenames Dictionary, commissioned by the Language Commission. On the proposal of the Asia edition, the Subcommittee on the Names of Places together with invited experts discussed the issues of transcription of place names in some Asian languages. Lexicon. The Language Commission approved the second revised and supplemented edition of the Language Advice Book Lexicon: Use of Borrowings (the material of this edition was discussed in the Subcommittee on the Dictionary in 2012). It divides the borrowed words according to relevance, changes the evaluation of some words, adds new words important for use, deletes obsolete, lost relevance borrowed words. The published book is recognized as a normative source of loans. The protocol resolution supplemented the recommended list of foreign words equivalents. Grammar, spelling and punctuation. A resolution was adopted on the amendment of the rules for making symbolic names of enterprises, institutions and organizations. The protocol resolution adopted the recommendation “On Lithuanian names of national parliaments”. 5 protocol decisions were adopted on the change of names of the inhabitants of states, estates and counties. Spelling. 6 protocol decisions were adopted on the pronunciation of some prepositional nouns, mixed and prepositional verbs, primary (ordinary) and final adjectives, as well as prepositional, prepositional and compound adjectives. Pronunciation standards are adjusted in accordance with the trends in actual usage and standardization traditions. At the request of the Registry Centre, 211 place names were spelled. Evaluation of textbooks. The textbook evaluation subcommittee considered 15 manuscripts of general education textbooks, a total of 18 books (some textbooks in several parts). The mark confirming the correctness of the language was immediately given to 8 books, 3 books were returned to publishers for correction. 7 books were manuscripts of transferred textbooks, on which comments were made. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 4 Summarizing the 10-year experience of evaluation of textbooks for general education subjects by the Language Commission, it can be concluded that such evaluation has been justified, textbooks are prepared with much higher quality, and the number of manuscripts returned to publishers for correction decreases every year. The language correctness check of higher education textbooks published in 2010–2013 has begun. The textbook evaluation subcommittee assessed the language of 27 textbooks: 4 textbooks met the language correctness requirements, 1 textbook met the language correctness requirements partially (there were things to be corrected), 22 textbooks did not meet the language correctness requirements (they found major vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, spelling errors). The language of these textbooks has been prepared for publishers and higher education institutions. OTHER WORK About 37,200 language consultations were provided annually, of which 13,200 online and about 24,000 by telephone. In 2013, the electronic Language Consultation Bank was supplemented with 566 new entries (now it contains over 11 000 heading words). The new world place names website pasaulio-vardai.vlkk.lt has been launched. It is a translation of the World Placenames dictionary commissioned by the Language Commission. Europa (Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, 2006) database, covering place names of 47 countries (a total of about 54 thousand authentic place names and their forms, about 40 thousand initial Lithuanianized place names). As of 1 May 2013, after the Government of the Republic of Lithuania approved the amendments to the provisions of the Register of Legal Entities, consultants of the State Lithuanian Language Commission provided consultations to the Public Institution Registry Center on the compliance of the names of legal entities with the Lithuanian common language norms. Of the 12,466 consultations given, 65% of the names were assessed as complying with the general language norms, 35% as not complying with them. 15% of the names were negatively assessed because of non-compliance with formal spelling requirements. 12% of the inappropriate names were non-Lithuanian or artificial words that could not be presented, 8% were negatively evaluated for various other reasons (spelling errors, grammatically inappropriate combinations, etc.). The Subcommittee on Language Technologies has prepared a draft guidelines for the development of Lithuanian language in information technologies 2014–2020. The guidelines provide an overview of the state of Lithuanian language technologies and their development possibilities. The proposed measures cover the creation of a full-fledged Lithuanian digital environment (Lithuanising and implementing software, promoting the use of Lithuanian scripts, etc.), enriching digital language resources, creating, disseminating and providing free access to spoken and written language technologies, and adapting language technologies for public services. At the joint meeting of the Committee on Education, Science and Culture and the Committee on the Development of the Information Society on November 20, it was decided to propose to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania to approve the Guidelines for the Development of the Lithuanian Language in Information Technologies 2014-2020 and to prepare a plan of measures for their implementation. The State Language Inspection has been asked to provide information on what is being done to ensure that any commercial or other information sent by short message (SMS) to Lithuanian buyers and service users reaches its recipients on mobile phones written in Lithuanian letters. The Inspectorate reported on positive developments in this area. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 5 The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania declared 2013 as the Year of Tarmies. Together with other institutions, the Language Commission implemented six measures of the Year of Languages measures plan approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. A series of meetings was organized with employees of municipal educational and cultural institutions (ethnographers, museums, libraries, educators, etc.) and community representatives. Having summarized the material of the meetings held in 5 regions of the country (37 municipalities representatives participated), the working group of the Language Commission from ministries, the Association of Municipalities, higher education institutions, representatives of the Lithuanian Language Institute prepared recommendations for the Government on how to preserve dialects, while strengthening the Lithuanian language, culture and citizenship. Prepared, published and presented to the public dialect material collection manual All dialects are the most beautiful... (by Danguolė Mikulėnienė and Vilija Ragaišienė). Members of the Evaluation Commission of the State Matura Exams were consulted on the preparation of the language evaluation description of thesis of Lithuanian language and literature. A number of substantive and editorial comments were made, and it was recommended to exclude from the description (i.e. not to consider as errors) those aspects of language that are considered as secondary variants of the general language norm in the books Language tips, and not to include in the description aspects that are not equally valued by linguists. The prepared description was used to evaluate the final work of students in 2013. A number of conferences and other events have been organised together with other institutions and bodies. On the occasion of the Lithuanian Presidency of the European Council, a conference “Uning diversity: the importance of languages for mobility, work and active citizenship” was held in the Seimas on 25-26 September. It brought together specialists from all European Union countries to discuss issues of supporting and promoting multilingualism, language learning and teaching. The annual conference of the European Federation of National Language Institutions (EFNIL) “Translation and Interpretation in Europe” was held in Vilnius on 27-28 September. It was organized jointly with EFNIL by the Lithuanian Language Institute and the State Lithuanian Language Commission, which represent Lithuania in the Federation. The Language Commission was also one of the organizers of the 3rd Conference of the Terminology Forum of the Institutions and Bodies of the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania (LTF), held on 7 June. On 15 May, together with the Institute of Lithuanian Language, a scientific conference “Linguistic readings of Antanas Baranauskas: stereotypes and insights of the 21st century” was held to mark the anniversaries of the first dialect classification and the first dialect map. In 2013, after a two-year break, the National Dictation Competition was held. The language commission was a partner of the weekly Atgimimas. The language commission assisted the organizers of the sixth national schoolchildren’s competition “Clean language – clean head”. The aim of the competition is to encourage students to use Lithuanian characters and correct Lithuanian language in electronic media. Together with the Committee of Education, Science and Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, we have contributed to the organization of events of the program “Language I Create!” implemented by the Lithuanian Union of Students. The aim of the program is to remind students of the importance of correct language, draw attention to literacy decline, creatively change the current situation. Received 22/10/2014 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ State Lithuanian Language Commission Gedimino pr. 60, LT-01110 Vilnius J[email protected]