VINCENTAS DROTVINAS

Vilnius Pedagogical University

WHERE DID KÌBIRAS (KIBÌRAS) ORIGINATE?

More than one opinion has been expressed about the origin of the Lithuanian word kibiras. Kazimieras Būga’s attention was first drawn to this word because of its accentuation. In “The Lithuanian Dictionary Editor’s Report,” he noted that published dictionaries do not mark word stress or the pitch accent of stressed vowels: “From such dictionaries, even if you wanted to, you would not find out how one or another less common word should be pronounced. Suppose someone needs to find out how these words are pronounced [...] kibirai ‘buckets’ and kibirai ‘wood chips’ (wood shavings), splinters” (Lietuva, 1921, No. 91). He later wrote that “[i]n a good dictionary we would find the answer that one should pronounce [...] kibirai ‘buckets’ and kibirai” (Būga 1959: 379). On the basis of differences in accentuation and semantics, Lietuvių kalbos žodynas lists a pair of homonyms: 1 kibìras (kibìras) ‘a small dry twig, brushwood, a rod’ (for the origin, see Smoczyński 2007: 283) and 2 kibìras ‘a vessel for drawing and carrying water from a well’ (LKŽ V 1959: 725); for more on the accentuation of kibìras ‘a vessel drawn up from a well’, see Vitkauskas 2006: 125. Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas (1972, 1993, 2004, 2006) gives two accentuation variants: kibìras ir kìbiras. The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language decided that kìbiras (3b) should be regarded as the primary accentuation variant, and kibìras (2) as the secondary one.

In the article “Slavic–Baltic Etymologies,” K. Būga also explained the origin of this word: Lithuanian kibìras = Proto-Slavic čьbьrъ. He compared the suffix –ira-s with the suffix in the words inkst-iras, bimb-iras (Būga 1958: 326). Viktor Kamantauskas, a Lithuanian linguist and translator (1899–1951), has attempted a different explanation of the origin of the word kibiras. He compiled A Short Treatise on Lithuanian Accentuation (I–II, 1928–1929), a glossary of loanwords and their Lithuanian equivalents, Let Us Speak Lithuanian (1933). In A Short Dictionary of Lithuanian Language Errors and Barbarisms (1928), V. Kamantauskas presents a glossary of barbarisms with spelling and accentuation errors, and of words whose correction by language reformers is doubtful or incorrect, intended for “the general public and schoolchildren.” He bases his corrections on the views of K. Būga and Rygiškių Jonas, F. Kuršaitis, P. Skardžius, and earlier authors M. Daukša, K. Sirvydas, S. Daukantas, and M. Valančius. He writes about the origin of the word kibiras: “Kibiras, which language Lithuanianizers were wont to call va-

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call the ‘foreign word’ viedrą, is just as non-Lithuanian as viedras (which came from the Jewish language).” (Kamantauskas 1928: 35).

Jonas Jablonskis was quick to respond to V. Kamantauskas’s glossary, publishing a collection of comments on it under the pseudonym Rygiškių Jonas (Notes on Our Language Glossary, 1929). Without reviewing J. Jablonskis’s individual remarks in detail, it can be said that the linguist often found V. Kamantauskas’s corrections wanting in fuller argumentation. He demands that he “be more forthcoming,” that is, provide more examples and illustrations from actual language use; says that he has not entirely understood the corrector’s arguments; at times points out that the author of the corrections is not always right, because he fails to recognize differences between dialect forms or derivational forms; and reminds readers that the suitability of some examples from S. Daukantas and F. Kuršaitis should be assessed critically, and so on. The linguist’s opinion on the origin of kibiras illustrates this as well.

J. Jablonskis questioned the explanation of the origin of the word kibiras, viewing the author’s claim skeptically: “The author derives kibirą, it seems, from the Jewish language, but does not say from which modern Jewish word it was formed. This piece of news from the author is truly unexpected to me. Before making such categorical claims about viedrą (Slavic) or kibirą, the author should at least have clearly supported those claims with evidence.” (Rygiškių Jonas 1929: 44–45). Thus J. Jablonskis considers such an unsupported explanation of the word’s origin a “piece of news,” but does not himself clarify the word’s origin.

As Lithuanian dictionaries show, kibiras (kibìras) is a Western Aukštaitian word found in the dictionaries of Lithuania Minor—in the seventeenth-century German–Lithuanian manuscript dictionary Lexicon Lithuanicum: Eymer wiedras, kibiras 33a.; Schöpffeymer kibirras 76a. Lietuvių kalbos žodynas traces its recorded history back to the seventeenth-century dictionary Clavis Germanico-Lithuana: Eimer. Wedras, ô. M. Kibbiras, ô. M. C I 23 (although in the biblical illustration given here only wiedras appears, as in Konstantinas Sirvydas’s dictionaries). The word kibiras is also found in the dictionaries of Jokūbas Brodovskis, Pilypas Ruigys, Kristijonas Gotlybas Milkus, Georgas Heinrichas Ferdinandas Nesselm ann, Fridrichas Kuršaitis, and later lexicographic works; in Antanas Juška’s songs; and in the Lithuanian folklore collections of Augustas Schleicheris, Augustas Leskienas, and Karlas Brugmannas. It was also recorded by Jonas Jablonskis himself (LKŽ V 1959: 725), and today is in widespread use in the standard language.

Why did V. Kamantauskas derive the word kibiras from the Jewish language? Let us consider what might have been his source in Yiddish. The Jewish-language word emer ‘bucket’ (← German Eimer) was not directly linked to the Lithuanian word kibiras (Jankelovičius, Kačergis 1940). The Jewish-language word ceber ‘a low wooden vessel with handles’, which was probably associated with Lithuanian kibiras,

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is found in modern Yiddish dictionaries, for example: Русско-еврейский (идиш) словарь […], 1984: 60, 619; cuber = ceber = ciber “цэбар” (Astrovukh 2008: 202); cf. Polish ceber, cebr. In Lithuanian, the following variants of this loanword are known: čābaras, càberis and cabàrkas, cèberas ‘a low wooden vessel with handles, a tub, a small barrel’, as well as cèberis, cẽberis, ceberỹs, cebẽrkas, cẽbras, cèbras 1 see ceberas, 2 a canister (LKŽ II 1969: 8). The origin of Polish ceber, cebr is explained in different ways. Aleksander Brückner writes that Polish ceber has nothing to do with German Zuber, Zober, but only bears a deceptively close resemblance to the Lithuanian root kib- ‘to hang, cling, dangle’ (Brückner 1989: 56, 107). However, the Polonism ceber, cebr is derived from the Upper German dialect word zuber, zuibar (a compound of zwei ‘two’ + beran ‘to carry’) (Duden 2001: 952; Paul 2002: 1211); cf. also Zuber ‘a large two-handled vessel for water’, as distinct from Eimer ‘bucket’ (Pfeifer 1995: 1624). According to M. Fasmer, the Slavic form čьbьrь is related to Lithuanian kibiras ‘ведро’. The latest Polish etymological dictionaries state that ceber has nothing to do with Lithuanian kibiras, noting that kibiras is only ‘a scooping vessel that hangs permanently beside the well’s sweep’ (Bańkowski 2000: 109).

Thus kibiras (kibiras) is undoubtedly a Lithuanian word.

LITERATŪRA

Bańkowski A. 2000: Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego. Tom I, A–K, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo naukowe.

Brückner A. 1989: Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo wiedza powszechna.

Būga K. 1958: Славяно-балтийские этимологии. – Rinktiniai raštai 1, Vilnius: Valstybinė politinės ir mokslinės literatūros leidykla.

Būga K. 1959: Lietuvių kalbos žodyno redaktoriaus pranešimas. – Rinktiniai raštai 2, Vilnius: Valstybinė politinės ir mokslinės literatūros leidykla.

Duden 2001: Duden das Herkunftswörterbuch. Etymologie der Deutschen Sprache, 3. völlig neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Duden Verlag.

Fraenkel E. 1962: Litauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg–Göttingen.

Jankelovičius Ic., Kačergis S. 1940: Kišeninis Lietuvių Kalbos Raktas. Žydiškas–lietuviškas Žodynas. Stud. Ic. Jankelovičiaus ir S. Kačergio leidinys, Kaunas: C. Kagano spaustuvė.

Kamantauskas V. 1928: Trumpas kalbos netaisyklingumų ir barbarizmų žodynėlis, Kaunas: Valstybės spaustuvė.

LKŽ 1969: Lietuvių kalbos žodynas 2. Atsak. redaktorius J. Kruopas, Vilnius.

LKŽ 1959: Lietuvių kalbos žodynas 5. Atsak. redaktorius K. Ulvydas, Vilnius.

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Paul H. 2002: Deutsches Wörterbuch. Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes. 10. überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage von Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper und Georg Objartel, Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen.

Pfeifer W. 1995: Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München.

Rygiškių Jonas 1929: Mūsų kalbos žodynėlio dalykai. Atskiras pastebėjimas dėl V. Kamantausko „Trumpo kalbos netaisyklingumų ir barbarizmų žodynėlio“, Kaunas: Tulpės B-vės leidinys.

Smoczyński W. 2007: Etymologiczny słownik języka litewskiego, Wilno.

Vitkauskas V. A. 2006: Žodžių istoriją iškreipiame. – Acta Linguistica Lithuanica 55, 125–126.

Астравух А. 2008: Идыш-беларускі слоўнік, Мінск: Медисонт.

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Gauta 2010 10 26

ON THE ORIGIN OF KÌBIRAS (KIBÌRAS)

Summary

The article discusses the origin of two Lithuanian homonyms, namely, 1. kìbiras, kibìras ‘a small dry twig, a dry branch’, and 2. kibìras ‘a container to carry water and draw it from a well’ (Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, 1959, vol. V). The Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian (Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas, 2006) gives two stress variants for the second homonym: kìbiras, kibìras. The dictionaries of Lithuanian provide convincing evidence testifying to the Lithuanian origin of the word. This word originates in the Western Highlanders (Aukštaitian) subdialect, it has also been traced in some dictionaries that were published in the 17^th c. in the Prussian Lithuania, or Lithuania Minor, is found in dictionaries and folklore collections. Moreover, the word belongs to the general lexicon of current Lithuanian. Etymologists K. Būga (1958, 1959), E. Fraenkel (1962), A. Brückner (1989), M. Vasmer (1986), and A. Bańkowski (2000) suggest different interpretations of its origin: OSlav. čьbьrъ (< OHG zwibar) and Lith. kib-ti „an.?“, kyb-oti „an.?“

VINCENTAS DROTVINAS

Vilniaus pedagoginis universitetas

T. Ševčenkos g. 31, LT-03111 Vilnius

[email protected]

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