FROM THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE OF ONE’S NATIVE REGION

His native land has not forgotten the distinguished researcher of Lithuanian dialects and historian of the language Kazys Morkūnas (1929–2008), born on St. Casimir’s Day at the Piliakalnis homestead, near Kūniškiai, in the Ukmergė district. Nor should it forget him—for he accomplished much: largely through his efforts, the collective work on Lithuanian dialectology of the previous century, Lietuvių kalbos atlasas (I–III, 1977–1991), was published; together with co-authors, he prepared the first anthology of Lithuanian dialects, Lietuvių kalbos tarmės (1970); and he wrote more than 300 publications on various questions of dialects and language history. Those who knew the linguist more closely remember the special love and warmth with which Kazys Morkūnas spoke of his homeland.

Even while seriously ill, he hurried to prepare and edit the final publication of his life—the monograph Gelvonai (2009), published by the Versmė publishing house in the “Lithuanian Rural Districts” series. In the opinion of one of its editors, Vida Girininkienė, “the ‘Notable People’ chapter of this book [...] is, as it were, a monument to the distinguished linguist, a warm-hearted person and kindred spirit.”

But not everything has yet been gathered into books. While organizing the linguist’s personal archive, we came across a small bundle of yellowed sheets (5 pages). What first caught our eye was an official letter dated March 30, 1970, from Romas Šarmaitis, director of the Institute of Party History, No.¹ 19/9, bearing a resolution by Kostas Korsakas, then director of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature, addressed “to Comrade Morkūnas.” In this now highly unusual manner, R. Šarmaitis sent a bundle of place names from the former Pabaiskas rural district of Ukmergė County, from the vicinity of his native village of Žūkliai.

It was established that these place names had already been entered in the Lithuanian Language Institute’s place-name index. According to Marija Razmukaitė, senior research associate in the Onomastics Department, most of them had been recorded by local teachers as early as 1935.

¹ The abbreviation № is used in the letter.

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Kazys Morkūnas never made use of the place names collected by Romas Šarmaitis. The reason is clear: there were numerous errors in stress marking and in transposition into standard Lithuanian, left by an inexperienced transcriber. These needed correction. But R. Šarmaitis’s high political and social standing at the time presumably made that impossible.²

In preparing this list of place names for publication, obvious mistakes were corrected. The material was checked against the Lithuanian Language Institute’s onomastic index.³. The place names are presented in their current spelling, without transcription. The editor’s notes are given in footnotes (see the accompanying appendix—the list of place names).

Today, even though they were recorded inaccurately, these place names can bear witness to the history of their native region, eloquently telling of the love for their native land felt by the people born here.

Received 2009 12 07

DANGUOLĖ MIKULĖNIENĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

5 P. Vileišio St., LT-10308 Vilnius

[email protected]

² Romas Šarmaitis, born in 1909 in Žukliai (Ukmergė County), was a well-known figure in the revolutionary movement (for more, see Lietuviškoji tarybinė enciklopedija 10, 1983, 537).

³ The entire cross-checking work was carried out by Marija Razmukaitė, senior research fellow in the Onomastics Department of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. I sincerely thank her for this.

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DOCUMENT (copy)

Proletarians of all countries, unite! – Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!

INSTITUTE OF PARTY HISTORY under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania BRANCH OF THE INSTITUTE OF MARXISM-LENINISM under the CPSU Central Committee Vilnius, Lenin Ave., 12 Tel. No. 9-53-58

INSTITUTE OF PARTY HISTORY under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania BRANCH OF THE INSTITUTE OF MARXISM-LENINISM under the CPSU Central Committee Vilnius, Lenin Avenue, 12 Tel. 9-53-58

№ 19/9⁴

Vilnius, March 30, 1970

Вильнюс

TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE⁵

Comrade K. KORSAKAS

I am sending a list of some place names from Pabaiskas Rural District, Ukmergė County (now the territory of the Krikštėnai state farm in Ukmergė District). Only elderly people who lived in villages not divided into single-family farmsteads know them. Žukliai village was divided into single-family farmsteads in 1935. Young people have already forgotten the old place names. The place names should be added to the index of Lithuanian names,⁶ as a monument of the language.

Appendix: the aforementioned list.

/R. ŠARMAITIS/

DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF PARTY HISTORY

at the LKP Central Committee⁷

⁴ In the lower left part of the page, the document’s registration stamp is clearly legible: “Received at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature on 7 April 1970, No. 88.” Beside it is the signature of the person who registered the document.

⁵ In the upper left corner of the page, a resolution by Kostas Korsakas is written in blue ink, with the signature “Comrade Morkūnas” and the date 70. IV. 8.

⁶ The punctuation of the document has not been corrected.

⁷ Above the surname, the signature R. Šarmaitis is legible.

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331

PRIEDAS

Place names of Pabaiskas Rural District, Ukmergė County

place names

Žūklių village

Margavònės — thickets.

Čižūniškis⁸ — thickets.

Užūšulnės⁹ — thickets.

Duobùlis¹⁰ — forest.

Pūčkakalnis — thickets. During the war between Švitrigaila and Žygimantas, “pučkos” (cannons) stood on it.

Degimai — burnt-out thickets and pastures.

Prisiektinis — thickets. The peasants from Žūklių village swore to the landowner Olšauskas that they would not touch his thickets. The boundary markers established the limits of the thickets.

Dùbės¹¹ — thickets by Lake Žirnajai, on the side facing Žūklių village.

Kirpičn๲ — a plot of clayey land. May festivities were held there in 1920–1930. In earlier times, an inn stood nearby, where peasants gathered to eat and drink after bringing grain to be milled at the Jurdonys mill, situated by the Žirnaja stream, which flows out of Lake Žirnajai. The mill operated from the late 19th century until 1968.

Krėsnakalnis¹³ — a hill by Lake Žirnajai.

Srūdupės¹⁴ — a ditch¹⁵ through which iron-ore-bearing water flows into Lake Žirnajai.

Našliùpė¹⁶ — a valley through which a stream flows into Lake Žirnajai. During the war between Švitrigaila and Žygimantas (1435), the widows of the fallen soldiers walked through this valley, searching the lake for their drowned husbands. From that time on, this valley-stream came to be called the Widows’ River.

⁸ In writing it down, n was omitted. The supplied form has an incorrect stress.

⁹ Recorded according to pronunciation — Užūšulnos. The given form is incorrectly accented.

¹⁰ Recorded according to pronunciation — Dabùlis. The given form is incorrectly accented.

¹¹ The given form is incorrectly accented.

¹² The given form is incorrectly accented.

¹³ Recorded as Krėsnakalnis.

¹⁴ The given form is incorrectly accented.

¹⁵ The term form griovys has been used.

¹⁶ The given form is incorrectly accented.

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Winter Road – a road from Žukliai village toward Lake Žirnajai. When the lake froze over, the serf peasants of Žukliai village would travel along it to work at the Žirnajai manor.

Lanka¹⁷ – a meadow near Lake Žirnajai.

Ragėlis – a place by Lake Žirnajai.

Alkai – a field, cultivated land.

Pečiauyšta¹⁸ – a hill by Lake Žirnajai.

Trakniai – a marsh.

Pasienis¹⁹ – a marsh.

Ūpės rāvas – a valley through which a stream flows into Lake Žirnajai.

Spókiškis²⁰ – a hill.

Dielinė²¹ – a meadow.

Juodūngas²² – a marsh.

Upėlis – a stream.

Bendrà – a meadow that someone would buy each year in order to mow it.

Vìlnonės – a meadow.

Pamelinỹs – a pool.

Smėlynė – arable land.

Platojai – broad strips of peasant land.

Dubėlė²³ – crosswise plots of land.

Márgiai²⁴ – a single homestead, bog, meadow, ravine; the Margiai bogs lie on both sides of the Žirnaja stream.

Alkà – arable land.

Žirnijà²⁵ – a stream; it flows from Lake Žirnajai into the Šventoji River.

Magazinas²⁶ – a building for storing grain, a granary. During the First World War, peasants no longer stored grain in it. Around 1925, the Pabaiskas peasant Remeikis bought the granary and, after demolishing its log walls, hauled them away.

Totóriškiai – a village where Tatars who fought on Žygimantas’s side settled during his war with Švitrigaila. There is also a hillfort nearby, said to have been raised in honor of the fallen warriors.

¹⁷ A dialect form is given alongside it, Lunkà.

¹⁸ The form given has been incorrectly accented.

¹⁹ The form given has been incorrectly accented.

²⁰ The form given has been incorrectly accented.

²¹ The form given has been incorrectly accented.

²² In determining the standard form, the 1936 record was used as the basis. The dialect form Jadūngas was given here.

²³ The dialect form Dubiāla is given.

²⁴ The form given has been incorrectly accented.

²⁵ The dialect form Žirnyjà is given.

²⁶ The gender is given with incorrect stress.

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Vintarà is a stream that rises in the Olšauskas manor marsh and flows past Pabaiška into the Šventoji River. During the war between Švitrigaila and Žygimantas, this stream was said to have run red with the blood of soldiers. A princess who died during that war is said to be buried on the bank of the Vintara.

Gailiūnai village

Trinágė is a meadow.

Užubaliai²⁷ is a meadow.

Pavérsmis is a meadow.

Kapų raistas is a meadow.

Alksnòtės are thickets.

Pakamarelỹs are thickets.

Užuolakės²⁸ is a field.

Tirónas is a meadow.

Duburėlis is a meadow.

Vaiteliškiai village

Ąžuolýtė²⁹ – a small bog.

Ožkų raistas – a bog (now drained).

Įlgabalis³⁰ – a meadow.

Belazāriškis³¹ – scrub and meadow.

Žāndupės³² – a forest.

Ilgaraistis – a bog, with a stream flowing through it.

Turonėlis³³ – a tussocky meadow.

Šárkinė – a field, a slope.

Samanýnas³⁴ – a bog.

Pakalnės³⁵ – a meadow.

Gaidžiáraistis³⁶ – a small bog.

Pupalaiškis³⁷ – a meadow.

Trākas – a small thicket.

²⁷ The submitted form is incorrectly accented.

²⁸ The submitted form is incorrectly accented.

²⁹ The dialectal form is given Užuolýtė.

³⁰ The form is given with incorrect stress.

³¹ The form is written and stressed incorrectly.

³² The dialectal form is given Žūndupis.

³³ No stress mark.

³⁴ No stress mark.

³⁵ The dialectal form is given Pakalños.

³⁶ The form is given with incorrect stress.

³⁷ No stress mark.

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Parijõs single farmstead

Parijā — a single farmstead; there are four homesteads.

Ilgõji³⁸ — a meadow.

Lāpės hill — a hill.

Kalės hill — a hill (l is pronounced firmly).

Gailiūnka³⁹ — bushes.

Vaisgėniai⁴⁰ — a bog (drained).

Grigaliūno bog⁴¹ — a bog.

Brazilkos bushes — bushes (so named recently).

Village of Urnėžiai

Õžiar aistis — a marsh.

Kazareskà⁴² — a marsh.

Bartkūnai hillfort⁴³

Village of Bagùžiškiai

Padumblỹs — a meadow.

Didžiābalė⁴⁴ — a meadow.

Lesonkų grove⁴⁵ — a small forest.

Parijā — a stream.

Gėgžnai village

Kriėnlaukis — a small forest.

Gailiūnka — a shrub.

Kuliaĩ — a shrub.

Girgždžiai village

Giriamiškis — shrubs.

Degėsiai — a bog.

Márgiai — a bog, shrubs.

³⁸ The form provided has been incorrectly stressed.

³⁹ The form provided has been incorrectly stressed.

⁴⁰ The form Vaizgėniai is transcribed according to pronunciation.

⁴¹ Unstressed.

⁴² The form Kazareška is transcribed according to pronunciation.

⁴³ Unstressed.

⁴⁴ The dialectal form Didžiābala is given.

⁴⁵ Unstressed.

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Vaisgėniai farmstead

Kimšynė⁴⁶ is a swamp.

During the years of the Hitlerite occupation, two homesteads in the farmstead were burned down during military operations.

Recorded orally on May 18, 1968, in Žukliai, from local peasants gathered for a wedding. All these villages now lie within the territory of the Krikštėnai state farm (in Ukmergė District).

R. Šarmaitis⁴⁷

⁴⁶ Unstressed.

⁴⁷ Above the surname is R. Šarmaitis’s signature.

Editorial note. The village names in this list were given without stress marks. They are correctly stressed as follows: Žūkliai, Gailiūnai, Vaiteliškiai, Parijà, Urnėžiai, Bagužiškiai, Gėgžnai, Girždžiai, Vaisgėniai.

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