Salantų vardas dviejose XVII a. krikšto įrašų knygose

PRANAS KNIŪKŠTA Institute of the Lithuanian Language THE NAME OF SALANTAI IN TWO 17TH-CENTURY BAPTISMAL REGISTERS The literature mentions that in earlier times Salantai was called Skilandžiai. Motiejus Valančius recalled this more than once when discussing Salantai’s past. In Antanas the Third Order member’s account “The Battle by Salantai Castle,” it is stated: “From Kretinga to Salantai, then called Skilandžiai, there was no paved road” (R I 384). Žemaičių vyskupystėje reports that “in 1630 Mikalojus Pasanauskis built a wooden church in Skilandžiai, or Salantai” (R II 116). Among better-known contemporary publications, encyclopedias recall the old name of Salantai, Skilandžiai. In the Boston-published Lietuvių enciklopedijoje, the article on Salantai begins: “Salantai, formerly Skilandžiai...” (LE XXVI 326); further on it repeats: “At first the locality was called Skilandžiai” (ibid., 327). Tarybų Lietuvos enciklopedijoje likewise states that “Salantai arose on the site of Skilandžiai village” (TLE III 614). The year when the name changed is also given: “The town began to be called Salantai in 1638.” The basis for this statement is not specified. Salantai’s dual name, the transformation of Skilandžiai into Salantais and the consolidation of Salantų are best demonstrated by the 17th-century baptismal registers of Salantai Church (1631–1640 and 1641–1659). They confirm the cited claims about the name Salantai, except that the town began to be called Salantais in 1638. SKILANDŽIAI AND SALANTAI IN THE 1631–1640 REGISTERS The old name of the town and its change are shown by the 1631–1640 baptismal register. On its first page, the main title is written (some letters have now faded): Metrica sive registrum baptizatorum ecclesiae Skitandensis, followed by a smaller-letter explanation: Salanty od r. 1631 do roku 1640 (a similar inscription, Chrztu Salanty od r. 1631 do r. 1640, is pasted on the book’s cover). The book is held in the Manuscripts Department of the Martynas Mažvydas Library. P. KNIŪKŠTA. Salantų vardas dviejose XVII a. krikšto įrašų knygose 103 In the register entries from 1631 through 1639, the town’s name is Skilandžiai, but it is written according to Polish spelling principles and with the Polish ending -ie. The spelling, however, is inconsistent and irregular, with many different variants recorded. The greatest variation is in the spelling of the consonant “ł” and the diphthong “an.” The consonant “ł” is usually represented by the letter with a stroke—ł—but less commonly (though not very rarely) by the plain letter l. It is also written with two l letters, which are sometimes plain (ll), and sometimes marked with strokes (łł). The diphthong “an” is most often written qn, but also frequently an; spellings with on and even un also occur. The spelling of the first syllable also varies: besides the usual Ski-, Sky- and even Skie- are found. Here is the full range of spellings: Skiląndzie, Skiląndzie, Skilandzie, Skilandzie, Skilląndzie, Skilląndzie, Skillandzie, Skilondzie, Skielondzie. These nominative forms are used after the preposition de – de Skiląndzie, de Skilandzie, and so on, but Polish genitive forms adapted to the preposition also occur: de Skiląndz, de Skilląndz, de Skylląndz, de Skillundz, as well as forms with the ending -ow – de Skillandziow. Since the name Skilandžių was not widely used and had no established tradition, such spelling variation can be understood and partly excused. But there were also truly strange and incomprehensible spellings. For a time (in 1635), entries appear in which the parents’ and godparents’ place of origin is given by variants of a singular form (written with a plain l): Skiląndis, Skilandis, Skylląndis, Skiląndzis: Christophorus Aleknaytis Skiląndis, Christophorus Kripaytis Skylląndis, Stanislay Jocubaytis Skiląndzis. When Skilandis or a variant is added after a surname, it cannot be treated as a surname and must instead be understood as a place designation. And since it is not preceded by the preposition de, these forms should be regarded as modifiers, similar to the adjective skilandiškis: Kristupą Aleknaitį Skilandį can be understood as Aleknaitį sklandiškį. Entries from that period contain similar derivatives of other place names: Petrus Butkaytis Notenis – Petras Butkaitis noteniškis; Georgiy Wisgaudaytis Gruszlaukis – Jurgis Visgaudaitis grūšlaukiškis; there are also Orlianis, Klausgaylis, Tuzis, Imboris, etc.; compare erleniškis, klausgalviškis, tuziškis, imbariškis. They are added even after women’s surnames—Agnes Wallentinayte Kumpikis—or applied to a man and woman together—Petrus Jucaitis et Anna Žeymis. Here they do not agree grammatically with the surnames, but can be understood as Agnė Valentinaitė kumpikiškė, Petras ir Ona Jucaičiai žeimiškiai. A couple of entries from 1640 have the letter e before the singular form Skilandžio, which probably represents an abbreviation of the preposition ex. In one of them (April) 104 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 81 the child’s parents are recorded as: Nicolao Petrauskaytis et Catharina Gustaite e Skielundis. Here the singular form can be understood as a place name—from Skilandžio. There is one entry from 1635 in which not only the morphological meaning of the place-name word but the word itself is difficult to understand. One such reference to a place, in August, is Shallton: it is written that the child was baptized by Christophory Jankiewicz Commendary Shallton, the child’s godfather was Georgius Zebitis Shallton, and the child was the son of Christophori Cripa Shalltondis. We must assume that the child was baptized by the Salantai commendator, and therefore Shallton should mean Salantūs. Perhaps this contains part of Salantų or Salanto, Salon? And Shalltondis looks like a hybrid of Salantai (or Salantas) and Skilandis. Skilandžiai were first called a town in an entry from March 1636: the child’s parents, Jakutaitis and Grigalaitė, are recorded as de Skiląndzie—from Skilandžiai; the godfather, Aidukas (Ayduk), is recorded as de oppido—the place name is not given, but it should be understood that this “oppidum,” or town, is Skilandžiai. A year later, in an entry from March 1637, both the town and its name are mentioned together: de oppido Skilandzie, de oppido Skiląndziow. It should be said once again that the entries from 1638 and 1639 do not yet mention Salantų; as before, only Skilandžiai appears. However, the variety of spellings decreased: variants with two ls disappeared, but forms with a plain and a hardened l (ł) competed. Forms with qn and an also competed (variants with on are no longer found). The town’s new name, Salantai, appears in the book in 1640 (the first entries are from March). The spellings vary, but not as much as those of Skilandžių: there is one l, plain or with a hardening mark (ł), and the diphthong is represented by qn or an. A new feature is a mark resembling the letter j written at the end of the word; in some instances y is clearly written. The most frequent spellings are those with plain l and qn—Salantj—or those with a hardened (ł) l and the plain diphthong an—Salantj. Usually the place name is preceded only by the preposition de – de Salantj, but there are also records with de oppido – de oppido Saląntj, de oppido Salanty. In the 1640 entries, Salantai is no longer called Skilandžiais, but personal names with this root do occur: Skilandaitis and Skilandienė. Skilandaitis is recorded as coming from several places, while the child’s parents recorded on March 18 are Joannes Skiląndaitis et Hedvigis de Salantj; the third baptismal witness is Hedvigis Skiląndziene (her place of origin is not recorded; it may be understood that she was from the same place). The town of Skilandžių has become Salantais, while its inhabitants remain as before—Skilandžiai. Taken together, the entries from 1631–1640 show the variety of usage of Skilandžių and provide an overall picture of the transition from Skilandžių to Salantų. How Salantai took hold and how its forms changed can be seen from the book of entries for 1641–1659. P. KNIŪKŠTA. Salantų vardas dviejose XVII a. krikšto įrašų knygose 105 SALANTŲ NAME IN THE 1641–1659 REGISTER This baptismal register is kept in the archive of Salantai Church and is titled Salantensis Bapt.: Ab Anno 1641 Ad 1659—this is the inscription on its cover. It (and the entries in the book) show that from 1641 onward the place was officially called Salantų. The legible name Salantų appears in the book in entries from May 1641 (the entries before then are illegible). In the entry of May 19, the godfather is recorded as de oppido Saląnty – from the town of Salantai; on May 24, the child’s parents are recorded as de oppido Saląnty, and the godparents as de Saląntj. It is difficult to say why the spellings are twofold and how their meanings differ. Another variation is also unclear: in some instances the name Salantų is written with the clearly visible Polish ending -y, while elsewhere the ending is unclear and resembles the letter j (which may represent the sound “i” or a word-abbreviation mark). The sound “l” is also represented in two ways: in some instances by the plain letter l, elsewhere by one with a hardening mark, ł. These variants are used entirely inconsistently, with no difference in meaning, so the spelling distinctions will not be observed here and the plain l will be used throughout. A twofold spelling with a clear difference in meaning is, however, found in the name’s unusual letter combination ąn, which allows the word to be read in two ways: disregard the nasalization mark and, according to written-language conventions, read Salantai; or omit the letter n and, following Polish spelling, read it in Samogitian dialect as Salontā (Salontai). The name Salantai is also written inconsistently in the entries from 1642: in some places as de Saląnty, elsewhere as de oppido Saląnty. But there are a couple of places where the godparents are identified only by the general reference de Oppido, and the name Salantai is not mentioned at all. This wording may indicate that it was already obvious what was meant. The entries from the end of 1642 (November and December) are somewhat different: they were written by another person, in a different hand, and in what seems to be a more considered order. Here, the name Salantai never appears on its own without the generic reference (de Saląnty); everywhere it is written with the abbreviated reference opp. or oppd.. After it, the name Salantai is abbreviated in every instance, and the abbreviation is always marked with an abbreviation sign (here we will represent it by °): de oppd. Saląnt°. This raises the question: which ending has been omitted here, and why? Comparing the spellings de oppido Saląnty and de oppd. Saląnt°, we see that the ending -y is missing; it corresponds to the Lithuanian Salantai ending -ai. Thus oppd. Saląnt° can be understood in the same way as oppd. Saląnty—the town of Salantai, or the town of Salantai. But the word written with the ending omitted, Saląnt°, allows us to imagine that a singular ending has been dropped here and to connect the town’s name with the name of the river, Salantas, or its dialectal form, Salonts. Thus, the notation oppd. Saląnt° can be understood to mean that this 106 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 81 the town of Salanto. There are even entries that formally point to one interpretation or the other: there is a place where the godmother is recorded as de opp. Salanton (November 17), where the word form yields “from the town of Salanto,” and another place where the godmother is recorded as de oppd. Saląnten (December 21)—“from the town of Salantai.” There was no point in shortening the plural form Salantų and changing the notation oppd. Saląntų to oppd. Saląnto. It adds nothing new. The notation with the ending dropped, de oppd. Saląnto, is easier to understand as a form in which the singular ending of the river name Salantas has been dropped, and the name is understood as the town of Salanto. When Salantai did not yet have that name and was Skilandžiai, it was simply a town (or a small town) by the Salantas. Since a prepositional construction can be replaced by a genitive (cf. guests from Kaunas – Kaunas guests, an attack from the air – an air attack), alongside a town by the Salantas there could also have been the town of Salanto with the same meaning. Used in place of Skilandžiai, the town of Salanto became a proper name, in which the common noun denoting a place of habitation, town (small town), is essential. The river name can denote the town only together with a generic word of this kind. The town name derived from the river name took a plural form: Salantai arose from Salanto. This is normal; there are other place names formed in this way, one of them being Pestys – Peščiai. Having lost their direct connection with Salantas and having only the meaning of a town, Salantai may be used without a generic noun—they may be called either the town of Salantai or simply Salantai. Both forms are therefore possible and equivalent: oppd. Saląnty and Saląnty. As they move away from the river name, Salantai also gradually move away from the dialectal form of the word. The river name was known mainly to local people and was Samogitian, with the diphthong on – Salonts. At first, the Samogitian form of the place name must also have been better known than the official variant Salantai. Later, having become detached from the river name and entered wider usage, the town name was adapted to other proper names used in writing and to general phonetic norms: Salontus displaced Salantai. The contrast between the Samogitian and written-language variants, and the transition from the former to the latter, is also softened by the name’s diplomatic spelling with an; this spelling, Saląnty, makes it possible to move back and forth between the forms and freely shift from Salontų to Salantų. The entries from subsequent years clearly show the various variants of the name Salantų, their spellings, and changes in their use. In all entries from 1643, the name Salantų is written as it was at the end of 1642—with an abbreviation of a generic designation and the ending dropped: de opp. P. KNIŪKŠTA. Salantų vardas dviejose XVII a. krikšto įrašų knygose 107 Salant°, de oppd. Salant°. From this notation, Salantus can certainly be understood as the town of Salanto. There is only one different notation: Bakalaureus Salant°, where no connection with the river name can be discerned, and which can only be understood in one way—a bachelor of Salantai. The 1644 entries are more varied and contradictory. At first, the more frequent form is the same as in 1643: de oppd. Saląnt°, but there are also notations without “opido,” but with the ending dropped: de Saląnt°. Even within the same entry (January 3), the parents are recorded as de oppd. Saląnt°, while the godmother is recorded as de Saląnt°. From the middle of the year, the second form becomes prevalent. Written this way—with the ending dropped and without a generic designation—the name Salantų was nevertheless artificial and illogical, so it is natural that from September notations with an ending appear: de Saląnty. The morphologically inflected town name becomes a genuine place name. But there is still no clearer consistency: on October 19 it is written de Saląnty, on October 21 de oppd. Saląnt°, on November 21 again de Saląnty, and on December 23 de Saląnt°. Clearly, the use of the name Salantų was still unclear and unsettled. Efforts to regularize it are evident in the 1645 entries. At the beginning of the year, the two logical forms return. In the same (February) month, the godfather is recorded in one place as de Saląnty, and elsewhere as de oppd. Saląnt°. The unabbreviated town name is written on its own, while when the ending is dropped it is accompanied by the generic designation oppd. There are no entries without an ending and without a generic designation. The spelling of the place name’s root also becomes more uniform. From April, the name Salantų is written without the unusual letter sequence qn: n is dropped, leaving only the nasalized letter q. The earlier spellings de Saląnty are replaced by de Saląty. The oddity of the spelling seems to have been eliminated, but another difficulty arises: the new spelling forces the name Salantų to be read only in Samogitian, with the diphthong on—Salontai (Salontā). The Salantų form needed for wider usage disappears. The name Salantų is written according to the same (1645) convention in the 1646 entries: the place name always has an ending, and the root contains the nasalized letter q—Saląty, de Saląty. Only occasionally is a designation added before the place name: de oppd. Saląty. But the most interesting and unexpected feature is that in that year the old town name Skilandžiai appears alongside Salantų, also written with the nasalized letter q: Skilądzie. In one entry dated January 19, the parents and godparents are recorded as being from Salantų – de Saląty; in another entry from the same day, the godfather, Kasperas Klovaitis, is identified as being from Skilandžių – de Skiladzie. On September 29, the child’s parents in one entry are from Skilandžių, whereas in another entry from that day the father, Kasperas Klovaitis, is from Salantų. One might think that Salantų and Skilandžių refer to different places, but this assumption is undermined by the two different ways of recording Kasperas Klovaitis’s li- 108 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 81 place of residence. The children whose godfather is recorded as Kasperas Klovaitis are those of the same parents—Nikolajus and Marina Jokūbaitis from Kumpikai—so it must be assumed that the godfather Kasperas Klovaitis is also the same person in both cases. Thus his place of residence must also be the same, though recorded inconsistently. From the beginning of 1647, the spelling of the root of Salantų was changed once again: the nasal letter ą was replaced by a diphthong, more often written on – Salonty, less often an – Salanty. There are also various other inconsistencies and variants. The ending is written inconsistently—sometimes as before, -y – Salonty, elsewhere (less often) -i – Salonti. We also find forms written without an ending, now without an abbreviation mark: de Salont. Forms with two l also appear – de Sallont, de Sallant. Alongside the place names, there are entries with an added designation: de Salonty and de oppd. Salonty. No system, nor any effort to create one, is discernible. Different spellings occur even within the same entry: one person is recorded as de Salonty, another in the very same entry as de Salonti; one as de Salanti, another as de oppido Salanty. Similar confusion is found in the entries of 1648 and 1649, though some spelling patterns stand out more clearly there. In 1648, forms with two l – de Sallant are especially common; they disappear at the beginning of 1649. In that year, entries without endings become more frequent, but this is no longer a dropped ending: instead, an un-Lithuanian, endingless genitive plural form is given, as required by the preposition de: Magdalena Kusayte de Salont – Magdalena Kusaitė from Salantai. At the end of 1649 and the beginning of 1650, there are also other place names written in this way: de Skaudel – from Skaudaliai, de Klausgalw – from Klausgalvai. Most striking, and longest-lasting, is the competition between the Samogitian form of Salantų and its literary-standardized form. In precisely the same contexts, one finds Salonty in some entries and Salanty in others. The scribes chose their spelling at their own discretion. For instance, from the beginning of 1650 until October, Salonty is written; from October onward, the entries are in another hand and the town’s name is written Salanty. The competition between the dialectal and literary-standardized forms continues until the end of 1653; from 1654 onward, Salanty is written everywhere, without the designation oppd. – only de Salanty. The modern official form of the place name, Salantai, is thus taking shape and becoming established. CONCLUSIONS 1. The literature mentions that the older name of Salantai was Skilandžiai. The old name and the change of name are best demonstrated by the seventeenth-century (1631–1640 and 1641–1659) baptismal registers of the church in Salantai. P. KNIŪKŠTA. Salantų vardas dviejose XVII a. krikšto įrašų knygose 109 2. From 1631 through 1639, inclusive, the entries give the town’s name as Skilandžiai, but it is written in many different ways, mostly according to Polish spelling conventions: Skiląndzie, Skiląndzie, Skilandzie, Skilondzie, and so on. The preposition de is written before the name: de Skiląndzie, de Skilandzie... 3. The new name Salantai appears only in entries from 1640 and is also written in various ways: de Saląntį, de Satantį, de oppido Salanty, and so on. 4. From 1641 to 1659, Salantai appears consistently, though there are even more and more varied written forms here, and they changed constantly. Besides those mentioned above, there are also: Saląnty, Salanty, Salonty, de Sallont, de oppd. Salonty, etc. 5. The main reason for this variety is that the place name was new, not yet established, and had no traditions of use. It was written according to Polish spelling conventions, and the relationship between the Lithuanian name and Polish spelling was difficult to grasp. The concurrent use of dialectal and literary-standardized forms created additional difficulties. 6. Among the other variants are forms preceded by the designation de oppido, in which the name Salantai is written with its ending dropped and an abbreviation mark in its place – de oppd. Saląnt°. This form can be understood as the town of Salantai or as the town of Salantas. This allows us to suppose that the original stage in the development of the name Salantai may have been the town of Salantas. ŠALTINIAI Chrztu Salantų od r. 1631 do r. 1640 / Metrica sive registrum baptizatorum ecclesiae Skiląndensis. – Lietuvos nacionalinės Martyno Mažvydo bibliotekos rankraščių skyrius (F 100–407). Salantensis Bapt.: Ab Anno 1641 Ad 1659. – Salantų bažnyčios archyvas. LITERATŪRA LE XXVI – Lietuvių enciklopedija 26, Bostonas: Lietuvių enciklopedijos leidykla, 1961. TLE III – Tarybų Lietuvos enciklopedija 3, Vilnius: Vyriausioji enciklopedijų redakcija, 1987. R I, II – M. Valančius. Raštai 1, 2, Vilnius: Vaga, 1972. Gauta 2008 06 12 110 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 81 THE NAME OF SALANTAI IN TWO CHURCH BOOKS OF BIRTH REGISTER OF THE 17TH CENTURY Summary Salantai previously had the name of Skilandžiai. A change in the name was best attested in the 17th century birth register books of the church of Salantai. Entries made between 1631 and 1639 contain the name Skilandžiai spelled in different ways: Skiląndzie, Skilandzie etc. The name Salantai is only found in the entries made in 1640 and later; the spelling of the word varies as well, e.g. Salanty, Saląnty, Salonty etc. There are entries giving the reference oppido before the name: (de) oppido Saląnty, (de) oppd. Salonty, some entries have the name with its ending missing: de Salont, de oppd. Saląnt°. The latter form with the mark signalling the absence of ending can be treated as the town of Salantas. The presently used official form Salantai has been firmly established in the birth registers since 1654 (spelt Salanty). PRANAS KNIŪKŠTA Lietuvių kalbos institutas P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius P. KNIŪKŠTA. Salantų vardas dviejose XVII a. krikšto įrašų knygose 111