Žodžių istoriją iškreipiame

Pastabos We distort the history of words A neatly arranged little collection of lexical examples from various dialects, intended for publication, has come out Lithuanian Dialects – Part II (Publishing House of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 2005), 64 pp. (compiled by R. Bacevičiūtė, A. Leskauskaitė, D. Vaišnienė; edited by A. Laučka, M. Lučinskienė). It is intended for schools, where everything will be available in English too, if pupils cannot read and learn in Lithuanian how people in our villages used to call and still call household objects. The work draws on material from LKA expeditions and the most important linguistic sources—LKŽ, dialect dictionaries, and so on. Good results have been achieved in many cases, but some points also call for reservations. The lines about the diūnkubilį mention its synonyms minkytūvis, minkytūvas in the northern Samogitian dialects. Unfortunately, minkytūvis (and minkytuvė in Ms) was recorded and published in LKA, 25 Samogitian, LKŽVIII 222–223; all the people questioned, even doctors of philology and other Samogitians who know the dialect, most often use the form m′i.n′k′i.tùv′s / m′i.n′k′i.tov′s, which is not even mentioned in the booklet (the Samogitians questioned were especially dismissive of the minkytūvo variant—perhaps it was invented by students). The Latvian loanword abrė, used around Škn and Žg, is pronounced “in Latvian,” according to Dr. A. Jonaitytė, àb′r′e, and likewise in the dūnininkai dialect àb′r′i (DunŽ 21)—this shows beyond any need for proof that the word is of Latvian origin (though this will remain unknown to the researchers). Similarly, not everything has been said about the vessel used to draw water from a well. The history of this word is clear. The dialects of Prussian Lithuania used the word kìbiras (as shown by the writings of Schleicher, Jurkšaitis, and F. Kuršaitis, LKŽV 725, J, J.Jabl; chief editor K. Ulvydas and senior lexicographer B. Vosyl y tė did not even include in LKŽV the townspeople’s kìbiras with altered stress in 1958, because they considered it a non-inherited form; I myself heard the conversation in the Dictionary Department). The record (i.e., the diskette) also mentions the old form kìbiras, but it is not highlighted, merely relegated to the synonyms. There seem to have been no new studies (earlier, before 1975, I had to record kìbirą in SG, RSN (even from the speaker M. Deivelaitis), Šv (in the villages of Būdviečiai, Pempiškiai, and Tvaskučiai); it was also found in Vvr, farther on in Birbinčiai near Klaipėda, and even in 1965 in the Lutheran village of Buikiškė near Vainutas (the townspeople’s form kìbiras, which according to K. Būga acquired a new stress through adaptation, is the only one presented for children to learn). The history shows that kìbiro had a fairly wide area of use (Prussian Lithuania—the cradle of our standard language), although we even avoid mentioning those dialects. It is a pity that the second-accentuation form of the dish kastinis is not mentioned (cf. LKŽV 395); the form around Klp bá.ltaˈs′s s′v′ėˈsc has not been heard either—could it be another, inferior dish? 125 Pastabos butter (the definite forms there are probably praštàs's, žalès'is, p'ę.rmàs's, and so on. Whether this was poorly recorded because the dialects are fading (many local people are now leaving their native places because of disorder and our lack of culture), or because the dialect’s phonetics were not properly captured, is unclear). Vėdaras (and dešrą) is called in German around Prk, Kin, and Šlu vọ.ršk'is / vọ.ršts ~ vùrškis, vùrš tas (this is also given in LKŽxix 986, but there it was neither checked whether the Samogitian sound o was understood, nor even heard; cf. also LKA1 85 Samogitian 32). It is doubtful whether rōpė is pronounced anywhere in Lithuania (p. 61), as claimed for children learning English or for scholars—there is only rō·p'ę. / rō·p'ę / rūop'e and the like. The forms grustùvas, grustùkas on p. 48 are also doubtful (= grùstùvas, grùstùkas). Let us be more attentive... Vytautas Antanas Vitkauskas Institute of the Lithuanian Language 5 P. Vileišio St., 10308 Vilnius, Lithuania 126