Norminamasis žodynas ir lingvistinė geografija

LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI XXXVII (1997) LEKSIKOGRAFIJOS IR LEKSIKOLOGIJOS PROBLEMOS Kazys MORKŪNAS NORMATIVE DICTIONARY AND LINGUISTIC GEOGRAPHY Alongside a complete, or large, dictionary intended to include all Lithuanian words, which K. Būga had already begun compiling and publishing, he also wanted to compile a one-volume normative dictionary of the standard language. A. Vireliūnas and A. Varnas helped select words for the latter from the card index of the large dictionary1. After K. Būga’s death, the work came to a halt. It was resumed by a new editorial board of the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, which the Ministry of Education had commissioned J. Balčikonis to establish in 1930. While continuing to gather material for the large Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language and beginning to write its first volume, this editorial board had almost completed the selection of words for the one-volume normative dictionary by 1944. The “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian” (DŽ1), published in 1954, was compiled chiefly on the basis of that selected material. In recent decades, larger and smaller spelling and accentuation dictionaries, terminological dictionaries covering various fields, bilingual dictionaries, and other dictionaries and works have been published, contributing or continuing to contribute to the standardization of the lexicon of the Lithuanian standard language and its usage. However, the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian,” of which two further revised and expanded editions were published in 1972 and 1993 (DŽ2, DŽ3), has a unique, that is, especially significant, role in this respect. The largest and most important part of the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian” (and, naturally, of the lexicon of standard Lithuanian) consists of words of ancient origin that are also used in dialects. A fairly large number of these words, with their principal meanings, are characteristic of all Lithuanian dialects, for example, akìs, dúona, sáulė, žẽmė; bált//as, -à, gẽr//as, -à, sald//ùs, -ì, vien//as, -à, ketvirt//as, -à; tù, jū̃s, màno; áusti, nèšti, pìrkti. These are the heritage of the entire Lithuanian nation. Another group of words included in the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian” has long been known only in a particular dialect area (or subdialect area) or in a single dialect. For example, the word anýta ‘husband’s mother’ is now used mainly by the Kaunas-area speakers (Jrb, Kn, Kš, Mrj, Prn, Šk, VIkv), the southern Aukštaitians (Al, Lzd, Šlčn, Trak, Vrn), and a large part of the eastern Aukštaitians2 (An, Ign, Kp, Mlt, Rk, Šr, Švnč, Ukm, Ut, Zr); krẽžis ‘a hoop-handled basket, a basket’ is used by the northern Samogitians (Krtn, Mžk, Pln, Skd, Tl), and by certain eastern Aukštai- 1 S a l y s A. Raštai 3, Įvairūs straipsniai, Rome: Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science, 1985, 235–236. 2 As anýta shows, other old words denoting kinship relations are also used in the same Lithuanian dialect area: šešūras ‘husband’s father’, moša ‘husband’s sister’, dieveris/dieveris ‘husband’s brother’; cf. Lietuvių kalbos atlasas 1, Leksika (hereafter LKA I), Vilnius: Mokslas, 1977, 195–196, maps nos. 117, 118. 40 but dialects (Svn, Vžns), cf. also LKA I 79, map no. 28; bandódaržis ‘an enclosure for livestock, a threshing-floor yard’ – many Samogitian dialects (Als, Kv, Lkv, Slnt, Vgr, Vkš, Žd), cf. also LKA I 46, map no. 10; kibìras / kibiras ‘a vessel for scooping and carrying water, and for pouring in milk, etc.’ – Western Samogitian dialects (Klp, Prk, Šlu), the Western Aukštaitian dialects of the Klaipėda region (Pgg, Smln, Vlkš), and the neighboring Southern Samogitian dialects (Trg, Vn), cf. also LKA I 67, map no. 21. Many entries, including those mentioned above, are not labeled to indicate which dialect or dialect group they are characteristic of. Some of them have no equivalents in other dialects that are suitable for the standard language either, e.g., kibìras (in almost all the rest of the Lithuanian-speaking area, the loanword from Slavic languages vìedras was widespread; in recent decades it has been displaced by the standard-language form kibìras, cf. LKA I 67). A considerable number of words in this group also have additional equivalents in the dialects, which are listed as synonyms in the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian,” e.g., besides anyta, also úošvienė DŽ₁ 890, DŽ₂ 876 (used mostly by Panevėžys and Šiauliai Aukštaitians; Samogitians use úošvenė), úošvė DŽ₂ 876 (found in individual dialects, mostly Aukštaitian, cf. LKA I 195, map no. 117); besides bandódaržis, also diendaržis DŽ₁ 135, DŽ₂ 119, DŽ₃ 121 (used in some Eastern and Western Aukštaitian dialects), laìdaras DŽ₁ 401, DŽ₂ 352, DŽ₃ 349 (used mostly by Samogitians), žàridis DŽ₁ 966, DŽ₂ 957, DŽ₃ 950 (used by the Kaunas Western Aukštaitians and in some Samogitian dialects), etc.3 The relationship of words in the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian,” or of their meanings, to a particular dialect is often indicated by labels: dz. (=a word or meaning from the Dzūkian dialect), ryt. (=Eastern Aukštaitian), vak. (=Western Aukštaitian), žem. (=Samogitian), e.g.: gydúolė (2) dz. ‘medicinal herb’ DŽ₃ 173, nūn, nūnai, adv. dz. ‘today, now’ DŽ₁ 507, DŽ₂ 446, DŽ₃ 441; aplaidžià (3ᵇ) ryt. ‘abandonment, misfortune’ DŽ₁ 27, DŽ₂ 29, ‘calamity, misfortune’ DŽ₃ 28, žiautaro||ti, -ja, -jo ryt. ‘to eat or chew lightly’ DŽ₁ 971, DŽ₂ 962, DŽ₃ 954; pažýgys (3ᵇ) vak. ‘journey, hike’ DŽ₁ 566, ‘long journey, hike’ DŽ₂ 541, DŽ₃ 533, tìmstr||as, -à vak. ‘dark bay (usually of horses)’ DŽ₁ 857, DŽ₂ 851, DŽ₃ 846; kvėž||ti, -ta, -o žem. ‘to disappear, languish, diminish, weaken’ DŽ₁ 347, DŽ₂ 341, DŽ₃ 346; vėdin||as, -à (3ᵇ) žem. ‘while driving’ DŽ₁, DŽ₂ 923, ‘while driving oneself’ DŽ₃ 916. Labels accompanying some words show that those words are used in more than one dialect or have different meanings in different dialects, e.g.: nióg||ti, -ja, -ė dz., vak. 1. ‘to walk or run quickly’, 2. ‘to carry or drag with difficulty’ DŽ₃ 425; sustìg||ti, su-stìga, -o ryt., žem. ‘to stiffen, become rigid, lose control of one’s joints’ DŽ₃ 782; našà (4) 1. žem., vak. ‘harvest, maturity, yield’ DŽ₃ 415; geinýs (4) 1. dz. ‘a rope device for climbing a tree to gather bees’, 2. ryt. ‘the warp threads of a fabric, threads removed from the warping frame’, 3. ryt. ‘a loom beater’, 4. žem. ‘a support woven from patterned strips for loading rafts’ DŽ₃ 169. 3For the distribution in dialects of other words meaning ‘bandodaržis, diendaržis’, see also LKA I 46–47, map no. 10. 41 In all, 1,446 of the aforementioned labels are given in the third edition of the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian”⁴: dz. – 161, ryt. – 487, vak. – 111, žem. – 687. In addition, the abbreviation aukšt. (=a word or meaning from the Aukštaitian dialect) was introduced in the latest edition of the dictionary. It is given for only 8 words or their meanings: apibrėkš||ti, -ta, apibrėško 1. aukšt. ‘to grow somewhat light’²2. žem. ‘to grow somewhat dark’; brėkšma (1) 1. aukšt. ‘dawn’, 2. žem. ‘twilight’; gróbas (1) 1. aukšt. ‘rib’, 2. žem. ‘intestine’; išbrė||kšti, -kšta, -ško aukšt. ‘to dawn, grow light’; krušn||us, -i (4) aukšt. ‘fragile, brittle’; siekšnis (1) 3. aukšt. ‘the thread spun from the distaff onto the reel’; spáugas (3) aukšt. see s p u o g a s. All editions of this dictionary also use the label tarm. (=a dialect word or dialect meaning), which does not define the distribution of a word or meaning as precisely, e.g.: atšláimas (4) tarm. 1. ‘yard’, 2. ‘threshing-floor, hard-packed floor’ DŽ₃ 51; tarm. 1. ‘yard’, 2. ‘threshing-floor’ DŽ₃ 60; bruišė (2) tarm. see k u o j a DŽ₃ 91; ėglis (2) tarm. see k a d a g y s DŽ₃ 146. In the dictionary’s third edition, this label is found with 698 words or their meanings. The dictionary’s compilers explain the meaning of all the labels mentioned above when discussing the “stylistic characterization of words”: the labels aukšt., dz., ryt., vak., žem. “indicate that a word, its meaning, or an expression is used only in these dialects, but also occurs in works of fiction—in the writings of individual authors. If it is difficult to assign a dialect word to a single specific dialect, it is marked with the general label tarm.—dialectal” (DŽ₃ XIV). Nothing further is said about whether words and their meanings carrying these labels are acceptable in the standard language. However, the cross-reference žr. (=see) appended to some of the words with these labels does serve a normative purpose, directing the reader “to a more usual, more frequent word” (DŽ₃ V), e.g.: lùstas (4) ryt., dz. see l u i t a s DŽ₃ 375; pečiūt||as, -a (1) ryt. see p e t i n g a s DŽ₂ 542, DŽ₃ 534; ropūtė (2) tarm. see b u l v ė DŽ₃ 664. Thus, words marked as belonging to particular dialects (aukšt., dz.,...) or with the label tarm., but without the cross-reference žr., may be considered acceptable in the standard language. All the more so because there are no other words or terms in the standard language for naming some concepts, cf.: dangùs (4) 3. tarm. ‘the upper interior of an oven’ DŽ₃ 107, gomurys (3ª) 2. ryt. ‘the upper interior of an oven’ DŽ₃ 182; sąmatas (1) ryt., dz. ‘a cord or leather strap for fastening a horse’s harness when hitching it up’ DŽ₃ 673. It is true that words with the labels mentioned above are generally avoided when explaining the meanings of other words, but even here there is no complete consistency, cf.: minkytuvis (1) žem. ‘dough trough’ and dúonkubilis (1) ‘a tub for kneading bread dough, a minkytuvis’; laitas (4) ryt. 1. ‘a rammed-earth floor, a threshing-floor’ and klojimas (2) 3. ‘threshing-floor, laitas’, pãdas (2) 4. ryt. ‘a clay threshing-floor in a barn, laitas’. On the other hand, the use of the aforementioned labels with words is also not very consistent. ⁴ The calculations, by computer, of words and their meanings in DŽ₃ carrying labels that indicate dialectal affiliation were performed by the Laboratory of Automation of Scientific Research at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (head: V. Černiauskas). 42 Besides the words discussed above anýta, krėžis, bandó daržis, kibìras, characteristic of one or another part of the Lithuanian-speaking area, many words used in dialects within a rather limited area, or particular meanings of such words, also lack these labels, e.g.: kapóklė (2) 3. ‘vedega’ DŽ₃ 283 (the Mažeikiai, Skuodas, and other areas, cf. LKA I map no. 33, LKŽ⁵ V 241); skrytìs, -iẽs m. (4) 1. ‘wooden rim’ DŽ₃ 708 (the Pagėgiai, Šilalė, and Tauragė areas, though the form skrytãs/skryt́as is probably more common here, cf. LKA I 98, map no. 42, LKŽ XII 1086–1088); šovà (4) 2. ‘latch, bar’ DŽ₃ 819 (Druskininkai, Lazdijai, Merkinė, cf. LKA I map no. 6, LKŽ XV 263–264); žúobris (1) 2. ‘plough, ard’ DŽ₃ 964 (Ariogala, Čekiškė, Šaukotas, Šlapaberžė, cf. LKA I 105, map no. 45). Comparing all three editions of the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian, we can observe that the approaches of the compilers and editors of each edition to selecting and presenting words used in dialects and their meanings often differ or change; cf. Table 1. Table 1 Names for the fruit of spruce or pine trees6 Name | Dialect | Western Highlanders | Southern Highlanders (Dzūkians) | Eastern Highlanders | Samogitians | DŽ₁ | DŽ₂ | DŽ₃bužỹs | − | + (Drsk, Lp, Mrc) | − | − | − | + 2. dz. ‘pine cone’ | + 2. dz. ‘pine cone’gurgùtis | − | − | + (Brž, Pnd, Slm) | − | + | + 1. ž. p i n e - c o n e | + 1. ž. p i n e - c o n ekankorėžis | eastern/young? | − | eastern/young? | + | + | + ‘gurgutis’ | +kirkùžė | − | − | + (Alž, Ob, Rk, Skp) | − | + ž. p i n e - c o n e | + ž. p i n e - c o n e | − 5 LKŽ – Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language 1-17, Vilnius, 1956–1996. 6 For the distribution of names for the fruit of spruce or pine trees in dialects, see also LKA I 166–167, map no. 93; LKŽ I 1229, III 748, V 216, 840, XII 1125. The abbreviation rt. indicates that the name is used less frequently in the dialect and does not form a large, continuous area; nj. indicates that the name is more recent in the dialect. 43 skujà | + | − | rt. | + (eastern dialects) | + 2. ž. pine cone | + 3. ‘pine cone’ | + 3. dialectal ‘pine cone’ || žebelýs | − | − | + (An, Ds, Kp, Ob, Ut) | − | − | + ž. pine cone | − Thus, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1. The rationale for inconsistent use in a normative dictionary of labels identifying specific dialects—Highland, Dzūkian, Eastern, Western, Samogitian—is highly questionable. To indicate that a particular word (meaning, stress variant, or the like) has not yet become firmly established in the standard language, a more general (neutral) label, dialectal, would fully satisfy readers interested only in language usage. Readers may now interpret the content of the labels Dzūkian, Eastern, Western differently: since the mid-1960s, the classification of A. Girdenis and Z. Zinkevičius (an improved version of A. Baranauskas’s classification), which began to be used in place of K. Jaunius and A. Salys’s classification of Lithuanian dialects, has no Dzūkian dialect at all, while the areas of the Eastern and Western Highlander dialects have been considerably enlarged. In fact, the last three labels—Dzūkian, Eastern, Western—indicate mainly the principal ethnographic regions of the Highlanders. 2. When selecting words from the very rich dialect lexicon for a normative dictionary of rather limited scope, its compilers must decide which principal criteria should guide their selection. The selection principle in the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian is stated as follows: an effort is made to include “dialect words used more frequently in belles-lettres, especially in works by the classics, in journalism, the periodical press, and elsewhere” (DŽ₃ VII). What is not emphasized here is another important condition that should be taken into account when including dialect words, forms, meanings, and stress patterns in standard-language usage: the geographical distribution of these features, that is, how widely they are used in dialects, and when and which dialect’s lexicon is given priority⁷. K. Būga, A. Salys, J. Balčikonis, J. Senkus, and others hoped to use linguistic-geographical data in standard-language practice, and thus also in dictionary standardization, when drawing up questionnaires and programs for the systematic study of Lithuanian dialects— 7 DŽ₃ (cf. “Dictionary sources,” pp. XXI–XXII) also did not make use of a source providing data important from this perspective: the first two volumes of LKA (the third volume of LKA, devoted to morphology, reached readers in 1994, although its publication year is 1991). 44 …when collecting dialect data covering various areas of language. The use and distribution in dialects of linguistic facts needed for a normative dictionary could be clarified more effectively by methodological guidelines for data collection prepared specifically for this purpose. NORMATIVE DICTIONARY AND LINGUISTIC GEOGRAPHY Summary A major role in standardising the vocabulary of Standard Lithuanian is played by “Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas” (Dictionary of Modern Lithuanian) - DŽ1 (Vilnius, 1954) and its two revised editions, DŽ2 (1972) and DŽ3 (1993). Its most important part consists of old words that, in their main meanings, are used in all Lithuanian dialects, e.g. akìs (eye), báltas (white), viēnas (one), nèšti (carry). The remaining words in the dictionary are used only in certain dialects. The association of some words, or their meanings, with one or another dialect is indicated by special markings (abbreviations): aukšt. (=a word or meaning of the Aukštaitian dialect), dz. (=Dzūkian), ryt. (=Eastern Aukštaitian), vak. (=Western Aukštaitian), žem. (=Žemaitian, Samogitian), e.g.: gróbas 1. aukšt. ‘rib’ (a rib), 2. žem. ‘gut’ (a gut) DŽ3 190: pažýgęs vak. ‘journey, trip’ (a trip) DŽ1 566, ‘long journey, trip’ (a long trip), DŽ2 541, DŽ3 533. There are 1454 markings like this in DŽ3. The abbreviation tarm. (= a dialectal word or meaning), which does not specify the geography of a word or meaning, is also used e.g. ėglis tarm. ž. kadagys (see kadagys) DŽ3 146. There are 698 words or their meanings with this marking in DŽ3. Since the markings indicating specific dialects (aukšt., dz., ryt., vak., žem.) are used rather inconsistently, sometimes specifying only particular ethnographic regions, the following conclusions are drawn in the paper: 1. To those dictionary users who are interested in language practice the neutral marking tarm. would be sufficient to indicate that a word (meaning, stress variant etc.) has not yet taken root in Standard Lithuanian. 2. One of the important criteria in selecting dialectal words, their forms, meanings and stress variants for standard usage should be the geography of these facts i.e. account should be taken of how extensively they are spread and in what dialects they are used. 45