LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXXIV (1994)

LIETUVIŲ KALBOS TARMĖS IR JŲ TYRINĖJIMAI

Vita PRANSKŪNAITĖ

NAMES FOR THE EWE AND LAMB IN THE DIALECTS

(Based on data from A. Salys’s questionnaire “Apklausas 1”)

0. After the Institute of Lithuanian Studies was established in Lithuania in 1939, research in Lithuanian linguistic geography began, among other projects. Until then, no major systematic work in this field had been undertaken ¹. It is true that Professor K. Būga, having returned from Russia to work in Kaunas, began preparing a Lithuanian language atlas. For this purpose, he prepared and published three questionnaires, entitled “Question Sheets.” The first “Question Sheet,” devoted to phonetics, contains 106 questions; the second and third, devoted to vocabulary, contain more than 180 questions. The second questionnaire, designed to determine the geography of words, is divided into thematic groups: I. Buildings, II. Trees and shrubs, III. Vegetables, IV. Domestic animals, V. Fish, VI. Reptiles, VII. Insects, VIII. Weather, IX. Birds, X. Seasons, XI. Miscellaneous. K. Būga’s early death interrupted the work he had begun, and the questionnaires he had compiled remained unused.

0.1. K. Būga’s work was continued by his student Antanas Salys, whom his teacher had steered toward lexicology and lexicography while he was still a student. To collect lexical material, he compiled a new questionnaire of 92 questions, “Apklausas 1 (for the geography of words),” divided into thematic groups. Some of them—the names of plants and animals—were repeated from K. Būga’s second “Question Sheet.” A. Salys distinguished the following thematic groups: I. Domestic animals, II. Birds, III. Reptiles, IV. Insects, V. Fish, VI. Invertebrates, VII. Plants, VIII. Mushrooms. Twenty-five questions from K. Būga’s second “Question Sheet” were retained. A separate sheet, “Explanations for questionnaire respondents,” was attached to “Apklausas 1.”

Compared with K. Būga’s questionnaire, the advantage of “Apklausas 1” is that it offers possible answers—various dialectal names listed after the standard Lithuanian word. Equivalents in Latin, German, Russian, and Polish are also given in parentheses.

0.2. Once “Apklausas 1” had been multiplied, the collection of material began immediately. A network of approximately 400 points was established for the direct collection of dialect data. Material was collected from 1941 to 1943. About 150,000 responses were obtained, but not from the entire Lithuanian-speaking area, and not uniformly from all locations ². In the final years of the Second World War, data collection came to a halt. It resumed in 1972 and has continued since.

0.3. In 1951, a newly compiled “Collection of Material for the Atlas of the Lithuanian Language

¹ Lietuvių kalbos atlasas. T. 1. Leksika. V., 1977. P. 8—12.

² S a l y s A. Raštai. T. 3. Įvairūs straipsniai. Roma, 1985. P. 76; Lietuvių kalbos atlasas. T. 1. Leksika. P. 9—10.

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some questions from “Questionnaire 1” were also retained in the vocabulary section of the program”³. When preparing the first volume of this atlas⁴ for publication (the lexical maps and commentaries), the data recorded using A. Salys’s “Questionnaire 1” had not yet been properly organized (entered into card files and classified), so they were used very little.

1. The first question in “Questionnaire 1” called for recording the names of the ewe—the domestic animal kept for its wool and meat.

1.1. The responses collected show that the old Indo-European name avis is the most widespread in Lithuanian dialects. It is used in the western part of the Lithuanian-language area (see Fig. 1). In one or another locality, the e-stem form avė has been recorded. In the eastern Lithuanian dialects, avį has been almost entirely displaced by the derivative with the diminutive suffix -ėlė, avėlė, which may originally have had only a diminutive or endearing meaning, but over time this meaning faded and came closer to that of the inherited word avies⁵.

Today the two names are used synonymously. The approximate boundary between the names avies and avėlės is Joniškis–Radviliškis–Kėdainiai–Kaunas-Prienai. Avėlės is also said in many places within the area where it is widespread, as is avis. Thus avį is used throughout the Lithuanian-language area, but in the eastern part as a variant of avėlės.

Alongside the main names avis and avėlė, there are many others derived from the root av- that have a diminutive or endearing meaning: avytė, avutė, avikė, aviūtė, aviolė, aviakė. P. Skardžius also mentions avyka, a derivative with the suffix -ylė, now rarely encountered in Lithuanian, and avuika, a derivative with the suffix -uika used in eastern Lithuania⁶. Data collectors still recorded Avyką in Zietela in 1977.

1.2. Names for the ewe derived from other roots are rare and used mainly in southern Lithuania as variants of avies.

Older data show that names for this animal derived from words used to call sheep were once fairly widely used⁷. These include names with the root bur-, burė, būria, and their diminutive variants: būrela (būrelė?), burūtė, burikė, burūlkė, buruītė, found across almost the entire Lithuanian-language area.

Names with the root kuc-, likewise derived from calling words, kūcė, kucytė, kuciltė, were widespread in Dzūkija. According to data from recent years, these names are disappearing, giving way to the standard-language word avis: burūikė and burūitė were recorded only in Kybartai, and kucūikė in Balbieriškis. The name bōrė (dem. borėlė), used in northern Samogitia in 1942–1943, has likewise fallen out of use. Other less common names for the ewe are also disappearing: bāse, bazėlė, binė, būlė, cēbė, skūidė.

3 Program for collecting materials for the Atlas of the Lithuanian Language. Vilnius, 1951; 2nd ed.—Vilnius, 1956.

4 Atlas of the Lithuanian Language. Vol. 1. Lexicon.

5 Skardžius P. Lietuvių kalbos žodžių daryba. V., 1943. P. 177.

6 Ibid. P. 131; 160.

7 For names of sheep derived from calling words, see Откупщиков Ю.В. Балтийские и славянские названия овцы и барана // Переферийные lietuvių kalbos tarmės. Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai. Vol. 30. Vilnius, 1993. P. 63—68; see also Sabaliauskas A. Baltų kalbų naminių gyvulių pavadinimai (jų kilmė ir santykis su atitinkamais slavų kalbų pavadinimais) // Baltų ir slavų kalbų ryšiai. Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai. Vol. 10. Vilnius, 1968. P. 112—122.

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Fig. 1. Names for a ewe.

2.0. The second question of “Apklauso 1” concerned names for a sheep’s offspring that are widespread in the dialects. A. Šalys provided thirteen dialectal names and their variants.

The responses show that around thirty names for a sheep’s offspring and their variants are used in Lithuanian dialects.

2.1. The oldest form is gėras, from which the phonetic variants ėras, gėras, vėras⁸ later arose.

The most widespread suffixal derivatives of ėras and gėras are ėriukas/ėri̇ukas; gėriukas/gėrūkas (see Fig. 2).

Gėriukas is used in the northern and eastern parts of Lithuania. Comparing the data from “Apklauso 1” with the map in the “Atlas of the Lithuanian Language” ⁹, which charts names for a lamb, shows that over two decades ėriukas has completely displaced gėriukas from its area of use, while the isogloss for gėriukas has shifted slightly westward. It could now be drawn somewhat west of Šiauliai and Radviliškis, and southwest of the Kėdainiai–Jonava–Kaišiadorys area. Alongside the predominant name gėriukas, the same area also has the basic form gėras and the suffixal derivative -ėlis, gėrėlis.

Ėriukas is widespread in the western and southern parts of Lithuania, where other variants are also used: erėlis, eraitis, ėras.

A separate enclave is formed by the western corner of Samogitia, where vėraitis predominates. Other variants are very rare here.

2.2. In the southeastern part of the area, various forms of the stem baron- are used under the influence of Slavic languages: baroniukas, baronėlis, baronaitis. A tendency for these forms to spread into the area of gėriukas is observable.

2.3. Alongside the predominant variants of ėriukas, various diminutive names based on the stem av(in)- have also been recorded across almost the entire dialect area, except for western Samogitia and the territory around Biržai, Pasvalys, and Panevėžys: aviukas, aviniukas, avėlė, avāilė, avylukas, avyčiukas, avytėlė, avytė. Sometimes avytė and aviukas are used to distinguish sex, but most often one of them is used as a general term for young of either sex.

2.4. Following burė and kūcė—names for a ewe derived from sheep-calling words—names for the young were also formed: burčiukas, burčiukė, burūlis, burisiukas, kūčiukas, kūčiukė, kūčiutė, kūcėlė.

They were apparently more common in the past, but have rarely been recorded in recent years. Other disappearing diminutive names are also rare: bariukas, bartūkas, baziūkas, baziniukas, čibiukas, garbiniukas.

3. As with names for a ewe, the southern part of Lithuania is the most diverse in names and variants for a lamb: names used in the western and eastern parts of the Lithuanian-language area, as well as names of non-Lithuanian origin and their variants, overlap here.

The collected data show the leveling influence of the standard Lithuanian language on the dialects. Usually, a dialectal variant is pushed out of use and the standard-language word takes hold. Names for a ewe or lamb that are characteristic of a larger area and have no variants are more stable.

⁸ S a b a l i a u s k a s A. Ibid. P. 112–122.

⁹ Cf. Atlas of the Lithuanian Language. Vol. 1. Map No. 74, pp. 148–149.

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NAMES FOR SHEEP AND LAMBS IN THE DIALECTS

(according to the data in A. Salys’s questionnaire “Apklausas 1”)

Summary

The article provides an overview of the use of the terms for sheep and lambs and their distribution in the dialects of Lithuanian.

The most widespread term is avis “sheep” (in the western part of the Lithuanian language area), while the suffixal derivative avėlė (with the suffix -elė) occurs in the eastern part. Other words, mostly derived from sheep calls, are also used to designate sheep.

The term eriukas is used for “lamb” in the western part of Lithuania, and geriukas in the northern and eastern parts. Other derivatives from the root av(in)- are also used in the dialects.

It is concluded that dialectal terms are falling out of use, while the characteristic terms avis and geriukas are gaining ground over a wider area.

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Fig. 2. Names for lambs.