LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXXIV (1994)

LIETUVIŲ KALBOS TARMĖS IR JŲ TYRINĖJIMAI

Nijolė ČEPIENĖ

ORIGIN OF THE DIPHTHONG ui IN LOANWORDS FROM GERMAN

In Lithuanian loanwords from German, some words have ui instead of u in the root. These words with ui have been recorded since as early as the 17th century in East Prussian Lithuanian dictionaries and are used in present-day western Lithuanian dialects.

Researchers considered the origin of the diphthong ui unclear or questioned the insertion of the sound. K. Būga¹ found the ui in the loanword rùkis “skirt” unclear. He explained that the Samogitians had received this word from the Germans via the Curonians. In the Curonian language, it must have been *rukis, while Lithuanian rùikis arose through the insertion of i. J. Otrębski² was uncertain about the ui in the loanword rùimas “space, open area”. K. Alminauskis³ also questioned the origin of ruimas and its derivatives. He thought that ruimas might have arisen under the influence of the verb ruimuoti “to make room”, derived from East Prussian German raime “same”, or that the sound i had been inserted in Lithuanian. E. Fraenkel⁴ explained that ui in the word luituoti “to play the kanklės” arose through sound imitation or folk etymology, by analogy with Lithuanian luituoti “to smooth over, smear (with clay)”.

The aim of this article is to try to explain why, alongside forms with ū in the root, there are also forms with ui in loanwords from German.

Besides the loanword rūmas meaning “a large, ornate house”, used in western dialects, and meaning “residential house” in eastern Lithuanian dialects⁵, there is also a word with the same root and ui: rùimas (ruìmas) “a spacious, open place; premises, room”, recorded in East Prussian Lithuanian writings from the 17th century and used in western dialects (Prk, Mrj, Trg, Lkč, Snt, Ktc). In the East Prussian German Low Saxon dialect, we find forms with ā and uə [uí], which probably also entered Lithuanian; cf. East Prussian German rūme⁶ “open field” and ruəm⁷

¹ Būga K. Rinktiniai raštai. V., 1958–1959. Vol. 1. P. 302. Vol. 2. P. 304.

² Otrębski J. Gramatyka języka litewskiego. Warszawa, 1958. T. 1. S. 178.

³ Alminauskis K. The Germanisms of Lithuanian. Part 1: German Loanwords in Lithuanian /hereafter — Alm/. K., /1934/. P. 113.

⁴ Fraenkel E. Litauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Göttingen, 1962. Bd. 1. S. 389.

⁵ Cf. rūmai “large, ornate house”, found in written sources (Bb² Mr 15, 16, S. Dauk.), used in dialects and in the standard language. Abbreviations as in the Great Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language.

⁶ Mitzka W. East Prussian Low German north of Ermland /hereafter — Mitzka 1919/ //German Dialect Geography. Heft 6. Marburg, 1919. §48.

⁷ Natau O. Dialect and Settlement in Northeastern East Prussia /hereafter — Natau/. Königsberg and Berlin, 1937. §42.

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“room, space, place,” New Dutch ruim⁸ “room, vacant place.” Lithuanian also has verbs of the same root with ū and ui, cf. rūmyti “to make room” J, prarūmyti “to make room” Psl, Grž, Krj, surūmyti “to fit in” Pš, Krp, prarūminti “to make room” Grž, and išruimyti “to make room” BB1 Mak 10, 32, ruim(ū)oti “same meaning” Q, K, N, J, atruim(ū)oti “to empty, clear” R II 37, K I 113, N, LC 1887, 15, išruim(ū)oti “to make room, empty; clear out” R II 287, MŽ II 383, N, K, K. Donel., Prk. Their most likely base is Old High German rumen⁹ “to leave a place, go away,” ruimen¹⁰.

Alongside the forms rūlis¹¹, rūlys “roller,” widespread in the northern and western dialects, forms with ui are also used: rūilis (rūlis) “shaft, roller for leveling the earth” Y1, Ms, Akm, Brs, Lž, Žg, Krp. A word with u and ui has even been recorded from the same place (Ylakiai). For its origin, cf. Prussian German rul “small wheel, shaft, spool, (laundry) mangle, mangles” (Alm (PrW)), Old High German rulle “small wheel, shaft, roll (of paper)” (Mnd. W. III 526). Besides the form būlius “breeding bull,” from the 16th century the form būilis has also been used in the writings and dialects of East Prussian Lithuanians /K/, S. Dauk., M. Valanč., Mit. I 51, Kel. 1881, 198, Grg. These words are borrowed from Prussian German Bull, Boll “same meaning” (Fr 94), bol “same meaning” (Mitzka 1919, 125), cf. Old High German bulle “same meaning.”

Forms with ui most likely did not arise in Lithuanian, but were pronounced that way by Germans. A. Lasch (Lasch 43), who examined Middle Low German in written monuments, maintained that in the 16th century, after a long interval, ui reappeared in the works of some authors in Saxony. In the Brandenburg dialect there were the sounds ū, ūe, which, according to W. Mitzka, ¹²could be explained by the influence of Dutch. Modern Dutch has ui, while Frisian has the sounds ua, oa¹³. As is known, Dutch settlers took up residence in East Prussia¹⁴.

Most East Prussian Germans spoke Low German. In the eastern part of East Prussia, German ū before nasals, sonorant consonants, and w in a closed syllable was diphthongized to ūa¹⁵. In written texts ə could also be omitted. This German ūa may have been pronounced as [ui]. In Middle Low German, ua and ui did not differ¹⁶. Thus, just as the Lithuanian words rūimas (rūimas), rūimyti, whose German base forms with ua /ui have been identified, so too the words rūilis (rūilis), būilis with ui may have been borrowed.

⁸ Kluge F. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Berlin, 1957. S. 587.

⁹ Schiller K., Lübben A. Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch /toliau — Mnd. W./. Bd 3. Bremen, 1875. S. 528.

¹⁰ Lasch A. Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik /toliau — Lasch/. Halle (Saale), 1914. §46.

¹¹ Rūlis and rūilis are also used with other meanings; see LKŽ XI 911—912, 945—946.

¹² Mitzka W. Deutsche Mundarten. Heidelberg, 1943. S. 65.

¹³ Кузьменко Ю. К. Фонологическая эволюция германских языков. Ленинград, 1991. С. 92, 96.

¹⁴ Ziesemer W. Die ostpreussischen Mundarten. Breslau, 1924. S. 102, 108, 117; Mitzka W. Deutsche Mundarten. S. 72—73.

¹⁵ Natau, §3, 40, 42, 50.

¹⁶ Lasch, §22.

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originating in East Prussian German dialects, which had an inserted o after u before a nasal or liquid consonant [i].

However, in Lithuanian loanwords we find an inserted i after u not only before liquids or nasals, but also before other consonants, for example: alongside mūže “thin porridge, flour soup; a kind of porridge” N, KŽ, Prk, Šlu, mūžė R II 84, there is also the form muižė “same meaning,” recorded in East Prussian Lithuanian texts from the 17th century onward and used in dialects (Prk, Rg). As we can see, a word with u and one with ui were recorded in the same place (Priekulė). These loanwords are based on East Prussian German mūs “sour milk, purée, flour soup” (Fr II 80), cf. Middle Dutch and New Dutch moes (Kluge 494). In addition to the form šliužė “sluice” Q 451, the forms šliužė “same meaning” C, Q, R II 311, MŽ II 416, N, K, KŽ, and šliužės, plural, Klp, Prk, are also attested; these derive from Prussian German šlūse “same meaning.”

In some loanwords, German ū is replaced only by the diphthong ui, e.g.: lute “zither” NdŽ, to play the lute “to play the zither” NdŽ, FrnW. On the origin of these words, cf. Old High German lute “lute (a type of zither)” (Mnd. W. II 754). E. Fraenkel is probably mistaken in attributing the emergence of ui in the word to play the lute “to play the zither” to sound imitation or folk etymology, adapting it to Lithuanian to lute “to plaster over, smear (with clay).” The loanword rūkis (rūkis), widespread in Samogitian dialects in the meanings “hempen skirt (usually rather short, with pleats)” Kv, Žr, Sg, Šv, Žv, Šlu, “coarse hempen fabric” D. Pošk., J, Up, Vdk, probably originated from East Prussian German Samogitian rook “skirt” (Mitzka 1919, 123), cf. Old High German rock “outer garment” (Mnd. W.), New High German Rock “skirt, jacket.” Could K. Būga have been mistaken in explaining that ruikis was borrowed from Curonian *rukis, with i inserted in Lithuanian? Perhaps the sound i was inserted not only before nasals and liquids, but also before other consonants following u. In addition, in closed syllables, East Prussian German Samogitian u was pronounced as u or o. Usually u was pronounced before nd, nt, b, k (< kk); before l, too, usually u. The sounds o, ō could be diphthongized to oə [oi]¹⁷. The same person might pronounce either a monophthong or a diphthong. Townspeople, under the influence of High German, usually pronounced a monophthong. o[ⁱ] was especially readily inserted in monosyllabic words ending in a consonant. Nineteenth-century spelling had no sign for oə. But it is unclear whether the tendency to diphthongize was later, as the variable pronunciation of the sound might suggest, or whether earlier writers did not mark the diacritic. In East Prussian German dialects, uo [aⁱ] may have been pronounced instead of oə.

A Lithuanian loanword known from 16th-century texts is stuirė “ship’s rudder” BB Jok L 3, 4, based on Middle Low German stūr, sture “same meaning” (Mnd. W. IV 452). In words from some East Prussian German dialects, after ū and before r in a closed syllable, an individual transitional sound ə would appear. Compare the East Prussian German Samogitian words: brūari “brewery” (Natau 23), būərə “farmer” (Mitzka 1919, 133). Thus Lithuanian stuirė could derive from a German dialectal form with uə in the root.

Thus, in the loanwords mentioned above, the diphthong ui did not arise through any kind of influence from Lithuanian; it was pronounced by the East Prussian Germans, from whose dialects these words entered Lithuanian.

¹⁷ Mitzka 1919, §28, 33, 45, 52, 195; Natau, §3, 15, 27, 40, 47.

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ORIGIN OF THE DIPHTHONG ui IN LOANWORDS FROM GERMAN

Summary

In Lithuanian there are German loanwords with u and ui in the root, e.g.: mūžė, mūžė and muižė, muižė “mush, thin porridge, flour soup,” rūmas, rūmai “large, splendid house, palace,” and rūimas (ruīmas) “spacious, open place; room, chamber,” rūmyti and rūimyti “to clear out,” rūlis and rūilis “roller, cylinder,” būlius and būilis “bull.”

The forms with u and ui are found in Lithuanian texts from the 17th century, composed in what was formerly East Prussia. Contemporary western dialects also have loanwords with ui. Both variants even occur in the same locality, e.g.: mūžė, muižė (Priekulė), rūlis, rūilis (Ylakiai).

Some loanwords have only ui in the root: luītas “zither,” luītuoti “to play the zither,” stuirė “(ship’s) rudder.”

Linguists (K. Būga, K. Alminauskis, J. Otrębski) considered the emergence of the sound i unclear, or even doubted that it had been inserted. However, after examining the German source words, it was concluded that some German dialects of East Prussia also had ū and u̯o [u̯i] in the root. In the eastern area, ū had diphthongized to ū̯o before nasals, liquids, and w in a closed syllable. Before r in an open syllable, after ū, the transitional sound ə [ʔ] could also occur in some dialects.

The spurious diphthong also arose after o; therefore the Lithuanian loanword rūikis (ruīkis) “skirt” could derive from Low Prussian rod̄k.

It can therefore be asserted that ui arose in the German dialects of East Prussia, not in the Lithuanian language.

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