Dėl sąvokos „periferinės tarmės“

LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXX (1993) PERIFERINĖS LIETUVIŲ KALBOS TARMĖS Kazys MORKŪNAS ON THE CONCEPT OF PERIPHERAL DIALECTS 1. 0. When discussing peripheral dialects (or subdialects) of Lithuanian, one should know which dialects this concept applies to or by what features they are distinguished from other dialects. The direct meaning of the word peripheral would suggest that these are dialects located farthest from the center. However, the concept center is not always unambiguous either. In considering the question of peripheral dialects, this concept may be understood geographically, administratively, or purely linguistically. Admittedly, in the first and second cases, one cannot entirely set aside the linguistic aspect—that is, discuss a region distinguished in one way or another from the entire language area without considering the linguistic situation that has historically developed within it. 1. 1. The environs of Kėdainiai may be regarded as the geographic, and also ethnographic, center of present-day Lithuania. With the dialects spoken there, they also occupy approximately the middle part of the present-day Lithuanian language area. In the 16th–17th centuries, Kėdainiai was also one of the most important cultural centers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first Lithuanian publications to appear in the Grand Duchy nearly 400 years ago were written in the so-called middle variant of the written language, close to the dialect of the Kėdainiai environs1. These include works belonging to the classical corpus of early Lithuanian writings by Mikalojus Daukša (c. 1527–1613), followers of the Reformation—Merkelis Petkevičius (c. 1550–1608), Jokūbas Morkūnas (a Vilnius printer, c. 1550–after 1611)—and others. As the political, economic, cultural, and religious situation changed, Kėdainiai and the dialect of that area lost their exceptional role in the Grand Duchy, while some surrounding areas were also considerably affected by a wave of Polonization. 1. 2. The second historically established center is Vilnius, which for many centuries has been and remains the most important hub of the Lithuanian nation’s political, economic, cultural, educational, scientific, and other spheres of public life. In the 17th century, the Vilnius (eastern) written language, formed on the basis of the Eastern Aukštaitian dialect, was used in important publications of the period and of Lithuanian writing more generally, prepared by Konstantinas Sirvydas (c. 1579–1631), Jonas Jaknavičius (1598–1668), and other representatives of that region for the Diocese of Vilnius. In Z. Zinkevičius’s words, “had the historical circumstances of the Lithuanian state and the city of Vilnius developed differently, the eastern written language of the 17th century, which arose in the country’s economic and cultural center and in the state capital, Vilnius, could, of course, have become the standard language of all Lithuania”2. 1 Plg. Zinkevičius Z. Dėl lietuvių raštų kalbos kilmės // Baltistica, 1977. T. 13(1). P. 239. 2 Zinkevičius Z. Rytietiškoji XVII a. lietuvių raštų kalba, jos kilmė ir išnykimas // Baltistica, 1972. T. 8(1). P. 99. 4 Because of the complex and highly unfavorable circumstances for Lithuania, especially after its annexation to the Russian Empire in 1795, which lasted for more than 120 years, the areas closest to Vilnius gradually became Slavicized, and the Lithuanian language spoken there (the subdialects of these areas) declined. This process continued essentially into the 20th century: during the interwar years, the occupying Polish authorities carried out the Polonization of the Vilnius Region; after the Second World War, the Soviet system created favorable conditions for Slavization. At present, the Lithuanian dialects of the nearer and somewhat more distant environs of Vilnius play no particular role in the overall system of Lithuanian dialects. 1. 3. From a linguistic perspective, the central and most important place in the system of Lithuanian dialects is, one may say, universally and justifiably accorded to the dialect on which the standard (literary) language of the entire nation was created. The basis for present-day standard Lithuanian was provided by the Western Aukštaitian Kauniškiai dialect. As one of the principal variants of the language of the earliest Lithuanian writings, it benefited from later historical circumstances far more than did written-language variants based on other dialects (Central and Eastern Aukštaitian and, in certain cases, Samogitian). In the preface “To the Reader, with Greetings,” Danielius Kleinas, author of the first Lithuanian grammar, written in Latin (Grammatica Litvanica) and published in Königsberg in 1653, briefly surveyed the diversity of Lithuanian dialects and perceptively observed that the people of “the Kaunas region” were closer in dialect to the Prussian Lithuanians than others, and that “in the Duchy of Prussia we follow the dialect of the people of Kaunas, as the best and most suitable of all”3. Much later, Fridrichas Kuršaitis (1806–1884), author of another “Grammar of the Lithuanian Language,” confirmed this view, calling the dialect spoken south of the Nemunas—between Kaunas and Stalupėnai—the dialect of the Lithuanian written language4. Present-day standard Lithuanian finally took shape on the basis of the aforementioned Western Aukštaitian dialect in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, amid national, political, and cultural revival and other processes consolidating the Lithuanian nation, as grammars for schools and various works on the practical use of Lithuanian began to be published (the work of Jonas Jablonskis, the father of the Lithuanian written language, was especially influential here). Geographically, some subdialects of the Kauniškiai dialect—including those of Griškabūdis, Kudirkos Naumiestis, Vilkaviškis, and neighboring areas, which are closest to the standard language—are now situated at one of the margins of the Lithuanian language area, that is, along its southwestern border. Yet until not so long ago—before the Second World War—the geographic position of these subdialects was different: old-established Lithuanian-speaking inhabitants lived considerably farther to the west and southwest. The latter, that is, the Lithuanian subdialects of Lithuania Minor (East Prussia), most of which formed a continuation of the Western Aukštaitian dialect (except for a narrow strip of the Curonian Lagoon coast, close to the Western Samogitians of the Klaipėda Region5), occupied the southwestern edge of the Lithuanian language area up to that time. 3 Pirmoji lietuvių kalbos gramatika. 1653. Atsak. red. J. Kruopas. V., 1957. P. 406. 4 Plg. Kurschat F. Grammatik der litauischen Sprache. Halle, 1876. S. 9-11. 5 Plg. Gerullis J. ir Stang’as Chr. Lietuvių žvejų tarmė Prūsuose. K., 1933. 5 2. When comparing Lithuanian dialects from different places, it is easy to notice that the farther apart they are geographically, the greater the number of linguistic features that distinguish them. The most distant from Kauniškiai and having the greatest number of differences are the Northern Samogitians; among the Highlanders, it is the Eastern Highlanders (especially those in the northern part). With respect to the Kauniškiai—the central dialect—the latter dialects occupy a peripheral position, although the Kauniškiai, like all Western Highlanders, are also intermediaries between the Eastern Highlanders and the Samogitians, both geographically and linguistically. 3.0. In Lithuanian dialectology, other features are also taken into account when peripheral dialects are distinguished from other dialects. One of these is the direct connection (contact) of certain Lithuanian dialects with other languages (and their dialects). 3.1. The concept of peripheral dialects is perhaps most often applied to the dialects along the eastern and southeastern edge of the Lithuanian-speaking area, whose territory now also includes the environs of Vilnius. The Lithuanian dialects of this borderland, as well as those beyond Lithuania’s borders—in Belarus and Poland—are very strongly influenced by Slavic languages (Belarusian, Polish, and in some places Russian). 3.2. By the same criteria, the aforementioned dialects of Lithuania Minor formed another group of peripheral dialects, having experienced strong influence from German (the German dialects of East Prussia) over several centuries. In many cases, these Lithuanian dialects served as intermediaries, helping various Germanisms spread to other Lithuanian dialects as well. 3.3. The interaction between the dialects of Lithuania’s northern borderland and neighboring Latvian dialects is not as strong. The results of this interaction are not always obvious, also because some features in the dialects of the two closely related languages—Lithuanian and Latvian—may be shared, that is, inherited from ancient times. In some places, Lithuanians also live (or have lived) in Latvian territory, in the environs of Aknystė, Ciskodas, Daugavpils, Krāslava, and elsewhere. Their language (dialect) has experienced much greater influence from Latvian or has been completely assimilated into it6. 4. Of all peripheral Lithuanian dialects, the eastern and southeastern dialects have been studied most extensively from various perspectives. This is clearly demonstrated by the published “Bibliography of Research on Peripheral Lithuanian Dialects” (compiled by Ana Romančiuk)7. However, this bibliography lists only major studies of the language (dialects) of Lithuanians who have lived for a long time beyond the territory of present-day Lithuania—in Latvia, Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania Minor (East Prussia)—or who settled in colonies in some countries (Belarus, Russia, America) in more recent times (the 19th–20th centuries), whether having emigrated or been deported. It may be thought that some people (not only the compiler of the aforementioned bibliography) tend to consider as peripheral Lithuanian dialects only those located beyond Lithuania’s borders. However, Lithuania’s present-day borders most often divide dialects that are very closely related or essentially identical and have, moreover, undergone similar developmental processes; compare the Lithuanian vernaculars of the eastern and southeastern borderlands of Lithuania with those in the environs of Apso, Kamojai, Gervėčiai, Pelesa, Ródūnia, Lazūnai (Belarus), and Punsk and Sejny (Poland). Their 6 For the spread of Lithuanian (dialects) beyond the present-day borders of Lithuania (in Lithuania Minor, Latvia, Belarus, and Poland) and their decline, see: Garšva K. The development of the linguistic situation in borderland vernaculars // Language contacts and interactions (Issues in Lithuanian Linguistics. Vol. 28). V., 1989. P. 12–38 (with references to the literature). 7 Language contacts and interactions. P. 215–230. Over the past few years, the bibliography of research on peripheral Lithuanian dialects has been supplemented somewhat. 6 The connection is clearly demonstrated by the work of linguistic geography8. Therefore, the dialects of the entire area—that is, those on both sides of the Lithuanian border—should be called peripheral dialects. 5. Sometimes, the term peripheral is also applied to subdialects of larger dialects that are farthest from their center and have many features of other dialects, for example, the southeastern subdialects of Southern Samogitian (Raseiniai) with numerous Aukštaitian features. Some subdialects of larger dialects (or subdialects), located in the middle of the Lithuanian-language area, also have more features characteristic of peripheral dialects (or subdialects)—strong interaction with Slavic (Polish and Russian) languages; for example, in the Šiauliai area, the Šėta and some subdialects in the vicinity of Jonava; in the Kaunas area, the Vandžiogala and other nearby subdialects. However, these Lithuanian dialects (or subdialects) have so far been little studied from various perspectives. 6. Other terms are also often used in Lithuanian dialectology: borderland dialects (or subdialects), peripheral dialects. The first of these, borderland dialects, admittedly does not always make clear what is being referred to: dialects on the outskirts of present-day Lithuania, the nearest dialects located in other countries beyond Lithuania’s borders, dialects on the outskirts of former ethnic Lithuanian lands, or the like. The second term, peripheral dialects, is less associated with administrative, political, or other boundaries and can, in many cases, be synonymous with the term peripheral dialects. ON THE NOTION OF THE PERIPHERAL DIALECTS Summary The West High Lithuanian dialect (or Kauniškiai, dialect spoken in and around Kaunas) occupies the central position in the system of Lithuanian dialects and forms the basis of Standard Lithuanian. Dialects that are remote from the Kauniškiai dialect geographically and differ from it linguistically occupy peripheral position. A characteristic peculiarity of the peripheral dialects is that they get into direct contacts with other languages (or their dialects), for example, Slavonic languages (Byelorussian, Polish, Russian) at the Eastern and South-Eastern border, German (until the WW II) at the South-Western and Lettish at the Northern border of Lithuania. Subdialects that are remote from the centre of larger dialects, with some admixture of other dialects can also be described as peripheral. For example, the South-Eastern subdialects of South Samogitians (or Raseiniškiai) have a lot of features characteristic of the High Lithuanian dialect. These subdialects interact with other languages (Polish, Russian), for example, the subdialect of the environs of Vandžiogala at the borders of the Kauniškiai dialect speaking area. One and the same notion in Lithuanian dialectology can be expressed in different ways, for example, borderland dialects, peripheral dialects. The latter term is least associated with political, administrative and other boundaries. In most cases it is synonymous with the term ‘peripheral dialects’. 8 Cf. Atlas of the Lithuanian Language. Vol. 1. Lexicon. V., 1977; Vol. 2. Phonetics. V., 1982; Vol. 3. Morphology (in press). 7