LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXVIII (1989)

KALBŲ RYŠIAI IR SĄVEIKOS

JANINA JANAVIČIENĖ

LEXICAL GERMANISMS IN THE ŽEMAITĖ NAUMIESTIS DIALECT

It is claimed that in Standard Lithuanian, Germanisms are used approximately three times less frequently than Slavicisms (Sabaliauskas, 1967, 72). The situation is similar in many dialects. However, after a detailed study of the Žemaičių Naumiestis dialect, it can be asserted that the proportion there is approximately the reverse.

The large degree of German-language interference in the speech of local inhabitants was primarily caused by numerous extralinguistic factors, since these affect language interference more than structural differences between languages do (Weinreich, 1953, 3).

The main extralinguistic factors that led to the establishment of German lexical elements in the speech of the inhabitants of Žemaičių Naumiestis were the dialect’s geographical location and its history. Since the Middle Ages, borderland Žemaitija had close economic and trade ties with East Prussia and the Klaipėda Region. Local inhabitants recall that their grandparents used to take agricultural products to sell in Tilžė, Ragainė, Rusnė, and even Karaliaučius (see also Кушнер, 1951, 229). From the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, Lithuanians of Lithuania Minor (and Germans) migrated to Žemaitija. As capitalism emerged and developed in Lithuania, the young and landless people of these areas went to East Prussia and the Klaipėda Region to earn a living. At first, the reverse process also took place.

Germanisms are abundant in this Žemaitian dialect, especially in the everyday speech of older people. Here, when talking about household utensils, crafts, the preparation of food and animal feed, animal care, and so on, every fifth or sixth term is German. Nearly all names for building, transport, and agricultural tools and their parts were also brought by itinerant German craftsmen who built houses in Žemaitija. For example, after the old roofs with sloping, broken ends in East Prussia and Žemaitija were replaced by new gabled roofs, the gables came to be called gėveliais (cf. German Giebel; Gimbutas, 1958, 156).

All Germanisms found in the speech of the local Žemaitians can be divided into: 1) old borrowings, probably surviving from the time of the Teutonic conquest, e.g.: diktas ‘firm’ (< German dialect dicht), pučoti ‘to eat, to gobble’ (< German dialect putzen), skūnė ‘barn’ (< German dialect schune, skunia, skuma), staldīs ‘stable’ (< German dialect stald), stubà ‘room’ (German dialect stuba, stub, stöbe)¹ and 2) later borrowings, which are of two kinds in terms of origin: a) brought by Lithuanians of Lithuania Minor, and b) adopted through direct contact with Germans and Germanized Lithuanians.

¹ These and some other Germanisms in this group are used not only in the dialect of interest here, but also by other southern and western Žemaitians in the Prussian border region.

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As the examples show, most German lexemes entered the Samogitian and Lietuvininkai languages not from Standard German but from its dialectal varieties used in the former Lithuania Minor, chiefly Plattdeutsch and Niederdeutsch, e.g.: kiulkis (Lith. — kìlkis) ‘a dumpling made of boiled potatoes and flour’ (cf. dial. German kilke), plūmė ‘plum’ (< dial. German plūme; cf. Standard German Pflaume), štyvas ‘motionless, stiff’ (< dial. German štiw; cf. Standard German steif), špicbukas ‘a sauce’ (< German spitz ‘sharp, biting’ + dial. German bübe ‘child’).

The peripheral Samogitians must have received many German loanwords through the Lietuvininkai. They brought many German words from East Prussia and the Klaipėda Region. It is now difficult to determine which Germanisms the Samogitians borrowed directly from Germans and which through the Lietuvininkai. Only one thing is clear: under Lietuvininkai influence, many Germanisms became very popular in the Samogitian dialect. Not knowing German, Samogitians generally do not distinguish which of their words are German and which Lithuanian.

Loanwords that denote very specific imported or newly introduced objects undoubtedly supplement and enrich the vocabulary (Weinreich, 1953, 53). Such were the German names for the specific agricultural implements and household objects mentioned above, e.g.: dišlius ‘wagon pole’, strangas ‘chain’, rymas ‘technical term: strap’, liūdinge ‘part of a wagon’, repas ‘wheel rim’, although they are entirely unaware of their Lithuanian equivalents.

In general, the Lietuvininkai brought many objects unknown to the Samogitians, along with their names. They called all these realia by their own names, most often of German origin, which the Samogitians then adopted.

With the Lietuvininkai’s help, the Samogitians also adopted many semantic calques, e.g.: girinė kiaulė ‘wild boar’ (cf. German wildes Schwein), girinė antis ‘wild duck’ (cf. German wilde Ente), and so on. The following should also be classified as semantic Germanisms: apstatyti ‘to trim with knitted edging’ (cf. German absetzen), tykôji pėtnyčia (the Lietuvininkai say piėtnyčia) ‘Good Friday’ (German stille Woche). Also cf. šampos žodis ‘swearword’ (German Schimpfwort), šampuoti (the Lietuvininkai say šėmpuoti) ‘to curse, revile’ (from German schimpfen).

Some words, when they pass into another language, change their meaning, usually broadening it. Sometimes they lose their original meaning altogether (Weinreich, 1953, 48, 49). Such German lexemes are also found in the Samogitian dialect. For example, the verb šapiuoti (from German schöpfen) means ‘to scoop’ for the Lietuvininkai, as it does for Germans, but ‘to eat’ for the Samogitians. The meaning of the verb pucúoti, ‘to eat, to polish off’, has also narrowed (dial. German putzen). The Lietuvininkai retained this meaning, but for Samogitians the word means only ‘to eat’, e.g., viską supucavo ‘ate everything’.

An interesting example of a change in meaning is the word ùlenderis ‘horse dealer’ (from German Holländer ‘Dutchman’), formerly associated with buying and selling horses. Over time, it lost its original ethnonymic meaning, ‘Dutchman’, and now ùlenderis means ‘horse dealer’ to a Samogitian. Another example: the word kėžas ‘cheese’ (from German Käse), brought by the Lietuvininkai, was adapted by the Samogitians to refer only to melted cheese. In Samogitian, homemade cheese remained sūris. The Lietuvininkai use kėžu for any kind of cheese.

It should be noted that many German words have become fossilized in the speech of the Samogitians and Lietuvininkai of Žemaičių Naumiestis. The former Lietuvininkai of East Prussia and the Germans of the Klaipėda Region no longer know these words, especially those that entered Lithuanian from German

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of a dialectal variant, e.g.: karnõlė ‘quarry, ditch’ (from German dialectal karnõle), rigelis ‘a beam to which horses are tied’, (German dialectal rigel), štrãm ‘sturdy’ (German dialectal štrãm), etc.

In the Žemaičių Naumiestis dialect, German vocabulary forms several more prominent semantic groups:

household, domestic, and everyday implements: akšelėnė ‘a machine for preparing chaff’ (from German Hacksel ‘chaff’), bliūberis ‘radio’ (from German blubern ‘to babble’), bríliai (pronounced brylė) ‘eyeglasses’ (from German Brille), kėdikė ‘chain, necklace’ (hybrid, from German dialectal kėde), kūrbds ‘basket’ (cf. kurbelis ‘small basket’, German Korb), liõdė ‘box of a leaf-chopping machine’ (cf. German dialectal lôd ‘box’), pildekis ‘fur blanket’ (from German Pelz ‘fur’, Decke ‘cover’), rantúotas (rántūts) viedra ‘a bucket with measuring strips’ (hybrid, cf. German Rand ‘edge’), rigelis ‘a beam to which horses are tied’ (from German dialectal rigel), šiūpundė ‘net for carrying hay or straw’ (cf. German schöpfen ‘to scoop’, Bund ‘bundle, sheaf’), štérkis ‘laundry starch’ (German Stärke), cf. šterkiuoti (šterkiūti) ‘to starch’ (German stärken), tūžė ‘small bag’ (from German Dose; cf. tabõktūžė ‘hybrid, small tobacco pouch’), vãnė ‘bath’ (German Wanne), žãkas (žãks) ‘sack’ (cf. German Sack).

Foods and drinks: bydelis ‘sifted flour’ (cf. German beuteln ‘to sift flour’; apparently from its dialectal variant; cf. Samogitian bydeluoti ‘to sift’), fýmbriūnė ‘gingerbread, enriched cake’ (cf. German Pfingsten ‘Whitsuntide’, Brot ‘bread’), gívierčai ‘spices’ (from German Gewürze), karentai ‘purple garden berries’ (cf. German Korinthe ‘small raisins’), kliūpsai ‘meatballs’ (from German Klops), krýgės ‘small plums’ (from German Kriecke), lývervurstas ‘liver sausage’ (from German Leber ‘liver’, Wurst ‘sausage’), marmaliõdė ‘marmalade’ (from German Marmelade), mašinà (mašýna) ‘stove’ (cf. Kochmaschine ‘farmhouse stove’), plūmė ‘plum’ (from German dialectal plūme), pryštekis ‘breakfast’ (from German Frühstück; cf. Samogitian pryštekiauti ‘to have breakfast’), plėkiai ‘oat flakes’ (from German Flocke), šmántà ‘sour cream’ (from German dialectal šmãnd), šmúltė ‘pork lard’ (cf. German Schmalz), šmekiuoti ‘to taste’ (schmecken), šmerlekiuoti ‘to gourmandize’ (from German dialectal smer licken ‘to lick fat’), šliūrpti ‘to slurp’ (German schlürfen), šliūpyti ‘to eat greedily’ (cf. German schlüpfen ‘to slip, slide out’; also cf. šliūpas ‘a person who eats a lot’), šukuliõdė ‘chocolate’ (German Schokolade), ùr kštas ‘sausage’ (cf. German Wurst), žamgurkis ‘pickled seed cucumber’ (cf. German Samen ‘seeds’, Gurke ‘cucumber’), žán kukas ‘layer cake’ (cf. German Sandkuchen ‘sand cake’).

Clothing and footwear: áncugas ‘suit’ (German Anzug), élškis ‘necktie’ (from German dialectal hälschen; cf. Samogitian pasielskiuoti ‘to tie on a necktie; to dress up’), kedėlys ‘skirt’ (from German dialectal kedele), kleidė ‘dress’ (from German Kleide; cf. hybrid kleidikė ‘little dress’), kuzjākas (kuzjāks) ‘jacket’ (cf. German dialectal koz jake ‘traveling coat’), germúlka ‘cap with a visor’ (cf. German dialectal germõle), mùčė ‘hat’ (from German dialectal mutze; cf. mučikė ‘women’s cap’), šiūržis ‘apron’ (from German Schürze), štrūmpos ‘stockings’ (from German Strümpfe), štýfeliai ‘boots’ (German Stiefeln), zandālės ‘summer shoes’ (German Sandale).

Tools, machines, and devices: ākas ‘hoe’ (from German Hacke; cf. akãtis < akãitis ‘small hoe’; also cf. akūoti ‘to chop, hoe’, from German hacken, kūpstakis, hybrid, ‘hoe’), drėšmašynė ‘threshing machine’ (German dreschen ‘to thresh’), ėkelis ‘crochet hook’ (from German Häckel; cf. ėkeluoti ‘to crochet’ (German häckeln), kāras

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‘wheelbarrow’ (from German Karren; cf. karioti ‘to transport by wheelbarrow’—from German karren), kripė ‘ladder’ (from German dialectal krüppe; cf. kripės ‘wagon side rails’, kripikė ‘small ladder’), krūzai ‘ruffles’ (from German Krause; cf. apkrūziuoti ‘to trim with ruffles’), maṅgalis ‘device for ironing clothes’ (from German Mangel), mangaliuoti ‘to roll, crumple’ (German mangeln), hybrid susimaṅgaliavęs ‘crumpled’, šlegą ‘mallet’ (German Schlägel), štapnotelis ‘darning needle’ (from German dialectal stopnōdel; cf. štapuoti ‘to darn’, from German stopfen), also cf. štapinė adata ‘darning needle’, vīndas ‘spinning wheel’ (cf. German Winde ‘winch’).

Building terminology and furniture: beṅkis || baṅkis ‘bench’ (from German Bank, plural Bänke), dakponė ‘roof tile’ (from German Dachpfanne), ėvelis ‘plane, planer’ (from German dialectal hėwel), ėveliuoti ‘to plane’ (German dialectal hėwelṇ), ėveliodė ‘small level’ (from German dialectal hewelōde), gėvelis ‘rafter’ (from German dialectal gebel), kraše ‘upholstered chair’, fotelis (cf. German Krasse ‘wicker armchair’), kėlnorius ‘cellar’ (from German Keller), liōdė ‘drawer’ (German dialectal lōde ‘box’), mūrluotas ‘wall plate for placing rafters, raftered’ (from German dialectal mūrenlatte), stenderis ‘fence post’ (from German Ständer), šveris ‘oven damper’ (from German Schieber), šiurkštainis ‘chimney’ (German Schornstein), špygelis ‘mirror’ (German Spiegel), štūlė ‘chair’ (Stuhl), švelis ‘crossbeam’ (cf. German Schwelle ‘cross threshold’), trėmpelis ‘lower part of a house above the foundations’ (from German Trempel), viṅkelis ‘set square, corner’ (from German Winkel; cf. į viṅkelį ‘at an angle’).

Words describing human activities and work: býgaras || bàgaras ‘pole, stick’ (cf. German Bagger ‘excavator, used for digging amber’; cf. býgaruoti || bàgaruoti ‘to wave a pole, stick’), bilderiuoti ‘to photograph’ (from German Bild, plural Bilder ‘picture, photograph’), brūkuoti ‘to be needed’ (German brauchen), berštuoti ‘to scrub with a scrubbing cloth’ (cf. German Bürste ‘brush’), bérštas ‘scrubbing cloth’, liodúoti ‘to load, pack’ (German laden; cf. liódingė ‘cargo, part of a wagon’), pletúoti ‘to press (woolen cloth)’ (from German platten), ruliuoti ‘to level soil with a roller, to roll’ (from German rollen ‘to roll’; cf. rūlis ‘a chubby child’), šapuoti ‘to stuff’ (from German dialectal šāpen; cf. šapinė ‘mattress’), šporuoti ‘to bank up’ (German sparen), šneideriuoti ‘to work as a tailor’ (cf. German Schneider ‘tailor’; cf. šnėideraitis ‘little tailor’, šnėiderka ‘female tailor’).

Children and school supplies: bōlė ‘ball’ (German Ball; cf. bolikė ‘small ball’), gibūrzdūkas ‘birthday’ (German Geburtstag), klingeris ‘bell’ (from East Prussian German Klinger, standard German Klingel; cf. klingeriuoti ‘to ring a bell’), pernolė ‘quill’ (from German dialectal pernōle), spridikis ‘sermon, instruction’ (cf. German dialectal predigt), špyliúoti ‘to play’ (German spielen; cf. pra špyliuoti kārą ‘to lose a war’), šūlė ‘school’ (Lietuvininkai) (German Schule), tōbytis ‘to misbehave, run riot’ (from German toben).

Means of transport: bōnė ‘train’ (from German Bahn; cf. hybrid bōnikelis ‘railway tracks’), gránta ‘gravel road, road’ (German Grand ‘gravel’), liódingė ‘part of a wagon, cargo’ (from German dialectal lióding), liōgeris ‘axle bearing’ (from German dialectal lōger), pýpeliuoti ‘to signal’ (from German dialectal pīpeln), pýpelis ‘automobile signal’ (German dialectal pīpel), reīpas ‘wheel rim’ (German dialectal reif), rūngas ‘wheel crossbar’ (German dialectal runge), rātas ‘bicycle’ (German Rad), šėpis ‘ship’ (German Schiff), šlýpkos ‘sledge’ (hybrid, from German dialectal sleppe and Slavic suffix -k-; cf. šlypkūtės ‘small sledges’), špānegelis ‘metal wagon pin’ (German Span ne gel).

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Trade: (pa)burguoti ‘to sell on credit’ (German borgen, cf. ant būrgos ‘on credit’), pygelininkas ‘small trader at a market’ (cf. German dialectal pigel ‘stall’), reñčelis ‘bundle’ (German Ranzen), štūkis ‘piece’ (German Stück, cf. stukėlis || stukelytis ‘little piece’), šmūkuliuoti ‘to engage in trade, smuggling’ (cf. German schmuggeln; cf. šmukulis || šmukūlninkas ‘businessman, speculator’), ūlenderis ‘horse trader’ (from German Holländer ‘Dutchman’).

Expressing time: jūnis ‘June’ (German Juni), mumėnt ‘immediately’, miniūta ‘minute’ (German Minute); cf. miniūtininkas ‘minute hand’); štūmda || štūnda ‘hour’ (German Stunde); cf. štūndininkas || štūmdininkas ‘hour hand’; cf. hybrid piėtstundė ‘lunch break’).

State, administration: caitunga ‘newspaper’ (German Zeitung), kaliūžė ‘prison’ (cf. German Klause ‘hermit’s dwelling’), rubėžgrabė ‘state border, boundary between land plots’ (hybrid from German Graben ‘ditch’ and Slavic рубеж).

Words describing a person’s inner state and outward appearance: drimelis ‘large adolescent’ (cf. German dialectal drimmel), fėliūoti ‘to be lacking’ (German fehlen; cf. fėle ‘lack (physical)’), furši ‘resourceful woman’ (German fursch), giliūkis ‘good fortune, happiness’ (German Glück; cf. giliūkingas ‘happy’ from glücklich, giliūkingai ‘happily’, negiliūkis ‘misfortune’), liūstas ‘good mood’ (German Lust ‘mood’; cf. liūstavóti ‘to have merry thoughts’), špūkioti ‘to play ghost’ (German dialectal spūken), špūkas ‘ghost, specter’ (from German dialectal spūke), štimuoti ‘to suit’ (German stimmen; cf. įštimuoti ‘to still be in good health’), štarkūs ‘large’ (German stark), švičiuoti ‘to sweat’ (German schwitzen), šakarinė ‘deceitful woman’ (cf. German schachern ‘to speculate, engage in shady dealings’), špibukauti ‘to play tricks’ (cf. German dialectal Spitzbube ‘mischievous child’), ūnkulis ‘large man’ (cf. German Onkel ‘uncle’).

Human relations: dryveliuoti ‘derogatory: to babble (in German)’ (from German dialectal drivel), dūneriuoti ‘to berate, swear’ (cf. German donnern ‘to thunder’; cf. uždūneriuoti ‘to swear’), ergeliuotis ‘to quarrel, argue’ (German ärgel’n), ergelis ‘annoyance, anger’ (German Ärger), kamarātas || kamarōts (German Kamerad), liūosininkas (l’ūsininks) ‘lodger’ (cf. German Lossman; also cf. liūosinininkauti ‘to be a lodger’), lėbė (liebi) ‘good life’ (German Leben ‘life’), liutėrija ‘risk’ (German Lotterie ‘lottery’), štrydūotis ‘to quarrel, argue’ (German dialectal strīde; cf. susištrydūoti ‘to fall out, quarrel’; (š)trydals ‘hothead’, (š)trydmikis ‘hothead’), ūmeriuoti ‘to talk nonsense’ (cf. German Humor ‘humor’).

Illnesses and their treatment: anyšai ‘anise’ (German Anies), špūliuoti ‘to have diarrhea’ (German spülen ‘to rinse’), šlektūoti ‘to feel unwell’ (cf. German schlecht ‘bad’; also cf. šlektumas užėjo ‘I began to feel sick’, mán šlektai ‘I feel sick’), štinkspirutis ‘ammonia’ (cf. German stinken ‘to smell’), verkiūoti ‘to work, be of help’ (German werken).

Various other words: bybelis ‘Bible’ (German Bybel), furši moteris ‘resourceful woman’ (German fursch), jėrgau || jār̄gau interjection ‘good heavens!’ (cf. German Herr Gott), jūksai ‘rubbish’ (German Jucks), karnōlė ‘ditch, trench’ (from German dialectal karnōl), kliūperis ‘payment for work in kind’ (cf. German dialectal kluper ‘bribe’), krėpelis ‘cripple’ (German Krüppel; cf. krėpeliuoti ‘to limp’; also cf. kripal, kripal ‘interjection expressing limping’), knīpelis ‘stick’ (German Knüppel), kūrė ‘turkey hen’ (from German dialectal kure; cf. kūrinas ‘turkey’; also cf. hybrid kurūks || kurūtis || kurūtis ‘little turkey’), rige-

^9*

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lis ‘lump, piece’ (from German Riegel; cf. sušālo į rigeļi ‘froze into a lump, a block’), švākai ‘weakly’ (cf. German schwach ‘weak’), sturkis ‘stork’ (German Storch).

German words that entered the local Samogitian dialect adapted to its corresponding norms. It is now difficult to determine in which cases they acquired Lithuanian, and in which Samogitian, derivational formatives. One thing, however, is clear: Samogitians substantially reshaped the German words they received from the Lietuvininkai. For instance, from šūpelė ‘scoop’, received from the Lietuvininkai (cf. German schöpfen ‘to scoop’), Samogitians formed šūpelinė and began using this word to mean ‘large-faced woman’; from spātas ‘shovel’ (German Spaten), received from the Lietuvininkai, they formed spātinas ‘small scoop’. The Samogitian suffix -ynė was added to German names for soups, e.g., plūmynė ‘sweet soup’, mūžynė ‘milk soup’, ryžynė ‘soup with grated dumplings’, etc.

Samogitians adopted a considerable number of hybrids, i.e., compound words, from the Lietuvininkai or formed them themselves (this is now difficult to determine). One component is German, the other Lithuanian, e.g., bonkelis ‘railway’ (hybrid from German Bahn and Lithuanian kelias), drānkubilis ‘barrel for storing slops’ (from German dialectal drānk ‘slops’ and Lithuanian kubilas), žūkspiros ‘sawdust’ (from German Jucks ‘rubbish, waste’ and Lithuanian spiros), šienkripės ‘side racks of a wagon’ (German Krippe ‘ladder’; also cf. šienkripė ‘long ladder’), strūmpryšis ‘garter’ (German Strumpf, pl. Strümpfe). There are also words that are very thoroughly Lithuanianized and simply reshaped, e.g., šnipštukas (the Lietuvininkai pronounce it šnipeldukas ‘handkerchief’ (German Schnupftuch, German dialectal snūveldok ‘handkerchief’). The Lietuvininkai likely adopted the dialectal variant snūveldok while still living in East Prussia and the Klaipėda Region, and brought it to the Lithuanian side.

Regarding the inflectional adaptation of German nouns, it should be noted that words ending in a hard consonant or a vowel became ō-stems in Lithuanian, e.g., kurbas ‘basket’ (German Korb), bėrš tas ‘scrubbing brush’ (German Bürste ‘brush’), etc.

Singular nouns were often formed from the German plural stem, e.g., bilderis ‘picture, photograph’ (German Bild, pl. Bilder), kiñderis ‘child’ (from German Kind, pl. Kinder), etc.

Many nouns acquired Lithuanian diminutive suffixes: -ytis, -elis, -aitis (Samogitian -ātis), -ikė, -inė, e.g., kurūtis ‘little turkey’ (from German dialectal kure), mucikė ‘little cap’ (German Mütze), plecaitis (plecātis) ‘small plot, little parcel of land’ (German Platz ‘place’), stukėlis ‘piece’ (German Stück), stubinė ‘chambermaid, maidservant’ (German dialectal stub, stōbe ‘room’).

There were also opposite cases (they are uncommon), where derivatives were formed from Lithuanian base words using a German suffix, e.g., kiaulerija ‘piggishness, disorder’ (cf. German Schweinerei — suffix -erei), pinkerija ‘confusion, something that has been muddled’. Also cf. fotografistas ‘photographer’, elektristas ‘electrician’, etc.

German adjectives that entered the local Lithuanian language generally received the Lithuanian suffix -ingas², e.g., giliukingas ‘happy’ (German glücklich), listingas ‘cunning’ (German listig). Cf. the corresponding adverbs giliukingai, listingai. Adjectives

² It is reminiscent of German -ig-, -(l)ich and has a similar meaning.

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ruūdinās ‘round’ (German rund), kantīnas ‘to become satisfied’ was formed on the model of the Lithuanian kūpinds.

Verbs were mostly adapted by adding the suffixes -uoti (Samogitian -ūti, -auti), and more rarely the Slavic-origin suffix -avoti, e.g., dekīuoti ‘to cover with a blanket’ (German decken), fėliūoti ‘to be lacking’ (German fehlen), knibeliuoti ‘to work at something, to fiddle’ (cf. German knibbeln ‘to tie’), liūstavoti ‘to have fun’ (from the German noun Lust ‘good mood’), pryš-tekiauti ‘to have breakfast’ (German Frühstück ‘breakfast’), šlekčiūoti ‘to feel unwell’ (from German schlecht ‘bad’), etc. Sometimes a Lithuanian suffix was added to a German one, e.g., dū-neriūoti ‘to curse’ (German donnern ‘to thunder’), planeriūoti ‘to plan’ (German planieren), turnerūoti ‘to do sports, to exercise’ (German turnieren).

Verbs of German origin often take Lithuanian prefixes, e.g., apšam-pūoti ‘to reprimand’, ištimūoti ‘to be in a good mood, to be healthy’, nudnūoti ‘to tire out’ (German ahnen), pasteliūoti ‘to order, to procure’ (German stellen), supučūoti ‘to eat up’, susištrydūoti ‘to quarrel, to fall out’ (dialectal German streiden), uždūneriūoti ‘to swear’, užklingiūoti ‘to latch shut’ (German Klinke ‘latch’).

Quite a few wholly unadapted German words occur, e.g., ūmama ‘grandmother’ (German Oma ‘grandma’), ūpapa ‘grandfather’ (German Opa), papā ‘daddy’ (German Papa), briūt ‘bread’ (German Brot), špėk ‘bacon’ (German Speck), męser ‘knife’ (German Messer), štrām ‘sturdy’ (dialectal German štrām), štrēng ‘strict’ (German streng), fēst ‘firm’ (German fest), etc. They remained unchanged for both case and number.

At present, the Germanisms discussed in this article, although well known to older local residents, are rapidly disappearing under the influence of standard Lithuanian. They are generally used only by older generations, especially Lietuvininkai. Young people who have attended school understand perfectly well that these words are now barbarisms, and therefore try to replace them with Lithuanian equivalents, although they do not always succeed. Older Samogitians, of course, still rely on these Germanisms when speaking about the past and the realities of Lithuania Minor, and sometimes to make their speech more vivid. They use many Germanisms when talking with local Lietuvininkai, in whose speech these are still quite common.

LITERATŪRA

Кушнер/Кнышев П. И. Этнические территории и этнические границы. М.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1951. 280 с.

Gimbutas J. Lietuvių sodžiaus architektūra Mažojoje Lietuvoje. New York, 1958. 156 p.

Kurchat H. Das Memelländische ABC: Volkskundliches Wörterbuch des Memelländisches Niederdeutsch. Oldenburg: Siebert, 1964. 160 S.

Sabaliauskas A. Lietuvių kalbos leksikos raida, jos turtėjimas tarybiniais metais // Lietuvių kalba tarybiniais metais. V., 1967. P. 68–102.

Zinkevičius Z. Lietuvių kalbos istorija. D. 1: Lietuvių kalbos kilmė. V.: Mokslas, 1964. 387 p.

Weinreich U. Languages in Contact. N. Y.; Philadelphia, 1953. 147 p.

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GERMAN LOANWORDS IN THE LOCAL DIALECT OF ŽEMAIČIŲ NAUMIESTIS

Summary

In the paper the author analyses a linguistically complicated situation in the small locality of Žemaičių Naumiestis. Here the local Samogitian dialect was greatly influenced by the so-called lietuvininkai, newcomers from former Eastern Prussia and the Klaipėda District. Furthermore, the local Samogitian dialect had also been influenced by the German language for long centuries. The interference of the German language in the local dialect implied the rearrangement of patterns in all domains of the language, such as the phonetic system, partly morphology and syntax and almost all areas of the vocabulary. As we know, lexical borrowing occurs when a recipient vocabulary is inadequate in the cultural environment of a given locality. The paper attempts to disclose the extent of interference determined by the structure of two languages in contact as well as by non-linguistic factors in the socio-cultural context of language contacts.

The interference was mutual. Up till now one can trace many Lithuanian words in the oral speech of the Germans.

The most concrete German loanwords, such as designations for newly invented and imported objects were mere additions to the vocabulary of the local Samogitian dialect. Quite a number of Germanisms extended their content, many discarded their old meanings and acquired new ones. Many German semantemes were borrowed from the German dialect, used in former Lithuania Minor of the time. German loanwords, used in the Žemaičių Naumiestis local Samogitian dialect, form fourteen semantic groups.

The borrowed words were adapted in the recipient dialect, i. e. the local Samogitian dialect according to the phonetic and morphological patterns of the Lithuanian language.

Among the hybrid compounds we can also distinguish those in which the stem remains German but another component acquires the Lithuanian word-forming elements: suffixes, prefixes, endings. Some of the German words did not obey the norms of the recipient dialect at all.

Lately the loanwords have lost gradually their significance in the local Samogitian dialect and are used mostly in the speech of elder Samogitians and lietuvininkai.