Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos

FROM THE ACTIVITIES OF THE STATE COMMISSION OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE (Prepared on the basis of the 2013 report of the Language Commission) LANGUAGE PROGRAMMES The main goals and objectives of the Language Commission’s activities are implemented through language programmes. Under the Programme for the Standardisation, Use, Development and Dissemination of the State Language for 2006–2015, a study of the state of the Lithuanian language in higher education institutions was launched: it was planned to analyse the course descriptions for subject-specific language courses taught there and to assess the linguistic correctness of master’s theses defended in 2013 and textbooks published in 2010–2013. At the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, work was completed on two monuments of early writing significant to the Lithuanian language and culture – The Bible of Samuel Boguslav Chylinski. Volume II. The New Testament and Tayslós augumyynis kóremy taalpynas augimys..., the second part of a manuscript by Jurgis Ambraziejus Pabrėža. A dictionary compiled from written sources dating from the late 19th to the early 20th century, The Vocabulary of the Narrative Folklore Collections of Matas Slančiauskas and His Assistants, was published. Four dialect publications of interest to teachers, pupils and students were published: Lithuanian Dialects for Schools (2 books) and Dialect Corpus (2 books), accompanied by CDs. The bibliographic index Lithuanian Linguistics 2006–2010 was completed. Support continued for teaching subject-specific language in higher education institutions, research projects, and state language courses for residents of Lithuania whose native language is not Lithuanian. Support was also provided for preparing daily news summaries in Lithuanian for Visaginas community television’s “Russkaja volna” and for preparing and publishing thematic pages in the journal Gimtoji kalba entitled “The Functioning of Standard Lithuanian Norms, Dialects and Their Change.” Under the Programme for Research into the Functioning and Change of Standard Lithuanian, Dialects and Other Language Varieties for 2011–2020, research on emigrants’ language, the eastern Aukštaitian Utena and Vilnius subdialects, and their border areas was completed in 2013, and dialect data were collected. Using funds from both programmes, 685 Lithuanian studies publications in 16 titles were purchased and transferred free of charge to the libraries of universities and colleges, county libraries, public libraries of national significance, and municipal public libraries. LEGAL PROTECTION OF THE STATE LANGUAGE It was proposed that a provision be included in the draft law amending the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Advertising, stipulating that, when installing outdoor advertising, the legal acts regulating the use of the state language must also be observed. In adopting the law, the Seimas approved the proposed amendment. Comments were submitted to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on the registered draft amendments to Article 2.40 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania and Article 16 of the Law on the State Language BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 2 which seek to legalize the possibility of registering the names of legal entities in languages other than Lithuanian. In the opinion of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, such provisions should not be approved, since the Lithuanian language has sufficient resources for forming the names of legal entities. A draft resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania “On the Use of Original Lithuanian or Localized (Translated into Lithuanian) Computer Programs in State and Municipal Institutions and Agencies, and at All Public Internet Access Locations” was prepared. Before preparing the draft, a survey of state institutions and agencies and municipal administrations was conducted. The responses received show that the overall situation is unsatisfactory: employees in a considerable number of state and municipal institutions and agencies are not guaranteed the opportunity to work with Lithuanian or localized programs (where such versions are available). IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LAW ON THE TERMS BANK OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA During the year, 893 approved term entries used or proposed for use in legal acts were published in the Terms Bank of the Republic of Lithuania (http://terminai.vlkk.lt). In addition to the terms used in legal acts, over 5,000 term entries were published from the Glossary of NATO Training and Exercise Financing submitted by the Ministry of National Defence and positively assessed by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language NATO mokymų ir pratybų finansavimo terminų žodyno, the Glossary of Crop Breeding and Seed Production by A. Sliesaravičius, J. Lazauskas, V. Stanys, S. Keinys, and G. Klimovienė Žemės ūkio augalų selekcijos ir sėklininkystės terminų žodyno, and lists of names of ornamental and other plants and plant families. At the end of 2013, the Terms Bank contained a total of 212,233 term entries: 9,519 approved, 201,549 recommended, and 1,165 not recommended. STANDARDIZATION AND EXPERT ACTIVITIES In 2013, the Language Commission held 9 meetings and its expert subcommittees held 87 meetings. More than 300 expert opinions were prepared on the correctness of personal names, place names, words and word combinations, the interpretation of the meanings of words and sentences, and other matters. Terminology. At meetings of the Terminology Subcommittee, 1,282 terminology entries from legal acts and their draft versions were considered, along with 27 terminology queries submitted by European Union institutions through the one-stop-shop system, manuscripts of 7 new terminology dictionaries, corrections and additions to the terms in 1 dictionary, 1 draft terminology standard, Lithuanian names in botanical and zoological nomenclature, and the 4.4 version of the European dictionary Eurovoc, whose review began. At meetings of the Language Commission, the manuscripts of 4 terminology dictionaries and the terms in 1 draft terminology standard were positively assessed. A total of 893 terminology entries were approved, containing terms from legal acts and their draft versions in areas overseen by state institutions (finance, public security, culture, law, economics, transport, communications, agriculture, fisheries and food, energy, the environment, health, pharmaceuticals, social security, defense, and others). Four decisions were adopted in the minutes concerning Lithuanian names for ornamental plants. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 3 At a joint meeting of the Terminology and Dictionary Subcommittees, and later at meetings of the Language Commission, the Finance Ministry’s inquiry concerning Lithuanian equivalents of the English term cost was considered together with specialists and experts from the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Lithuania, the Faculty of Economics of Vilnius University, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, UAB „Pačiolis“ and other organizations. It was agreed that the loanword kaštai may be used in Lithuanian as a term in economics and management accounting (the Lithuanian equivalents proposed so far are not precise), but that the term should continue to be considered unacceptable in bookkeeping. More than 600 consultations on terminology and the replacement of foreign words were provided by email and telephone. Translators, editors, and terminologists from European Union institutions were consulted, as well as officials from Lithuanian institutions, employees of private organizations, and other interested parties. Personal names and place names. A decision was adopted “On amending Decision No. 60 of 19 June 1997 of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language under the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ‘On Lithuanian Spelling and Punctuation’.” An additional area—official documents—was added to Clause 3.2 of the Spelling and Punctuation Provisions, allowing the use of authentic forms of personal names in other languages (with the exception of personal identity documents of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania). To establish the actual practice of using personal names in other languages in documents issued by state institutions and agencies, those institutions and agencies were surveyed before the decision was adopted. The responses showed that authentic forms are most often used in documents. At the request of representatives of European Union institutions, certain problematic aspects of adapting personal names to Lithuanian grammar were discussed. By decision, the names of the country’s ethnographic regions and a variant of a lake name, Plocis, were added to the list of Lithuanian place names. Nine decisions were adopted to change the names of countries and their capitals, as well as territories and regions. At the request of the editors of the dictionary Pasaulio vietovardžiai. Azija, compiled on commission from the Language Commission, the Names Subcommittee, together with invited experts, considered the transcription of place names in certain Asian languages. Lexicon. The Language Commission approved the second revised and expanded edition of the book Kalbos patarimų, Leksika: skolinių vartojimas (the material for this edition was considered by the Dictionary Subcommittee in 2012). Loanwords in the book are classified by relevance; assessments of some words have been changed, new words important in usage have been added, and obsolete loanwords that have lost their relevance have been removed. The published book was recognized as a normative source on loanwords. The recommended List of Foreign-Word Equivalents was supplemented by a decision adopted in the minutes. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation. A decision was adopted amending the rules for forming symbolic names of companies, institutions, and organizations. A recommendation, “On Lithuanian Names for the Parliaments of States,” was adopted by a decision in the minutes. Five decisions were adopted in the minutes to change the names for inhabitants of states, territories, and regions. Stress. Six decisions were adopted in the minutes concerning the stress patterns of certain suffixed nouns; mixed and suffixed verbs; primary (simple) and ending-derived adjectives; and suffixed, prefixed, and compound adjectives. Stress norms are being refined in light of actual usage trends and standardization traditions. At the request of the State Enterprise Centre of Registers, the stress patterns of 211 place names were examined. Textbook assessment. The Textbook Assessment Subcommittee reviewed manuscripts of 15 general education textbooks, comprising 18 books in total (some textbooks have several parts). Eight books were immediately granted a mark confirming linguistic correctness; 3 books were returned to their publishers for correction. Seven books were manuscripts of textbooks being reissued, and comments were provided on them. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 4 Summarizing 10 years of experience in evaluating the language of general education textbooks at the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, one can conclude that this evaluation has proved effective: textbooks are being prepared to a much higher standard, and the number of manuscripts returned to publishers for correction is decreasing each year. A review of the language correctness of higher education textbooks published in 2010–2013 was launched. The Subcommittee for Textbook Evaluation assessed the language of 27 textbooks: the language of 4 textbooks met the requirements for correctness, that of 1 textbook met them in part (some aspects required correction), and that of 22 textbooks did not meet the requirements for correctness (they contained serious errors in vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, and spelling). Letters concerning the language of these textbooks were prepared for publishers and higher education institutions. OTHER WORK Approximately 37,200 language consultations were provided during the year, including 13,200 online and about 24,000 by telephone. The Electronic Language Consultation Bank was supplemented with 566 new entries in 2013 (it now contains over 11,000 headwords). A new website for world geographical names was begun pasaulio-vardai.vlkk.lt. The database of the dictionary Pasaulio vietovardžiai. Europa (Vilnius: Institute of Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing, 2006), prepared on commission from the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, was transferred to the site. It covers the geographical names of 47 countries (approximately 54,000 authentic place names and their forms in total, and around 40,000 Lithuanian-adapted headwords). From 1 May 2013, after the Government of the Republic of Lithuania approved amendments to the Regulations of the Register of Legal Entities, consultants of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language provided consultations to the State Enterprise Centre of Registers on whether the names of legal entities complied with the norms of standard Lithuanian. Of the 12,466 consultations provided, 65 percent of names were assessed as complying with the norms of standard language, and 35 percent as not complying. Fifteen percent of names received a negative assessment for failing to meet formal spelling requirements. Twelve percent of unsuitable names consisted of words from languages other than Lithuanian or inadmissible artificial words; 8 percent were assessed negatively for various other reasons (spelling errors, grammatically incompatible combinations, etc.). The Subcommittee on Language Technologies prepared a draft of the Guidelines for the Development of the Lithuanian Language in Information Technologies for 2014–2020. The Guidelines review the state of Lithuanian language technologies and opportunities for their development. The proposed measures encompass creating a fully functional Lithuanian-language digital environment (localizing and deploying software, encouraging the use of Lithuanian characters, and so on), expanding digital language resources, developing and disseminating spoken- and written-language technologies and ensuring free access to them, and adapting language technologies for public services. At a joint meeting of the Committee on Education, Science and Culture and the Committee on the Development of the Information Society on 20 November, it was decided to recommend that the Government of the Republic of Lithuania approve the Guidelines for the Development of the Lithuanian Language in Information Technologies for 2014–2020 and prepare a plan of measures for their implementation. The State Language Inspectorate was asked to provide information on what is being done to ensure that any commercial or other information sent by text message (SMS) to Lithuanian buyers and service users reaches its recipients’ mobile phones written in Lithuanian letters. The Inspectorate reported positive developments in this area. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 5 The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania had declared 2013 the Year of the Dialects. Together with other institutions, the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language implemented six measures from the Action Plan for the Year of the Dialects approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. A series of meetings was held with employees of municipal education and cultural institutions (ethnographers, museum staff, librarians, educators, etc.) and community representatives. After reviewing material from meetings held in five regions of the country (attended by representatives of 37 municipalities), a working group convened by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, with representatives from ministries, the Association of Local Authorities, higher education institutions, and the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, prepared recommendations for the Government on how to preserve dialects while also strengthening the Lithuanian language, culture, and civic engagement. Instructions for collecting dialect materials, All Dialects Are the Most Beautiful..., were prepared, published, and presented to the public (compiled by Danguolė Mikulėnienė and Vilija Ragaišienė). Members of the State Maturity Examination Assessment Commission were consulted on matters concerning the preparation of guidelines for assessing language in Lithuanian language and literature final projects. Numerous subject-matter and editorial comments were submitted; it was recommended that the guidelines omit (i.e., not treat as errors) those language features that the books Language Advice assess as secondary variants of standard language norms, and that they not include features whose evaluation varies among linguists. The prepared guidelines were used to assess students’ final projects in 2013. Numerous conferences and other events were held together with other institutions and organizations. On September 25–26, on the occasion of Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of Europe, a conference entitled “Unity in Diversity: The Importance of Languages for Mobility, Work and Active Citizenship” took place at the Seimas. Specialists from various fields representing all European Union countries discussed support for and promotion of multilingualism, as well as language learning and teaching. On September 27–28, the annual conference of the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL), “Translation in Europe,” was held in Vilnius. It was organized jointly with EFNIL by the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, which represent Lithuania in the federation. The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language was also one of the organizers of the 3rd Terminology Forum of the European Union and the institutions and organizations of the Republic of Lithuania (LTF), held on June 7. On May 15, a scholarly conference entitled “Linguistic Readings of Antanas Baranauskas: Stereotypes and Insights for the 21st Century” was held jointly with the Institute of the Lithuanian Language to mark the anniversaries of the first dialect classification and the first dialect map. In 2013, after a two-year break, the National Dictation competition was held. The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language was a partner of the weekly Atgimimas, which organized the dictation. The Commission assisted the organizers of the sixth national schoolchildren’s competition, “Clean Language – Clear Mind.” The competition aims to encourage schoolchildren to use Lithuanian characters and correct Lithuanian in digital environments. Together with the Committee on Education, Science and Culture of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the Commission helped organize events for the Lithuanian School Students’ Union’s program “I Create Language!” The program aims to remind schoolchildren of the importance of correct language, draw attention to declining literacy, and creatively change the current situation. Received 2014 10 22 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ State Commission of the Lithuanian Language Gedimino Ave. 60, LT-01110 Vilnius Jur [email protected] BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204