Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos funkcijos

BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA Lietuvių kalbos institutas WRITING OF PERSONAL STATEMENTS LITHUANIA IN DOCUMENTS OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA AND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS KEY WORDS: personal name, first name, surname, cultural heritage, state language, Constitution, language policy, sociolinguistics. INTRODUCTION In the near future, the Seimas aims to decide how personal names will be written, pronounced and function in the Republic of Lithuania. This is a very important issue for the state, the nation and the language. The author has been involved with this issue, which is at the intersection of several sciences, for 20 years, has reviewed or prepared draft laws that do not contradict the Constitution. The initiative to change the spelling of personal names in documents was not brought up by linguists, but primarily by politicians. Arguing for their proposals, the proponents of the proposals cited non-linguistic and other motives, but they still need to be answered. The aim of the article is to examine the most important principles of writing names and surnames of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania in documents and to propose the most appropriate draft law. The objectives of the article are to briefly discuss the current problems of spelling of personal names, the methodology of research, the most important available data, draft laws and their relationship with the functions of the state language. PERSONALITY – A PART OF LANGUAGE AND THE FIRST WORDS OBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION The question of the spelling of personal names could not and cannot be resolved quickly, properly and definitively because in order to adapt the alphabets and spelling principles of other languages to the Lithuanian language, scientific data have been falsified: allegedly 1) personal names do not belong to the language, but are trademarks; 2) it is not part of language, but part of a person’s identity and its main characteristic; 3) the right to decide on the spelling of personal names (i.e. personal identity) belongs not to society, state institutions, but only to the “owner” of the personal name; 4) the common family name must be preserved (distorted by the occupation regimes) – part of private life; 5) Lithuanian surnames that are exclusively Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian surnames that are non-Lithuanian; 6) are and are supposed to be the “original” BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 2 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA. Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos spelling and pronunciation of surnames; 7) The grammar of the present Lithuanian language allows not to follow the Lithuanian alphabet, spelling principles; 8) in all the countries of function (except Lithuania and Latvia) whose languages use Latin-based characters, personal names in documents are written in the “original” form, i.e. in all Latin-based characters; 9) by translating the names of all languages in Latin script to Lithuanian, only 3 new letters would appear; 10) The “original” spelling of surnames was introduced in Lithuania in 1938, etc. (see www.lrs.lt ŽTK 2014 12 03. Name and surname – part of personal identity; draft law XIIP-1653, etc.). It has long been known that the vocabulary of each language consists of common words (written in lowercase) and proper words (personnages, place names, etc., written in capital letters, cf. LKE 305, 379, 396-402). It is not right to consider personal names as trademarks. A trade mark is any sign which is intended to distinguish the goods or services of one person from those of another and which can be represented graphically. A trademark may consist of words, personal surnames, names, artistic pseudonyms, names of legal persons, slogans, signs, for which the protective name of Lietuvos Respublikos prekių ženklų įstatymu nustatyta teisinė apsauga („Teisės aktai, reglainventions, designs, trademarks and topographies of semiconductor products or any other word gą Lietuvos Respublikoje“ 2013: 253-255). Prekės ženklu gali būti geografinė nuoroda – vieor sign, by which it can be determined directly or indirectly that the goods originate from a certain territory, region or location, and which links the quality, reputation or other essential characteristics of those goods with its geographical origin (Trademark Law of the Republic of Lithuania, available online at: www.lrs.lt). A personal name is the real name of a person (CEI 27), a contractual sign of a person's identification, rather than a real part of a person's identity. The inhabitants bearing the names of John, Peter, Stephen, Tadeusz, Catherine, Teresa and others are not saints, they are identical (i.e. identical, equal to DLKZ 830) to their patron saints, in whose names they were baptized. A sickle is not a sickle (which screams, screams), a bucket is usually no longer a bucket worker, a wolf is not a beast, similar to a dog, etc. White, Fingerless, Shaggy, Sys can be more beautiful than Beautiful, and Little can be bigger than Big or Long-legged. If personal names were written in Polish letters, the former eastern Highlanders of Varnialo, Žverialo, Žuvialo, Gerul, Gražul, Mažul and others would not preserve their former identity. The common language does not make any exceptions to the owner of the personal name regarding the spelling, pronunciation, or pronunciation of his name or surname. There are many women who have the names Asta, Aušra, Dalia, Diana, Edita, Elena, Gražina, Irena, Janina, Jurgita, Kristina, Lina, Loreta, Marija, Rasa, Regina, Renata, Rima, Rita, Roma, Sigita, Vida, Violeta, Vita and so on. and are accustomed to pronounce their name as a singular noun and as a noun in private conversations in the second syllable from the end, but when speaking in public they must do so in the final syllable (see Lithuanian language and pronunciation dictionary 1989: 65). Surnames are not only part of the private life of a family – they are also part of language, culture and the history of a country. The personal names of Lithuanian inhabitants have been written in 6 different languages, 6 different alphabets over 800 years, very distorted, but since then the identity of many Lithuanians has not fundamentally changed. Archaic Lithuanian surnames have only retained the common root or even the stem of the family and clan name, but female surnames differ from male surnames: for example, the husband is Daukša, the wife – Daukšienė, and the daughter – Daukšaitė. We cannot agree with the statement of the State Lithuanian Language Commission in 2008 that “person names in foreign languages do not belong to the Lithuanian language system [...]. Each language functions with a certain amount of facts of other languages, including personal names and place names” (www.vlkk.lt, 14 January 2008, detailed response to the appeal “More attention to the legal protection of the Lithuanian language”). The BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 3 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA. Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos personal nouns of any language in Lithuanian, as in other Indo-European languages, are at least somewhat adapted. According to the above-mentioned rule of pronouncing the prepositional copulative syllable, Obamà, Irinà, Jelenà, Lenà, Marinà, Natašà, Tatjanà, Žanà and other personal names in the singular noun, in the singular pronoun of the Lithuanian language are not pronounced “authentically”, but in Lithuanian, i.e. at the end of the word, although the holders of these personal names may not be related to Lithuania in any way. According to the Lithuanian language rules we write and pronounce not Pūcin, Lukashenka, but Putinas, Lukashenka and so on - this is understandable to many. The surnames of Lithuanian citizens are adapted to the Lithuanian language system, although only 30 per cent of them are entirely Lithuanian (derived from Lithuanian or Baltic common and actual words) and 70 per cent are partly non-Lithuanian (derived from names of foreign origin, Slavicized Lithuanian personal names or borrowed) (LKE 400–402). Both Lithuanians and local Poles have names of the same origin. The so-called original spelling of surnames is not used exactly in any country, because the alphabets and spelling of the languages differ. Polish personal names Katarzyna, Malgorzata, Tomaszevski Lithuanians would read Ka-tar-zy-na, Mal-gor-za-ta, To-mas-zev-ski, although Poles pronounce Ka-dali žy-na, Mal-go-ža-ta, To-ma-ševs-ki. Tai įrodo, kodėl nelietuviškus asmenvardžius Lietuvoje ir more appropriate to write according to pronunciation, rather than according to their spelling in a Europos žmogaus teisių fondas (EFHR) paskelbė instrukciją „Žingsnis po žingsnio“ – paforeign language. change the name and surname if “your name or surname is lithuanized and you want to have the record in the original spelling” (www.efhr.eu/asmenvardziu-rasyba). The Foundation will write such complaints free of charge, based on the nearly 8,800 records of the Population Register Service of the Republic of Lithuania, where foreign surnames or Lithuanian surnames Barz-da, Ker-za (see lit. kerzukas (small-sized person; not tall) are registered. The name is translated into Polish as: Baż-da, Ke-ża. In the section on spelling and transcription of the current Lithuanian grammar (1994, 1996, 2006), written by the author of this article (with Aleksas Girdenis), it is mentioned in a footnote that when writing foreign personal names, besides the letters of the Lithuanian alphabet, 3 more letters (and occasionally 3 more) from the alphabets of other languages may be used. This provision covers only the spelling of names of foreign citizens in scientific literature, not in documents. Diacritical marks of Latin-based letters in personal names are usually not written in Latvia, Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America and elsewhere. For example, Rūta Meilutytė is written Ruta Meilutyte abroad, and the surnames of their wives and daughters are often not distinguished from men's surnames. Even the aforementioned foundation knows that Lithuanian girls who have gone abroad to study or work ask to change their Lithuanian personal names because of “difficulties related to spelling in other countries. For example, a person named “Anna”, in order to avoid further difficulties (e.g. administrative), wants to change it to “Anna”, because in this country even her original name “Ana” is written with a double “nn” (www.efhr.eu/asmenvardziu-rasyba). By translating the personal names written in the Latin alphabets of all languages into Lithuanian, there would be not 3 new letters, but about 150 (no one has counted them exactly, can not pronounce them and does not even know how much Lithuania would cost to write the aforementioned letters in all areas). It is announced that on 06 December 1938, a point 22 was added to the Law on Surnames: “The surname of a non-Lithuanian person is written according to the laws of Lithuanian language and spelling, but it may also be written as its holder writes in his own language, if he so wishes and if the alphabet of that language is Lithuanian”. In this case 6 things are not mentioned: 1) the addition was made after Poland’s ultimatum to Lithuania; (2) that point 22 did not specify where and how those exceptions could be applied; 3) that requirement was not complied with in practice in the documents; 4) at that time, the law on de-littration of surnames was not being discussed, but on de-literation; 5) In 1939, the Lithuanian Government and Lithuanian authorities took care to restore and publish as soon as possible the normative Lithuanian forms of names and place names in the Vilnius region (Salys 1983: 490–670); 6) paragraph 22 of the aforementioned law does not refer to the Latin-based alphabet, but to the Lithuanian alphabet. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 4 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA. Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos functions According to the 2009 03 24 UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Endangered Languages, 3 (out of 9) language vitality criteria would be violated in Lithuania if the universal foreign spelling of personal names were legalized: 1) language transmission from generation to generation, 2) attitude of government and institutions and language policy, 3) relationship of community members with their language. The State Lithuanian Language Commission (hereinafter – VLKK) has prepared a qualified answer on this issue, but makes mistakes regarding the spelling of foreign names and surnames (see Astas 2014). If a personal name in our documents is written in the characters of another language, that foreign language is also used as the state language in our Republic (see Kniūkšta 2013: 157, 165). In this case, the Lithuanian state language may be subjected to the spelling and even pronunciation and conjugation laws of another language. The VLKK, which according to its statutes has to protect and defend the Lithuanian language, has taken a step towards changing vardai ir pavardės asmens dokumentuose ir turi būti rašomi lietuviškais rašmenimis, ir nebethe spelling of the Lithuanian language, which was established 110 years ago. In the opinion of the a) užsieniečių, įgijusių Lietuvos Respublikos pilietybę, vardai ir pavardės Lietuvos RespubVLKK, the names of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania must be written in Lithuanian characters “taking into account the needs of the current society […]: the remaining personal documents issued are written in Latin-based characters according to the source of the document – the personal document issued by another state (based on international practice, diacritics may not be transmitted due to technical possibilities); b) the surname of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania who has married a foreigner and has taken his surname, as well as the surname of the children of such spouses, may be written in Latin characters, the source of the document being the identity document of the foreigner. Names of foreign nationals in other documents should be written according to the principles established by the 60th Decree of the VLKK” (www.lrs.lt). We propose to use foreign spelling on request only in special identity cards or in brackets after the Lithuanian form of the personal name, on the second page of the passport and nowhere else: neither in registers, banks, transport, libraries and other documents, nor in the press, etc. WRITING OF CITIZEN PERSONAL PROTECTION All the surnames of Lithuanian citizens before 1940 were published in the Lithuanian Names Dictionary 30 years ago (vol. 1 1985; vol. 2 1989) and there is no discussion about this. In its ruling of 21 October 1999, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania stated that the state language is a constitutional value that “protects the identity of the nation, integrates the civic nation, ensures the expression of the sovereignty of the nation, the integrity of the state and its indivisibility, the normal functioning of the state and municipal institutions” (Valstybės žinios 1999). Entries in official documents of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, irrespective of nationality and other characteristics of the persons, must be written in Lithuanian characters – otherwise “it would not only deny the constitutional principle of the state language, but also disrupt the activities of state and municipal institutions, other enterprises, institutions and organizations. This would make it more difficult for citizens to exercise their rights and legitimate interests and would violate the principle of their equality before the law enshrined in the Constitution” (Valstybės žinios 1999). These statements apply to the entire spelling of the nomenclature in all Lithuanian texts, since periodical press, books, advertising, names and surnames, place names and BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 5 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA. Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos other public records are all areas of public state life. In accordance with the Lithuanian-Polish treaty, Lithuanian Polish surnames are traditionally written according to their sound and are not Lithuanianized – Lithuanian suffixes are not added, vowels are not changed, etc., although Lithuanian surnames are bent in Poland. However, this still requires Lithuania to use the Polish alphabet with eight additional letters (and not one w). Writing surnames and names in all Latin alphabets would add about 150 new letters (with all diacritics) to the Lithuanian language, and this would cause the greatest confusion in the state language, because the known letters (32) would not make up even 20 percent of that alphabet. Thus, the discussion is not about the spelling of Polish surnames, but about the functioning and spelling of the Lithuanian state language. We do not have data that the names and surnames of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania were written in the alphabets of other languages before the occupation. The commissioner for national minorities of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has stated that the spelling of Polish surnames should be decided by Lithuania itself. The Constitution can be changed by a referendum of the whole people, not by the promises or wishes of some official. The European Court of Human Rights (Mentzen v. Latvia, case No. 46726/99) has already rejected claims to change the written form of the surname Mentzen to Mencena under the Latvian Rules on the Spelling and Identification of Names and Surnames in Documents, which require that all Latvian citizens’ surnames and names be transliterated according to the Latvian spelling rules, reproducing as closely as possible the pronunciation of the original language. It is pointed out that names and surnames of people belong to a completely different category than trademarks or company names and are governed by different rules. A surname is used not only by the person who bears it, but also by society, so surnames must be regulated for the convenience of the majority of people. The European Court of Human Rights further emphasized: Latvia is the only place in the world where the existence and development of the Latvian language, and therefore of the Latvian nation, can be guaranteed. The prohibition or restriction of the Latvian language on the territory of one’s state is considered a threat to the democratic state order. The actions, which the applicant called “interference in her private life”, had the legitimate purpose of protecting the right of other Latvian residents to use their language freely throughout the State territory, i.e. to defend the democratic order of the country (Mentzen v. Latvia, case No. 46726/99). The European Court of Human Rights, having the status of a Constitutional Court, does not doubt that the written form of the surname in documents directly affects other areas of language use, since they are closely related. If only the “original” written form of foreign surnames were allowed in documents, it would spread more and more in various texts. This would pose a serious threat to the quality of the state language and its functioning as a cohesive system. The damage to the state language caused by the writing of surnames in the alphabets of other languages greatly outweighs the possible inconvenience that a person with a passport in which his name is transliterated according to the rules and traditions of the state language could experience in everyday life. The transcription of a surname is not its translation into the state language, but only an adaptation to the grammatical features of the state language. All these remarks are also valid for the Lithuanian language. In violation of Article 14 of the Treaty between Lithuania and Poland, the names and surnames of many Lithuanians in Poland are not written according to their sound, but inverted and significantly changed, with Polish suffixes, without differences in the family, etc. : Birgelis, Birgelienė are written the same – Birgel, Malinauskas – Malinowski, Vitkauskas – Witkowski, Valinčius – Wołyniec, Zakarauskas – Zakrewski, Vaicekauskienė – Wojciechowska, etc. In theory, under very difficult and uncomfortable conditions, it is allowed to write authentically in the Polish passport, but such documents are not valid in banks, registers and elsewhere, so only 0.2% of Lithuanian-speaking Lithuanians living in their ethnic lands have documents with the Lithuanian form of the surname. The names of all of them are listed and discussed in Zigmantas Zinkevičius’ book Lithuanian heritage in the names of Suvalkai and Augustavo region in Poland (2010). BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 6 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA. Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos functions DRAFT STATUTS AND STATE LANGUAGES FUNCTIONS The draft law on the spelling of names and surnames in documents of the Republic of Lithuania, submitted by Irena Šiaulienė and Gediminas Kirkilas, changes the state language policy, the spelling of the name book, the laws of pronunciation, the functions of the state language. The aim of this project is not to ensure the legal protection of the names and surnames of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania – the cultural heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but to destroy it. The common family name is partially guaranteed by the third paragraph of the Decision of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania “On the spelling of names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania” of 31 January 1991, which allows the writing of personal names according to the original documents. Over 1000 Lithuanian citizens married to foreigners signed the Demand to defend the state language and territorial integrity by giving up foreign letters in their surnames. The third paragraph of the second article of the draft law should be worded as follows: “The source of the document is issued by the competent authority of the Republic of Lithuania”. The project violates the basic principle of Lithuanian spelling – to mark different sounds (phonemes) with different characters, adds to the 32 Lithuanian letters about 150 new letters, all of which no one can pronounce, write and all of which are not in any alphabet. The draft law contradicts the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (“Lithuanian people, preserving their spirit, native language, writing and customs”), Article 3 (“No one may restrict or limit the sovereignty of the nation, appropriating sovereign powers belonging to the whole people”), Article 7 (“No law or other act contrary to the Constitution shall be in force”), Article 10 (“The territory of the Lithuanian state is unified and not divided into any state entities”), Article 14 (“The state language is Lithuanian”). The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as the CCR) examined only the compliance of the spelling of names and surnames of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania with Article 14 of the Constitution. In its ruling of 21 October 1999 “On the Compliance of the Decree of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania of 31 January 1991 “On the Spelling of Names and Surnames in the Passport of a Citizen of būti rašomi valstybine kalba. Kitaip būtų paneigtas konstitucinis valstybinės kalbos statusas“. the Republic of Lithuania” with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania”, the Constitutional būti nustatytos ir kitokios asmens vardo ir pavardės rašymo LR piliečio pase taisyklės nei nuCourt proved that “the name and surname of a person in a citizen’s passport must be written in the language of the citizen’s passport”. In its ruling of 2014, the Constitutional Court did not deny or reject all of these provisions, noting: “…can the provisions of the Decree of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania of 31 January 1991 “On the Spelling of Names and Surnames in the Passport of a Citizen of the Republic of Lithuania” set out in point 2, when they are proposed to be amended by a state institution formed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Lithuania from professional linguists-Lithuanian language specialists (and, as far as the laws allow, from representatives of other branches of linguistics), have the power to take care of the preservation of the state language”. On 1 April 2014, the authors of the registered project in the explanatory note unjustifiably declare that “the drafting of the project was prompted by the 2014-02-27 LRKT decision. This decision does not propose, for example, “to write the names and surnames of Lithuanian citizens in foreign letters”. According to the Constitution, the laws and the decision of the ICC, the different rules for writing a person’s name and surname in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania in the aforementioned point 2 could only be as proposed by Vincas Urbutis (2007: 16 et seq.): Names and surnames of non-Lithuanian citizens of the Republic of Lithuania are written in Lithuanian characters for the sake of reputation and gratification, while maintaining BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 7 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA. Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos authentic personal names and the pronunciation, pronunciation, spelling norms of the state language.” Nor did the LRKT propose that parties could force the professional linguist body to comply with the will of any party or to form a new linguistic body that would precisely and efficiently comply with the parties’ instructions. The decision of the LRKT states that “when the legislator determines the legal regulation of the writing of a person’s name and surname in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, special knowledge is required, he must obtain an official conclusion, a clearly stated position, clear proposals from persons (institutions) with professional knowledge, which the legislator cannot ignore”. Such clear proposals are already formulated in the chapter “What could be the law of writing names and surnames in documents” of Pranas Kniūkšta’s book Between grammar and politics (2013: 145–170). Z. Zinkevičius (Lietuvių asmenvardžiai, 2008; Vilnius Polish-speaking surnames, 2012), Vitalija Maciejauskienė, Vincas Urbutis, Vitas Labutis, Arnoldas Piročkinas, Alvydas Butkus and others wrote about this in their works. And none of them suggested writing names in foreign letters. The ICJ decision, apparently, deliberately refers not to one institution of professional linguists, but to institutions. In addition to the VLKK, there is also the Lithuanian Language Institute, which has a Namebook Department (since 05.12.2014 the Baltic Languages and Namebook Research Center), which, according to its statutes, forms the strategy and tactics of namebook research and use in the Republic of Lithuania. In 2008, a seminar of professional linguists was held at the Institute, and after discussions it was proposed to write the names and surnames of Lithuanian citizens in documents in the state language alphabet. In 2014, the second seminar on the nomenclature held at the Institute confirmed these provisions once again. The above-mentioned draft law also does not comply with the latest decision of the LRKT: without any consultation with professional linguistic institutions, the Government prepares and approves the Rules for the Spelling of Names and Surnames, prepares and implements the restructuring of registers and state information systems. This is done in a hasty and arbitrary manner “until the entry into force of this law”, although this is contradicted by the still in force Decision No. I-1031 of 31 January 1991 “On the spelling of names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania” (Valstybės žinios 1991, No. 5-132), which will cease to be in force only after the entry into force of this law. An analogous draft law on the writing of names and surnames in documents was submitted to the Seimas in 2010 and was rejected by the majority of the Seimas, and a draft that is not contrary to the Constitution was chosen for consideration, according to which, after the name and surname in the state language have been entered in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, the kitokiais, nelietuviškais rašmenimis ir nesugramatinta forma, jeigu jis to pageidauja. name and surname of the person may be indicated in the section of other entries of the same kančios išlygos nenumatytos. Lietuvos Respublikos piliečio prašymu jo pavardė turi būti rašopassport. The draft of I. Šiaulienė and G. Kirkilas in question corresponds to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania in “non-Lithuanian Latin-based characters”, if the name is entered in these characters in the source document, without making exceptions for documents from the occupation periods, when personal names were forcibly glorified. The explanatory note of the draft law does not foresee possible negative consequences of the adopted law, although, in violation of Article 28 of the Constitution, Articles 4, 5, 6, 20, 21 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the law would restrict the rights and freedoms of the indigenous and majority population – Lithuanians and other national communities and national minorities living in Lithuania. Article 29 of the Constitution prohibits restriction of human rights and freedoms, it does not allow to grant privileges on the basis of nationality, language or beliefs. The proponents of the law are silent about the fact that all the complaints of the Polish Election Campaign in the European Union have been rejected, as has the case of Latvian citizen Mencena. In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights refused to hear the complaint of Lithuanian resident M. Klečkovski concerning the spelling of the surname, and in 2011, the BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 8 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA. Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos Court of Justice of the European Union stated in M. Runevič-Vardyn that the Court does not resolve the problem of the uniformity of the surnames of function spouses, one of whom is a foreigner, and gives States the possibility to discretionaryly establish national legal regulations on this issue (see Kuzborska 2012: 175). The draft incorrectly states that writing names and surnames in Latin-based characters is “common in all countries (except Lithuania and Latvia) with Latin-based scripts” (p. 4). It is not mentioned that in the ethnic Lithuanian lands in Poland there is no such spelling, and many other countries in the world (except the Czech Republic) do not have the letters č, š, ž, ė, ū, etc., nor do they write the suffixes of married and unmarried Lithuanian women’s surnames. Most countries have their own spelling rules for names and surnames. Article 11 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities leaves the possibility for states to spell all personal names according to the pronunciation in the state language ("in accordance with the conditions laid down in the legal systems of the countries"). According to this article, it is not necessary to write place names and street names in Lithuania and Latvia in a non-state language, as this does not comply with the requirements of the legal systems of the states, violates the rights of the majority of the population (Article 20), especially the principles of sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and political independence of the states (Article 21). Paragraph 68 of the Commentary to this Convention repeats: “Parties may spell the name(s) of a person belonging to a national minority according to the pronunciation in the alphabet of the official language”. Article 14 of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighbourliness between Lithuania and Poland, signed in 1994, provides for the spelling of names according to their sound, and the treaty is strictly enforced in Lithuania, unlike in Poland. According to surveys, only 20 to 40 percent of Lithuanian Poles would like to write their surnames in a foreign alphabet. Some of them would lose their native language more quickly. Lithuanian negotiators and the authors of the draft law have not been able to explain to Polish representatives and the public that there are few names of pure Polish origin in Lithuania (as well as of pure Lithuanian origin – only about 30 percent). Most of the surnames consist of the cultural heritage of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania (called lituanica), which has settled in the ethnic Lithuanian lands and adapted to the language of the local inhabitants. Civilised parties and countries should not interfere with it. Poland did not recognise and complied with the 1920-1939 occupation of the eastern part of Lithuania and the long-standing historical capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, the forcible suppression of Lithuanian personal names and place names, and the imposition of unauthentic inscriptions during the occupation period. Lietuvoje gaivintų tos okupacijos padarinius. Members of the Seimas I. Šiaulienė and G. Kirkilas, who signed the draft law, do not respond to the mojo rašto 12 klausimą – kiek valstybės ir savivaldybių biudžetų bei kitų valstybės įsteigtų questions of the press. The necessity of registers and systems restructuring, the need for the necessary funds and deadlines are yet to be assessed. The answer is something about "uniform identification". It is incorrectly reported that specialist assessments and conclusions were not obtained during the drafting of this bill. This project is not new – it was necessary to mention previous projects and their evaluations. Over the past 20 years, they have accumulated not one. By adopting the proposed project, we would abandon the cultural unity of the Baltic nations, and the functions of the state language would be narrowed, the traditional distinctive language system would be confused. Members of the Seimas I. Šiaulienė and G. Kirkilas registered together with the Bill XIIP-1653 the Bill XIIP-1654 amending Article 3.282 of the Civil Code, according to which the name, surname and place names are spelled according to the rules of the Lithuanian language, unless other laws provide otherwise. The laws on the state language, education and all other laws have so far not prescribed the writing “otherwise”, but the laws on names and surnames and national minorities that are being prepared are precisely intended to violate the Constitution. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 87 (2014) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 9 KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA. Asmenvardžių rašymas Lietuvos Respublikos dokumentuose ir valstybinės kalbos By legalizing the non-authentic place names changed by the occupation regimes of Vilnius, Kaunas, Memel, Szawli, Poniewież, etc., it would be recognized that in the territory of the Republic of Lithuania its Constitution no longer applies and no longer protects the authentic name book, as in the ethnic Lithuanian lands beyond the border, where Tilžė was named Sovietsk, Ragainė–Nieman, Vidugiriai–Widugiery, Vilkapėdžiai–Wilkopędzie, Gervėčiai–Gierviaty, Hrodna–Grodno, etc. Article 14 of the State Language Act (‘official, standardized genders of place names in the Republic of Lithuania shall be written in the state language’), Article 17 (‘in Lithuania, public notices shall be written in the state language’), the decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court (‘Lithuanian language, having acquired the status of the state language under the Constitution, must be used in all state and local government institutions, in all institutions, enterprises and organizations in Lithuania’) are also being challenged. We propose to reject the draft law contrary to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and to continue the consideration of the draft law XIP-1675 on the writing of names and surnames in documents, which is not contrary to the Constitution, was selected by the Seimas in 2010 and is now prepared by 12 members of the Seimas – Valentinas Stundžis, Rytas Kupčinskas, Algirdas Patackas and others. This provision was also supported by 70,000 citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, professional linguist seminars, state and public organizations. CONCLUSIONS 1. The old surnames of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are not Polish, Belarusian or Russian and Lithuanian cultural heritage. 2.The personal names of Lithuanian inhabitants have been written in six languages over 800 years and the current established spelling of personal names can be considered authentic. The identity of people has not changed due to the spelling of their personal names. The spelling of personal names did not always coincide with the native language of the person. The spelling of Polish personal names in Lithuania in the Lithuanian state language is not a question of Polish personal names, but of the functioning of the Lithuanian language. 4. According to population surveys, to write personal names in Polish in documents would agree from 5 iki 40 procentų Vilniaus, Šalčininkų rajonų gyventojų, o tam pritartų tik 1–10 procentų Citizens of the Republic of Lithuania. 70 thousand Lithuanian citizens and over 1000 married užsieniečiais tam nepritarė, pasirašydami Reikalavimą ginti Lietuvos Respublikos valstybinę with the language and territorial integrity. The letters of other alphabets in the passport and the new spelling principles would mean amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and the State Language Act. The unconstitutional bill is based on the ten false claims discussed at the beginning of this article. 6. The Ministry of Justice is proposed to draft legislation to make it easier for Poles to change their decayed surnames Jedinskij, Kvietkovskij, Tomaševskij, etc. to Polish surnames upon request (without the final consonant j). 7.All other personal names written in alphabetical letters in documents of the Republic of Lithuania are proposed only as additional information. This would take into account the recommendations of the linguist seminars held at the Lithuanian Language Institute in 2008 and 2014.