Jonas Jablonskis – varpininkas (Mintauja, ėjimas į „Varpą“)

30 Languages culture | 83 GIEDRĖ ČEPAITIENĖ University of Šiauliai John JabloNsKIs – The Bell (Thinking, walking to the Warp) The work of Jon Jablonskis has been discussed in the monographs of Arnold Pirochkine (1977, 1978), but some of the issues are discussed only in passing. This article shows J. Jablonski’s becoming a bell-maker, discusses his activities related to the Bell in the period of Mindaugas, revealing the themes of publications and some of the views of J. Jablonski – a sworn “Lithuanian”, scientist, linguist. 1. Walking to the Penis Speaking about the cooperation of Jan Jablonski with Varpa, it is worth remembering the path of his national self-consciousness. When he studied at Marijampolė Gymnasium (1872–1881), the youth did not consider the question of national identity and most of the gymnasium students considered themselves to be propagators of Polish culture. so J. Jablonski, who went to study at the Moscow University, was still an undecided young man. national maturation is shown by his own memories1: “among the university students I found quite a few Lithuanian acquaintances. without much desire („I couldn’t do otherwise“) I joined the Lithuanian burel. One of my Lithuanian friends didn’t do that, I didn’t reproach him, he just excused himself, he didn’t reproach me and he himself excused not entering. Easily I started to like my new friends, the “Lithuanian” group, although I still looked at many of them with disdain. among those friends was also Jonas Šliupas, who showed me the most diligent, the most industrious. It was difficult to disagree with them on common issues, which were the affairs of the Lithuanian nation, since Lithuanianness was not an invention of one logic: at least at that time, other motives, old ideals and “Polish” impressions also weighed heavily. There would probably have been no doubts, although I did not dare to speak about them, that someone could have shown that we too could really unite as one person and be able to live the life of a nation. between friends 1 Cited from Jablonskis' writings prepared by J. balčikonis, because the authorship of the articles is clear from them. Ms ČePaitIenĖ. Jonas Jablonskis – bell-bearer (Mintauja, going to Varpa) 31 There were, of course, more of such branches, but they did not attract me. Whenever a language was introduced, Russian was often heard in Lithuanian lupus. you'll find it was justifiable at the time, but it always made a very bad impression on me, a Lithuanian awakening from sleep. Time went by, and I thought, whether I wanted it or not, the “Litvoman” was ripe and growing. After about half a year I would have been able to openly, where necessary, justify and defend the good side of Lithuanians’ ‘feeling’: that half a year did a lot, destroyed a lot, explained a lot.” (Jr I: 71) This lengthy passage reveals at least several things: 1) when he came to study in Moscow, Jan Jablonski did not have any clearer national aspirations; 2) he joined the activities of the Lithuanian student club not consciously, but by chance; 3) Janas Šliūpas, who had the greatest influence on him of all the members of the club; 4) within six months, J. Jablonski’s national self-consciousness has matured. Although the quotation shows that he primarily associated his national self-determination with the activities of the so-called Litvomans2, the study of philology itself, the respectful attitude of professors Fjodor Korsh and Filip Fortunatov to national minorities and especially their attention to the Lithuanian language, the promotion of its scientific value, undoubtedly also had an impact. The maturity of Jablonski’s national consciousness is also reflected in his works: while still studying at the Moscow University, he took up writing – he wrote to the Russian press about the ban on the Lithuanian press, and after dawn he published six publications in it. An expression of national self-determination can also be considered a letter written in the spring of 1883 to Vincas Kudirka, where the latter is reproached for his identification with the Polish nation: “you follow all their customs and customs, you have already appropriated – your writing testifies to this – their tongue, with which you pour on paper the gift of your head, as if you had already lost your natural language, i.e. the language of your father and mother, who fearlessly lulled and educated you in Lithuanian. If I wrote to you last year not in Lithuanian, but in Polish, it was only according to an old custom, from which it is difficult to separate, what can I tell you frankly.” (Piročkinas 1985: 196). 2. Methods of cooperation Jonas Jablonskis welcomed the Warp not only as a nationalist, but also as a cultural worker. The most active collaboration with Varpa was during living and working in Mintauja (1889–1895). The cooperation was several-way: from 2 decided Lithuanians the group was called “Moscow Lithuanian Student Society” (see Piročkinas 1977: 35). 32 Languages culture | 83 In 1890 he led the “literary commission”, which encouraged the inclusion of as many Lithuanian intellectuals as possible in the cooperation in Varpa; published 24 articles of various kinds written by himself; 3) The bell is supported by money. Not all of the period of Mintauja’s activity was equally intense: in 1890, two articles were published, in 1891 – no publications attributable to his pen, in 1892 – two articles, in 1893 – 13, and in 1894 – eight articles. so most publications were published in 1893, almost every month an article was written. 3. Warp Publications The publications published in Varpa can be divided into 4 groups according to the topics: 1) I think about it and Lithuanians living there; 2) Lithuanian history; 3) the history of Lithuanian scripts; 4) language issues. 3.1. Mintauja and Lithuanians living there This article is about the 1895 edition. Its structure, narrative tone, the title itself (“From Mintauja”) recalls an informative genre essay. At first, it is recalled what attracted Lithuanians to Mintauja before (before the railway, Lithuanians carried grain to Mintauja); what is happening in Mintauja now (peasants are coming to sell grain, seed, flax) and how they feel here (the Lithuanian has only reached the outskirts of the city, where he finds inscriptions “where he can drink and have fun” (Jr I: 10), regrets that those inscriptions are “unspeakably broken”, but does not mention that in Lithuania there were not even such inscriptions because of the prohibition of Latin scripts. A considerable part of the article is dedicated to the Lithuanians who have settled in Mintauja. First of all, it is about the Lithuanian Catholic parish (it consists of 1000-1200 people), it is noted that there are no Evangelicals (Lithuanian Calvinists) in Mintauja at all. discusses what the Lithuanians who settled here do: men are mostly servants, “karliai”, day laborers, and the higher social strata “work in the croms, as assistants of the sellers themselves, or in the scriberies, into which they entered, learning the Gudish language” (Jr I: 12), girls – maids in Polish, German, Latvian homes. The author regrets that Lithuanians in Curonian Spit (i.e. also in Mindaugas) occupy a poor social position, while Latvians, having moved to Lithuania, occupy higher positions. From this, the following conclusion is drawn: "in this way Ms ČePaitIenĖ. 33 It can be said that the relocation of Lithuanians to Curonian Spit and of Latvians again to Curonian Spit only indicates the very pitiful help of us, Lithuanians: we go on, we go on, weak and weak, everything that is dear and precious, – we leave our land to the newcomers – the Latvians, who in return give us Curonian Spit only to guard, drive the Germans and serve them.–" (Jr I: 12). it seems that after a century this idea of J. Jablonski becomes relevant again. In the last part of the article, Lithuanians are urged to take their children to Mintauja high school. It is explained that there are still places available in the gymnasium classes, that older pupils are also accepted, and that the gymnasium management “looks first to the head of the child, not to the property of his parents” (Jr I: 13). At the end of the article there is a promised continuation of this topic: “I hope to write in another letter about those of our pupils and pupils, as well as about all of our youth, who are seeking light in Curonian Spit and Vidzeme.” Unfortunately, this topic was not further developed by J. Jablonskis in Varpe. 3.2. History of Lithuania Publications related to Lithuanian history consist mainly of reviews of various books and studies. J. Jablonskis reviews not only Lithuanian works, but also Russian, Polish and German scientific publications or at least those that are in the process of becoming such. The principles of scientific analysis were highly valued by J. Jablonski. Already discussing the work of the IX Congress of Russian archaeologists (1893, No. 9) and calling for participation in the X Congress, he wrote that "during the congress all kinds of ancient researches can be read, if they are based on a scientific basis". that “scientific basis” is also sought in the discussion of the reports of the aforementioned congress. Historians of science will find useful J. Jablonski’s remarks about the organization of the congress itself in Vilnius. It turns out that it was prepared and the material was collected “not through experts in the subject and true pioneers of the region, but through teachers (they are all gangreit hired Russifiers), through village scribes (Russians) and through Russian priests and finally... through the police” (Jr I: 16). Important remarks about the languages used in the congress – although there were three languages of the congress (Russian, German, French), but people from the territory of Russia at that time had to speak only Russian at the congress: only scholars from abroad were allowed to read papers in German or French. J. Jablonskis points out that many Lithuanian and Polish archaeologists did not take part in the congress because they did not accept the proposals of the organizers. Of the 80 papers read at the congress, he discusses three, focusing on a. bezzenbergeri 34 Languages Culture | 83 report "on the ancient antiquity of the land of East Prussia". According to J. Jablonski, this scientist denied the idea of many Russian speakers that the origin of the Russian nation should be found in the Prussian coast, and on the contrary – proved that “in the Lithuanian provinces and many places where Belarusians now live, our compatriots had their homes at least 7000 years ago. According to this opinion, which is now accepted everywhere, our country cannot be called "искони русскiй край (Russian country since centuries)", as our reformers would like. This paper shows that our whole country has been purely Lithuanian since time immemorial.” (Jr I: 22). Separate reviews are devoted to Pavel Briancev’s book Очеркъ древней Литвы и западной России (Vilna, 1891) and the work of theobaldas Litovskoязыческie очерки (Vilna, 1890). both these works were discussed in the 10th issue of Varpas in 1893. J. Jablonskis looks at the works under review with the eyes of a critic. According to J. Jablonski, the author of the first study, “as a true reformer, wants all Lithuanians to cease to be what they want to be and completely turn into Russians; In writing his textbook he persuades his readers that our ancestors were already gangreit provoslavs, always turned and had to turn into Russians” (Jr I: 23). in many places of the review attention is drawn to the bias of the author of the study: distortion or silence of historical facts, speaking about what favors the prejudice of the reviewer. The work of Theobaldo is not appreciated. Here, applying the criterion of scientificity, errors are found, linked to several reasons: 1) theobaldas did not know Lithuanian, therefore in several places gives wrong interpretations (e.g., naming the Lithuanians of Veliuona Vilnius); 2) the author speaks about publications with which he is not familiar (for example, he claims that the collection of songs by F. Fortunatov and V. Miller was translated from German, while in fact the songs were recorded from Lithuanian producers); 3) the author is unable to critically evaluate previously published works, therefore he continues to spread obvious mistakes and errors. Summarizing, J. Jablonskis writes: “If any Lithuanian would like to use this book, he should not forget, however, that with the medega, which has been included in this collection, one has to be very careful: all kinds of ancient remains are mixed up in it, and they cannot be believed anywhere.” (Jr I: 27). Generally speaking, Jablonski gave a positive review of Volyniak’s book Bazylianie na žmudzi (1894, No. 4), which explains the history of the establishment of the Basilians, the Unitarian monks, in Podlachia and the reasons for the disappearance of this monastery in connection with the uprising of 1831, the so-called Cracow period. However, there is one big reproach: the booklet is dedicated to “all Žemaičiai, who still feel Ms ČePaitIenĖ. "Janusz Jablonski – belfryman (Mintauja, going to Varpa) with 35 Poles" (Jr I: 58). J. Jablonskis states that he does not understand how Lithuanians can be regarded as part of the Polish province, when the Lithuanian nation itself has already changed considerably, has about 10 newspapers, and thus is nationally understood. A particularly good review by J. Jablonski was given to the collection Mitteilungen der Litauischen literarischen Gesellschaft (18th issue), published in Heidelberg. A review of his work was published in the 1893 issue of Varpas. the reviewer introduces readers to the content of the publication, drawing attention to the section prepared by Eduardo Voltaire, from which one can learn “about our books and newspapers; There are also mentioned many brochures and books in which foreigners write about us – our history, literature, language, etc.” (Jr I: 41). J. Jablonskis points out that all chapters are interesting, and he himself takes a closer look at the chapter written by A. Kuršaitis “About the history of Prussian Lithuanians”. Varpo repeats the statistics provided by A. Kuršaitis about the decrease of Lithuanians in Lesser Lithuania, quotes this author’s thoughts about the reasons for the decrease of the number of Lithuanians, and asks the readers: “We would like to know whether the Lithuanians are doing anything against Germanization, how much has been done and with what means” (Jr I: 43). 3.3. The history of Lithuanian scripts While living in Mintauja, J. Jablonskis wrote reviews for Varpai of two Lithuanian publications: Jono Šliūpo book Lietuviszkiejie rasztai ir rasztininkai (Lithuanian writings and writers; 1894, No. 1) and Jono basanavičiaus ethnologiškos smulkmenos (1894, No. 2). As is known, J. Šliūpo book is the first history of Lithuanian literature. In J. Jablonski’s review, this work is generally considered favourably. There are only a few shortcomings of the book: 1) the history of writing is examined separately from the history of the nation; 2) there is a lack of criticism of the discussed writings, since both important and less important authors are discussed equally; 3) the author did not avoid subjectivity when speaking about Antanas Baranauskas and his writings and Lithuanian periodicals. Such subjectivity seems to have been very painful for J. Jablonski. In his review he writes: “The article does not even mention Varpas and Ukininkas, as if when writing about ‘Lithuanian writings and writers’ there were no such newspapers at all. It can be seen that in Mr. M-ja’s[3] eyes black stands lower than all sorts of “letters”, “travellers” and “Zeitung.” (Jr I: 46). The reviewer of the book himself was well acquainted with Lithuanian literature of the time. [3] l. M-jas – Lithuanian Lover (this book by Jon Šliupas was published under this pseudonym). 36 Language Culture | 83 J. Jablonskis looks at the book of Jonas Basanavičius through the eyes of a linguist. His criticisms of the author mainly relate to the poor etymology of the words, since the sound similarity of the words alone is not sufficient to prove their historical commonality. attention is also paid to the language of the book. In the opinion of J. Jablonski, unnecessary quotes are used that have not been translated into Lithuanian: “in this way, Mr. B’s book can be read by a few people, only those who know Latin, Polish, German and Russian in addition to Lithuanian” (Jr I: 55). Another problem concerns the spelling of local names. J. Basanavičius writes unnecessarily Beržinė, Duna, Gartynas, Miniškis instead of Berezina, Dauguva, Grodno, Minsk and others – “we should treat the names of foreign nations as we would like them, i.e. foreign nations, to treat our own names” (Jr I: 56). The reviewer also reproaches the use of another inappropriate word or its form, although basically about J. basanavičius’s linguistic expression he draws the following conclusion: “If we should simply exclaim about Mr. B’s language, then we should say that Mr. B’s writes pretty nicely in Lithuanian, somewhat better than many of our other writers.” (Jr I: 56). Two more articles by J. Jablonski written in Mintauja can be attributed to the theme of the history of Lithuanian writings: „s. The life and writings of Donatas“ (1893, No. 11) and „du Nezabitauskis“ (1893, No. 12). In the first article he presents the biography of Simon Duvan based on three sources: articles of e. Voltaire and d. Silvestritis and data provided by an unknown author. J. Jablonskis briefly explains the reason for the article. regretting that so little space was allocated to S. Dutantas in J. Šliūpas’s book Lietuviškieji raštai ir raštininkai, he tried to fill the gap. The article contains not only the biography of s. daukantas, but also his testament translated into Lithuanian language, a list of works divided into thematic groups. About the Duvan language J. Jablonski only mentions: "wrote in Žemaičių with a considerable mixture of Latvian words and sometimes constructions. [...] If in the language of d-to we sometimes see unfree and difficult phenomena, rather difficult and chosen constructions, then we must again admit that from his writings we can see a great, extraordinary expert of his natural language, not only the living one, but also the ancient one.” (Jr I: 38). The second article introduces a Polish text found in one manuscript, which lists the works of Kajeton and Kyprijon Nezabitauski. J. Jablonskis claims that he himself is familiar with Kiprijona Nezabitauski’s booklet about bees translated from Polish and Kajetono Nezabitauski’s elementary book Novy Mokslas skaytima diel maźū waykū Żemaycziu yr Lietuvos, published in 1824, but feels that he knows too little about Nezabitauski’s works, so he would like to read them. Ms ČePaitIenĖ. Jonas Jablonskis – belfryman (Mintauja, ėjimas į Varpą) 37 writes: “it would be just as pleasant to know more about the life of the Nezabitauskas family (one or another), if that life could explain at least a little about the Lithuanian nationalist movement and literature of that time.” (Jr I: 40). This quotation suggests that the roots of the Lithuanian national movement of the early 19th century and the peculiarities of its expression were important to J. Jablonski. 3.4. Language subjects A large number of Jablonski’s articles are devoted to language subjects. Some of them analyze issues of spelling, etymology and semantics, syntax, others review grammar and dictionaries, and still others provide linguistic analysis of other publications. For the first time in the history of our writing, a discussion on the spelling of the Lithuanian language begins4. In the article “A few more words about our spelling” (1893, No. 1) J. Jablonskis discusses five issues of spelling: the distinction between long and short vowels in writing (i-y, u-ū), the equivalents of the diphthongs ie, uo in dialects and their spelling peculiarities, instead of the Afrikaans č he proposes to use the diphthong ts: “or sheip or teip, we will simply go against grammatical logic, if we persist with the distinction between the letter č, which is used in the Moussian language, and the letter dž in our writings” (Jr III: 6), the spelling of nasal vowels and syllable combinations with n, the so-called softness sign – the letter i after soft consonants. together proposed to the Warp editorial staff to use the alphabet he had created. Mr. Jablonski's proposals were not acceptable to everyone. In the 1893 issue of Varpas, he once again returns to the need to distinguish long and short vowels by letters ("are certain signs needed to express long i and u?"). J. Jablonski writes: "P. sk-dra[5] is greatly mistaken if, not knowing where to write y, he demands that the vowel be completely removed from the spelling of ours. What would happen if everyone, in order to make science easier, would reject everything that he can't do, as something unnecessary and worthless? !” (Jer 3:11). so the linguist was convinced that in the Lithuanian alphabet special characters for long and short vowels were necessary. The previously mentioned and other issues of spelling are discussed again in the article “Dr. J. Basanavyčius’ spelling” (1894, No. 5). In 1884, the Russian newspaper Современные известия published articles (a couple of which appear to have been written by Jablonskis himself) on the Lithuanian alphabet, but they talked about the return to the Latin alphabet, not about the structure of the alphabet (see Piročkinas 1977: 42). [5] sk-dra – M. skiedra (a pseudonym of the doctor and public figure Mikalojus Kuprevičius). 38 Language Culture | 83 bą (J. Jablonskis criticizes J. basanavičius for the proposed introduction of entirely new characters for the Afrikaans [č] and its counterpart for the sharp consonant: this would complicate the alphabet), reproaches are made for the lack of distinction between the sounds [ė·] and [e·] (Basanavičius writes the forms musė and muse equally), the confusion of e and ia (written with green letters „žalia liepelė“ and antelia „antelė“), the lack of distinction between long and short vowels (confusion of the letters i and y), the unnecessary use of the character ů instead of uo. In the 1892 issue of Varpas, J. Jablonski's "Language Matters" focused on clarifying unfounded etymologies. The article is a response to Pruso6’s remarks on Lithuanian lexicon published in several issues of Varpas. Before analyzing the individual words, J. Jab lonski mentions that there are many confusing things in the language, and encourages others to discuss, while wishing that "the polemics that might arise from those articles should always be based on pure science" (Jr IV: 9). The article shows why attempts to associate the words pinigas, kunigas, grašis with the words pynė, kūnas, gręžti are unfounded, based on numerous examples of dialects, the opinion is refuted that the word trūkti did not have the meaning of “lacking”, what the word tardymas means is explained, an example from K. donelaitis is given to prove its use, and the type of action is explained with other words; According to the correspondence of sounds it is shown that the name of the Lithuanian prince cannot be olkertas and that it cannot be related to the compound uolą kertu (the linguist himself calls algirdas algirdis). In the continuation of this article (1892, No. 12; 1893, No. 5) J. Jablonskis explains which words should be used to replace the popular borrowed words of that time (rēdas, parēdas... urēdas), as well as the semantic connection of some words with their constructional characteristics. based on the structure of the base words rejects as inappropriate construction the words rašėjas, prekiautojas, and in their place proposes writer and merchant or merchant, proposes to use the words pirkinys (instead of tavoras), prekymetis (instead of metturgis, formed according to the example of the German language), tautietis (instead of viengentis, vientautis – they are allegedly adjectives), velionis (not Slavic borrowed nabašninkas). It is explained that according to the laws of Lithuanian language it is not possible to form the adjectives draugijinis, tikėjimoiškas, patriotiškas and it is proposed to use instead of them compounds with the incompatible sign: draugijos reikalai, tikėjimo dalykas, tėvynės varpai (Jr IV: 14–20). Speaking of verbs, the linguist indicates that the avoidable Slavic suffix -avoti. 6 Prusas is the pseudonym of the doctor and writer Vincas Petras.