Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos

From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission 317 REVIEWS, REVIEWS, INFORMATION FROM THE STATE LITHUANIAN ACTIVITIES OF THE LANGUAGE COMMITTEE (Prepared according to the 2008 report of the Language Commission) Language Programs & Courses Three language programmes were further implemented: “Legal and Administrative Supervision of the State Language”, the Programme for the Preservation of Dialects and Ethnic Place Names 2001-2010 and the Programme for the Standardization, Use, Education and Dissemination of the State Language 2006-2015. The programme of preservation of dialects and ethnic place names was implemented by 7 institutions. Two modern electronic tools completed in 2008 are worth mentioning – the computer dictionary Lithuanian dialects. III dalis / Lithuanian dialects. Volume III (Lithuanian Language Institute) and North-East Vilnius Area Dialect Material Database (Vilnius University). Furthermore, an electronic search system for dialect data (based on the Lithuanian Language Atlas) was developed, and texts of various dialects and dialects were prepared for research and teaching purposes. 33 institutions carried out the programme of standardization, use, education and dissemination of the state language. Particular attention is paid to the language education and education of the public, the dissemination of language norms. The third volume of the dictionary World Placenames – Africa has been prepared. Antarctica. Australia. Oceania. In 2008, 2,554 publications of 62 titles – dictionaries of terms, editions of ancient writing monuments, monographs, language practices and other publications intended for public education, education, science and study purposes – were handed over free of charge to the public libraries of higher university schools, colleges, county, state and municipal public libraries. From the programme funds 318 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 supported electronic versions of ten dictionaries of terms, preparation of language teaching materials, teaching of specialty language in higher education institutions, state language courses for non-Lithuanian residents, etc. The State Commission for the Lithuanian Language has prepared a draft guidelines for the State Language Policy 2009-2013. The aim of the guidelines is to foresee changes in the use of Lithuanian as a state language in 2009–2013 and the related main goals and tasks of language policy in various areas of state and social life. The draft was prepared on the basis of the new draft of the State Language Act, therefore the Seimas should consider the draft guidelines only after the adoption of the new law. The opinion of the Language Commission on the compatibility of the provisions of the National Language and the National Minorities Act governing public inscriptions (in this case street names) has been submitted to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and other state institutions. It was emphasized that the National Minorities Act does not legalize the possibility of providing street names in a language other than the state language, therefore the statements of some politicians about the inconsistency of the provisions of the aforementioned laws are unfounded. The opinion of the Language Commission, presented to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Ministry of Education and Science, is that the draft law on the amendment of the Education Act provides for the transition to teaching some subjects in the state language according to the basic and secondary education programmes in schools where educational programmes are currently conducted in the languages of national minorities, which would help the pupils of those schools to learn the state language at the required level, which would give them equal opportunities to acquire a profession and compete on the labour market and integrate into the country’s society. In 2008, the Language Commission prepared three draft resolutions of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Particularly important is the resolution1, by which state research institutions were obliged to provide term articles to the Lithuanian term bank managed by the State Lithuanian Language Commission (until then such obligations were only held by ministries and government agencies), and such activity was also recommended for state universities. 1 Valstybės žinios, 2008, No. 67-2530. 319 On 19 April 2008, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania decided to uphold the decision of the Vilnius District Administrative Court of 22 June 2007, by which the decision of the Vilnius District Municipality to register the name of the educational institution Lavoriškių Emilii Plater Secondary School in Vilnius was declared unlawful. At the request of the Language Commission and the Language Inspection, the Government representative in Vilnius County prevented the non-registerable name from becoming legal, appealing the municipal council’s decision to the district administrative court. The Bureau of the Committee on European Affairs of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania has received proposals on how to improve the language quality of translation of European Union documents and Lithuanian legislation based on the provisions of those documents by legal and organizational means. On December 23, the Language Commission held a round table discussion “Pedagogues’ language. Problems and solutions". The representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Language Commission and the Language Inspection, who participated in the conversation, emphasized that a large number of teachers in general education schools take too little care about their language correctness. The participants discussed what legal and methodological measures would encourage teachers to improve their language. In 2008, more than 48 000 approved, to be submitted or not to be submitted term articles were uploaded to the information system of the term bank of the Republic of Lithuania, of which 43 000 term articles (that is, data from term dictionaries in various fields) were uploaded to the interim database of the term bank. In 2008, 1396 terms articles of legislative acts were published in the Terms Bank (http://terminai.vlkk.lt) (1251 approved terms, 54 to be submitted, 91 not to be submitted). In total, 92,449 terms are published by the bank. In 2008, Lithuanian names of woody, fibrous, resinous, tannic and other plants used for technical purposes (1397 names) were published in the term bank. It is also supplemented with data from the glossary Engineers, technicians and technologists, Explanatory glossary of qualification system terms, Encyclopedia of Political Science. Total added 1365 terms articles. 320 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 In 2008, there were 7 meetings of the Language Commission. 102 meetings of subcommissions were held: Terminology subcommission – 47, Textbook subcommission – 18, Spelling, punctuation and grammar subcommission – 16, Namebook subcommission – 15 (of which 5 together with the Advice and spelling subcommission), Advice and spelling subcommission – 3, Special language programmes preparation groups – 2, Dictionary subcommission – 1. About 160 expert opinions on personal names, place names, terms and concepts, names of companies, institutions and organizations, language of documents, etc., have been prepared for various institutions and individuals. Termination. During the meetings of the Language Commission, 6 terminology dictionaries were considered and positively evaluated, 18 terminology standards were approved. During the meetings of the Terminology Subcommittee, 6 terminology dictionaries, 19 terminology standards, terms of 15 laws, 10 government decrees and other legislative acts submitted by terminology commissions of state institutions (a total of 1204 term articles) were discussed. The list of invertebrate names received as a request from the European Commission’s terminologists was considered; golf terms, dentistry terms, new Radioelectronics Terms Dictionary terms, etc. 2568 names of plants (ornamental plants, plants used for technical purposes, feed plants, medicinal plants, etc.) were considered. Recommendation “On Lithuanian names of woody, fibrous, resinous, tannic and other plants used for technical purposes” was published and approved by the State Lithuanian Language Commission’s protocol resolution of 25 June 20082. About 800 consultations on terminology, foreign words, translation were provided by e-mail and telephone. Grammar, spelling and punctuation. A working group was formed to review the spelling rules of the Lithuanian language (A. Kazlauskienė, N. Linkevičienė, A. Malakauskas, R. Rinkauskienė, N. Sližienė, D. Vaišnienė). In the meetings of the group, based on drafts of solutions to problematic issues prepared by 10 experts, the following issues were discussed: the writing of nasal letters in word roots, the writing of short and long vowels in verb roots and vedic discussionable cases, the writing of Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian words and elements together and separately, the formation and spelling of abbreviations and acronyms, the writing of capital letters, etc. Work is planned to continue in 2009. Personnages et personnages. In the meetings of the Subcommittee of the Names Register, the origin and pronunciation of Baltic diphthong names, new names were discussed2 Informaciniai pranešimai, 2008, Nr. 47-655. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission 321 issues of evaluation of names related to the electronic database of names of Lithuanian citizens, issues of codification of several place names in Northern Lithuania, the dictionary World Place Names 3-volume Africa published on behalf of the Language Commission. Antarctica. Australia. Oceania Placenames. More than 60 conclusions on the correctness of residential areas, water names, street names were submitted to municipalities. More than 40 certificates of identity of personal names were submitted to various institutions and individuals. Spelling. On October 2, protocol decisions on the pronunciation of certain polysyllabic nouns of foreign origin, adverbial adjectives and adverbs were adopted. In addition to the newly added features, the game has been upgraded with new graphics. Evaluation of textbooks. On 3 April, the Decision “On the Amendment of the Decision of the State Lithuanian Language Commission of 29 May 2003 “On the Approval of the Description of the Procedure for Assessing the Language Correctness of Textbooks for General Education Subjects” was adopted3. The resolution includes provisions on the evaluation of vocational training textbooks by the Language Commission. The textbook evaluation subcommittee considered 80 textbook manuscripts (186 manuscript books, of which 139 were for general education and 47 for vocational education). The mark confirming the correctness of language was immediately given to 98 textbooks for general education and 8 for vocational training. 41 general education and 39 vocational education textbooks were returned to publishers for correction. 1 general education and 8 vocational education textbooks did not receive correctness marks (after two corrections, the language quality was considered unsatisfactory, so the textbooks will not be considered anymore). Lexicon. On October 2, the protocol resolution “On the recommendation “On the names of the inhabitants of states”4 was adopted. A list of names of people of all countries of the world is presented, taking into account the laws of word formation, consumption needs and tendencies. OTHER WORK At the beginning of the year, a letter was sent to the presidents and rectors of the senates of universities and academies regarding the teaching of the specialty language. Requested to submit duo3 Valstybės žinios, 2008, No. 42-1602. 4 Information notices, 2008, No. 79-1018. 322 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 arts, at what level (compulsory, optional or freely elective) according to the new study programmes in each higher education institution is taught the language of specialty and how many credits are allocated to it. The answers show that the higher education institutions are trying to follow the recommendations of the Language Commission’s Model Specialty Language Programme. A working group formed by the Language Commission prepared a draft of the language programme for the specialty of pedagogical studies. The Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, his deputies, the Chairman of the State Administration and Municipalities Committee were addressed about some of the terms provided in the draft Local Self-Government Act: the unusual word municipality used in the meaning of an administrative unit of the territory, about foreign sources and ethnographic curve. The opinion of the commission on the cold and the curve was taken into account. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania has been asked to ensure that the term alienation is not used in translations of European Union documents. The attention of the Ministry was drawn to the fact that this is not the first case of ignoring the common Lithuanian language norms and creating a new – Brussels – variant of Lithuanian. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has instructed the above-mentioned institutions not to use the alienation troika, now provided in the EU database (IATE) trio. The responsible state authorities and mobile telecommunications companies have been consulted on the support of Lithuanian characters in mobile phones. On February 28, the Ministry of Culture discussed the situation and prospects of the Lithuanian language in the electronic space. Mobile operators have decided to provide consumers with more information about which mobile phone models support Lithuanian characters. Letters have been sent to the Council of Judges and the Ministry of Justice regarding the unregulated provision of language expertise. It was proposed to solve the problem by organizational means – to include Lithuanian and other language specialists in the list of court experts. View twenty-seven higher education diplomas, their supplements, supplements and certificates (over 500 pages). There have been comments on their speech. In 2008, about 33 000 language consultations were provided, of which 13 160 online and 19 650 by telephone. Approximately 130 questions are answered per day. In 2008, the database of the online Language Consultation Bank was supplemented with more than 400 new entries (now it contains over 7800 heading words). Monthly 323 summarizes the results of the searches carried out by the bank’s visitors, compiles the top 20 of the most relevant questions for the public, and publishes it in the News section of the Commission’s website. The State Language Standardization, Use, Education and Dissemination Programme 2006-2015 supported LTV2 channel program “Pocket of Words” (52 shows), LNK television program “Word is not a sparrow” (52 shows), Alytus regional television program “In Search of the Word” (52 shows). Funded the thematic pages of the magazine “Native Language” “Standartization and supervision of the state language”. Support thematic pages of the magazines Gimtasis žodis, Žvirblių takas. The publishing of Lithuanian pages of Visaginas newspaper V každyj dom was financed. An overview of the sociological study “Language at work” commissioned by the Language Commission has been prepared and presented for mother tongue. In early 2008, the third National Dictation Competition was held. The Language Commission assisted the weekly newspaper Atgimimas, which organized the event, as a partner and sponsor. Visitors to the website of the Language Commission chose the most beautiful Lithuanian word between the first and second rounds of the National Dictation. The most beautiful chosen thank you, the most intrusive icons recognized in that sense. In order to encourage students to use Lithuanian characters and correct Lithuanian language in electronic media, on February 27, a competition “Clean head – clean language” was held directly online. It was attended by about 2,500 pupils of grades 7-8 from all Lithuanian schools. At the end of 2007, the Lithuanian Language Society, supported by the State Lithuanian Language Commission, organized the second Language Cleanliness Days – monitoring the autumn season television broadcasts. On 26 January 2008, the Language Commission presented the results of the Language Cleanliness Days to the representatives of the televisions. It was emphasized that too little attention is paid to the correctness of the language of entertainment programmes hosts and regular participants. Received 25/11/2009 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ State Lithuanian Language Commission Žvejų g. 14A, LT-09310 Vilnius [email protected]