Eglė MAKARŪNIENĖ

PHYSICS PUBLICATIONS – THE BASIS OF TERMINOLOGICAL DICTIONARIES

Physics books in Lithuanian began to be published in the late nineteenth century, as national revival gathered momentum. The publication of these books went hand in hand with the development of the language of the natural sciences, especially physics, and the creation of Lithuanian terms. The terminology of each field of science has its own distinctive development. The first technical and physics terms can be found as early as the second half of the nineteenth century in the calendars of J. Zavadskis and L. Jakimavičius [1], in articles on technical subjects published in “Keleivis” [2], and in the natural science booklets of P. Vileišis, a prominent figure in Lithuania’s national revival. He also wrote the first Lithuanian physics textbook, published under the pseudonym P. Neris [3].

As physics textbooks began to be published, physics terms were created and the language of physics began to emerge (Prof. P. Brazdžiūnas has written about the development of Lithuanian physics terminology [4]). It would therefore be interesting to survey the publication of physics books chronologically. For this purpose, I have relied on the index of physics publications issued between 1899 and 1992, provided in “The Register of Lithuanian Physicists and Astronomers” [5]. This is not a comprehensive bibliography of physics literature. It primarily covers books written in Lithuanian by Lithuanian authors and published by Lithuanian publishers. The exceptions are chapters in monographs. The list does not reflect scientific or popular science articles, which, especially the latter, were undoubtedly written in Lithuanian and influenced the development of the language of physics.

All publications are represented in histograms (fig.), divided into eight groups. We will briefly discuss each group.

The first publication in the first histogram is the aforementioned physics textbook by P. Vileišis [3]. The dashed line marks I. Končius’s physics textbook, prepared for publication in 1919 but never published. One can imagine the shortage of physics terms that the author of that textbook faced. In a letter found in the textbook manuscript, written in Vero (1917.VIII.4), I. Končius explained why he had to prepare it so hastily: “<...> I would not have written a physics handbook so quickly—I would have studied more myself and waited until I had coined some terms” [6], but the textbook was urgently needed. In this

20

textbook, the terms used and coined, as well as the first physics terminology dictionary prepared by I. Končius, have already been discussed [7]. Next came K. Šakenis’s physics textbook (1920), which went through five editions; two editions of P. Mašiotas’s textbook (1922); the first textbook devoted to meteorology published in Lithuania, by I. Končius, who called it applied physics (1924); and J. Dragūšas’s textbook for primary schools (1925). Since 1940, we have all studied from the physics textbooks prepared by K. Baršauskas and his co-authors, which continued to be published for a long time (the last in 1960). Later, until as late as 1992, physics was taught from textbooks translated from Russian (translators included L. Kulviecas, E. Juškienė, and others). There were, of course, many “teaching aids” (by S. Jakutis, V. Valentinavičius, and others)—publications for teachers and pupils that supplemented the physics curriculum. It was not until three decades later that an original physics textbook by V. Valentinavičius, for grade VIII, was published again (1992).

The second histogram presents physics textbooks for higher education institutions. Their publication is linked to the establishment of the University of Lithuania in Kaunas. The first publications were lecture notes for students. Probably the greatest number were published between 1923 and 1928. These included lecture notes and descriptions of laboratory work by K. Šliūpas, V. Čepinskis, A. Žvironas, and I. Končius. From 1934, P. Brazdžiūnas’s lecture notes were published every other year. The series concluded with P. Brazdžiūnas’s book on modern physics, “Naujoji fizika: Spinduliavimas ir materija” (1941). The first physics book of the postwar years was “Fizikos praktikos darbai” (1948, 2nd ed.), edited by P. Brazdžiūnas.

A general physics textbook for higher education institutions by A. Žvironas was prepared for publication, but we know of it only from A. Žvironas’s letters [8] and the minutes of meetings of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at VU [9]. The manuscript disappeared when A. Žvironas was arrested. It is marked with a dashed line in the histogram.

In the postwar years, students studied from their lecturers’ notes and physics textbooks in Russian; some of these were later translated into Lithuanian as well. From 1960 onward, original textbooks written by lecturers at higher education institutions (VVU, VPI, LŽŪA, KPI) began to appear one after another. Lecture notes for individual physics courses, the so-called “teaching aids,” were also published. Only some of them are included in the histogram.

21

In addition to publishing textbooks, attention was also devoted to questions of physics teaching methodology. The third histogram shows the publications by H. Jonaitis, S. Jakutis, V. Valentinavičius, and their colleagues.

Popular physics booklets (the fourth histogram) began to be published at almost the same time as K. Šakenis’s physics textbook. These were P. Mašiotas’s booklets, which he called “light science stories” (1922, 1923). From 1936 onward, S. Dabušis’s books about electricity, Franklin and Edison, physics in the form of conversations, and other topics were published, prepared in accordance with Western literature. In the first postwar years, few popular physics booklets appeared. They were written by K. Baršauskas (1946, 1947), G. Lechemas (1955, 1957), and others. Booklets translated from Russian were also published. Until 1973, the series “I Want to Know” and the “To Help the Lecturer” brochures of the “Žinija” society were published. They were written by university lecturers and research staff at institutes. They are not shown in the histogram. In 1973, the “Physics School” series began publication. By 1990, 16 booklets had been published. These included both translations and original booklets by Lithuanian scientists. Their authors were K. Konstantinavičius, R. Karazija, A. Matulionis, R. Baltramiejūnas, A. Ažusienis, and K. Valacka. L. Klimka and colleagues (1975–77), and R. Karazija (1977, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1992) published a considerable number of popular science books. The subject matter of these publications was highly varied: semiconductors, lasers and their applications, microcalculators, nuclear energy, radioactivity, and other highly topical questions in physics.

The fifth histogram presents scientific works—monographs. These include books by Prof. A. Jucys, B. Styra and their colleagues and students; books by individual authors from the Semiconductor Physics Institute; collections of thematic works by research teams, edited by J. Požela and published in the series “Electrons in Semiconductors”; and works by KPI researchers on ultrasound and the physics of surface phenomena. All these books were written in Russian; some were translated into English, and consequently had no direct influence on the Lithuanian language of physics or on the development of its terminology.

Works on the history of physics and biographies (the sixth histogram) began to appear in greater numbers from 1976, when the history of Vilnius University was published to mark the 400th anniversary of our Alma Mater. Its

22

three volumes contain detailed chapters on physics at Vilnius University. The histogram also shows two fairly substantial articles from 1930–1940: one by I. Končius, dedicated to K. Šliūpas (1934), and one by A. Žvironas on T. von Grothus and his investigations of the Smardonė springs (1938). At the end of the 1960s, books devoted to individual scientists began to appear: K. Baršauskas (1969), T. Žebrauskas (1986), P. Brazdžiūnas (1990, 1992), I. Končius (1992), V. Čepinskis (1992), P. Vilčinskis (1992, 1993), and A. Žvironas (1992). Separate stages in the development of the history of physics in Lithuania are surveyed in books by I. Šenavičienė, H. Jonaitis, A. Piročkinas, A. Šidlauskas, and L. Klimka. They examine the development not only of physics as a science but also of physics education, from the earliest times to the present day.

The sixth histogram is complemented by the seventh, which presents bibliographies. Some list scientific publications from a particular perspective (“Dissertations by Lithuanian Scientists: 1945–1968” (1971), “Bibliography of Publications on the History of Natural Sciences and Technology: 1940–1971” (1973)); others are personal bibliographies. Many such bibliographies were published by the central Library of the Academy of Sciences, institutes of the Academy of Sciences, and higher education institutions. These include bibliographies of K. Baršauskas (1969), A. Jucys (1981), B. Styra (1983), P. Slavėnas (1983), A. Bolotinas (1985), J. Požela (1985, 1987), P. Brazdžiūnas (1987), H. Jonaitis (1988), A. Žvironas (1988), K. Šopauskas (1989), I. Končius (1990), H. Horodničius (1990), V. Čepinskis (1992), and others.

The last, eighth histogram concerns physics terminology dictionaries. Such dictionaries begin to be compiled once a language of science has been established and has reached a certain stage of development, when it becomes necessary to systematize the terms used in scientific language. I. Končius recognized this need when, while writing a physics textbook and, later, a meteorology textbook, he accumulated a sufficient number of terms. I. Končius’s glossary is bilingual (Lithuanian–Russian) and contains about 1,600 terms. It was printed in the newspaper “Lietuva” (1923) and the journal “Švietimo darbas” (1924) [7]. A trilingual physics dictionary (about 2,000 terms) compiled by lecturers from the VDU Department of Physics might have represented a particular stage in the development of physics terminology, but due to a lack of funds it never saw the light of day. We know about it only from I. Končius and A. Žvironas [10], and P. Braz-

23

džiūnas’s [4] publications. Work on the organization and standardization of terminology continued at Vilnius University during the years of occupation. About 4,000 terms were collected, of which A. Žvironas wrote in an appendix to his autobiography dated January 8, 1954: “Physics terms. A collective ten-year effort by physicists: several thousand terms were compiled in Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, German, French, and English. In 1943, the card index was transferred to the Academy of Sciences” [11].

In the postwar years, lecturers and professors at higher education institutions—A. Jucys, A. Puodžiukynas, H. Horodničius, and J. Stanaitis—actively engaged in work on physics terminology. As they taught newly emerging subjects in physics, they were the first to feel the shortage of physics terms. The principal organizer of work on physics terminology and long-serving chair of the Physics Terminology Commission was P. Brazdžiūnas. His contributions in this field are described in the book “Academician Povilas Brazdžiūnas” [12].

After the aggressive pressure of the Russian language on the language of physics was felt, the importance of urgently compiling and publishing a physics terminology dictionary was raised at a national meeting of Lithuanian physicists in 1954. A team of physicists assembled by P. Brazdžiūnas (P. Brazdžiūnas, H. Horodničius, H. Jonaitis, A. Puodžiukynas, J. Zdanys) promptly set about compiling a bilingual Lithuanian–Russian physics terminology dictionary [13]. It contained about 3,500 terms. It can be said that some of the terms approved by lecturers in the physics departments of VDU and VU were used in compiling that dictionary.

After the dictionary was published, work on physics terminology continued. A large team of physicists and linguists spent more than ten years compiling a four-language physics terminology dictionary. First, a two-volume rotaprint draft was published for discussion [14], followed later by an expanded and revised edition containing about 19,000 terms [15]. On this occasion, A. Puodžiukynas, who took a keen interest in the compilation and publication of terminology dictionaries, wrote to P. Brazdžiūnas in a letter (1975.VII.18): “It is gratifying that you are finishing the hard-laborious work of preparing the dictionary. I think that the technical burden is harder to bear than the subject-matter burden when publishing it. This is an ill-defined ‘public service’ <...>. Terminology is a very important matter. Without it, the native language cannot survive in schools. The second step would be to publish a concise explanatory physics dictionary” [16].

24

Histograms of physics publications, 1899–1993

At present, as though guided by P. Braziūnas’s view that, in addition to “Dictionaries of the basic terms of every science, dictionaries of modest size should also be prepared for its newest branches, listing the latest terms that are still little used <...>. The newest branches of physics are studied in Lithuania <...>. Specialists in those fields of physics ought to prepare small glossaries of the latest terms. Small explanatory glossaries of individual scientific fields are greatly needed, and could be used not only by the scientific community but also by <...> the general public” [4]; separate groups of physicists have published glossaries on laser physics, kinescope manufacturing, and communications technology, and are preparing multilingual glossaries of radiophysics and radioelectronics.

It would seem that we now have a basis for beginning to compile an explanatory dictionary of physics terms, and thus continuing the work of developing the language of Lithuanian physics and standardizing physics terminology, cultivated by the physics professors who came before us.

Literatūra

1. Fizikos istorija Lietuvoje (1579–1940) / Aut. kolektyvas, ats. red. H. Jonaitis. V.: Mokslas, 1988. P. 98.

2. Kaulakienė A. Mokslo kalbos užuomazgos “Keleivyje” // Lietuvių leksikos ir terminologijos problemos: Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai. V., 1991. T. 29. P. 80–91.

3. Neris P. Populiarizskas rankvedis fizikos. Šenandoras: Dirva, 1899. 99 p.

4. Braziūnas P. Fizikos lietuviškosios terminijos kūrimas // Kalbos kultūra. 1983. Nr. 44. P. 4–8.

5. Makariūnienė E., Klimka L. Lietuvos fizikų ir astronomų sąvadas. V.: FI, 1994. 146 p.

6. Končius I. Fizika // VUBR Fl–Fl039. L. 114.

7. Kaulakienė A. Pagrindiną dėsimę lietuviškus terminus. I. Končiaus “Terminai fizikos reikalams” // Fizikų žinios. 1992. Nr. 2. P. 23–25; jos pačios Lietuvių fizikos terminografijos pradmenys // Lituanistica, 1993. Nr. 1(13). P. 32–43; jos pačios Vienas iš šimto profesoriaus I. Končiaus nuopelnų // Fizikų žinios. 1994. Nr. 6. P. 28–31.

8. Antanas Žvironas. Vilniaus kalėjimuose ir Pečioroje / Sud. S. Žvironaitė. 1992. 103 p.

9. Antanas Žvironas: Literatūros rodyklė / Sud. E. Makariūnienė. V.: FI, 1988, D. 2. P. 21–22.

10 Končius I. Fizikos terminai // Gamta. 1938. T. 3. Nr. 4. P. 258–260; A. Žvironas. Redaktoriaus prierašas // Ten pat. P. 260–261.

11 Antanas Žvironas: Literatūros rodyklė / Sud. E. Makariūnienė. V.: FI, 1988.

25

D. 1. P. 9.

12 Keinys S. Akademikas P. Brazdžiūnas ir mūsų terminologija // Akademikas Pavilas Brazdžiūnas. V.: Academia, 1992. P. 95–101.

13 Fizikos terminų žodynas / Aut. kolektyvas; Red. P. Brazdžiūnas. V.: Valst. polit. ir moksl. lit. l-kla, 1958. 123 p.

14 Fizikos terminų žodynas / Aut. kolektyvas; Red. P. Brazdžiūnas. V.: 1971–1973. D. 1. A–L. 419 p.; D. 2. M–Ž. 588 p.

15 Fizikos terminų žodynas / Aut. kolektyvas; Red. P. Brazdžiūnas. V.: Mokslas, 1979. 680 p.

16 Naruševičienė B. Antanas Puodžiukynas // Fizikų žinios. 1993. Nr. 4. P. 24–26.

26