P. Slavėnas ir žodis „komunizmas“

(Zarasų raj.) and Apvdimai (Telšių raj.). In the opinion of Prof. L. Mulevičius, the word apydėmė now has more than one lexical meaning: not only “a plot of land between rural farms or on their outskirts- ”, but also “the place of a former farm; sodybvietė’. The latter is not even included in the large Lithuanian language dictionary. | In 1979, the Institute of History held a public discussion on the names of castes, because the privileged caste of the Lithuanian feudal period was called two ways: the nobility and the slaughter. Summarizing this discussion, Prof. L. Mulevičius wrote an article in which he affirmed that in Lithuania during the period of feudalism and capitalism there were four main classes: clergy, barons, townspeople and peasants. Otherwise they are called the terms clergy, baronship, bourgeoisie and peasantry. Prof. L. Mulevičius was also interested in philology, but he did not give his opinion to anyone, he was a very tolerant, in Vydūn’s words, sunny person. Unfortunately, we have to talk about his activities in the past tense. It has already become the history of Lithuanian science. Kazimieras GAIVENIS P. Slavėnas and the word communism Prof. P. Slavėnas (1901—1991), a renowned Lithuanian astronomer, was a scientist with a wide range of interests. He was interested not only in astronomy, physics and natural sciences, but also in linguistics. Slavėnas was a member of the Presidium of the Terminology Council of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences for several years. P. Slaven was a great erudite. He could spend hours telling linguists about astronomy, but about his ne theories of linguistics. He was well acquainted ne with only ancient languages, but ir with many modern foreign languages, and he liked to compare them to make far-reaching generalizationir s. Especially P. Slaven liked to compare the Baltic ne languagsu es only ir with the Germanic Slavic languages, but even ir su Semitic, Turkish and ir other distant Indo-European ne languages. Even a specialist ir had difficulty in understanding what was rational in those theories and jo what was fantasy. However, the professor, as o befits a great scientist, was very tolerant and would not be angry if linguists always believed ir in reasoning. ir ne jo He liked to predict the future in ir speech. On this subject he had written an article for “Language Culture”, which, with some corrections 76 and abbreviations, was printed in the 35th notebook. Here is what P. Slavėnas wrote and what analogies he relied on: “The differences between old and new European languages can be explained not by old and new, but by neighborhood with other language families. The Semites and their relative tribes have used little articles since time immemorial, whereas the Finno-Ugric people have had and still have several dozen articles. The Greeks, along with the Semitic Phoenicians, simplified their spelling early and became accustomed to the article, while the Balts and Slavs along with the Finno-Ugrics still spell as in ancient times. By the way, the Swedes, along with the Finns, have not recovered complex conjugation, but they often attach the article at the end of a noun as if it were a conjugation ending” and so on. The future of the Lithuanian language was further predicted: "First of all, the variety of dialects will narrow, especially with the empowerment of the nobleman. Instead, the use of prepositions will increase. In addition, some nouns will take on the role of prepositions. So we will forge a nail with a hammer, with the help of a hammer; the patient will die of cholera” and so on. Here, too, the realities of language development are intertwined with scientific knowledge, and it is difficult, in the words of human language, to discern where the beginning and where the end are. Around ne 1970 P. Slavėnas began compiling his own dictionary of astronomical terms based on the Polish multilingual dictionary of astronomical terms. He worked for several years, constantly coming į The Institute ir of Lithuanian Language and Literature to consult with terminologists on one or another matter. Once for the dictionary A. A scholar known to Lyber sent iš abroad the great Webster's English Dictionary. These parcels were not delivered by the post for a long time (such parcels usually arrived at a special post office located in Vilnius, near the railway station). We all started to browse the huge dictionary we had brought, guessing what could have “stumbled” in it. At that very moment Mr. Slavenas entered our office. And he started looking at the dictionary. "We shall see," says A. Lyber, "how it defines the word communism. In that Webster's dictionary, some words had not only synonyms but also antonyms. The word "communism" was added. synonym of anarchism. Mr. Slavenas laughed: "Anarchism- !" Not anarchism, but authoritarianism, a terrible and ugly autocracy. It has been more than 20 years since those words were said. Mr. Slaven has long gone to the land of Hades. But his openness and openness in those times of Tempus nostrum jubet silentium is now fascinating. ir K. GAIVENIS "Our times dictate silence. 77