LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 28, No.1 - Spring 1982 Editor of this issue: Antanas Klimas ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 1982 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

EARLY LITHUANIAN GRAMMARS

WILLIAM R. SCHMALSTIEG

The earliest Lithuanian texts are an anonymous Lord's Prayer (poteris) and some hymns dating from the beginning of the sixteenth century. The oldest known prayers in Lithuanian were discovered in the University of Vilnius library in the year 1962 by O. Matusevičiūtė on the last page of a Latin book Tractatus sacerdotalis published in 1503. These prayers, the Lord's Prayer, a Hail Mary and a Confession of Faith, were written in by hand probably around the year 1515. (Senn, 1966, 53.) They are written with Dzūkish (East Lithuanian) dialect features. You may recall from Chapter 2 that this means the pronunciation of c (ts) for č (English ch) and dz for dž and an assibilation of t to c and d to dz before ĭ type vowels. Thus for standard Lithuanian (ace. sg.) atleidimą 'forgiveness,' (ace. sg.) dieną 'day' and tikiu 'I believe' we encounter athleijdzijmu, dzenu and czijkiju respectively. (See Palionis, 1979, 34.) Lebedys, 1977, 36, has a picture of this text and he comments that this confirms the suppositions that not only in the first half of the 16th, but in the 15th century also there existed Lithuanian religious texts in manuscript form. The entire text is transcribed and translated into the modern language in Lebedys, 1972, 35-37. These earlier texts were surely used by such authors as A. Kulvietis, S. Rapolionis, M. Mažvydas, M. Daukša and others.

MARTYNAS MAŽVYDAS

The earliest printed book in Lithuanian is Martynas Mažvydas' Katechismusa prasty žadei, makslas skaitima rašta yr giesmes which we might translate as Simple words of the Catechism, the Art [skill] of Reading, and Writing, and Hymns. This book appeared in 1547 in Königsberg. (This city is known in Lithuanian as Karaliaučius, in Latin as Regiomons, and after World War II was renamed Kaliningrad in Russian.) Mažvydas' Catechism was printed in the press of Hans Weinreich, the same press which had printed the First and Second Old Prussian catechisms two years earlier. All of these books owed their existence to the last of the grand masters of the Teutonic knights, Albrecht (1490-1568; or Albert in English) who in 1525 secularized his realm and declared himself to be the first Prussian duke. He came out publicly for the Protestant faith (the new Lutheran Christianity) and did whatever he could in order to propagate it.

There were apparently between 200 and 300 copies of this book (Ročka, 1974, 54), although from this fairly large number for a long time only one copy was known. This was kept in the Königsberg University library and was bound together with nine other books in Polish, Latin, German, and Lithuanian with the common title Catechismi varii 'Various Catechisms.' The collection had been put together in 1729 for the Prussian emperor, Friedrich Wilhelm, and from him had come to the university library. But another copy of the Catechism was discovered in 1956 in the M. Gorky library in Odessa and was transferred from Odessa to the Vilnius University library where it is now housed.

The first Lithuanian book consists of several parts and apparently Mažvydas himself is not the author of all the parts:

1. It begins with a two-line Latin epigram addressed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in which the wish to avoid God's wrath by receiving the commandments of God is expressed. This seems to have been written by Mažvydas himself.

2. The second part, Grace and Peace to the Pastors and Ministers of Churches in Lithuania (in Latin) may have been written by Fridericus Staphylus, professor of theology and president of the University of Königsberg, but was most probably written by Mažvydas himself. This is an exhortation to let the people read the Bible in their own language.

3. The third part, The Little Book Itself Speaks to the High Lithuanians and the Samogitians (Low Lithuanians), is a rhymed exhortation in Lithuanian for the Lithuanians to accept the catechisms and the hymns presented in the book. This may be the very first poem written in Lithuanian. Although there was independent evidence that the book had been written by Martynas Mažvydas, it could not be definitely considered proven until the Polish scholar Jan Safarewicz announced in 1939 that if one begins with line 3 of this part and reads the first letter of each following line vertically one comes out with the words Martjnvs Masvjdjvs. (One must remember that in the early forms of the Latin alphabet / and j on the one hand and u and v on the other hand were not distinguished.) See Sabaliauskas, 1980, 144.

4. The fourth part, Simple and Short Instruction in How to Read and Write, consists of rules of Latin syllabification. Some people consider this the forerunner of a short Lithuanian grammar or primer.

5. The fifth part, The Simple Words of a Catechism for Simple People and Especially for the Sons and Household of Householders, is the catechism itself which was based chiefly on the 1545 Polish Catechism of J. Seklucjan, although the 1546 Catechism of Małecki was also used.

6. At the end of the catechism follows another brief exhortation to the High Lithuanians and Samogitians (Low Lithuanians) to learn the correct doctrine and teach it to their sons and household. (The daughters are not specifically mentioned.)

7. After this exhortation there are four lines addressed to the reader who is reminded that there might be mistakes in the book and that he should correct them without any jealousy.

8. The last and fairly large part consists of hymns translated chiefly by Mažvydas, but also by S. Rapolionis, A. Kulvietis and A. Jomantas.

Mažvydas was probably born around 1520 and possibly he studied in an intermediate school which had been founded in Vilnius in 1539 and then closed in 1542 by the bishop of Vilnius. On June 8,1546, the Prussian Duke Albert sent Mažvydas a letter inviting him to Königsberg where the latter entered the University of Königsberg on the 1st of August of the same year. (Korsakas, 1974, 9.) He received his baccalaureate degree on the 5th of April of 1548 and on the 28th of March 1549 was appointed the Protestant pastor of the Ragainė parish. According to the custom of that time a newly appointed Protestant clergyman, if he was not already married, had to marry either the widow or a daughter of his predecessor in the position. The previous pastor, A. Lauterstern, had left behind a blind wife, five daughters and four sons, but the widow, two daughters and one son died shortly thereafter from the plague. Mažvydas finally married the oldest daughter of his predecessor, Benigna.

He also left thirteen letters written in Königsberg and Ragainė. In his letters among other things he complains of poverty and the lack of interest in religion on the part of his parishioners. (Ročka, 1974, 48; Korsakas, 1974, 19-29.) Perhaps he exaggerated his problems somewhat as was the custom in those days in letters written to important personages. Nevertheless he apparently did suffer from ill health and he died on the 21st of May 1563. He is also the author of the following works:

1. The Hymn of St. Ambrose and of St. Augustine which is called Te Deum Laudamus. With hymns about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Königsberg, 1549.

2. Form of Baptism. Königsberg, 1559.

3. Christian Hymns Sung in Churches at Advent and Christmas until Candlemas. Königsberg, 1566. Edited and published by B. Vilentas.

5. Short Questioning and Preparation of those Who Desire to Receive the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Published at the end of Vilentas' 1579 Catechism. Königsberg.

6. Paraphrase for Understanding the Lord's Prayer. Probably published by B. Vilentas in 1574. (See Ford, 1969, 22.)

One of the big disputes in Lithuanian linguistics concerns the establishment of Mažvydas' native dialect. Christian Stang, 1929, 175-176, thought that Mažvydas was a northeast Samogitian (Zhemaitish, Low Lithuanian), a dounininkas, but Grinaveckis, 1963, 65-74, supported Schleicher's opinion that Mažvydas was a donininkas, a Samogitian from south of Priekulė. My former teacher, Professor A. Salys, 1973, 6, and Z. Zinkevičius, in his articles, 1977b and continuation, have expressed the opinion that Mažvydas was a dūnininkas. The evidence is complex and only to be evaluated by an experienced linguist, but one notes, e.g., the 2nd singular imperative duk 'give' (for standard Lithuanian duok) and dudams 'giving' (for standard Lithuanian duodamas), both of which forms show an u phonetically probably /ū/) which is typical of the dūnininkas dialect. (See Zinkevičius, 1977b, 365.)

Another Samogitian (Low Lithuanian) feature is the lack of the passage of *dj and *tj to dž and č respectively. We encounter, e.g., 1st plural present atleidem 'we forgive,' 3rd present gieid 'wish, desire,' nom. sg. masc. tretes 'third,' nom. pi. ssadei 'words' equivalent to modern standard Lithuanian atleidžiame, geidžia, trečias and žodžiai respectively. (Palionis, 1979, 28.) In the last word note the new pronunciation o which corresponds to older Lithuanian a. (In this one respect one might say that Latvian is more conservative than Lithuanian, because in Latvian we encounter bralis 'brother' corresponding to Lithuanian brolis.) However, beside the Samogitian (Low Lithuanian) forms mentioned above we also encounter such High Lithuanian forms as the 3rd present geidža (for geidžia) and treczas (for trečias) which show the passage of *dj and *tj to dž and č respectively.

At first in his writings Mažvydas distinguished between the Samogitians (Low Lithuanians) and the High Lithuanians (aukštaičiai) and we read in the 1547 Catechism:

Skaitikite ir dokiet ig rąkas kie- waika kaip ssemaiczia taip ir letuwynika

Read and give into the hands of every child both Samogitian so and (High) Lithuanian.

Wishing to make his work available to both the Samogitians and the High Lithuanians he tried to write something acceptable to representatives of both dialects. But having moved from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to East Prussia where the majority of the people spoke High Lithuanian dialects, he gradually used more and more High Lithuanian forms in his works. (Ford, 1971, 18; Palionis, 1979, 29.)

BALTRAMIEJUS VILENTAS

Baltramiejus Vilentas, a cousin of Martynas Mažvydas (frater patruelis according to Vilentas), was born around 1525 and matriculated together with the latter around the 1st of August 1546 at the University of Königsberg. In 1550 he became pastor of the Lithuanian Protestant church in Königsberg where he remained until his death in 1587. (Ford, 1969, 15.) Probably Vilentas' most important work is his 1579 catechism which has the title: Small Catechism for Common Pastors and Preachers, Written in German by Dr. Martin Luther and Fully and Faithfully Translated from German to Lithuanian by Baltramiejus Vilentas, Pastor in Königsberg at Steindamm. (Ford, 1969, 22.) In Vilentas' work there appear a few Samogitian (Low Lithuanian) features, although generally Vilentas' dialect is thought to be northwestern High Lithuanian. (Palionis, 1979, 29.) Vilentas was also important, as we have seen, as an editor and publisher of the works of his cousin Mažvydas.

JONAS BRETKŪNAS

The next important person for us to take up is Jonas Bretkūnas, born in 1536 in Bamboliai, not far from Friedland to the southeast of Königsberg. His mother was apparently a free Prussian (i.e., an Old Prussian, a speaker of the Old Prussian Baltic language, not a person of Germanic descent) but probably Bretkūnas (known as Bretke in German sources) spoke Lithuanian from his childhood days, although it is not absolutely certain whether we should class him as a native speaker of Lithuanian. Viktor Falkenhahn, 1941, 210, wrote that the violations of elementary grammatical rules in Bretkūnas' Lithuanian were such that it could not have been his native language. Bretkūnas studied at the universities of Königsberg and Wittenberg and was a diligent student. Having finished his studies he was appointed the Protestant pastor in Labguva in 1563 and later in 1587 after the death of Vilentas he took over as the Protestant pastor in the Königsberg Lithuanian church. He began his Bible translation in Labguva in 1579 and he finished the translation in 1590, so he worked on the translation for twelve years even including the time which he took out for the preparation of his other publications. Although in general in translations of that time the word-for-word principle was predominant, Bretkūnas obtained excellent results in a pure Lithuanian without the numerous Germanisms which crept into Lithuanian later and of which translations of the 18th century are full. Unfortunately the translation was never published. According to Prof. F. Scholz of the University of Munster (personal letter of 24 November 1980) towards the end of World War II the manuscript was transported from Königsberg (=Karaliaučius, now Kaliningrad) and is now housed in the archives of the Foundation for Prussian Cultural Holdings (Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz) in West Berlin. Prof. Scholz and a helper hope to begin editing this important monument of Lithuanian culture in the near future.

Naturally in the Bible translation there appear to be mainly High Lithuanian dialect forms and that, of course, isn't surprising considering where he came from. Nevertheless there do occur Samogitian (Low Lithuanian) features. For example we encounter the nominative plural form paukschtei 'birds,' szodei 'words' which do not show the expected assibilation beside the forms paukschczei and szodzei which would correspond to standard Lithuanian paukščiai and žodžiai. (Palionis, 1967, 59)

In 1589 Bretkūnas began to prepare for publication a collection of sermons, a Postilė. This was the first original work in the Lithuanian language. Bretkūnas died of the plague in 1602.

MIKALOJUS DAUKŠA

Mikalojus Daukša was born between 1527 and 1538 apparently in Babėnai, not far from Kėdainiai in a family of minor nobility. He could have learned to read and write (and learned Latin, Polish and Russian) in Krekenava, Ariogala or in Kražiai (or Varniai) as well as in Kaunas and Vilnius. In fact it is not known whether Daukša studied any place although it does seem likely, because not only the major nobility, but minor nobility, wealthy townsmen and occasionally even a peasant had that opportunity. Daukša chose the career of a Catholic priest between 1551 and 1562, although perhaps a bit later. At first he probably had the duties of a vicar some place or other, but from 1570 on he was rector in Krakės. In addition to being rector in Krakės in the course of his career Daukša held various other ecclesiastical offices until his death in Varniai where he was buried. Of all of his contemporaries Daukša was distinguished by his education, scholarship, and breadth of vision. Not all of Daukša's works have come down to us, but the most important are his translation of the Catechism of Jacob Ledesma and his Postilė. Daukša translated Ledesma's catechism not from Spanish but from a Polish translation (iš liežuvio lenkiško), which had in turn been translated from an Italian translation. The catechism, published in 1595 in Vilnius with the financial support of the bishop Merkelis Giedraitis, was planned for the Samogitian diocese. It is divided into two parts: 1) the catechism proper and 2) a confessional. The interesting thing is that Daukša did not translate completely literally, but kept in mind the culture of the new reader, the Lithuanian. Parts were omitted, parts were changed or supplemented. For example, in considering who sins against the first commandment with idolatry Daukša wrote: 'especially those who worship fire, the earth-goddess, serpents, grass-snakes, thunder, trees, alder trees, woods, goblins, and other devils and those who practice witchcraft, sorcery, who poison, who cast moulds of lead and wax, who search for signs on foam or an egg and these who believe in it — all of these reject God and serve the devil.' (Lebedys, 1977, 62-64.) One can see here that Daukša had in mind the specific types of pagan Lithuanian idolatry. The catechism was directed at the Samogitian diocese, but it seems that Daukša hoped that his catechism would be accessible to all Lithuanians and he frequently used synonyms to make himself clear, to enrich his language, and sometimes to explain foreign elements he wrote the borrowed word in the margin across from the Lithuanian word, thus explaining, e.g., luomas 'estate, social class' as stonas (cf. Polish stan), pasaulis 'world' as svietas (cf. Polish świat), paveikslas 'picture' as abrozas (cf. Polish obraz). Although Daukša also uses borrowings there are fewer in his catechism than in the writings of Mažvydas and other early authors. (Lebedys, 1977, 60-67.)

The most important of Daukša's writings is, however, his translation of the Postilė of J. Wujek. In addition to the translation there are several original supplements which are not the same in all of the copies, mostly praises in Latin for Bishop Giedraitis. One of the major linguistic studies devoted to Daukša's work is Skardžius' book on the accentology of Daukša, (Daukšos akcentologija, 1935.) Daukša's work is particularly important for linguists because it is accented. Skardžius, 1935, 12, writes that although Daukša did not mark the intonations (priegaidės) as is done today, and although he is not completely consistent and sometimes even incorrect, frequently we can determine not only the place of stress, but for certain words the intonation (priegaidė). Since the same words are not always stressed in the same way in different parts of the text, it was originally thought that Daukša's writings were not the work of one man, but of different translators. For example we find both the stress daiktái 'things' and dáiktai, but Skardžius attributes this to the fact that Daukša had been in a number of different places. Daukša's language was a central variant of the written language based on the contemporary dialect of the plain which forms the basin of the river Nevėžis. (This river has its origin north and slightly to the east of Kaunas and joins the river Nemunas slightly to the west of Kaunas.) This language was called at that time the Samogitian language, but it has nothing in common with the contemporary Samogitian (Low Lithuanian) dialect.

One should mention here the anonymous catechism of 1605 published in Vilnius for the diocese of Vilnius. The ostensible reason for this publication was that Daukša's catechism was not understood by all Lithuanians. The new translation avoided some of the foreign words found in Daukša's translation.

KONSTANTINAS SIRVYDAS

Konstantinas Sirvydas (whose name is frequently written Sirvydas) is the first important Lithuanian linguist and one of the most distinguished old Lithuanian writers, a man to whom a place along side of Daukša is to be assigned. Sirvydas was born in 1579, it is not known exactly where, but since he was an east High Lithuanian it is possible that he came from Anykščiai. He studied in the Jesuit schools of Vilnius, Tartu, Riga and Nesvyžius in which latter place he also taught. Later he studied in Pultusk and in the Vilnius Academy, where he later taught theology, Bible studies and was an adviser to the director (rektoriaus tarėjas or monitor). For more than a decade he preached daily sermons in Lithuanian and Polish at St. John's church in Vilnius. Having contracted tuberculosis he died in 1631. He was an ardent Jesuit and unusually hard working. (Lebedys, 1977, 80-81.)

The Jesuit historians mention that in 1630 he had written a Lithuanian grammar entitled A Key to the Lithuanian Language (Clavis linguae Lituanicae), but no one has ever seen it. Some people think that the grammar never existed.

Another important work by Sirvydas is his Dictionary of Three Languages (Dictionarium trium linguarum). It used to be thought that the first edition had been published in 1629, but in the year 1955 K. Jablonskis found a defective copy in the Central government archive of ancient documents of the USSR, i.e., the library which had belonged to the library of the Moscow synodal press. The water marks on the paper show that this copy could not have been published later than 1620. This date could conform well with Sirvydas' activity, since (with an interruption) he taught at the Vilnius Academy from 1614 to 1624. (Pakalka, 1979, 24-25.)

The first edition was based on the four-language dictionary (Latin, German, Polish and Greek) of Nicolaus Volckmarus. (Pakalka, 1979, 18-19; Lebedys, 1977, 82.) Possibly following the model of the Volckmarus dictionary the name was only Dictionarium. K. Jablonskis thought that because of its limited scope and relatively small number of words, particularly terms which denote abstract concepts it could have helped Lithuanian preachers and writers very much and the Vilnius Academy undertook a new dictionary with a broader scope. (Pakalka, 1979, 27.) Another reason may have been that the Jesuit lexicographer G. Knapski in the foreword to his Thesaurus polonolatinograecus showed that the Volckmarus dictionary was poor and had mistakes in it. So it was the new dictionary by Knapski, that was probably used for the second edition of Sirvydas' work which appeared in 1631. Unfortunately not a single copy of this edition is to be found. A third, expanded and revised edition (compared with the first edition) appeared in 1642 after Sirvydas' death. This edition, probably prepared by one of Sirvydas' students, J. Jaknavičius (1598-1668), has about 14,000 entries compared with about 8,000 in the first edition. There remain only a few copies of this edition. In the third many of the choices of words are better than in the first edition, e.g.: I — kuknia 'kitchen' vs. Ill — virtuvė; I — kukorius 'cook' vs. Ill — virėjas. Vincas Urbutis, 1967, wrote an article about this dictionary and noted that some of the words in it are not attested in any of the other old Lithuanian writings, e.g., stulgus 'proud,' stuogas 'condition, social class.' Sirvydas introduced many new words which are used even today, e.g., apkasas 'trench,' gydytojas 'Physician, doctor,' taisyklė 'rule,' etc. On the other hand we also encounter words which have now gone out of use, e.g., vetušas for senas 'old,' and ašmaliekas for aštuonioliktas 'eighteenth/

In 1677 the fourth edition of the dictionary appeared, of which there are about ten copies remaining and in 1713 the fifth edition came out, of which there are fairly numerous copies. These later editions contain relatively few changes. (Lebedys, 1977, 83.) Sirvydas' dictionary was the only dictionary printed in Lithuania until the end of the 18th century, and it played a fundamental role in the struggle against the degradation of the Lithuanian language in the 18th century. It was used even by dictionary makers in East Prussia and in the beginning of the 19th century when the cultural enlightenment began all writers studied from this dictionary.

The most important of Sirvydas' religious writings is the Punktay sakimų 'sermons' (Polish Punkty kazań). This is a collection of short original sermons, not elaborated on in detail. Rather only the essential elements are stated, the 'points' (i.e., Lithuanian punktay, Polish punkty). The sermons are printed in parallel columns with the Lithuanian on the left side and Polish on the right. An interesting feature is that here for the first time the Polish text is a translation of the Lithuanian, not vice versa as was formerly the custom. The first part prepared by Sirvydas himself was published in 1629 and the second part, a posthumous edition published in 1644 was probably prepared by Sirvydas' student J. Jaknavičius. Sirvydas urges those who don't know the Lithuanian language to study it. He is hostile to the Reformation and finds his chief support in the Bible, explaining the allegorical meaning of everything. He preaches asceticism and proclaims the primacy of the church. (Lebedys, 1977, 84.)

Sirvydas' own dialect was apparently eastern High Lithuanian, a dialect area which is characterized by the passage of am to um in a closed syllable. For example we find instead of standard Lithuanian kampas 'corner' the eastern dialect form kumpas. Zinkevičius, 1971,165, suggests either Ukmergė or Anykščiai. In the aforementioned article Zinkevičius writes that J. Jaknavičius corrected and supervised the publication of the second part of Sirvydas' Punktay sakimų. Probably he also translated the second part of the text into Polish. Zinkevičius' article is an exemplary model showing how linguists locate the dialect and place of origin of those whose influence is seen in a text.

For example, in word-initial position e- remained as such in Sirvydas' dialect, whereas in Jaknavičius' dialect it could become a-, e.g., assunćiu for standard Lithuanian esančių 'being,' árskiećiu for standard Lithuanian erškėčių 'blackthorn, sloe, kind of thorny bush.' Foreign to Sirvydas, but apparently native to Jaknavičius is the Dzūkish pronunciation, cf. the locative singular form źodźi '(in the) word' vs. standard Lithuanian žodyje which doesn't assibilate the d to dz before the vowel -i or -y (=long -ī). Frequently in the second part a final -i of the third person of the verb is dropped, e.g., ne gal for standard negali 'cannot,' gul for standard guli 'lies,' etc. As a result of the appearance of these characteristics and many others Zinkevičius is able to locate Jaknavičius as coming from an area east or southeast of Vilnius. (1971, 165.)

In 1643 the East Prussian clergyman Kristupas Sapūnas (1589-1659), wrote the Compendium Crammaticae Lithuanicae, but this was not published until 1673 (by Teofilis Gotlibas Šulcas). This grammar was designed for practical purposes, i.e., for East Prussian clergy who either did not know Lithuanian or knew it very badly. The grammar is divided into eight parts: I — writing and phonetics, II and VIII — prosody, III — substantive (noun, adjective and numeral), IV — pronoun, V — verb and participle, VI — uninflected parts of speech (adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection), VII — syntax. Here we find one of the first attempts at the establishment of dialects: 1) Low Lithuanian (Samogitian), 2) royal Lithuania (Lithuaniae Regalis) and 3) the duchy of Lithuania (Lithuaniae ducalis), i.e., East Prussia. This latter dialect is subdivided into three subdialects, the pure (Pura), the half-Samogitianizing (Semi-Samogitizans) and the Curonian-izing (Curonizans). Sapūnas relies on the pure dialect, i.e., Prussian western High Lithuanian, the dialect which had become the basis of the Prussian branch of Lithuanian since the time of J. Rėza. If Sapūnas' grammar had been published immediately after it had been written it might have had a greater influence on East Prussian Lithuanian. As it was published twenty years after the appearance of Daniel Klein's grammar it could not compete with the latter in which Lithuanian grammar is described in a more detailed and frequently more accurate manner. (See Palionis, 1979, 96-97.)

Daniel Klein, the author of the first printed Lithuanian grammar, Grammatica Litvanica (Königsberg, 1653), was born in Tilžė in 1609 where he studied in the school of the elector of Brandenburg. He matriculated in the University of Königsberg for the first time in 1623 and for the second time in 1627 and studied there until 1636. He received a master's degree and from 1637 he served as the pastor of the Lithuanian church in Tilžė. He died in 1666. In his entrance documents to the University of Königsberg was inscribed: D. Klein, Tilsensis. Borusus, i.e., 'D. Klein, inhabitant of Tilžė, Prussian (i.e., Old Prussian).' It is possible then that Klein was a Prussian Lithuanian and that his name had been Germanized. Klein knew well the grammar of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, languages which were required of the students of the theology department. He was also acquainted with Polish, Czech and French and spoke German and Lithuanian fluently. Apparently he had personal difficulties. G. Ostermayer in his history of Lithuanian songs (Königsberg, 1793, page 35) wrote the following about Klein: 'a scholarly, pious man, ardently concerned about all Lithuanian parishes, but tormented until the end of his life, a man whose diligence and faith was rewarded with an ingratitude that has hardly its equal and one that redounds to the ineradicable shame of his enviers and persecutors.' (Buch and Palionis, 1957,10-12).

Klein writes in the foreword that his grammar is designed so that those desiring ecclesiastical service and wishing to instruct the benighted people in their native language may with its (the grammar's) help more easily and correctly acquire it. In addition Klein says that he wants to answer the arguments of those who say that it is impossible to write Lithuanian with exact .rules and laws because: 1) the Lithuanian language is a mixed and confused language, 2) that its usage is not firmly established and 3) that there is a great variety in the Lithuanian dialects. Klein admits that Lithuanian is a mixed language, but so is Latin which has also adopted many Greek words and Polish which has adopted many German words. And according to Klein, while it is true that the Lithuanian language varies with geographical location as far as pronunciation, gender and endings are concerned, so do Latin and German. As far as the third argument is concerned it can be noted that German also has many dialects. Nowadays, of course, we know that all languages have dialects and that the standard of every language is to a certain extent artificial, in some cases established by the academy of sciences of the country using the language. So Klein's arguments are fundamentally correct even from the contemporary point of view, although today we would probably phrase them differently.

Klein's grammar is divided into two major parts: 1) Etymology, which includes orthography, phonetics, prosody and morphology and 2) Syntax, which explains grammatical agreement, grammatical government and various constructions. Each of these larger divisions is subdivided into smaller parts and subparts.

In the first part Klein enumerates 22 letters and gives rules for the pronunciation of these letters. In this part Klein makes ample use of his knowledge of other languages for illustrations, e.g., he compares the pronunciation of the various kinds of Lithuanian e with the sounds of German and Greek, or the Lithuanian š (a sound like the sh in English shine), which at that time could be spelled ś or sz in Lithuanian, with examples of spellings from German, Hebrew (where it is said to correspond to the pronunciation of the letter shin, written somewhat like Ш.) or Greek (where the pronunciation is compared to that of khi). Klein also compares the accent system of Lithuanian with that of ancient Greek, but it is difficult to understand exactly what he means by his use of the various signs in Lithuanian. (See Buch and Palionis, 1957, 49.) Klein gives also older forms of the ordinal numbers for the teens, e.g., we find liekas 'eleventh' (modern vienuoliktas), antras liekas or liekas antras 'twelfth' (modern dvyliktas), along with the contracted antraliekas, etc. This shows that at an earlier date such forms were still separate syntactic elements before becoming compounds and were indeed derived from the form liekas which in turn is a derivative of the verb likti 'to leave.' This feature of the Lithuanian teen formation is sometimes compared with that of Germanic. Our English words eleven and twelve go back to forms cognate with Gothic ain-lif and twa-lif respectively where we can easily see the formation of ain = English one and twa = English two. The -lif- part is encountered in Gothic af-lif-nan 'to be left over' and is eventually related to the English word leave. The notion in both English and Lithuanian is that both e-leven and vienuo-lika are one left over from ten and that twe-lve and Lithuanian dvy-lika are two left over from ten. In English the parallel stops at thir-teen but in Lithuanian it continues through try-lika 'thirteen,' keturio-lika 'fourteen,' etc.

In the section on syntax one of the interesting things is that the prepositions iki 'until' and po 'after; in the direction of can, according to Klein, be construed with the dative case rather than with the genitive as in modern Lithuanian, e.g., ik sz-ei dien-ai 'until this day' or po tri-ms dien-oms 'after three days' whereas in modern Lithuanian we would have iki ši-os dien-os and po tri-jų dien-ų. In modern Lithuanian the dative case is retained with these prepositions only in certain fixed expressions, e.g., iki vali-ai 'enough,' po dešin-ei 'on the right,' po kair-ei 'on the left,' etc. (Buch and Palionis, 1957, 52.) We also encounter correct Lithuanian expressions such as Diewu nusitikiu 'in Deo confido, I trust in God' and kam dera 'ad quid conducit, for what is the use, to what does it lead' beside the usage with prepositions such as ant Diewo nusitikieti 'to trust in God' and ant ko dera 'what is the purpose.' These latter uses reflect the influence of other languages. (Buch and Palionis, 1957, 53.)

Klein evidently modeled this grammar after several grammars of other languages which were currently used, e.g., the Latin grammar of Finck and Helvig (1610, 1615, and 1621) and the Greek grammar by O. Gualtperius (4th ed., Marburg, 1611), but he did not copy blindly but rather used good sense in adapting the notions to the facts of Lithuanian.

Klein's Grammatica Litvanica (1653) was, of course, written in Latin, but in the following year, 1654, Klein published in Königsberg a smaller German version entitled Compendium Litvanico-Germanicum, oder Kurtz und gantz deutliche Anführung zur Littauischen Sprache wie man recht Littauisch lesen/schreiben und reden sol. (Compendium Litvanico-Germanicum, or Short and very Clear Guide to the Lithuanian Language, how one should correctly read, write and speak Lithuanian). The Latin version was 174 pages long whereas the German version was only 112 pages. Not everything in the German version, however, is exactly the same as in the Latin version. For example, Klein notes the Samogitian dialect nominative plurals of the words for 'mother, daughter and shepherd,' a characteristic which goes unmentioned in the Latin version. Thus he writes in the Compendium (p. 31): 'In the plural, especially in Samogitia (Low Lithuania) people say moter-is dukter-is, but in Lithuania Major on the contrary they say Piemen-es instead of Piemen-is.' And in fact today in the Samogitian dialects we find similar nominative plurals as opposed to the -es ending of northeastern High Lithuanian dialects. (Buch and Palionis, 1957, 39-40.)

The first Lithuanian grammar to appear in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the anonymous Universitas Lingvarum Litvaniae (1737). This grammar is the first which described the different Lithuanian intonations (priegaidės). Thus the anonymous author notes the intonation of the stressed short syllable with the grave accent (gravis accentus) e.g., awìs (=modern avìs 'sheep'). On long syllables one might find the circumflex accent (accentus circumflexus) which is pronounced 'as if doubling the vowel,' e.g., pônas (=modern põnas 'gentleman'). The anonymous author writes that the other intonation of long syllables separating them by length from the circumflex are pronounced with a somewhat weaker voice and are written with an italicized letter siena and wienas (=modern siéna 'wall' and viénas 'one' respectively). These first three intonations correspond to those of modern standard Lithuanian, but in the dialect of this anonymous author there exists also the retracted stress, pronounced according to him somewhat harder and more grave, and distinguished from the first two stresses by length, e.g., kàłba (=modern kalbà 'language'). The Universitas is divided into three fundamental parts: 1) About the noun (De Nomine), 2) About the verb (De Verbo) and 3) About constructions (De Constructione). In addition at the beginning there is a short bit about Lithuanian dialects, writing and accent (Praenotatio de Dialectis, Literi's et accentu). The Universitas was intended for theology students at the Vilnius Academy so that they might be able to give their sermons in Lithuanian. Differently from Klein's grammar which has 22 letters, in the Universitas the following 28 letters are given: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, I, k, I, ł, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, S, t, u, w, x, y, z, ź, ż. This should not be taken to mean that the number of sounds in Lithuanian had increased by six, but rather that the new alphabet was a somewhat better way of representing the sounds which already existed in Lithuanian.

In the 18th century in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania there came into existence a kind of common ecclesiastical language the basis of which consisted of central High Lithuanian phonology and morphology (roughly, pronunciation and grammatical forms) mixed up with elements of Samogitian and eastern High Lithuanian. The number of Samogitian elements began to increase in the second half of the 18th century when more Samogitian authors took part in the preparation of religious texts.

For example, the Pamoksłas Krikśćioniszkas (Christian Sermon) published in 1725 and ascribed to Pranas Srubauskas from Kaunas, usually retained the sequence of a or e plus nasal m or n without change, e.g., amźinay 'eternally,' ant 'on,' brangi 'dear,' but here and there we find a few eastern forms such as the genitive singular pinktas 'fifth' and źinklus 'signs' showing the passage of en to in in position before a consonant. Compare modern Lithuanian penktas, and ženklas respectively. (See Palionis, 1979, 112-113.) Another particularly strong tendency was the use of Polish words, illustrated even by the titles of some of the works published at this time, e.g., Broma of M. Ališauskas (Olševskis) published in numerous editions from 1753 until 1799, and Žyvatas published in 1759. (Broma is from Polish brama 'gate' and žyvatas is from Polish żywot 'life.') (See Palionis, 1979, 112-116.) Remember that in Vilnius the name Dawn Gates is in Lithuanian Aušros vartai and in Polish Ostra brama.

At the same time that in the Grand Duchy, the Lithuanian language was perhaps losing its vigor, in East Prussia in the 18th century great care was being taken for its purification, normalization and development. There were several reasons for this: 1) to make the written language, which was being overrun with Germanisms, more accessible to the Lithuanians and 2) to further the cause of Protestantism which had opened parish schools to teach the children to read the Bible and sing hymns. In fact in 1702 there arose a quarrel among the East Prussian pastors as to how one should talk with the general populace, (wie man littauisch cum vulgo reden soll). One of the first to talk of reform and, indeed, to make specific proposals was the Gumbinė pastor, Mykolas Merlinas (Mörlin) who in 1706 published a tract entitled Principium primarium in Lingva Lithvanica. In the first place one must talk with the people simply, according to the manner of the people (vulgariter, populariter, vocabulis domesticis), otherwise they won't understand. In the second place one must use the pure language, because a Lithuanian won't understand the foreign words (peregrina vocabula). If the Lithuanian doesn't understand some foreign word it is up to the clergyman to explain it to him. For example, writes Merlinas, we fatigue the Lithuanian with the word zokons 'commandment' (from Slavic zakon) which the average person wouldn't know, so why not use the word prisakymas? In the third place one should avoid neologisms, i.e., new words created by analogy. What would a Lithuanian say if on the analogy of piktas 'angry' and piktenybė 'evil deed' one would create from ilgas 'long' an *ilgenybė 'length' or from trumpas 'short' a *trumpenybė 'shortness.' In the fourth place in talking with the general populace one should avoid words with many meanings (polysemantic) words, because such words are the source of errors (errorum genitrix) and they lead to ambiguities. In the fifth place one must avoid those limited dialect forms which are known only in a small area, e.g., the word bit 'was' has the same meaning as buvo, but the former is used only in one dialect whereas the latter is used all over Lithuania. Having set forth these principles, however, Merlinas says that one should follow the use of the best representatives of Lithuanian speech. A particularly good idea is to rely on the usage encountered in folk songs and in proverbs.

There was a great need for Lithuanian grammars and dictionaries since in 1723 a Lithuanian seminary was founded at the University of Königsberg and in 1727 at the University of Halle, Since the majority of the students were Germans without grammars and dictionaries it would be difficult for them to learn Lithuanian.

Along with the renewed interest in the Lithuanian language came more translations of the Bible and the appearance of hymnals. In 1701 a group of Calvinist and Lutheran clergy published a Lithuanian translation of the New Testament, the chief contributor to which was Samuelis Bitneris. Since this translation was intended not only for East Prussians, but for all Lithuanians, a fair number of East Prussian words were included in parentheses along side the synonymous corresponding words from the Grand Duchy, e.g., elgdamasis (ubagaudamas) 'begging,' girioje (pusczoje) 'in the forest,' etc. The appearance of the synonyms in the text was not to the liking of the Lutheran clergy who called the text Kėdainian after the name of the city Kėdainiai and demanded a new translation of the New Testament. Jonas Kvantas (Qvandt) undertook the organization of the preparation of a new translation with the help of Pil. Ruigys (Ruhig) and other East Prussian pastors. The retranslated version of the New Testament was printed in 1727 with the title, The New Testament . . . translated anew into German and Lithuanian . . . (and) prepared by Johann Jacob Qvandt. This book, in which the German and Lithuanian text are put side by side, was republished several times.

Under the direction of Kvantas and with the help of Pil. Ruigys and both the junior and senior A. Šimelpenigis a translation of the Old Testament was begun which appeared in 1735. The quality of the translation is uneven because it was done by a group of people, but Liudvikas Rėza (J. L. Rhesa) in his history of the Lithuanian Bible (Geschichte der Littauischen Bibel. Königsberg, 1816, p. 42) writes that the best parts are the Book of Prophets and the historical books, i.e., Moses, etc.

The Bible translations are important because the translators were constantly searching for the most accurate and best way of expressing something in Lithuanian. In addition, during this period many hymn books were published and a long argument between Gottfried Ostermeyer and Kristijonas Milkus resulting from Milkus' criticism of Ostermeyer's hymnal provided useful contributions to the development of the Lithuanian language. (See Palionis, 1979, 117-121.)

In 1728 Johanas Richteris had prepared a 300-page German-Lithuanian dictionary, but this remained as a manuscript. The head of the Lithuanian language department of the University of Halle, Friedrich Haack, published a Lithuanian-German: German-Lithuanian dictionary in 1730, according to the subtitle of which it contains all the words encountered in the New Testament and the Psalter. Haack did not include all the words used in previous Bible translations, but only those which he himself deemed useful. Thus we do not find such a word as melnyčia 'mill' used in Bitneris' New Testament, but rather maltuvė and malūnas known already in the works of Bretkūnas. A supplement to Haack's dictionary contains a brief Lithuanian grammar based on Klein's grammar, but the rules are formulated somewhat differently. In addition he does not give as a special category the verbs with the first singular present ending -mi (a category that no longer exists in modern standard Lithuanian) and he doesn't stress the fact that the vowels ą, ę, į, and ų are pronounced through the nose, a fact which leads one to believe that the nasal pronunciation was. already disappearing.

Another dictionary written around 1740, but never published was that by Jokūbas Brodovskis, the greatest significance of which was that it was addressed to those who love the Lithuanian language (Liebhabern der Lithauischen Sprache) and contains expressions from the folk language, e.g., Daug klausyk, maž kalbėk 'listen a lot, but speak little.'

In 1747 Pilypas Ruigys' bilingual Lithuanian-German/ German-Lithuanian dictionary was published, a dictionary whose compilation had begun as early as 1733. According to the subtitle of this dictionary it contained an adequate supply of words and expressions, both those encountered in the Holy Scriptures as well as those needed for conducting affairs among men. In the foreword, Ruigys emphasizes the need for this dictionary among clergy who didn't know Lithuanian, because sometimes they confused such words as sūnelis '(diminutive) son' with šunelis '(diminutive) dog, puppy.' In fact he even relates the story of a German pastor who, in using the word turgus 'market' pronounced it turkus, thereby frightening the local population who thought the Turks might be coming. (Leščinskas, 1977,124.) The Lithuanian-German part is 190 pages and the German-Lithuanian part is 422 pages. It is the first printed dictionary in which the folk language is widely used, cf., e.g., such an expression as Devints vanduo nuo kisieliaus literally 'ninth water from kissel (a kind of blancmange)' which denotes a distant relative, a distant connection. (See Sabaliauskas, 1979, 28-29.)

Supplementing Pilypas Ruigys' dictionary was An investigation of the Lithuanian language (Betrachtung der Littauischen Sprache) which had been written in Latin in 1708, but translated into German and published in 1747. This is the first historical study of the origin and characteristics of the Lithuanian language. Here Ruigys compares Lithuanian words with the corresponding Greek, Latin, Polish, Old Prussian, German and even Hebrew words. His comparison of Greek eimí 'I am' with the Old Lithuanian form esmi 'I am' (modern es-ù) is completely justified.

In addition to the Investigation of the Lithuanian language there is also a supplement entitled The rudiments of a Lithuanian grammar (Anfangsgründe einer Littauischen Grammatick) by Povilas Ruigys, the son of Pilypas. Although Povilas Ruigys based his grammar on those of Daniel Klein and F. Haack, he did not follow them blindly and sometimes he gave different forms for the standard language. It will be recalled that in the grammar of Haack the words 'eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth' were respectively liekas, antras liekas, trečias liekas, etc. Povilas Ruigys gives the more modern forms wienoliktas, dwyliktas, tryliktas, etc.

After the linguistic works of the Ruigys father and son there were no grammars published until 1791 when the German G Ostermeyer published his New Lithuanian grammar (Neue Littauische Grammatik). The grammar does indeed contain 'new' material, e.g., a critical survey of the previously published grammars of Lithuanian. Describing his own grammar, Ostermeyer says that he tried to define more clearly and fully those things which his predecessors had failed to define clearly and fully and that he has omitted a number of rules and has included rather more examples, particularly in the verbal conjugations. He also included a section on prosody, something which had not been included in previous grammars. Ostermeyer finds not five noun declensions, but eight, and not two or three verb conjugations but four. More is written about the way sounds change in the course of speech, word formation, the syntactic use of various parts of speech, etc. Since Ostermeyer was a German it is not surprising that in his grammar artificial forms and inaccuracies are encountered. For example, one runs across such uncharacteristic forms as trisdidysis for 'three times bigger,' tūkstas for Tūkstantasis 'thousandth.'

At exactly the turn of the century in the 1800 appeared Kristijonas Milkus' (Christian Gottlieb Mielcke) dictionary and grammar: Littauisch-deutsches und Deutsch-littauisches Wöterbuck und Anfangs-Gründe einer Littauischen Sprach- Lehre. Based at least partly on the work of the Ruigys father and son, this grammar was expanded and corrected: Pilypas Ruigys' dictionary had 616 pages, whereas Milkus' had 928 (same format); Povilas Ruigys' grammar had 154 pages, but Milkus' had 258 (same size pages). In the hope of popularizing the new dictionary K. Milkus asked three German scholars to write something which could be included in the dictionary. These additions are very interesting from the historical point of view, because one of those writing was the famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant. According to Kant the Prussian Lithuanian very much deserves to be preserved in his particular character and since language is an excellent tool to forming and preserving this character, that language deserves to be preserved in its purity in school and church. Kant says that the Lithuanian is far less inclined to. servility than the neighboring peoples and is used to talk with those above him as with his equals and with trusting frankness, which they do not take amiss; nor do they coldly refuse to shake hands with him, because they find him willing to go along with anything that is above board. Furthermore Kant talks of the support the state can have from a people with such a character, and the historical value of the Lithuanian language.

In the new grammar by Milkus there is a fair number of innovations, e.g., a note that the letter f is not characteristic of the Lithuanian language. At the end of the grammar there is a short guide to Lithuanian poetry (Kurze Anleitung zur litauischein Poesie). Milkus cites Donelaitis as a person who knows his native language well and quotes from parts of The Seasons with a German translation. Finally Milkus sets forth the requirements of Merlinas for the Lithuanian written language: the usage of common words, the avoidance of borrowings, obsolete words, incomprehensible and overly mystical sayings, the necessity of knowing the grammatical rules. (Palionis, 1979, 122-132.)