Part 1
For a long time, the Lithuanian language was considered not prestigious enough for written use. There was no single language. Language differences were significant between regions. There were Aushtaite and Samite dialects (or separate languages) and their numerous dialects. There were expectations that the Lithuanian language was about to die out on the territory of modern Lithuania. Many people used Polish and Belarusian in their daily life. At the beginning of the 19th century, the use of the Lithuanian language was largely confined to the Lithuanian rural areas.
The only area where Lithuanian was considered suitable for literature was the German-ruled Lithuania Minor in East Prussia. Surprisingly, the language of the people who never considered themselves part of the Lithuanian nation became the basis of the modern Lithuanian language.
The territory in which the Prussian Lithuanians lived in the past was inhabited by the tribes of the ancient Prussians and closely related Skalvin and Kurens. The area between Lava and Nemunas became almost uninhabited after the crusade against the pagan Prussians and the wars between the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Order. It is believed that local tribes were resettled, either voluntarily or forcibly, to the monastic state of the Teutonic Order and to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Over time, the border between the two states stabilized. Better living conditions than their lords could offer in the Teutonic Order attracted many Lithuanians and Samogitians to settle there.
The last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Albert, became a secular prince and transformed the order into the Protestant state of Prussia. Most Prussian Lithuanians also adopted Protestantism. According to Protestant doctrine, Albert allowed church services for Prussian Lithuanians in his native language. The Lithuanians who settled in Prussia were mainly peasants. However, in the 16th century, educated Protestant immigrants from Lithuania appeared here. For example, Martynas Mazvydas, Abramos Kulvetis and Stanislovas Rapolionis. The latter became one of the first professors at the University of Königsberg, founded in 1544. Martynas Mazvydas was a zealous Protestant and called for an end to all contacts between Prussian Lithuanians and residents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in order to reduce Catholic influence in the country.
It is believed that the same Mazvydas published the first book in Lithuanian - a translation of the Lutheran catechism. Other authors who wrote in Lithuanian were not Prussian Lithuanians, but Germans: Mikael Marlin, Jacob Quandt, Wilhelm Martinius, Gottfried Ostermeier, Siegfried Ostermeier, Daniel Klein, Andreu Krause, Philip Rihig, Matthäus Pretorius Audam Schimmerke, and others. In general, Prussia of those times was a Protestant country. It was inhabited by Huguenots who migrated from other countries. The local autokhon population disappeared somewhere, they say, even during the time of the Teutonic Order. Therefore, the Germans should be understood as a multi-tribal Protestant rabble from all over Europe.
The state language in Prussia at that time was the so-called "Lower Prussian" language. Closely related to Dutch and Flemish. Since the majority of the population of Prussia were immigrants from those places. The Prussian Lithuanians who settled in the cities became bilingual and eventually Germanized. The peasants also knew "Lower Prussian". We borrowed words from it, adding specific Lithuanian endings.
It is believed that the first grammar of the Prussian-Lithuanian language was written by the Tilsit pastor Daniel Klein in the middle of the 17th century. In the 18th century, a German-Lithuanian dictionary was written by Jakob Brodowski. The Prussian-Lithuanian grammar was standardized by August Schlechter in the mid-19th century. His version, called "Southwest Austeite", would later become the basis for the creation of the modern Lithuanian language.
Promotional video:
By the way, the Prussian-Lithuanian writing is based on the German style, while in the territory of modern Lithuania it is based on the Polish style. Prussian Lithuanians wrote in Gothic script. Lithuanians did not read Prussian-Lithuanian publications and vice versa. Cultural communication was very limited. Attempts to create a unified writing system for the entire Lithuanian language at the beginning of the 20th century were unsuccessful.
The Lithuanian national awakening, which emerged in the late 19th century, was not popular among the Prussian Lithuanians. For them, integration with Lithuania was not clear and acceptable. The first Prussian Lithuanian elected to the Reichstag, Johann Smalalis, campaigned fiercely for the integrity of the German Empire.
Until 1870, the Germanization policy did not concern the Prussian Lithuanians. They voluntarily adopted the German language and culture. After the unification of Germany in 1871, the study of German (the new higher German - Hochdeutsch) was made compulsory in public schools. Learning the German language, as envisaged, provided an opportunity for Prussian Lithuanians to become familiar with Western European culture and values. Germanization also provoked a cultural movement among the Prussian Lithuanians. In 1879 and 1896, applications for the return of the Lithuanian language to schools were signed by 12,330 and 23,058 Prussian Lithuanians. In general, the Lithuanian language and culture were not persecuted in Prussia.
After the end of the First World War, the northern part of East Prussia across the Neman was separated. The territory inhabited by Prussian Lithuanians was divided between Weimar Germany and the Klaipeda region (Memelland) under French administration. The Deutsch-Litauischer Heimatbund sought to reunite with Germany or, in extreme cases, to create an independent state of Memelland. In 1923, the Republic of Lithuania occupied the Klaipeda region.
People from Greater Lithuania carried out state administration in the region. From their point of view, Prussian Lithuanians are Germanized Lithuanians who need to be re-litvinized. Prussian Lithuanians saw Litvinization as a threat to their own culture and began to support German political parties and even began to identify themselves as Germans. Inhabitants of the Klaipeda region constantly voted for German or German-oriented parties.
Nazi Germany returned Klaipeda after the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania. Residents were allowed to choose Lithuanian citizenship. Only 500 people asked for it, and only 20 accepted it. The reunification of Klaipeda with Germany was greeted with joy by most of the inhabitants.
After the end of World War II, the Prussian Lithuanians, along with the Germans, were resettled from East Prussia to West Germany. There they disappeared among the Germans. Their dialect has sunk into oblivion …
Part 2
Until the 19th century, the Lithuanian language was not considered prestigious enough for written use; more precisely, there was no single Lithuanian language. Language differences were significant between regions. There were Aushtaite and Samite dialects (or separate languages) and their numerous dialects. There were expectations that the Lithuanian language was about to die out on the territory of modern Lithuania. Many people used Polish and Belarusian in their daily life. The use of the Lithuanian language was largely limited to Lithuanian rural areas.
The only area where the Lithuanian language was considered suitable for literature was under German rule Lithuania Minor in East Prussia. However, the Prussian Lithuanians never considered themselves part of the Lithuanian nation.
In the middle of the 19th century, the process of "Lithuanian national revival" or, as it is called otherwise, "national awakening" began. The process was characterized by the growth of self-determination among Lithuanians, led to the formation of the modern Lithuanian nation and culminated in the creation of an independent Lithuanian state. The “Lithuanian national revival” was preceded by a short period of “Samai national revival”.
What is Zhemaitva? Zhemaitva, aka Samogitiya or Zhmud, is a small remote, enjoying a certain degree of autonomy, a section of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary says:
As you can see, Zhemaitva did not have her own special official language. It, like in the whole Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was the Russian language. By the way, the very name of Zhemaitva is a slightly distorted "zemstvo". "Zhema", in their language, is still "earth".
At the head of the emaitic national revival, there were then young students, Simonas Daukantas (Simon Dovkont) and Simonas Stanevicius.
Simonas Daukantas.
As the same encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron says:
By the way, the main of Daukantas's handwritten works - the Zhmud story, now printed in Plymouth in the Lithuanian language, is only attributed to him.
Simonas Daukantas.
As the same encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron says:
By the way, the main of Daukantas's handwritten works - the Zhmud story, now printed in Plymouth in the Lithuanian language, is only attributed to him.
Simonas Stanevicius.
Unlike Daukantas, Simonas Stanevicius was a more serious researcher. Stanevicius published Dainos Žemaičių (Songs of Samogitian), samples of 30 of the most artistic and valuable Samogitian folk songs. In total, there were 150 songs in his collection. Four years later, he published an addendum (Pažymės žemaitiškos Gaidos) with melodies for these songs. He gained fame for the publication of Šešios pasakos (Six Fables), a book of six fables and an ode Žemaičių Slove (Glory of Samogitia) written by himself. The plot of two fables is borrowed from Aesop. The other four are a mixture of the author's own ideas with Samogitian folklore.
Towards the end of his life, Stanevicius showed an academic interest in the Lithuanian language, history and mythology. His unfinished manuscript on Lithuanian history was partially published only in 1893 and completely in 1967. Unlike Dionysas Poska and Simonas Daukantas, who were looking for a glorious and idealized story, Stanevicius remained true to truthful facts and was afraid to reject romantic legends. He strongly criticized Theodor Narbut and Maciej Strikowski as inaccurate. Stanevicius debunked many of the romantic legends, especially in the field of Lithuanian mythology, including the concept of the ancient temple of Romuv and the correspondence held between the Roman and Lithuanian gods.
In the 1850s, on the basis of disagreements, Simon Dovkont completely fell out with the sponsor of the жemaitic revival, the Roman Catholic bishop of the Telševsk diocese, Matthew Kazimierz Volonchevsky (Motejus Valanchius). And the "Lithuanian national revival" took a different path. How - you will find out in the next part.
The literature in the Samogitian language has died out. The language itself still exists. It is spoken by about a quarter of Lithuanians. Emaitic is considered a dialect of Lithuanian. Although with literary Lithuanian it is poorly understood. As they say:
Part 3.1
Until the 19th century, the Lithuanian language was not considered prestigious enough for written use; more precisely, there was no single Lithuanian language. Language differences were significant between regions. There were Aushtaite and Samite dialects (or separate languages) and their numerous dialects. There were expectations that the Lithuanian language was about to die out on the territory of modern Lithuania. Many people used Polish and Belarusian in their daily life. The use of the Lithuanian language was largely limited to Lithuanian rural areas.
The only area where the Lithuanian language was considered suitable for literature was under German rule Lithuania Minor in East Prussia. However, the Prussian Lithuanians never considered themselves part of the Lithuanian nation.
In the middle of the 19th century, the process of "Lithuanian national revival" or, as it is called otherwise, "national awakening" began. The process was characterized by the growth of self-determination among Lithuanians, led to the formation of the modern Lithuanian nation and culminated in the creation of an independent Lithuanian state. The “Lithuanian national revival” was preceded by a short period of “Samai national revival”.
The actual Lithuanian awakening began with Theodor (Fedor Efimovich) Narbutt. Narbutt, as the English-language Wikipedia describes him, was a Russian writer of Lithuanian descent - a Polonophile, romantic historian and military engineer. He was born in 1784 near Grodno (modern Belarus). He belonged to the notable noble pospolitic family of Traba. He graduated from the Catholic college in Lyubeshov (now the regional center of the Volyn region of Ukraine), then studied at the Vilnius University, which he graduated in 1803 with a technical degree … Then Narbutt moved to St. Petersburg, where he was admitted to the cadet corps. Narbutt served in the Russian army. He had the rank of captain of the engineering corps. He took part in the campaigns of 1807 and 1812 against Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1809, Narbutt built a fortress Bobruisk,for which he was awarded the Order of St. Anne.
Since 1813, Narbutt became interested in archeology and began organizing numerous excavations on the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. From 1817 he began writing historical articles for various Vilna newspapers. He also began to collect copies of documents related to the ancient history of Lithuania. They were first published in 1846 in the anthology Pomniki do dziejów litewskich (Historical Monuments of Lithuania). Among the most notable primary sources he published was the 16th century Chronicle of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (?), Also known as the Bykhovets Chronicle. (The manuscript was found in the library of the landowner Alexander Bykhovets (Mogilevtsy estate] of the Volkovysk district of the Grodno province) by the teacher of the Vilna gymnasium Ippolit Klimashevsky. In 1834 Bykhovets gave the manuscript to the famous Lithuanian historian Theodor Narbut. In 1846 Narbut published the Chroniclebut a few sheets were missing. The same Narbut gave the very name "Chronicle of Bykhovets". After publication, the manuscript disappeared.)
Theodore Narbutt.
Between 1835 and 1841, Narbutt published in Polish a monumental, 10-volume history of Lithuania, covering the period from prehistoric times to the Union of Lublin (1569). It is largely based on folk tales, dubious and often falsified sources. Meanwhile, the book had a tremendous impact on both the historiography of Lithuania and the entire “Lithuanian national revival”. It became the first history of Lithuania written from the Lithuanian point of view.
Paradoxically, in his book, Narbutt emphasized Lithuania's Rusyn past. The work received generally favorable ratings from Russian historians, and even from the authorities. Emperor Nicholas I Narbutta with a gold ring with a ruby, orders of St. Anne and St. Vladimir. (And Simonas Daukantas (Simon Dovkont) was recorded instead of Narbutt as “the father of the Lithuanian revival”.
In 1856, Narbutt published another collection of texts, which included both the original primary sources and his own forgeries. Among the latter, the most popular was the "Diary of von Kyburg", a fabricated document relating to Lithuania, allegedly of the 13th century.
I had to meet the assertion that it was Theodor Narbutt who launched the duck, that the Lithuanian language resembles Sanskrit more than other languages, and his friend “the great Lithuanian poet Adomas Mitskevichus (the same Adam Mitskevich, who is also considered to be a poet by the Poles and Belarusians) trumpeted this to the whole Europe. However, we will not erect unnecessary apraslin on the "romantic historian", but rather see what Mitskevich wrote:
As you can see, Mickiewicz does not refer to Narbutt at all, but to another representative of the "romantic era", whom even nowadays even a scientist or a historian are embarrassed to consider:
Mickiewicz's statement should not be seriously commented on. It's just a song. I suggest it just get better again:
Naturally, I have never met any mathematical calculations confirming that the Lithuanian language is the closest to Sanskrit. Where it would be mathematically calculated, let’s say that Lithuanian is related to Sanskrit by 65 percent, German by 63, and Russian by only 61 and a half. I strongly suspect that such calculations do not exist in nature.
By the way, why was it considered: a language to be related to some kind of ordinary Sanskrit is very cool? The fact is, according to the views of Western linguists of the first half of the 19th century, God created different languages as punishment for trying to build the Tower of Babel. According to the doctrine of St. Augustine, each of Noah's descendants founded a nation and that each nation received its own language: Assyrian from Assur, Hebrew from Eber. etc. The confusion occurred at the time of Peleg, son of Eber, son of Shem, son of Noah. (Hence the languages are Semitic, Hamitic, Japhetian, etc.). At the same time, there should have been a first language in which Adam and Eve spoke in Paradise. Those who wrote in Latin called him lingua prima, lingua primaeva or the lingua primigenia, in English - Adamic language; in English - Ursprache … This mysterious language should have an aura of purity and incorruption.
After the discovery of Sanskrit, it was suggested that this language is the closest to the sought-after "language of paradise", which has not survived in its pure form. A theory was developed (by Thomas Jung and Johann Christoph Adelung) "of the descent of groups of languages from paradise located in the mountainous part of Kashmir." According to it, primitive languages, which are spoken in Asia, left to the east of paradise, and languages that later received the name Indo-European in our country, in Europe - Indo-Germanic, Japhetian, Sanskrit …
Then the young grammars appeared. One of them, August Schleicher, suggested that languages evolved on their own, without any intervention. True, almost according to the same scheme according to which they could descend from paradise …
Part 3.2
Until the 19th century, the Lithuanian language was not considered prestigious enough for written use; more precisely, there was no single Lithuanian language. Language differences were significant between regions. There were Aushtaite and Samite dialects (or separate languages) and their numerous dialects. There were expectations that the Lithuanian language was about to die out on the territory of modern Lithuania. Many people used Polish and Belarusian in their daily life. The use of the Lithuanian language was largely limited to Lithuanian rural areas.
The only area where the Lithuanian language was considered suitable for literature was under German rule Lithuania Minor in East Prussia. However, the Prussian Lithuanians never considered themselves part of the Lithuanian nation.
In the middle of the 19th century, the process of "Lithuanian national revival" or, as it is called otherwise, "national awakening" began. The process was characterized by the growth of self-determination among Lithuanians, led to the formation of the modern Lithuanian nation and culminated in the creation of an independent Lithuanian state. The “Lithuanian national revival” was preceded by a short period of “Samai national revival”.
The actual Lithuanian awakening began with Theodor (Fedor Efimovich) Narbutt.
Vinkas Kudirka and Jonas Basanavičius were especially prominent figures in this very awakening. The latter even earned the unofficial title of "patriarch of the nation" (in Lithuanian: tautos patriarchas).
Jonas Basanavičius.
Both of them became famous for publishing illegal newspapers in the Lithuanian language: “Varpas” (“Bell”) - Kudirka and “Auszra” (“Dawn”) - Basanavičius. Both newspapers were printed abroad, mainly in East Prussia, and were smuggled into Lithuania. After the so-called uprising of 1863, there was an informal ban on the publication of printed materials in the Lithuanian language written in Latin script. An unwise decision was made by Alexander II under the influence of the governor of Vilna, Mikhail Muravyov. Nobody was going to prohibit the Lithuanian language itself. It was even encouraged to write in the Cyrillic alphabet.
The first experiments in translating Lithuanian works into Cyrillic were carried out by the Lithuanian linguist Jonas Yushka. He showed some samples of the adapted texts to Muravyov and Kornilov in February 1864. However, it soon stopped working. Kornilov formed a committee to work on the publication of Lithuanian books in Cyrillic. The committee included four members: Polish librarian Stanislav Mikutsky from Warsaw, Jonas Kerchinskis, a Lithuanian Catholic priest who later converted to Orthodoxy, Antanas Petkevicius, and a well-known Lithuanian educator and publisher Laurunas Ivinkis. (Ivinkis soon left the committee).
These eccentrics have completely failed the job. Instead of the required school textbooks, they printed prayer books, calendars, and other religious nonsense. The Catholic Church perceived the ban as a threat to its well-being. The Latin alphabet was perceived as a symbol of Catholicism, just as the Cyrillic alphabet was perceived as a symbol of Orthodoxy. Organized resistance to the ban was led by Bishop Moteus Valančius (Matvey Volonchevsky), who sponsored the publication of books abroad and their smuggling. After his death, the work was continued by another bishop, Antanas Baranauskas.
Moteus Valancius.
The ban fell through at the end of the 19th century and was finally lifted in 1904. He only stimulated the Lithuanian national movement and did not interfere with it in any way. Soon, in 1905, the so-called Great Vilnius Seimas met, chaired by Jonas Basanavičius. The Seimas adopted a resolution of four paragraphs. The first point stated that the tsarist government was the most dangerous enemy of Lithuania. The second point required the granting of autonomy. The third set out the means to achieve autonomy. The fourth and final point required that children be taught in their native language by teachers chosen by the people.
In 1907, Basanavičius founded the “Lithuanian Scientific Society” dedicated to the study of the history of Lithuania and its language, which he himself headed. Basanavičius was “a great (in quotation marks) historian. He proposed the thesis that the Lithuanians descended from the Thracians and Phrygians and therefore were closely associated with the Bulgarians. (He himself lived in Bulgaria for a long time and was a member of the Bulgarian literary society).
(Members of the Scientific Society of Lithuania in 1912. First row: Jonas Jablonskis, emaite, Petras Kriaučiūnas, Jonas Basanavičius, Ludvika Didžiulienė, Jonas Dielininkaitis; second row: Vincas Palukaitis, Antanas Vileišis, Adalmiejus Gabrielis third row: Juozas Kairiūkštis, Jonas Spudulis, Mechislovas Silvestraitis, Mikalojus Kuprevičius)
The Scientific Society established a commission for the standardization of the Lithuanian language, which included Jonas Jablonskis, Kazimieras Buga, Juozas Balchikonis and Jurgis Shlapelis. The members of the commission acted like the fabulous Swan, Cancer and Pike. As a result, a quarrel, the modern Lithuanian language had to be created by Jonas Jablonskis alone. But more on that in the last part.
Part 3.3
From the previous parts, we learned that until the 19th century, Lithuanian was not considered prestigious enough for written use, or rather, there was no single Lithuanian. Language differences were significant between regions. There were Aushtaite and Samite dialects (or separate languages) and their numerous dialects. There were expectations that the Lithuanian language was about to die out on the territory of modern Lithuania. Many people used Polish and Belarusian in their daily life. The use of the Lithuanian language was largely limited to Lithuanian rural areas.
The only area where the Lithuanian language was considered suitable for literature was under German rule Lithuania Minor in East Prussia. However, the Prussian Lithuanians never considered themselves part of the Lithuanian nation.
In the middle of the 19th century, the process of “Lithuanian national revival” or, as it is called otherwise, “national awakening” began. The process was characterized by the growth of self-determination among Lithuanians, led to the formation of the modern Lithuanian nation and culminated in the creation of an independent Lithuanian state. The “Lithuanian national revival” was preceded by a short period of the “Samai national revival”.
The actual Lithuanian awakening began with Theodor (Fedor Efimovich) Narbutt. Vinkas Kudirka and Jonas Basanavičius were especially prominent figures in this very awakening. The latter even earned the unofficial title of "patriarch of the nation" (in Lithuanian: tautos patriarchas). Both of them became famous for publishing “illegal” newspapers in the Lithuanian language: “Varpas” (“Bell”) - Kudirka and “Auszra” (“Dawn”) - Basanavičius. Modern historiography considers newspapers “illegal” on that basis, they say, in the second half of the 19th century in Lithuania, allegedly, there was a ban on the publication of printed materials in the Lithuanian language, written in the Lithuanian script, allegedly because there were no written resolutions in this regard.
In fact, as V. V. Ivanov, the Master of History of the University of Warsaw, an absolute doctorate at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Lithuania, writes:
Count Mikhail Nikolaevich Muravyov (1796 - 1866), a prominent statesman, public and military leader of the Russian Empire, scientist - mathematician.
He studied at Moscow University and Jonas Jablonskis - the creator of the "Grammar of the Lithuanian language", which was first normalized by him in 1901 due to the fact that he introduced the original alphabet based on Latin letters. From 1904, Lithuanian books began to be published, written in the Lithuanian alphabet already known to us. Assisted him in the creation of the alphabet and standardization of the Lithuanian language and professor at the University of Perm K. Buga.
Jonas Jablonskis - declared the creator of the Lithuanian language.
“Jonas Jablonskis graduated from the Department of Classical Philology of Moscow University in 1885, where he was known as Ivan Yablonsky. The desire to "modernize" the Lithuanian language in Yablonskis was born by the Russian linguist Philip Fyodorovich Fortunatov and the classical philologist Fyodor Evgenievich Korsh. They also helped the young Lithuanian linguist during his work on the language in Lithuania."
At first, it was not only Fortunatov and Korsh who "helped". “In the further development of L. language, in addition to Lithuanian researchers (A. Baranovsky, P. Kurshatis, or Kurshat, I. Yushkevich, K. Jaunis, I. O. Yablonsky, K. Bug, G. Gerulis, etc.) Indo-Europeanists of the West (Aug. Pott, A. Leskin, K. Brugmann, A. Bezzenberger, F. de Saussure and others) and Russia (A. A. Potebnya, F. F. Fortunatov, A. A. Shakhmatov, I. Endzelin, V. K. Porzhezinsky and others)"
At the final stage J. Jablonskis worked independently. He cleaned the language of borrowings, invented neologisms, rewrote Lithuanian writers who used dialects into the "correct language". By the way, Jablonskis is the grandfather of the famous (especially in the perestroika era) politician and public figure Vytautas Landsbergis. To the publicist, who was fondled by the Soviet power, laureate of all kinds of prizes, when the time came, he became a "fighter for the restoration of Lithuania's independence." Landsbergis wrote a little about his blood and spiritual ancestor: