Kazimieras Jaunius (1848–1908) was a
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
n Catholic priest and
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
. While Jaunius published very little, his major achievements include a well regarded Lithuanian grammar, systematization and classification of the
Lithuanian dialects, and descriptions of
Lithuanian accentuation. Though most of his conclusions on
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
and
comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.
Genetic relatedness ...
were proven to be incorrect, his works remain valuable for vast observational data.
Jaunius studied at the
Kaunas Priest Seminary
Kaunas Priest Seminary ( lt, Kauno kunigų seminarija) is the largest seminary in Lithuania serving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. It is part of the Faculty of Theology of Vytautas Magnus University. Its current rector is Aurelijus Žuk ...
and
Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy
The Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy (russian: Императорская Римско-Католическая Духовная Академия) was an institution of higher education preparing Roman Catholic theologians in the Russia ...
. He was ordained a priest in 1875 and earned his Master of Theology in 1879. He taught several subjects, including
moral theology
Ethics involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''"Ethics"/ref> A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply sati ...
and
homiletics
In religious studies, homiletics ( grc, ὁμιλητικός ''homilētikós'', from ''homilos'', "assembled crowd, throng") is the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific art of public preaching. One who practices or ...
, at the Kaunas Priest Seminary from 1880 to 1892. His class notes on the Lithuanian language became a well regarded Lithuanian grammar book first published in 1897. After disagreements with Bishop , Jaunius became a dean in
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
in 1893. However, he experienced severe mental health issues and returned to Lithuania to recuperate in 1895. He obtained a teaching position at the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy in 1898. He was of poor health and developed graphophobia (fear of writing). In 1902,
Kazimieras Būga
Kazimieras Būga (; November 6, 1879 – December 2, 1924) was a Lithuanian linguist and philologist. He was a professor of linguistics, who mainly worked on the Lithuanian language.
He was born at Pažiegė, near Dusetos, then part of the Russia ...
was hired as Jaunius' personal secretary to help collect and publish Jaunius' work. Jaunius retired from teaching in 1906 and died in 1908. Būga published two of his major works already after Jaunius' death.
Biography
Early life and education
Jaunius was eldest of five children born to a family of Lithuanian peasants in the village of near
Kvėdarna
Kvėdarna is a town in Šilalė district municipality, Tauragė County, Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is ...
. His parents worked about 60
dessiatin A dessiatin or desyatina (russian: десятина) is an archaic, rudimentary land measurement used in tsarist Russia. A dessiatin is equal to 2,400 square sazhens and is approximately equivalent to 2.702 English acres or 10,926.512 square metr ...
s of land. His father was illiterate, but he decided to send Jaunius to school. He attended a primary school in
Rietavas
Rietavas (; Samogitian: ''Rėitavs''; pl, Retów) is a city in Lithuania on the Jūra River. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 3,979. It is the capital of Rietavas municipality.
The city is famous for building the first power ...
, progymnasium in
Telšiai
Telšiai (; Samogitian: ''Telšē'') is a city in Lithuania with about 21,499 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on the shores of Lake Mastis.
Telšiai is one of the oldest cities in Lithua ...
in 1860–1864, and (former
Kražiai College) in 1866–1869. He did not complete the gymnasium education and withdrew in 1869 but continued to study the languages translating various texts from Latin, German, Polish. In November 1871, he enrolled into the
Kaunas Priest Seminary
Kaunas Priest Seminary ( lt, Kauno kunigų seminarija) is the largest seminary in Lithuania serving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. It is part of the Faculty of Theology of Vytautas Magnus University. Its current rector is Aurelijus Žuk ...
where he became a student of
Antanas Baranauskas
Antanas Baranauskas ( la, Antonius Baranovski, pl, Antoni Baranowski; 17 January 1835 – 26 November 1902) was a Lithuanian poet, mathematician and Catholic bishop of Sejny. Baranauskas is best known as the author of the Lithuanian poem '' An ...
who taught
homiletics
In religious studies, homiletics ( grc, ὁμιλητικός ''homilētikós'', from ''homilos'', "assembled crowd, throng") is the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific art of public preaching. One who practices or ...
in Lithuanian and studied the different dialects of the Lithuanian language. Baranauskas asked students to write down samples of local dialects and Jaunius turned in a tale in the dialect of
Endriejavas residents. This tale was published by Czech linguist in 1875. Baranauskas mentored Jaunius and introduced him to other linguists, including
Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay
Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay (13 March 1845 – 3 November 1929) was a Polish linguist and Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and phonetic alternations.
For most of his life Baudouin de Courtenay worked at Imper ...
, , . As a gifted student, Jaunius was sent to the
Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy
The Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy (russian: Императорская Римско-Католическая Духовная Академия) was an institution of higher education preparing Roman Catholic theologians in the Russia ...
even prior the completion of the priest seminary, but he failed exams in Russian language, geography, and history. He graduated from the seminary in June 1875 and was
ordained a priest. He then successfully retook exams for the Theological Academy and continued to study theology. Several noted linguists and philologists, including
Lucian Müller Lucian Müller (17 March 1836 – 24 April 1898) was a German classical scholar.
Life
Müller was born in Merseburg in the Province of Saxony. After studying at the universities of Berlin and Halle, he lived for five years in the Netherlands, wo ...
,
Franz Anton Schiefner
Franz Anton Schiefner (June 18, 1817 – November 16, 1879) was a Baltic German linguist and tibetologist.
Schiefner was born to a German-speaking family in Reval (Tallinn), Estonia, then part of Russian Empire. His father was a merchant who had e ...
,
Daniel Chwolson
Daniel Abramovich Chwolson or Chwolsohn or Khvolson (russian: Даниил Авраамович (Абрамович) Хвольсон; he, דניאל אברמוביץ' חבולסון) () – )) was a Russian-Jewish orientalist.
Biography
Chwolso ...
, and , taught at the academy. By the time he graduated from the academy, he knew eight languages (Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Latin,
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
,
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, German, French). In 1879, the
Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
asked Jaunius to review a collection of
Lithuanian folk songs compiled by
Antanas Juška
Antanas Juška (16 June 1819 – 1 November 1880) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest known for his lifelong study of Lithuanian folk traditions. For about three decades, he observed the Lithuanian people, their traditions, and recorded their ...
. After defending two thesis (one on morals in comedies of
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
and another on theology ''De conservatione mundi per Deum''), he was awarded the Master of Theology in summer 1879.
Teacher in Kaunas and illness
After the graduation, Jaunius was offered a teaching position at the academy in Saint Petersburg, but Bishop did not approve it and appointed Jaunius as vicar of
Kaunas Cathedral
Cathedral Basilica of apostles St. Peter and St. Paul of Kaunas ( lt, Kauno Šv. apaštalų Petro ir Povilo katedra bazilika) is a Roman Catholic cathedral basilica in Kaunas, Lithuania.
History
The exact date when the first Gothic style chu ...
in December 1879. In September 1880, he became teacher of Latin,
catechism
A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...
, and
moral theology
Ethics involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''"Ethics"/ref> A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply sati ...
at the Kaunas Priest Seminary. In September 1883, he became secretary of Bishop Paliulionis and had to leave the seminary. Jaunius returned to the priest seminary in October 1885 as teacher of moral theology, homiletics, and Lithuanian language. He was a popular professor and his Lithuanian lectures inspired several priests, including
Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas
Juozas Tumas also known by the pen name Vaižgantas (20 September 1869 – 29 April 1933) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest and an activist during the Lithuanian National Revival. He was a prolific writer, editor of nine periodicals, univers ...
and
Maironis
Maironis (born Jonas Mačiulis, ; – 28 June 1932) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest and the greatest and most-known Lithuanian poet, especially of the period of the Lithuanian press ban. He was called the Bard of Lithuanian National Revi ...
, to join the
Lithuanian National Revival
The Lithuanian National Revival, alternatively the Lithuanian National Awakening or Lithuanian nationalism ( lt, Lietuvių tautinis atgimimas), was a period of the history of Lithuania in the 19th century at the time when a major part of Lithuanian ...
. His lectures were often impulsive and disorganized; for example, he would often catch a word from a student and start analyzing its etymology. Therefore, his students often did not finish the full grammar in two years. Jaunius devoted his time to linguistic studies and published several articles on the dialects of the Lithuanian language.
In 1892, Bishop Paliulionis dismissed Jaunius from the priest seminary because he was not following the strict rules of the seminary. As he was no longer welcome in the
Diocese of Samogitia
The Archdiocese of Kaunas ( la, Archidioecesis Kaunensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. The episcopal see is in Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. The archdiocese's ...
, Jaunius searched for another posting and considered Dorpat (
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
). He finally found a vacant deanery in
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
in March 1893. Jaunius possibly targeted Kazan because it had
a university where , who had written on the Lithuanian language, was a professor. However, the ordeal with the bishop negatively affected Jaunius' mental health. He was plagued by homesickness and loneliness and suffered from hallucinations and paranoia. When he could not hold a mournful mass for Tsar
Alexander III of Russia
Alexander III ( rus, Алекса́ндр III Алекса́ндрович, r=Aleksandr III Aleksandrovich; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 18 ...
due to his poor health, Tsarist authorities suspected political motives and wanted to exile him to Siberia. Instead, they put him in a psychiatric hospital. In 1895,
Jadvyga Juškytė brought Jaunius back from Kazan to Lithuania where he lived with friends and acquaintances trying to improve his health and recover, but had no means of earning a living. He petitioned the
Governor of Kaunas for a monthly disability pay and was hoping to get a teaching job at the
Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy
The Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy (russian: Императорская Римско-Католическая Духовная Академия) was an institution of higher education preparing Roman Catholic theologians in the Russia ...
. He frequently visited Saint Petersburg where he reestablished academic contacts. He helped
Eduards Volters
Eduards Volters (1856–1941) was a linguist, ethnographer, archaeologist who studied the Baltic languages and culture. He was a long-time professor at the Saint Petersburg University (1886–1918) and Vytautas Magnus University (1922–1934).
V ...
with the publication of the
postil of Mikalojus Daukša
The ''Catholic Postil, That Is a Lay Out of Gospels for Every Week and Feast of the Entire Year'' (modern lt, Postila katolicka, tai esti išguldymas evangelijų kiekvienos nedėlios ir šventės per visus metus, original Lithuanian: ''Postilla c ...
and delivered three lectures on Lithuanian word endings to the Neo-Philological Society in 1898.
Professor in Saint Petersburg
In December 1898, Jaunius finally managed to get a teaching position at the Theological Academy. Initially, he taught Ancient Greek for an annual salary of 400
rubles
The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union.
, currencies named ''rub ...
but at the start of the 1899/1900 school year, he was promoted to a professor of Latin and Ancient Greek with a salary of 1,000 rubles. In 1902, he transitioned to teaching
Biblical Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...
. He was also active in philological societies and continued his linguistic research. In 1903, the
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...
in
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
offered him chairmanship of the newly formed Lithuanian language section but Jaunius refused possibly due his deteriorating health – he complained of poor eyesight, weak heart, pain in legs, auditory issues, etc. He spent considerable amount of time searching for treatments and visiting sanatoriums abroad. Towards the end of his life, he also developed graphophobia (fear of writing). When
Jonas Basanavičius
Jonas Basanavičius (, pl, Jan Basanowicz; 23 November 1851 – 16 February 1927) was an activist and proponent of the Lithuanian National Revival. He participated in every major event leading to the independent Lithuanian state and is often give ...
asked him why he made so many notes in book margins instead of writing them down in a notebook, Jaunius replied that he was afraid of white paper and almost never used blank sheets. Therefore, he avoided writing down his thoughts or publishing his research. Afraid that his knowledge was wasting, professors
Filipp Fortunatov
Filipp Fyodorovich Fortunatov ( rus, Фили́пп Фёдорович Фортуна́тов; – ) was a Russian philologist, Indo-Europeanist and Slavist, best known for establishing the Fortunatov–de Saussure law.
Biography
Fortunatov wa ...
and
Aleksey Shakhmatov
Alexei Alexandrovich Shakhmatov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Ша́хматов, – 16 August 1920) was a Russian Imperial philologist and historian credited with laying foundations for the science of tex ...
organized funding for a private secretary.
Kazimieras Būga
Kazimieras Būga (; November 6, 1879 – December 2, 1924) was a Lithuanian linguist and philologist. He was a professor of linguistics, who mainly worked on the Lithuanian language.
He was born at Pažiegė, near Dusetos, then part of the Russia ...
, then a gymnasium student, was hired in 1902 and became a student of Jaunius.
Jaunius' reputation as an expert on the Lithuanian language grew. In late 1903,
Vyacheslav von Plehve
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich von Plehve ( rus, Вячесла́в (Wenzel (Славик)) из Плевны Константи́нович фон Пле́ве, p=vʲɪtɕɪˈslaf fɐn ˈplʲevʲɪ; – ) served as a director of Imperial Russ ...
,
Minister of the Interior
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
, asked Jaunius' expert opinion on whether the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...
was suited for the Lithuanian language (publication of Lithuanian texts in the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
was
banned since 1864). According to memoirs of
Pranciškus Būčys
Pranciškus Petras Būčys ( pl, Piotr Franciszek Buczys, 20 August 1872 – 25 October 1951) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest, university professor, titular bishop of the Eastern Catholic Church (consecrated in 1930), and Superior-General ...
, Jaunius delayed his response and insisted on correcting, rewriting, and reediting the response multiple times – Būčys had to rewrite the letter several times and mail it out before Jaunius could point out any further corrections. His reply that the Lithuanian language used a Latin–Lithuanian alphabet (and not Latin–Polish) was added the case file during government debates that led to the lifting of the ban in early 1904. In 1904, Jaunius received an
honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
in
comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.
Genetic relatedness ...
from the
Kazan University
Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...
(that year the university celebrated its 100th anniversary). In 1907, he was one of the founding members of the
Lithuanian Scientific Society
The Lithuanian Scientific Society ( lt, Lietuvių mokslo draugija) was a scientific, cultural, and educational organization that was active between 1907 and 1940 in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was founded in 1907 on the initiative of Jonas Basanavič ...
and was elected its honorary member.
Jaunius health forced him to resign from the Theological Academy in spring 1906. He received a monthly pension of 50 rubles and continued to live in Saint Petersburg. For a year, he lived in a room at the Theological Academy and then rented a cramped one-room apartment in the city. He died of a heart attack in March 1908 alone and in poverty.
Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay
Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay (13 March 1845 – 3 November 1929) was a Polish linguist and Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and phonetic alternations.
For most of his life Baudouin de Courtenay worked at Imper ...
and wrote articles about Jaunius' life that were published as separate booklets. His body was transported and buried in Kaunas. Lithuanian magazines ''
Draugija'' and ''
Viltis'' devoted entire issues to his memory. Lithuanian activists started a fundraising campaign to erect a monument (built in 1913 by sculptor Antanas Aleksandravičius) and to publish his works. In 1991, a
granary
A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...
was reconstructed at the birthplace of Jaunius and turned into his memorial museum.
Works
![Kazimieras Jaunius manuscript](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Kazimieras_Jaunius_manuscript.jpg)
Jaunius published very little. His two major books were published by his secretary
Kazimieras Būga
Kazimieras Būga (; November 6, 1879 – December 2, 1924) was a Lithuanian linguist and philologist. He was a professor of linguistics, who mainly worked on the Lithuanian language.
He was born at Pažiegė, near Dusetos, then part of the Russia ...
already after his death. Most of Jaunius research was focused on
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
.
Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay
Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay (13 March 1845 – 3 November 1929) was a Polish linguist and Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and phonetic alternations.
For most of his life Baudouin de Courtenay worked at Imper ...
praised Jaunius' deep knowledge of multiple languages and his ability to take in this vast information, systematize it, and arrive to broad conclusions. His conclusions were often incorrect which some attribute to his lack of specialized linguistic education.
Lithuanian grammar
His major work, the Lithuanian grammar, was based on his teaching notes from the Kaunas Priest Seminary. At the time, there was no published Lithuanian grammar that Jaunius could have used. His students copied and recopied his notes which circulated widely. They were first published (
hectograph
The hectograph, gelatin duplicator or jellygraph is a printing process that involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame.
While the original use of the technolo ...
ed) by a group of Lithuanian students without Jaunius' knowledge or input in Dorpat (
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
) in 1897. It was a 338-page work in four parts: spelling,
phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
,
case inflection, and
verb conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation () is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (alteration of form according to rules of grammar). For instance, the verb ''break'' can be conjugated to form the words ''break'', ...
. In 1905, professor
Filipp Fortunatov
Filipp Fyodorovich Fortunatov ( rus, Фили́пп Фёдорович Фортуна́тов; – ) was a Russian philologist, Indo-Europeanist and Slavist, best known for establishing the Fortunatov–de Saussure law.
Biography
Fortunatov wa ...
agreed to finance a proper publication of the grammar. However, Jaunius managed to review and correct only 48 pages of the manuscript. Therefore, Būga finished preparing the grammar based on the hectographed copy from 1897. The final 216-page book was published in 1911. Būga further worked on preparing a Russian translation which was published in 1916.
While the grammar was written as a practical textbook for Lithuanian clerics, it contained new and deep insights into the living language and was praised by
Jonas Jablonskis
Jonas Jablonskis (; 30 December 1860, in Kubilėliai, Šakiai district – 23 February 1930, in Kaunas) was a distinguished Lithuanian linguist and one of the founders of the standard Lithuanian language. He used the pseudonym ''Rygiškių Jon ...
for its wealth of knowledge. Jablonskis used Jaunius' grammar extensively when preparing his own publication that became the key work in creating the standard Lithuanian language. Nevertheless, its coverage was inconsistent and not comprehensive. For example, verbs were analyzed in 80 pages while
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
only briefly described in 10 pages. Jaunius did not prioritize one Lithuanian dialect over another and did not attempt to standardize pronunciation of the different dialects. Instead, he attempted to modify spelling to accommodate different pronunciation. Therefore, he introduced ten new letters that each dialect could pronounce based on its needs. That made the spelling cumbersome and impractical and it was not adopted by anyone else. Jaunius provided examples from different dialects and thus developed a more comprehensive picture of the Lithuanian language and its most common features. In his work, Jaunius had to develop Lithuanian terminology for various linguistic terms. He was not very successful in this area as he often used awkward
compound words
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when ...
or simply translated Latin terms without fully adapting them to the Lithuanian language. Nevertheless, some of his terms were adopted and are widely used, including ''linksnis'' for
grammatical case
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In vari ...
, ''veiksmažodis'' for
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
, ''priesaga'' for
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
, etc.
Dialectology
Jaunius studied Lithuanian dialects and grouped them into sub-dialects. His classification was later improved by . Their classification is known as Jaunius–Salys or traditional classification when compared to the newer classification of
Zigmas Zinkevičius
Zigmas Zinkevičius (January 4, 1925 in Juodausiai, Ukmergė district – February 20, 2018 in Vilnius) was a leading Lithuanian linguist-historian, professor at Vilnius University, and a full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. He ha ...
and . In 1891–1898, he wrote and published descriptions of dialects in six
uyezd
An uezd (also spelled uyezd; rus, уе́зд, p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context ( uk, повіт), or Kreis in Baltic-German context, was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Russian Empire, and the ea ...
s –
Ukmergė
Ukmergė (; previously ''Vilkmergė''; pl, Wiłkomierz) is a city in Vilnius County, Lithuania, located northwest of Vilnius, with a population of about 20,000.
Etymology and variant names
The city took its original name ''Vilkmergė'' from th ...
in 1890,
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
in 1891,
Raseiniai
Raseiniai (; Samogitian: ''Raseinē'') is a city in Lithuania. It is located on the south eastern foothills of the Samogitians highland, some north from the Kaunas–Klaipėda highway.
History
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Raseiniai is one of th ...
in 1892,
Zarasai
Zarasai () is a city in northeastern Lithuania, surrounded by many lakes and rivers: to the southwest of the city is Lake Zarasas, to the north – Lake Zarasaitis, to the southeast – Lake Baltas, and the east – Lake Griežtas. Lakes Zarasai ...
in 1894,
Šiauliai
Šiauliai (; bat-smg, Šiaulē; german: Schaulen, ) is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 107,086. From 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Šiauliai County.
Names
Šiauliai is referred to by various names in different l ...
in 1895,
Panevėžys
Panevėžys (; Latin: ''Panevezen''; pl, Poniewież; yi, פּאָנעװעזש, ''Ponevezh''; see also other names) is the fifth largest city in Lithuania. As of 2011, it occupied with 113,653 inhabitants. As defined by Eurostat, the population ...
in 1897 and 1898. In 1900, he also published an article on Lithuanian
pitch-accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
in 1900. All of these articles were written in Russian and published in an annual publication ''Memorial Book of the Kovno Governorate'' (), the yearbook of the Kaunas government. Jaunius wrote about the dialect classification in his Lithuanian grammar book. Jaunius identified the two major dialects –
Samogitian and
Aukštaitian – based on pronunciation of certain sounds. He then subdivided each dialect into three sub-dialects – Samogitians based on the pronunciation of
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s ''ie'' and ''uo'' and Aukštaitians based on diphthongs ''am'', ''an'', ''em'', ''en'' and letter ''l'' before ''ė''. Jaunius did not separate out the
Dzūkian dialect. While he was not always consistent in his classification, he clearly identified the criteria for separating local variations into sub-dialects. His observations and rules for accents remain relevant and authoritative.
Other works
Būga wrote down 3,043 pages in six volumes of Jaunius' teachings on Lithuanian, Latvian, and
Prussian language
Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European languages, which was once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid con ...
s and their Baltic proto-language. Since Jaunius could not work on getting them published, Būga wrote and prepared the first volume of ''Aistiški studijai'' (Baltic Studies) for publication in May 1906, but after delays it was published only in May 1908. Būga also had the second volume prepared in 1906–1907, but after his own linguistic studies Būga realized that many of Jaunius' theories were incorrect and amateurish. For example, when explaining
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
of a certain word, Jaunius often searched for equivalents in the trendy Greek or Armenian languages instead of closer neighbors. He often grouped
semantically
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
similar but
phonetically
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
different words and attempted to find their true original form. While the conclusions are often incorrect, the notes are still valuable for their observational data.
Jaunius studied the relationship between
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
and
Finno-Ugric languages
Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...
or
Semitic. He left notes for Lithuanian–Estonian (446 words) and Lithuanian–Finnish (474 words) etymological dictionaries. He also prepared a dictionary of loanwords of Baltic origin in the Finnish language (222 words). He likely became interested in Finno-Ugric languages after reading a work of
August Ahlqvist
Karl August Engelbrekt Ahlqvist, who wrote as A. Oksanen (7 August 1826 – 20 November 1889), was a Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic. Today, he is best remembered as the sharpest critic o ...
in 1878. He claimed to have discovered equivalents of consonants in
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
and
Proto-Semitic language
Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical reconstructed proto-language ancestral to the Semitic languages. There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic ''Urheimat''; scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant (m ...
s. In his last decade, Jaunius was interested in many different topics and started many projects, but was unable to finish them. A collection of his previously unpublished manuscripts was published in 1972.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaunius, Kazimieras
Balticists
1848 births
1908 deaths
Linguists from Lithuania
19th-century Lithuanian Roman Catholic priests
Linguists of Lithuanian
Burials at Petrašiūnai Cemetery