Belarusian Political Science Review, Volume 2, 2012–2013
ISSN 2029-8684 (online)
ISSN 2029-8676
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES:
HISTORICAL DIMENSION
Alieh Dziarnovič
LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GRAND
DUCHY OF LITHUANIA: BETWEEN FUNCTION
AND STATUS
Introduction, or the Incident of 1529
At the very beginning of May 1529, on behalf of the High Court – “by or-
der of His Majesty” – officials of the central and regional (Vilnius/Wilno/Viĺnia
Voivodeship) administration of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania sent decki1 Vasiĺ
Bialianin to the Eišiškės parish of Lida County (today in the Šalčininkai district
of Vilnius County of the Republic of Lithuania). He was to interview witnesses
on the spot over a disputed property case between a boyar of His Majesty Piotr
Sumarok and Eišiškės subject Sieńka Ivaškavič. The judicial body, headed by
the Marshal2 of His Majesty Maciej Vojciechavič Kločka, “ordered Sumarok and
Sieńka Ivaškavič not to go to those witnesses beforehand, but join the decki”.
Sumarok asked permission not to join the decki, but to stay in Vilnius. What
a surprise it was for the decki when he met Sumarok on the road to Eišiškės “al-
ready going back from witnesses”. The court official asked the plaintiff: «“Sumarok,
where are the witnesses?”, – and he pointed out the witnesses in a birchwood. Then,
when the witnesses stood in front of me and wanted to confess, Sumarok started talking
to them in Lithuanian (emphasis mine. – A.Dz.) and asked them: “For God’s sake
do not betray me, and what I promised I will give you, and will not betray you”». And
the decki, “seeing injustice of Sumarok, did not question those witnesses” (Lithuanian
Metrica, 1995: 90, CXXI-CXXII, № 113). We should add that Piotr Sumarok lost
his case in court eventually because of the attempt to bribe the witnesses.
This story, quite ordinary for its time, was recorded in the Сourt Record Book
No 4 of the GDL Metrica. But the cases when the use of Lithuanian language is pre-
cisely fixed in the Metrica – materials of the GDL Chancellery – are very rare. And
the above quotation is especially interesting, as it shows the procedure of the trial.
Thus, we see that in the first half of the 16th century at least some of the
court officials understood the Lithuanian language. But the decki specifically
explained to the court that the plaintiff switched to the Lithuanian language to
hide the essence of the conversation. Meanwhile, the court records were run in
the language which was designated in the GDL Metrica as “Ruthenian”. This
1
Bailiff in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
2
Senior official in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Marshal of His Majesty implemented special orders
of the Grand Duke and managed his court’s services.
LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GRAND DUCHY... 47
happened even before the adoption of the 2nd and 3rd GDL Statutes of 1566 and
1588, which set the official status of the GDL Chancellery language.
Two ideas appear with regard to this case. Presumably, we can talk about
real marginalization of the Lithuanian language in the Grand Duchy of Lithu-
ania. The plaintiff in our history, Piotr Sumarok, was really hoping that the
official, who came from Vilnius, would not understand the Lithuanian speech.
Another option of the event’s interpretation – the Lithuanian language was
indeed a factor of social life of the Grand Duchy.
I. Living Speech and Cryptic Language
The 15th century provides us with examples of use of the Lithuanian language
in political sphere, but it happened at the level of private negotiations, for ex-
ample, at the Lutsk congress of monarchs in January 1429. Vitaŭt (Vytautas)
recalls the circumstances of that meeting in his letter to Władysław II Jagiełło3
on February 17, 1429. When the Roman King Sigismund started a conversation
with the Polish King about the royal coronation of Vitaŭt, Jagiełło seemed to
agree with him, but cautious Vitaŭt addressed his cousin and the King deli-
berately in Lithuanian (as recorded in a Latin document: “nos vero in lithwanico
diximus ad vos” with a proposal to take the time and consult with Polish pre-
lates and dignitaries (Codex epistolaris Vitoldi, 1882: 816, Nr. 1345).
According to the report of Gdansk townsmen, who arrived to Vilnius to
meet with Casimir Jagiellon and the GDL Pany-Rada4 in 1492, they heard Po-
lish, Lithuanian, as well as Ruthenian (Old Belarusian) languages during nego-
tiations: “Daruff wart manchfaldig handelt gehat itzundt Polnisch, itzundt Lithows,
itzundt Reuszch” (Hansisches Urkundenbuch, 1916: 364).
Based on this case, the contemporary Lithuanian historian Artūras Dubonis
(2004: 209) argues that “an oral version of the Lithuanian language for sure became one
of the languages of diplomacy in Eastern and part of Central Europe”. But, as we see
from the appeal of Vitaŭt to Jagiełło, the Grand Duke of Lithuania intentionally
switched to the Lithuanian language in a conversation with the Polish King in
order not to be understood by other foreign participants. In this case, the Lithu-
anian language functioned not as diplomatic, but as a cryptic language.
However, a part of the elite in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th cen-
tury still tried to make sure that the Grand Duke of Lithuania could understand
the language of his Baltic speaking subjects. Thanks to the Polish chronicler Jan
Długosz, we know that when the newly elected Grand Duke Casimir Jagiellon
arrived from Kraków to Vilnius in 1440, local nobility taught him Lithuanian
language and customs (local law): “Pauci qui remanserant, odio et arte Lithuanorum
tempore succedente exclusi sunt, veriti, ne native affect plus esset Polonis quam Lithu-
anis affectus, officials Lithuanos adiungung et ipsum linguam et mores suos instruunt”
(Dlugossii, 2001: 256). Which “Lithuanian language” could they teach the young
3
Lithuanian Jogaila, Belarusian Jahajla. We use the Polish variant of his name, because in history he
is mostly known as Polish king.
4
Also: Rada of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – the highest governmental body of the GDL in the
15th – first half of the 16th centuries. Rada consisted of highest officials, bishops, magnates and go-
verned the GDL together with the Grand Duke and during his absence.
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
48 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
Casimir in Trakai according to Długosz? It seems that it was Lithuanian in the
modern sense of the term, because the “Lithuanian” and “Ruthenian” (in both
cases relating to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th century) was differen-
tiated in Latin terminology and Polish tradition very well. Most probably, Po-
lish was the young prince’s first language since his birth in Kraków in 1427. The
election of Casimir the Grand Duke of Lithuania was possible due to participa-
tion in this political intrigue of such important families of Lithuanian origin as
Kiezhajly, Gaštoldy and Radzivily5 (Ochmański, 1982: 113).
But this language practice started to decline in the 16th century already. The
Lithuanian language went out of use at the Grand Duke’s courtyard by the
middle of this century (Dubonis, 2004: 211).
II. The Written Language of Catechization
All the examples given above concerned the use of oral language. A number
of linguists believe that all types of writing are completely beyond linguistics,
and that this science is limited to studying only the spoken language. But a
Canadian researcher Henry Allan Gleason shows through his concept of de-
scriptive linguistics that there is a strong bond between speaking and writing
(Gleason, 2002: 404). The same methods are often used when studying both
speaking and writing, and their structures are similar in many aspects. How-
ever, we need to delimit speaking from the written language very clearly in
historical research, and to discuss the written language separately.
The known examples of the first written fixation of the Lithuanian language
were sporadic in the GDL at the beginning of the 16th century – they relate to the
religious sphere and emerged among the Franciscans (Zinkevičius, 1996: 100).
The oldest one is an entry of daily prayers made on the last page of the book
“Tractatus sacerdotalis”, published in Latin for priests in Strasbourg in 1503.
This book belonged to the Franciscan monastery in Vilnius, and the author of the
entry is likely to be a monk (Zinkevičius, 1999: 30). This text was found not so
long ago – in 1962, in the Library of Vilnius University. Dialectological analysis
of the text, according to the Lithuanian researchers, points to the southeast of
the Vilnius region, to the strip Dieveniškės-Trobaj-Lazdūnai and further to the
territory of modern Belarus (Zinkevičius, 1988: 237-239) (Figure 1).
Already in the last quarter of the twentieth century Sigitas Narbutas found
about 100 short entries (individual words and phrases) in Lithuanian, which also
come from the beginning of the 16th century. These entries were made in the Latin
liturgical book, published in Lyon in 1501 (Narbutas and Zinkevičius, 1989: 325-
336). The entries are made by the same hand, and the handwriting resembles the
one from the oldest Lithuanian entry. The language of these entries is close to
the dialect of the region Trakai-Eišiškės (Zinkevičius, 1988: 239-240; Narbutas and
Zinkevičius, 1989: 337-341). As in the case of the edition of 1503, the book of 1501
also belonged to the Franciscan monastery, which indicates a special role of the
Franciscans, the order of missionaries and official beggars, in the use of languages
of the various ethnic communities for further catechization. In this sense they pre-
ceded the Jesuits of the Church Reform era (Counter-Reformation).
5
Lithuanian: Kęsgailos, Goštautai and Radvilos.
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LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GRAND DUCHY... 49
Sigitas Narbutas found another short Lithuanian entry in the collection
of Latin sermons (Homilii). This marginalia was made between 1530 and
1579 years (Narbutas, 1995: 56-59). The entry itself is very short, but Zigmas
Zinkevičius rates it as a very informative (Zinkevičius, 1995: 62-65). Probably,
this record comes from Roman Catholic priest Paul, the provost of the church
of St. Mary Magdalene, who presented this book to the Franciscan monastery
in 1579. Hence, perhaps, not only the monks of the Franciscan order used the
Lithuanian language, but also the parish priests of those temples, where the
Lithuanian language could sound in sermons (Zinkevičius, 1999: 31).
Figure 1
The oldest written fixation of the Lithuanian text – the entry of prayers
“The Lord’s Prayer”, “Hail Mary” and “The Apostles’ Creed”6 on the last
page of the Latin book “Tractatus sacerdotalis” (Strasbourg, 1503),
Library of Vilnius University (Zinkevičius, 2000: 71-73)
The central government also sought, whenever possible, to provide the areas
inhabited by ethnic Lithuanians with priests who spoke the Lithuanian language.
6
Lithuanian: “Tėve mūsų”, “Sveika Marija” and “Tikiu ingi Dievą Tėvą”.
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
50 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
For example, King and Grand Duke Sigismund wrote in his order to Žiežmariai
Deputy on August 3, 1511: “I order to provide Žiežmariai church with a chaplain and a
master, who are able to speak Lithuanian“ (Lithuanian Metrika, 2003: 110-111, № 72).
On January 27, 1524 the same monarch in the privilege to the Eišiškės rector
pointed among other things that the chaplain could address the congregation in
Lithuanian: “... presbyteros idoneos, quorum saltem unus idiomate Lithuanico praedicare
populo Dei bene sciat et debeat” (Lithuanian Metrika, 2001: 559, № 720).
Why were Lithuanian speaking priests so important for the internal policies
of the Grand Dukes? The reason is that the liturgy in the church within the
Catholic tradition was held in Latin, but a congregation could be addressed
only in the language that they understood.
It seems that knowledge of the Lithuanian language was also required from
the missionaries in earlier periods of the Christianization of Lithuania. We speak
here about “periods”, because Zigmas Zinkevičius shows in one of his last works,
“The Origins of Christianity in Lithuania: Eastern Rite Christianity According
to Onomastics”, that even before the official baptism of Lithuania in 1387, the
Eastern Christian wave was “extremely intense and left deep traces in the history of
the Lithuanian nation” (Zinkevičius, 2005: 76-77). This is evidenced by the oldest
layer of church terminology in the Lithuanian language, which appeared along
with the penetration of the Eastern Rite Christianity: Kalėdos (Christmas), kūčios
(kutia), Velykos (Easter), krikštas (baptism), bažnyčia (shrine) (Zinkevičius, 2005:
8-11).7 Also, a number of Lithuanian personal names are associated with the
spread of Eastern Christianity (Grumadienė, 2005: 202-204).
Zigmas Zinkevičius, among other things, reconstructed the translation pro-
cess of the first Christian prayers into the Lithuanian language (Zinkevičius,
1996: 51; Zinkevičius, 2000). The author argues that these translations were
made during the time of King Mindaugas and the tradition of using these
prayers never interrupted. This concept is logical and quite plausible. But we
should bear in mind that this is only a reconstruction, and we actually have the
earliest fixation of texts of Lithuanian prayers in the book of year 1503.
Such detailed optics, directed at the written records of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, allows us to find confirmation of individual cases of usage of the
Lithuanian language. But at the same time these examples only highlight the
limited status of the Lithuanian language in public affairs. Overall sociolin-
guistic and political situation, as positive examples of the Lithuanian language
use also show, was not favorable to the functioning of the Lithuanian language
at the state level.
A modern Polish historian Grzegorz Błaszczyk, analyzing the use of diffe-
rent languages in the GDL, even makes a firm conclusion that the Lithuanian
language “did not have any chance to exist as a state language” (Błaszczyk, 2002:
305). A Lithuanian historian Antanas Tyla, referring to the openness of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a state, notes: “the state cared little about the preser-
vation and development of ethnic culture of Lithuanians” (Tyla, 1996: 5). Describing
such a prominent event as the appearance of the first printed Lithuanian book
7
We need to add that most of the words provided by Zinkevičius are derived from Belarusian lan-
guage, which the Lithuanian lingiust does not mention, as he refers only to Greek and East Slavic
sources of loaning.
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LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GRAND DUCHY... 51
“The Simple Words of Catechism ...”8 in Königsberg in 1547, published by
Martyn (Martynas) Mažvydas (Mažvydas, 1974), Jūratė Kiaupienė notes: “The
impetus given by M. Mažvydas in the middle of the 16th century found no response in
Lithuania” (Kiaupa, Kiaupienė and Kuncevičius, 1998: 186).
Figure 2
Title page of the “Catechism” of Martynas Mažvydas (1547)
III. The Beginning of the Lithuanian Language Publishing
One of the poems, placed in the “The Simple Words of Catechism ...” of Mar-
tynas Mažvydas, had a dedication “Ad Magnum Ducatum Lituaniae” (“To the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania”):
AD MAGNVM
DVCATVM LITVANIAE
Fausta ducum magnorum altrix, Lituania clara,
Haec mandata Dei, suscipe mente pia,
Ne te, cum dederis rationes ante tribunal
Augustum, magni iudicis ira premat.
TO THE GRAND
DUTCHY OF LITHUANIA
Happy homeland of the Grand Dukes, glorious Lithuania,
Please accept the God’s mandate with humility,
In order not to be crushed by the great judge’s anger,
When you will face the highest court.
Martynas Mažvydas was a fugitive Protestant from Samogitia, so the lan-
guage of his book bears the imprint of Samogitian dialects. Therefore it is
possible to claim that, historically, the Lithuanian publishing began from the
8
Lithuanian: “Catechizmusa prasty szadei ...”.
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
52 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
Samogitian dialect. Later, the most archaic Western Aukštaitija dialects formed
the basis of the Lithuanian literary language.
Figure 3
Poetic dedication of Martynas Mažvydas to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
(“Catechizmusa prasty szadei ...”)
Mažvydas’ book came from the capital of the Prussian Duchy. And later
in the 16th century, statistics of printing books in the Lithuanian language
showed the leadership of Königsberg – by the end of the century 22 books
were published there, while only 8 book were published in the Grand Duchy
(Zinkevičius, 1988: 9); according to Maria Barbara Topolska (Topolska, 2002:
169-170), 32 and 14 books were published respectively. The tradition of Lithu-
anian language publishing in the GDL was launched by Mikalojus Daukša in
1595, who published his own translation of the “Catechism” of the Spanish Je-
suit Jacob Ledesma “Kathechismas arba mokslas kiekwienam priwalvs” (Mi-
kalojus Daukša, 1995; Lebedys, 1963) at the expense of the Bishop of Samogitia
Merkelis Giedraitis (Ulčinaitė, 1999: 444-453; Lukšaitė, 1999: 404).
The situation changed in the 17th century. Different researchers give
slightly varying data, but they generally demonstrate a similar trend. Ac-
cording to the Polish scholar of printing history Maria Barbara Topolska
(Topolska, 2002: 169-170), by the year 1660 another 20 books in Lithuanian
were published in Prussia, and already 25 – in the GDL. The Lithuanian lin-
guist Zigmas Zinkevičius (Zinkevičius, 1988: 9), and later the Russian phi-
lologist and baltist Vladimir Toporov (Toporov, 1999: 237) name 22 books in
Prussia against 32 in the GDL. But Prussia’s “Lithuania Minor” recovered its
superiority over the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 18th century with 243
against 167 editions.
Thus, the language of Lithuanian books, which were printed in a fairly com-
pact Prussia, was, as noted by linguists, quite clean and more homogeneous
than on the vast territories of the Grand Duchy, where dialectal peculiarities
widely existed. In particular, that is why the Lithuanian national conscious-
ness began to mature in Prussia, and modern Lithuanian literary language
BELARUSIAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW #2 (2012–2013)
LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GRAND DUCHY... 53
bears a strong imprint of the dialect of the so-called Lithuania Minor, which
was a part of the former Duchy of Prussia (Palionis, 1967: 7; Zinkevičius, 1988:
9; Toporov, 1999: 237).
To understand the reason of the interest of the Prussian ducal authorities in
the Lithuanian printing, one needs to take into account the Protestant concept
of direct connection of man and God, as well as conscious personal reading of
the Holy Scripture. Such practice demanded a widespread literacy among be-
lievers and printing of sacred texts in national languages, irrespective of their
social status.
Books, which are important for language normalization, such as dictiona-
ries, start to be published in the GDL at that time. For example, the first dictio-
nary of the Lithuanian language (Polish-Latin-Lithuanian) “Dictionarium
trium linguarum” by a Jesuit and professor of Vilnius Academy Kanstancin
Šyrvid (Konstantinas Sirvydas) appeared at that time. The first edition was
published in Vilnius around 1620 and intended for students of poetry and
rhetoric. The dictionary contained about 1400 words and appeared so popular
that it was republished in 1629, 1631, 1642, 1677 and 1713. However, this popu-
larity had a downside – Šyrvid’s dictionary remained the only printed diction-
ary in the Lithuanian language in the GDL by the middle of the 19th century,
while the other Lithuanian dictionaries were published in Prussia.
Figure 4
The title of the Trilingual Lithuanian Dictionary “Dictionarium trium linguarum
in usum studiosae juventutis” by Kanstancin Šyrvid (Konstantinas Sirvydas).
The publication of 1713
It was common for authors of Lithuanian publishing initiatives to publicly
justify the motives of their activity. Lithuanian Catholic priest and enlightener
Mikalojus Daukša in his seminal work – the translation of “Postilla Catholica.
To iest Kazania na Ewangelie Niedzielne” of a Polish Jesuit and theologian
Jakub Wujek (Vilnius, 1599) (Daukšos Postilė, 1926) – placed two prefaces, one
of which was aimed at protecting the mother tongue. It was language that
Daukša considered a necessary condition for the existence of a nation and
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
54 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
identified it with the concept of Motherland. Such patriotic approach seems
unexpected and more appropriate to modern concepts. It turns out that ethnic
consciousness in the 16th century was present among the educated elite of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who understood its relationship with state institu-
tions, as evidenced by the Belarusian-Lithuanian chronicles.
Figure 5
The title page of the Lithuanian translation of “Postylla Catholica”
of Jakub Wujek, published by Mikalojus Daukša
IV. The 16th Century: Where Is the Place of the Lithuanian Language
As we can see from the example of judicial investigation in 1529, ethnic Lithu-
anians were bilingual and in addition to their native language were able to un-
derstand the official language of the GDL Chancellery (in this case we do not
mean the elite – Pany-Rada members, who certainly spoke a few languages).
Moreover, some officials of the GDL central government of not Lithuanian ori-
gin could also speak Lithuanian in order to be able to perform their duties ef-
fectively. At least, we know that decki Vasiĺ Bialianin was Ruthenian by origin.
Linguistic borrowings present an important illustration of the process of
mutual influence of languages. Some statistical discrepancies exist in this ques-
tion too. Belarusian linguists note the asymmetry of the Belarusian-Lithuanian
(Slavic-Baltic) influences. Long-term coexistence of indigenous Baltic popula-
tion with incoming Slavs on the territory of modern Belarus led to the forma-
tion of a significant amount of superstratum9 in the language of Balts, and
9
Superstratum – the influence of the language of the alien population upon the language of the
indigenous population as a result of the cultural domination of some ethnic community, which did
not have the critical mass for the assimilation of this indigenous population. In this case, the local
linguistic tradition does not disappear, but experiences an influence of foreign language to a different
degree and at different levels.
BELARUSIAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW #2 (2012–2013)
LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GRAND DUCHY... 55
Baltic lexical substrate10 in the successor language of Slavs (Lexical Balticisms,
1969; Bułyka, 1980; Laučiūtė, 1982). While words of the Belarusian origin ac-
counted for a significant layer in the Old Lithuanian language, the Lithuanian
lexical impact is limited to four dozen units in the Old Belarusian language
(Sviažynski, 2005: 60).
Konstantinas Jablonskis in his work and in some unpublished materials re-
corded around 250 borrowings from Lithuanian in the Chancellery (Old Belaru-
sian) language (Zinkevičius, 1996: 73). Most likely, these divergences stem from
the difference in the selected area, on which the information is provided. Jablon-
skis recorded most borrowings in the documents created on the territory of eth-
nic Lithuania. Outside this territory, their number reaches only fifty. It should be
noted that the large-scale project of publishing the “Historical Dictionary of the
Belarusian Language” (1982-2011) is continuing, and the number of identified
lexical borrowings will obviously increase. The main reason for the appearance
of borrowings from Lithuanian in the Old Belarusian language was the exis-
tence of specific social and economic phenomena in the GDL. These phenomena
needed names in order to record the occurring processes.
In some later regulations (the middle of the 16th – the 17th centuries), be-
sides borrowings from Lithuanian, the whole Lithuanian phrases written in
Cyrillic letters sometimes appear, such as one in the Judicial Acts of Vilkamir
(Ukmergė) Castle of 1623: “Жыноки ку нежыдеси илкгай ант ся света”11
(Zinkevičius, 1996: 74). As we can see, it was a written proverb. Thus, not a
single act written fully in Lithuanian language and addressing the residents of
the state appeared in the Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the
15th–17th centuries, although the documents prove a limited existence of the
Lithuanian oral language in the public sphere in the 16th century.
Magdeburg documentation indicates that Lithuanian language was one of
the languages of oral communication in the urban life of Kaunas and Vilnius in
the 16th century. Vilnius city charter of November 18, 1551 determined that the
summons to court and the verdict would be anounced “in Polish and Lithuanian,
and in Ruthenian, so that all who listen could understand”12 (Dubiński, 1788: 96).
In Kaunas, the privilege of 1540 defined Polish and Lithuanian as public lan-
guages (Kiaupa, 2000: 28). It is clear that in Kaunas the Lithuanian language had
the strongest positions. Sources of 1562 report about a Polish boy, who studied
Lithuanian in the Lithuanian family, and a German boy, who studied Lithu-
anian and Polish languages in the same way in 1567 (Lebedys, 1976: 192). In ad-
dition, the lack of knowledge of the Lithuanian language caused resignation of
the juryman of Kaunas City Council Andreas Woit, German by origin, in 1538:
“... er sproch halben dem, er im litauischen nicht wol erfaren sei” (Dubonis, 2004: 217).
The decision of the Vilnius City Council on fees, certified by Sigismund Augus-
tus in 1522, provided that an official act had to be voiced by heralds in Polish,
10
Substratum – the influence of the language of the indigenous population upon another language,
usually during the transition of communities from the first language to the new one. Unlike linguistic
borrowing, it requires a deep ethnic mixture and language assimilation of the indigenous population
by aliens, involving a stage of bilingualism.
11
Know that you will not prosper in this world for a long time.
12
Original Polish: “po polsku i po litewsku, i po rusku, aby wszyscy, ktorzy by słuchali, rozumieli”.
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
56 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
Ruthenian, and Lithuanian languages, in order that all people concerned would
understand contents of the document. Thus, for the announcement the act was
translated from the chancellery language – Polish, Old Belarusian or Latin.
Again, we are talking about the spoken form of the language in these cas-
es. Non-differentiation of the oral and written forms of languages and their
functions may lead to the controversial concept, according to which historians
declare Lithuanian the official language of the GDL, at the same time reject-
ing the very notion of the state language in the 16th–17th centuries, as Artūras
Dubonis does (2004: 205 -219).13 Yet he outlines the overall sociolinguistic situ-
ation in the GDL in this way: “So, it seems that we are dealing with a linguistic
coexistence and balance, developed over the centuries in the GDL, and not with the
problem of the state language. The authorities took care of the existing multilingua-
lism” (Dubonis, 2004: 218).
V. Linguistic Experiments and Practices of the 17th–18th Centuries
So, we can observe very interesting and at the same time contradictory cultural
processes during the 16th century. Knowledge of the Lithuanian language was
necessary to mid-level bureaucrats for qualified performance of official duties
in some regions of the GDL, but the Lithuanian language was never able to
gain the status of one of the official chancellery languages of the Duchy. And
this was happening at the time when Lithuanian publishing already existed
(though in Prussia), and literary norms of the written Lithuanian language
were establishing. The 17th century brings some innovations in the problem,
though they leave even more questions.
The first official documents of the GDL published in Lithuanian appear at
the time of the King and Grand Duke Władysław IV Vasa. These are messages
of Władysław IV of 1639 and 1641, which were distributed in Prussia. In the
universal of March 22, 1639 (Pakarklis, 1960 58-59, il. 2; Kulnytė, 1990: il. 158)
monarch of the Commonwealth of Both Nations14 forbids his citizens, and pri-
marily residents of Masuria and Podlachia, to hunt in the forests of the Duchy
of Prussia.
Universal of August 22, 1641 (Pakarklis, 1960 58-59, il. 3) reflects the desire
of the central government to restrict the migration of peasants from Poland
to Prussia, and in connection with this the separation of judicial competence
between the two countries is carried out. Prussian authorities published both
of these charters in Prussia, using the Gothic type adopted there. Obviously,
these universals, prepared in the Royal Chancellery of Władysław IV (most
likely in Latin), were translated into the Lithuanian language in the Prussian
chancellery and issued with observance of the official protocol, indicating the
place of the seal – L. S. (locus sigilli). As we see, these Lithuanian language ini-
tiatives also came from the Prussian side. And it was in Prussia where a prac-
tice of issuing official documents in Lithuanian started since the 16th century.
13
See also the discussion caused by this text (Sviažynski, 2004: 220-227; Dziarnovič, 2004: 12-17).
14
The Commonwealth of Polish nation (nobility of the Kingdom of Poland) and Lithuanian-Belaru-
sian/Ruthenian nation (nobility of the GDL).
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Figure 6
September 22, 1589. Resolution of the Prussian Duke George Frederick
to ban trade on private farmsteads. In Lithuanian
Figure 7
March 22, 1639. The King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania,
Władysław IV Vasa forbids his citizens to hunt in the forests of the Duchy
of Prussia. Printed leaflet, in Lithuanian (Prussia)
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
58 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
Figure 8
August 22, 1641. The King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania
Władysław IV Vasa restricts migration of peasants from the Commonwealth
of Both Nations to the Duchy of Prussia. Printed leaflet, in Lithuanian (Prussia)
The 17th and especially the 18th centuries were the time of publishing of the
Lithuanian primers. The first educational publication of that kind was a part of
the Catechism of Mažvydas with alphabet and exercises for reading syllables on
four pages. Second Lithuanian primer was again a part of the catechism “The
Sermon Beginning for Small Children ... Small Catechism ... “15 prepared by the GDL
Calvinists (perhaps by Samuel Bitner), but published again in Königsberg in
1690 and funded by Liudvika Karalina Radzivil, the representative of Biržai Cal-
vinist part of the GDL ducal family. This catechism was distributed in Calvinist
schools of northern Lithuania for free. Another Lithuanian primer was printed
in Königsberg in 1708, but it was intended for Lutheran schools of Prussia.
The Grand Duchy was again late with the publication of primers. There
is evidence that a Samogitian primer was published in Vilnius in the prin-
ting house of the Franciscans in 1752, but it was eventually lost. The first well-
known Catholic primer “Learning to Read Polish Letters for Small Children”16 was
published in Vilnius between the years 1759–1761. As we see, this primer was
focused on learning the basics of Polish language by Lithuanian schoolchil-
dren and contained 64 pages of parallel texts in Lithuanian and Polish. It is
from this book that a systematic reprint of Lithuanian primers for the GDL pri-
mary schools begins (editions of years 1763 and 1766 remained). Finally, one
day the Polish part disappeared from bilingual primers, and in the edition of
1783 it was already absent. However, we do not know the exact date of emer-
gence of the purely Lithuanian version of the primer, although it is believed
to have happened during the 1766–1776 period. Henceforth, the primer was
called “Learning to read Lithuanian letters for small children”.17
15
Original: “Pradzia pamoksla del Mazu Weykialu ... Katechizmas maziasnis ...”.
16
Original: “Moksłas skaytima raszto lękiszko del mazu waykialu = Nauka czytania pisma polskiego dla
małych dziatek”.
17
Lithuanian: “Moksłas skaytima raszta lietuwiszka dieł mazu wayku”.
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Figure 9
Title page of the bilingual (Polish-Lithuanian) primer. Vilnius, 1763
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60 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
Figure 10
Title page of the Lithuanian primer. Vilnius, 1783
Later, these primers were published in the Academic (university) prin-
ting house annually from 325 to 2350 copies (about 1000 copies on average)
during the years 1776–1790. Although the demand for primary Polish lan-
guage education was higher (editions of Polish primers ranged from 510 to
2805 copies, the average number of copies was 1600 copies), such extension
of the Lithuanian primers was a real success of Lithuanian language educa-
tion (Table 1).
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Table 1
Edition of primers (based on books of income and expenses of the printing
house of the Main School of Lithuania – Vilnius University, 1776-1790)
Year Lithuanian primers Polish primers
1776 560 510
1777 1500 1535
1778 325 2270
1779 795 3016
1780 1020 1370
1781 950 870
1782 1640 2196
1783 788 1030
1784 325 610
1785 820 1055
1786 980 1695
1787 750 990
1788 945 2625
1789 1360 1890
1790 2350 2805
Total 15108 24467
Source: Urbelionienė, 1985: 128.
At the same time Lithuanian typography was also gaining momentum.
From the middle of the 17th century, the number of Lithuanian language
books was increasing with each decade. 46 editions (21 items) were pub-
lished during the years 1750–1759, 40 editions (21 items) in the years 1760–
1769, and 59 editions (31 items) in the years 1770–1779 (Urbelionienė, 1985:
128; Narbutas, 2006 : 330).
In general, it was the Herder era with its increased attention to ethnic issues
and, therefore, the ideas of democratization of education. German cultural his-
torian Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) did not understand well the place
of Baltic languages in Indo-European studies, but he noted their antiquity and
value: “The origin of Lithuanians, Curonians and Latgalians, who live by the East
[the Baltic. – A.D.] sea is unknown, but apparently other peoples ousted them until
there was nowhere to go anymore. Although their language is mixed, it has a special
character, this language is the offspring of the most ancient matter, originating from
distant places” (Herder, 1977: 465).
In general, according to linguistic nomenclature of the 18th century the
term “Lithuanian language” very clearly meant the Baltic language, which
we today know as the Lithuanian language. The German linguist Gottfried
Hensel (1724–1785) on his map “Europa Polyglotta. Linguarum Genealo-
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
62 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
giam ex hibens, una cum literis, scribendiques, modis, omnium gentium”
(Hensel, 1741) distributed the languages of Europe and gave examples of
them in alphabetical order using the first lines of the prayer “Our Father”.
The words “Tewe musu kursey esi danguy. Szweskis wardas Tawo” under the
inscription “Lithuanica” leave no doubt as to the language and ethnic inter-
pretation of the term.
Figure 11
Map of Gottfried Hensel “Europa Polyglotta. Linguarum Genealogiam ex
hibens, una cum literis, scribendiques, modis, omnium gentium”, 1741.
By Plihál and Hapák, 2003: 103
Yet the state mechanism of the GDL and the Commonwealth of Both Na-
tions did not stimulate such processes, and the Lithuanian language made its
way into official institutions very slowly. A some sort of shock, change of the
foundations was neccessary, so that public authorities could finally start to is-
sue regulations and universals in Lithuanian. It was the Constitution of May 3,
1791 that became such event, as its text was already translated in Lithuanian in
the Grand Duchy, along with some other documents of the Kościuszko Upri-
sing (Tumelis, 1997: 11-40) (Figure 12).
So, what was the reason for the Lithuanian language to become the lan-
guage of official acts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania so late, only at the end
of the 18th century?
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Figure 12
The Constitution of May 3, 1791 in Lithuanian. The manuscript
of the 19th century (Lietuvos TSR istorija, 1986, 222; Tumelis, 1978, 95-105)
VI. Answer Options: Bilingualism or Diglossia
During the middle of the 13th – the first half of the 14th century, when the state
only emerged and established, known then under the official name of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Option: Lithuania and Ruthenia), there were only
two chancellery traditions in this historical region: the Latin and the Ruthenian
(Cyrillic). Hence, the Chancellery of Lithuanian rulers adopted these tradi-
tions – the Ruthenian language became the official chancellery (state) language
of the GDL since the end of the 14th century (Błaszczyk, 2002: 302). This lan-
guage with Cyrillic graphics can be called the Old Belarusian quite legitimate-
ly, as it significantly departed from the initial graphical Old Russian pattern
and began to reflect, despite all the conservatism of its graphical tools, the lo-
cal linguistic and cultural realities. Further, this process of “Belarusianization”
of chancellery language steadily grew over the 15th–16th centuries, absorbing
some borrowings from Polish and Lithuanian, and special economic and le-
gal vocabulary. The Latin language, along with the Old Belarusian, was the
second chancellery language of the GDL in the 14th–16th centuries. However,
the Old Belarusian language clearly prevailed in the internal documentation.
It took the basis of its graphical system from the Old Church Slavonic writing.
Both Latin and Old Church Slavonic languages were the expression of uni-
versalism of different civilizations – Western Christian and Eastern Christian,
or Byzantine Community of Nations, according to Dimitri Obolensky (Obo-
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
64 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
lensky, 1998: 11,13). The specific character of the post-Byzantine cultural situ-
ation lies in the fact that this “Cyrillic” universalism was transformed into a
local phenomenon – the written Old Belarusian language. In the circumstances
of deep cultural shifts and transformations of the 14th–15th centuries, the Lithu-
anian language did not yet have its own cultural tradition of writing (some
experiments in this direction can not be called a tradition). Therefore, Timothy
Snyder (2010: 37) argues that “it did not play any significant role in the policy of the
Polish-Lithuanian state”.
But the Lithuanian spoken language functioned not only as a means of com-
munication of peasants in the GDL in the 15th–16th centuries. It circulated in
some city communities (especially in Kaunas, and to some extent in Vilnius)
and had sympathizers among the upper class. And here lies a certain paradox.
On the one hand, we see the living tradition of oral transmission of the Lithu-
anian language. Its supporters held high positions in the Grand Duchy in the
16th century, while deacons and scribes of Lithuanian descent directly influ-
enced the formation of the language culture and traditions of the GDL Chan-
cellery, the evidence of which are, among others, borrowings from Lithuanian
in the Old Belarusian written language. On the other hand, the Lithuanian
language in the 16th–17th centuries did not yet become the language of acts in
the Grand Duchy, and individual words and phrases in foreign language texts
only emphasize its status.
Such a situation existed at the time when publishing in Lithuanian already
started, and the process of formation of its literary norms began. Possibly, a
confessional factor played certain role here, because the first Lithuanian books
were prepared by Protestants and published in the Lutheran Prussia with the
support of the ducal government, which obviously sought catechization of the
local Lithuanians (Dziarnovič, 2005: 19). But already at the end of the 16th cen-
tury the Jesuits also began publishing in Lithuanian. We will now try to answer
these questions by analyzing the sociolinguistic situation.
Obviously, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania belonged to the communities
where it was common to use more than one language, though it was the case
with the majority of European states. In such a mobile language system, it is
necessary to distinguish the order of language acquisition18 from the actual
extent of its use. Wilfred Whiteley suggested this division, as well as terms and
symbols, and Roger Bell expanded the idea (Bell, 1980: 155).
Table 2
Language: a sequence of development and use
Chronological aspect Language status Symbol
First language L1
Diachronic
Second language L2
Primary language PL
Synchronic
Secondary language SL
18
In the first case we are talking about the diachronic aspect, while in the second – about the synchronic
aspect of the language situation.
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We are interested in the example of the GDL ethno-cultural situation because it
shows that there are societies where a socially justified and culturally significant
functional differentiation of languages exists and operates. Practically, this means
that there is a consensus in a society on the fact that some languages have a high
status, and others – a low one. Normally, there is a functional separation between
them: high language is reserved for formal and public use, and often operates as
the language of official recording (as in the case of the Old Belarusian language for
the II and III GDL Statutes) or legally established official language (though this is
a phenomenon of the late Modern and Contemporary history). This language has
more difficult and conservative linguistic features than the low language.
The high language may be found in the ancient literature, it is preserved and
revered as opposed to “home”, unofficial status of low language with its varia-
ble and often simplified structure, limited by verbal communication channels
(Bell, 1980: 176). To indicate this situation of unbalanced bilingualism with va-
rious functional areas of application, the American linguist Charles Ferguson
(1921–1998) introduced the term “diglossia” in 1959 (Ferguson, 1959: 325-340).
Bilingualism is a result of use by the individual or society of more than one
language (language code). Diglossia is a result of the evaluation of the functio-
nal separation of these languages, and, therefore, bilingualism and diglossia
may occur in language communities together or separately. There are three
types of relationship between bilingualism and diglossia: only bilingualism,
only diglossia, and the combination of bilingualism with diglossia.
But this statement of the intertwining of language codes will not be sufficient
to assess the socio-psychological effects of multilingualism. According to socio-
linguists, among the communities where the majority are bilingual, the concept
of “different languages” looks poorly justified, perhaps only in the sense of “dif-
ferent styles” (Bell, 1980: 190-191). Obviously, such a situation is possible in the
case of “developed” bilingualism, when there is indeed a fact of the community
members’ fluency in several language codes. In such cases, switching codes often
takes place outside the consciousness of the participants of communication pro-
cess and later they do not mention it. This fact forces again to doubt an approval of
language structures’ solidity, which implies the idea of the languages as discrete
(discontinuous) patterns, separated by clear boundaries. These considerations re-
late to language as a code system, not to its social importance. In society, even the
use of several dozen words may be perceived as a different language. A separate
language is what is perceived as a separate language, regardless of its structure.
We will try to relate these methodological developments with the empirical
experience of studying the ethno-linguistic and ethno-cultural situation in the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania primarily from documentary and narrative written
sources. When analyzing the use of other languages by the Lithuanian speaking
GDL residents, it is necessary to distinguish them according to social strata (gro-
ups). We chose the 16th century for the analysis, when high official status of the
Old Belarusian language still remained, but the expansion of Lithuanian writing
began as well. Besides, there were significant changes in the linguistic situation
during the 16th century, therefore this period is divided into two parts in our
analysis. Preliminary results of summarizing the existing studies of the lingu-
istic situation are presented for the first half of the 16th century (Table 3).
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
66 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
Table 3
Sphere of language use by the GDL Lithuanian speaking residents
(the first half of the 16th century)1920
Sphere of the
Economic and official public
Social strata / Private and fa-
business affairs, communication Religious sphere
Region mily sphere
office work20 (state and judicial
chancelleries)
Lit. (L1?-PL?); O. Bel. (L1-PL); O. Bel. (L1-PL); Pol. (L1-SL);
Magnates and
Pol. (L2-SL); Pol. (L2-SL); Pol. (L2-SL); Lat. (L2-PL)
Pany-Rada
O. Bel. (L2-SL) Lat. (L2-SL) Lat. (L2-SL)
Middle nobi-
lity (szlachta),
Lit. (L1–PL?); O. Bel. (L1-PL); O. Bel. (L1-PL); Pol. (L1-SL);
bureaucrats
O. Bel. (L2-SL?); Pol. (L2-SL); Pol. (L2-SL); Lat. (L2-PL)
(government) /
Pol. (L2-PL) Lat. (L2-SL) Lat. (L2-SL)
Lithuanian
speaking regions
Petty nobility /
Lit. (L1-SL);
Lithuanian Lit. (L1-PL); O. Bel. (L1-PL); O. Bel. (L1-PL);
Lat. (L2-SL);
speaking re- O. Bel. (L2-SL) Pol. (L2-SL) Pol. (L2-SL)
Pol. (L2-PL?)
gions
Merchants and
city dwellers / Lit. (L1-SL); O. Bel. (L1-PL); Lit. (L1-PL);
Lit. (L1-PL);
Kaunas, par- O. Bel. (L2-PL); Pol. (L2-SL); Lat. (L2-SL);
O. Bel. (L2-SL)
tially Vilnius Pol. (L2-SL) Lat. (L2-SL) Pol. (L2-SL)
and Trakai
Peasants /
Lit. (L1-SL);
Lithuanian Lit. (L1-PL) O. Bel. (L1в-PL) Lit. (L1-PL)
O. Bel. (L2в-PL)
speaking regions
Arrangement of languages by functional areas was done on the basis of the
analysis of written documentary sources, which started to appear on a mass
scale in the late 15th – the first half of the 16th century due to the beginning of
the systematic running of the GDL Metrica. But it must be admitted that the
construction of relevant table of the degrees of such relations requires further
development and production of statistical information from the array of writ-
ten documentation. In the meantime, this table invites to debate and can serve
as a starting point for discussion of research methods of ethno-linguistic situ-
ation in the Grand Duchy.
However, one trend should be recognized and reflected in the continuation of
our table – the strengthening of the position of Polish language. Among the GDL
four languages (Old Belarusian, Latin, Lithuanian, and Polish), only two had the
greatest chance of getting (or keeping) the status of the communication language
among the peoples of the Grand Duchy in the middle of the 16th century: Old Be-
19
Abbreviations of languages: Lat. – Latin; Lit. – Lithuanian (spoken language); Pol. – Polish; O. Bel. –
Old Belarusian; or. – oral form of language.
20
It concerns the area of land use for nobility and magnates, and trade and financial affairs for city
dwellers and merchants.
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larusian and Polish. Ultimately, the Polish language won during the 17th century.
This process involved some symbolic markers. The first sermon in Polish was held
in the Grand Duchy in 1521. The first known letter of the GDL magnate written
in Polish dates back to 1531 and belongs to the head of “Lithuanian separatists”
Albert Goštaŭt. The first legal document written in Polish was introduced to the
GDL Metrica, which was mostly written in the Old Belarusian language, in 1538.
But the symbolic milestone in the process of the polonization of the GDL popu-
lation, according to Grzegorz Błaszczyk (Błaszczyk, 2002: 306-307), was 1563, the
year of publication in Polish of the “Radzivil” or “Brest” Bible. It is necessary to
emphasize here the role of Mikalaj “the Black” Radzivil and in general, figures of
the Reformation in the expansion of Polish language in the Grand Duchy.
With regard to the expansion of Polish language and the emergence of Li-
thuanian publishing, as well as a new, reformational pattern of the Old Bela-
rusian written language and publishing, our table of sphere of language use
requires changes for the second half of the 16th century (Table 4).
Table 4
Sphere of language use by the GDL Lithuanian speaking residents
and residents of Lithuanian origin (the second half of the 16th century)21
Sphere of the
Economic and official public
Social strata / Private and fa- Religious
business affairs, communication
Region mily sphere sphere*
office work (state and judicial
chancelleries)
Pol. (L1-PL); Pol. (L1-PL); Pol. (L1-SL);
Magnates and Pol. (L1-PL);
O. Bel. (L2-SL); O. Bel. (L2-SL); Lat. (L2-PL);
Pany-Rada O. Bel. (L2-SL)
Lat. (L2-SL) Lat. (L2-SL) O. Bel. (L2-SL)
Middle nobility,
bureaucrats Lit. (L1 ?-PL?); O. Bel. (L1-PL?); O. Bel. (L1-PL); Pol. (L1-SL);
(governments) / O. Bel. (L2-SL); Pol. (L2-SL); Pol. (L2-SL); Lat. (L2-PL)
Lithuanian Pol. (L2-SL) Lat. (L2-SL) Lat. (L2-SL) O. Bel. (L2-SL)
speaking regions
Lit.(L1-SL);
Petty nobility /
Lit. (L1-PL); O. Bel. (L1-PL); O. Bel. (L1-PL); Lat. (L2-SL);
Lithuanian
O. Bel. (L2-SL) Pol. (L2-SL) Pol. (L2-SL) Pol. (L2-PL?);
speaking regions
O. Bel. (L2-SL)
Merchants and Lit. (L1-SL);
Lit. (L1-SL); O. Bel. (L1-PL);
city dwellers / Lit. (L1-PL); Lat. (L2-SL);
O. Bel. (L2-PL); Pol. (L2-SL);
Kaunas, partially O. Bel. (L2-SL) Pol. (L2-PL?);
Pol. (L2-SL) Lat. (L2-SL)
Vilnius and Trakai O. Bel. (L2-SL)
Peasants /
Lit. (L1-SL); Lit. (L1-PL)
Lithuanian Lit. (L1-PL) O. Bel. (L1в-PL)
O. Bel. (L2в-PL)
speaking regions
* In the religious sphere the use of the Old Belarusian language for all categories of the population
(city dwellers, nobility and magnates) is connected with Protestant literature. For petty nobility and
city dwellers the Lithuanian language in the religious sphere had, besides a spoken, also a written
and book form, and for peasants – mainly a spoken form.
21
Abbreviations of languages: Lat. – Latin; Lit. – Lithuanian (spoken language); Pol. – Polish; O. Bel. –
Old Belarusian; or. – oral form of language.
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
68 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
In order to clarify information presented in the table, we will briefly ex-
plain the principles of social division within nobility. The criteria here is the
size of land tenure. Researchers of the GDL history Matvey Lyubavsky (1900:
355-358), Mitrafan Doŭnar-Zapoĺski (1927: 15-16), Jerzy Ochmański (1963:
154-155), Anatoĺ Hryckievič (1978: 96-97) and Valiery Mianžynski (1987: 170-
172) offered their own systems of division within the nobility estate. Michail
Spirydonaŭ (1993: 30-32) analyzed these different systems and put forward
some clear criteria for the division of the estate of landowners. The approxi-
mate size of land tenures can be estimated according to the Censuses of the
GDL army in 1528, 1565 and 1567, which indicate the number of horses (mount-
ed warriors) who were provided in proportion to the quantity of peasant ser-
vices (unit of duty taxation) or smokes (farms), owned by feudals.
Table 5
Categories of landlords by the number of horses, which they provided
to the GDL army in 1528 and 1567
Sizes of land tenure
No. Category of Number of 1528 year 1567 year
feudals horses
in services in smokes in services in smokes
1 The smallest 1 0–15 0–31 0–19 0–39
2 Small 2–10 16–87 32–175 20–109 40–219
3 Middle 11–50 88–407 176–815 110–509 220–1019
4 Large 51–100 408–807 816–1615 510–1009 1020–2019
The largest 101 and 808 and 1616 and 1010 and
5 2020 and more
(magnates) more more more more
Source: Spirydonaŭ, 1993: 31.
To study the linguistic and cultural situation it is worth to modify the ca-
tegories of landowners and use the division into three groups: 1) Magnates and
Pany-Rada (which includes categories 4 and 5 according to Spirydonaŭ) – this
approach is close to the criteria of Lyubavsky, who attributed all the families
represented in the parliament, regardless of the number of provided horses, to
major landowners; 2) the middle nobility and government bureaucrats (cat-
egory 3 according to Spirydonaŭ); 3) petty nobility (combines categories 1 and
2 according to Spirydonaŭ).
Also, to understand the information presented in tables 3 and 4 correctly,
we need to determine the GDL regions, where the Lithuanian language was
used in its various spoken versions in the 16th century. According to the eth-
nic dialect map of the ethnographic Lithuania this is: Samogitia (Samogitian
dialects), Aukštaitija (its historical status is not well defined), Sudovia (the left
bank of the Neman river), and Dzūkija (it is not entirely clear how this ethno-
cultural region correlates with the historical Vilnius Voivodeship). From the
point of view of the administrative-territorial division in the middle of the
16th century, which appeared as a result of the reform of 1565–1566, Lithuani-
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an language area of the GDL included Samogitian Starostva (Duchy), Trakai
Voivodeship (with paviets Trakai, Kaunas, Upytė, and Hrodna) and Vilnius
Voivodeship (with paviets Vilnius, Ašmiany, Lida, Ukmergė, and Braslaŭ). Of
course, the eastern and southern regions of this area (primarily Vilnius, as well
as the southern regions of Trakai Voivodeship) since the 10th century were a
zone of Balto-Slavic language contacts, so it remains difficult to determine the
southeastern boundary of the Lithuanian language area in the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania of the 16th century. According to the findings of the Polish re-
searchers, in Old Rus’ times this boundary lay roughly along the line: Lake
Asvieja – Dzisna – Plisa – Budslaŭ – Zaslaŭje – Rubiaževičy – Dzieraŭnaja –
Bielica – Slonim – Vaŭkavysk (Łowmiański, 1983: 51-58). By the 14th century,
this boundary moved from the left to the right bank of Neman river and lay
parallel to the river bed, the so-called line of Safarewicz (the boundary of set-
tlements’ concentration with names endings on -iški) (Safarewicz, 1967: 257-
259). For the 16th century, Jerzy Ochmański places a Lithuanian-Belarusian
border in a fairly wide belt on the frontier of Ašmiany and Miensk counties.
Ochmański analyzes Catholic parishes’ network, toponymics, and anthropo-
nimical information from household inventories (Ochmański, 1981: 42-56). In
general, the territory “Lithuania Propria” (“Lithuania proper”, “Lithuania in
the narrow sense of the term”) in the 16th century, proposed by Ochmański,
reflects our vision of the array of dialects in the GDL, with the only important
clarification that a stripy belt of Balto-Slavic settlements stretched all the way
to Vilnius city.
Conclusions
To sum up, in the multiethnic and multicultural society of the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania of the 15th–17th centuries, there was a language situation of “nu-
merous diglossias” when every language had its clearly defined public func-
tions. Unlike bilingualism, diglossia as a sociolinguistic phenomenon involves
the speakers’ assessment of their idioms according to the “solemn-daily” scale.
Two language systems (official and popular) were not used simultaneously in
the same public sphere.
Ethnic Lithuanians among the GDL petty nobility and merchants, who in
everyday and family life could speak Lithuanian language, used the official lan-
guage of the chancellery – Old Belarusian (Ruthenian) – in the public sphere.
Latin remained the language of the liturgy, but in many cases sermons were
preached in Lithuanian. Beyond religious sphere Latin was the language of di-
plomacy and the most important internal acts. Monuments of Lithuanian litera-
ture of the 16th century remained exclusively religious (Dubasova, 2005: 28), and
fulfilled secondary, auxiliary functions. Thus, the majority of the GDL elite did
not know the Lithuanian language in the 16th century, since a considerable part
of the Lithuanian nobility descended from the Ruthenian boyars, and middle
nobility (including central government officials) of the Lithuanian origin gradu-
ally lost knowledge of the Baltic dialects. However, petty nobility still retained
communication skills in dialects of their peasants in areas where the Baltic dia-
lects existed. Also, a part of the Catholic city residents of Kaunas and partly
INSTITUTIONS AND COMMUNITIES: HISTORICAL DIMENSION
70 ALIEH DZIARNOVIČ
Vilnius could still speak the Lithuanian language in the 16th century. The emer-
gence of Lithuanian publishing primarily in Prussia, and then in the GDL gave
rise to the codification process of the Lithuanian language, which probably led
to the stabilization of knowledge of language code among city residents and
petty nobility on the ethnically Lithuanian territories. Possibly, the process of
slavicization (initially belarusianization, and later polonization) of these estates
slowed down, but this hypothesis requires verification through further research.
On the territory of modern Belarus, where the processes of the Balto-Slavic
mutual influence in daily life still went on, Slavic speaking population used its
own dialects. Written Old Belarusian language functioned as official and was
rich in legal terms, which required certain education. “Slavic” (Old Church
Slavonic) remained the language of the Orthodox Church, but local linguistic
realities gradually penetrated to it and turned it into a local version of Old
Church Slavonic language.
Language of the chancellery (Ruthenian) underwent significant changes
over the 15th–16th centuries. Having the Old Rus’ written language as the basis
from the very beginning of its development, this language increasingly altered
lexically, as well as orthographically and grammatically, acquiring the traits
that allow Belarusian linguists and historians to call it Old Belarusian (taking
into account all the conservatism of graphical tools of this language and, of
course, referring to its written literary norm). Official chancellery language is
a function of literary written language. However, it remains a matter of debate
to what extent the spoken language influenced the literary and chancellery
norm, and to what extent the language of the chancellery affected the develop-
ment of the Belarusian spoken language. The evolution of the Old Belarusian
writing throughout the 16th century demonstrated a desire to get closer to the
live speech and overcome the influence of the book tradition. Naturally, the
preliminary description of diglossia situation concerns the period before the
expansion of the Polish language in the Grand Duchy, which occurred in a
form of non-violent polonization of the GDL elite.
Apparently, in the 16th century gaps in the chain of the Lithuanian language
transmission appeared among the elite. Probably, authors and propagandists
of ethnogenetic concept of the “Roman origin” of the Lithuanian nobility no
longer spoke the Lithuanian language freely, since they announced it a version
of Latin. From the point of view of Indo-European studies, these languages
(Latin and Lithuanian) are indeed close, but are by no means the same for a
person who knows at least one of them. Augustinus Rotundus failed to imple-
ment a linguistic program of maximum introduction of Latin, that is “a more
pure” Lithuanian language, which he proposed in the preface to the Latin
translation of the GDL Statute of 1566. Yet here we also see an interesting at-
tempt of linguistic experiment of public establishment of Latin as a literary
written form of the Lithuanian language, understood in a broad social and
cultural context. In fact, Rotundus proposed to build an “internal diglossia”.
Both achievements in Lithuanian language publishing in the middle of the
16th – 18th centuries, and the limited functioning of the Lithuanian language in
the public sphere of the 15th–17th centuries (the situation of diglossia), as well as
discrimination of the 19th century along with other factors influenced the for-
BELARUSIAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW #2 (2012–2013)
LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE GRAND DUCHY... 71
mation of the concept of modern Lithuanian nation, for which the preservation
and protection of native language became the nation building factor.
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