| Abstract [eng] |
As the language develops and “lives”, its system evolves, and structural changes happen. Comparing the Lithuanian language at the beginning of the Lithuanian writing, the 16th century, and at present, it can be seen that the lexicon is one of the linguistic layers that has changed the most throughout the four centuries. Firstly, it should be remembered that the majority of Lithuanian writings of the oldest period were translations from other languages, so it is natural that when translating into the Lithuanian language, texts contained many loanwords, often without even trying to find suitable equivalents or often there was none of it. Secondly, because the semantic field of those texts was rather limited, the majority were of religious nature, the vocabulary used in those writings was limited as well. With the gradual emergence of more original, secular texts, there has been a change in the lexicon, so more and more Lithuanian words have been used instead of loanwords. Another reason for the lexical change is the development of semantics of words. There are a number of words whose individual meanings, actively used in old writings, later became obsolete, turned into semantic archaisms, and appeared to be in the passive dictionary. This is exactly what happened to the word tongue. In old writings, it is much more often used besides its main current meaning ‘organ of taste’ but with the meaning ‘language’ that is only the sixth meaning in the Dictionary of Lithuanian Language. The Dictionary of the Current Lithuanian Language does not provide this meaning of tongue at all as it is not recorded in the current usage. The article discusses the usage of the noun tongue in the ancient monuments of Lithuanian writings, analyses its semantics, the hierarchy of meanings, and distribution. Old Lithuanian writings of Martynas Mažvydas, Jonas Bretkūnas, Mikalojus Daukša, and others are used for the analysis. |
