Russian in Lithuania

Russian in Lithuania 

Contemporary Lithuania is one of the most mononational countries of Europe: 83.45% population is Lithuanians. Some national minorities are Poles, Russians, Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Jews.  Russians comprise 6.31% population of Lithuania – that is 219 789 people. Russian population in Lithuania has fallen off greatly during last 10 years. In first five years after the republic got back its independence most of the emigrants were Russians – 58%. For example, in 1993 16000 Russians emigrated from Lithuania, notably, 1000 – to Russia. 

Nevertheless, Russian language is still used in Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, more than 60% population of Lithuania speak Russian fluently, the second popular language is English which is spoken by 17% citizens of Lithuania, mostly by youngsters. 

Under the influence of other languages Russian in Lithuania gains some special features. It is influenced by Lithuanian, and also, in some regions by Polish and Belorussian languages.  

Influence of Lithuanian language on Russian. 

Russian and Lithuanian interact in all spheres: in everyday life, in politics, in social sphere, in science and sometimes in official sphere.

We can innumerate cases of such influence: 

• the use of Lithuanian words in Russian speech, which mostly reflect new realia, which don’t exist in Russian reality. Сходи в савивальдибе (savivaldybe· — «самоуправление»); Пашалпу тебе дали (pas.alpa — «пособие денежное») (РР) — перевод приблизительный;
• frequent usage of internationalisms, it is cause by the fact that Lithuanian society is more west oriented than Russian. По признанию самих фундаторов — Минкультуры и Литовского фонда культуры — институт создан в спешке (Обз. 1999. № 22) (fundatorius «основатель», «создатель», «спонсор»);
• semantic and phraseological calques. красивая погода; красивый день — по аналогии с лит. graz.us «1. красивый; 2. хороший»;
• frequent mistakes in word stress.

Polish and Belorussian influence on Russian language.

Such interaction is limited with

a) territory (it is mostly Vilnius region and Vilnius

b) function (occurs mostly in spoken, non-literary language)

Polish and Belorussian influence occurs on all language levels.

Lexical changes occur mostly in everyday life: Раньше фарбы натуральные были (бел. фарба, пол. farba «краска»); Borrowings, naming people, mostly expressive, with negative connotation are also common:  Ах я недоля, я ж молоко на плите оставила! (бел. нядоля «горе, несчастье», пол. литер. niedola «злая судьба»); Ну ты и жминда! (бел. «скряга»).

Among some morphological changes are specific gender forms: Собака большой побежал (бел. сабака — м. род; так же — пол. pies); case forms: Разговаривали с Колем (РР);

Although the main sphere of the Polish and Belorussian influence on Russian is vernacular language, sometimes borrowings also occur in literary speech. Примеры из средств массовой информации: Дорогой швагер Николай! Поздравляем с днем рождения! (ЛК. 2001. № 21) — лексическое заимствование (пол., бел.);

Russian speech in Lithuania.

It’s difficult to estimate interaction of Russian and other languages in Lithuania. On one hand this process contributes to the development of languages. Many borrowings are necessary as the only way to name local realia.

On the other hand this process has also negative results. The use of borrowings is not always necessary. Lithuanian word is often used in Russian (especially oral) speech, because the speaker can’t remember the right word in Russian. Firstly it bears upon passive vocabulary or special words.

When there occurs a need to use some terms, Russian equivalents are hardly remembered. Russian students studying for some profession in Lithuanian almost don’t know Russian terminology.

Mistakes become habitual. This occurs not only in spoken language but also in literary language. For example in Lithuania they use the verb «иметь» instead of the form «есть»:«Я имею время (деньги и др.)».  The marks of local dialect are such derivational calques as замного, забольшой. Speech of Russians who know literary Russian language is characterised with the use of word институция instead of the word институт (в значении «организация общественной деятельности и социальных отношений»), слова амбасада вместо посольство и др.

Altogether the vocabulary of the language is getting poorer, the speech becomes less expressive, various synonyms are not used, figurative meanings of words is seldom used. As a result inaccurate and stereotypical expressions appear. Speech becomes syntactical elementary, stylistically poor.

Lithuanian accent is realised in the specific tempo (speed) of speech. It’s a little bit slower and has less emotional intonation pattern.