Archivum Lithuanicum

The norms of emerging standard Lithuanian language began to reach inhabitants of countryside and towns at the end of the nineteenth century. Lithuanian epitaphs reveal how the norms of standard Lithuanian spread from the end of the nineteenth into the twentieth century. Even though many epitaph texts did not survive, and even though they are short and anonymous, they reveal the time when people started to recognize the prestige of emerging standard and focus their language on it. It could be assumed that the influence of standard language might have been stronger in areas where clandestine Lithuanian publications were distributed more intensively. According to Vytautas Merkys, they mainly were dispersed throughout the counties adjacent to the state border: Telšiai, Raseiniai, Naumiestis, and Vilkaviškis. This paper analyses the epitaphs from these regions—the Western part of Lowlanders (up to areas around Mažeikiai, Viekšniai, Nerimdaičiai, Varniai, Tytuvėnai, and Raseiniai) and the South West Highlanders (up to areas around Vilkija, Pilviškiai, and Vinkšnupiai). The articles published in periodicals in the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century show that intellectuals considered epitaphs as public language reflecting situation of Lithuanian language. They were not satisfied with epitaphs, written in non-Lithuanian or written inconsistently. In Lithuanian epitaphs the abbreviation S. P., indicative of Polish Swiętej Pamięci ‘sacred memory’ or Lithuanian expression with a loanword Šventos Pom[i]eties / Pomėties ‘sacred memory’ was used. It was used throughout all the period, found even in 1911. However, in the end of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth decade of the nineteenth century we find the collocation Šventos atminties ‘sacred memory’ and its abbreviations S. A., sz. atm., Š. A. The collocation Amžinąjį atilsį ‘eternal rest’ and its abbreviations A. A. ir Am. at. started to be used simultaneously. Thus, part of community began to feel the need to avoid the loanwords. The analysis of the orthography of epitaphs shows that the letters <L, l> (instead of traditional <Ł, ł>), marking hard consonant, also <AI , ai> [ai], <EI , ei> [ei (instead of traditional <AJ, aj>, <EJ, ej>) moved easily to personal usage from emerging standard. Letter <V, v> (instead of <W, w>) was used less frequently in the beginning of investigated period. There were cases, when letter <V, v> was used in the epitaph, but names, prayer “Hail Mary” has been written with the then traditional letter <W, w>. It suggests that some users did not want to change the orthography of special words—names and titles of prayers— and the letter <V, v> still was not perceived as own. Diacritical characters <Č, č>, <Š, š> (instead of traditional <CZ, cz>, <SZ , sz>) appeared in epitaphs even later of <V, v>. The change of orthography of epitaphs shows that focus on emerging standard strengthened in turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and particularly intensified during