Ostaukštaitische Formen in Samuel Bogusław Chylińskis Bibelübersetzung als Hinweis auf die Benutzung von Konstantinas Sirvydas’ Wörterbuch

This article examines whether Samuel Bogusław Chyliński used forms from the Eastern Aukštaitian dialects in his Bible translation that are not characteristic of his native Western Aukštaitian dialect. Four such words have been identified in the Old Testament: ąsa (acc. du. usi, gen. pl. uſu), brandalas (gen. sg. brundała), lęšis (gen. pl. liszu), and randas (nom. sg. rundas). A comparison with the different editions of Konstantinas Sirvydas’ dictionary shows that these forms may have been taken from the 3rd edition. In the case of the verb tyst, it is unclear whether it corresponds to the standard language verb tęsti (and thus would also be an Eastern Aukštaitian form) or tįsti. The Polish equivalents of most of these words in the Polish Gdańsk Bible do not match the Polish terms used by Sirvydas, which suggests that Chyliński himself translated the Dutch words into Polish and then searched for their Lithuanian equivalents in the dictionary. No Eastern Aukštaitian dialect forms appear in the New Testament. The presence of Polish words (mosiądz ‘copper’, tęcza ‘rainbow’, słoniowa kość ‘ivory’) as well as blank spaces indicates that Chyliński did not use Sirvydas’ dictionary to translate this part of the Bible. The corresponding terms in the Old Testament (skaistavaris ‘copper’, kilpinis dangaus ‘rainbow’, elefanto kaulas ‘ivory’) match the 3rd edition of Sirvydas’ dictionary.