Jonas Jablonskis
Jonas Jablonskis | |
---|---|
Born | Kubilėliai, Congress Poland | December 30, 1860
Died | February 23, 1930 | (aged 69)
Nationality | Lithuanian |
Occupation | linguist |
Known for | one of the founders of the standard Lithuanian language |
Jonas Jablonskis (Lithuanian pronunciation:
Biography
After graduation from
Jablonskis was introduced to
Chodakauskas invited Lithuanian students, recommended by Jablonskis, to teach his children. In the summer of 1895, Jablonskis recommended a student of his, Antanas Smetona (1874-1944), to be the tutor for Romanas, Chodakauskas’ son. Romanas was studying in preparation for the entrance exams to Jelgava Gymnasium and Smetona, being from a poor, farming background, needed the work. At Gavėnoniai, the Chodakauskas manor, Antanas Smetona met his future wife, Sofija Chodakauskaitė
Jablonskis' activities on behalf of Lithuanian causes prompted his relocation to Tallinn, Estonia, by Tsarist authorities.
The
When Jablonskis regained permission to enter Lithuania, he went to
When Poland seized Vilnius in 1919, the Lithuanian government had him brought to
He died in Kaunas 23 February 1930. He was interred in the Petrašiūnai Cemetery.
Works
Jablonskis' greatest achievement was his contribution to the formation of the standard Lithuanian language. Jablonskis, in the introduction to his Lietuviškos kalbos gramatika, was the first to formulate the essential principles that were important to later development of standard Lithuanian. His proposal was to base Lithuanian on the south western Sudovian dialect, whereas the linguists August Schleicher and Friedrich Kurschat had used the dialect of Prussian Lithuanians. Jablonskis chose a dialect, the living speech of the people, which preserved vocabulary and grammatical forms from foreign influences. In contrast, the literary language of the period suffered from heavy influx of foreign, especially Slavic, elements. Thus Jablonskis made efforts to purify the Lithuanian language.
Jablonskis' fifty years of work brought the following results: variations and inconsistencies in orthography were greatly reduced; a number of unnecessary foreign
Being a practical linguist, Jonas Jablonskis wrote works designed to serve practical ends, such as Lietuvių kalbos sintaksė (Lithuanian Syntax), 1911; Rašomosios kalbos dalykai (Matters of Literary Language), 1912; Lietuvių kalbos gramatika (Lithuanian Grammar), last edition 1922; Lietuvių kalbos vadovėlis (Textbook of Lithuanian), 1925; Linksniai ir prielinksniai (
Many of Jablonskis' works, even though meant to serve practical needs, are still important to scientific theory. The linguistic material which he collected was published in the 20 volumes of Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian and is still being used in research and in editing of texts and books. He also introduced the letter ū into Lithuanian writing.[1]
A complete edition of Jablonskis' works was prepared by Jonas Balčikonis and published as Jablonskio raštai, 5 volumes, Kaunas, 1932–36. Later Jonas Palionis edited a selection of his works titled Rinktiniai raštai, 2 volumes, Vilnius, 1957–1959.
References
- ^ a b c d e Cidzikaitė, Dalia; Mažvydas, Martynas; Taes, Sofie (February 26, 2019). "Language by design: Jonas Jablonskis, linguist on a mission". Europeana [CC By-SA]. Retrieved 2019-03-01.
- ^ Jakubavičienė, Ingrida (2020). Portretas. Vilnius: Versus Aureus. p. 56.
- ^ Eidintas, Alfonsas (2012). Antanas Smetona and his Environment. Vilnius: Science and Encyclopedia Publishing Centre. p. 19.
- ^ Smetonienė B., Mirė Jadvyga Tūbelienė, Dirva, 1988 10 13, Nr. 39, p. 7.