Lietuvių-vokiečių kalbų ryšiai Lietuvos ir užsienio kalbininkų darbuose

ENInterest in the borderline dialects of Western Lithuania is manifested by Lithuanian, German and other linguists. The survey discusses the historical, social preconditions for the germanization of Western Lithuania pointed out by the linguists and a withdrawal of the Lithuanian language from all the spheres of use which was the result of the germanization through the contacts of the Lithuanian and German languages. Linguistic literature on vocabulary is fairly rich, therefore, only a description of it is presented. An analysis of Germanic loans in old Lithuanian dictionaries, grammars and translations of the Bible published in Lithuania Minor, is made. It is noted that the translations of lexis constitutes one of the most effective ways of enriching the Lithuanian vocabulary, that most loantranslations are encountered among nouns, that investigation of loantranslations is important both for the history of separate words, and a better understanding of the development of the Lithuanian vocabulary. Lithuanian loan-words in the dialects of Lithuanian Germans discussed in the works under consideration are also dealt with, with an emphasis on the lexis of the German origin in south-eastern dialects of Lithuania. Etymology of some words is provided, more important works devoted to the analysis of East Prussian toponyms, family names and toponyms of the Klaipėda region are mentioned.