Lietuvių kalbos mokymasis XX a. pradžioje. Liudijimai Vytauto Civinskio Dienoraštyje (1904–1910)

Abstract

This article aims at outlining the methods and strategies of learning the Lithuanian language as described in the unique egodocument, written in 1904–1910 by the student Vytautas Civinskis (1887–1910). Born in a wealthy Polish-speaking family, which had an estate in Lithuania, Civinskis made a decision to study the “language of his ancestors”, as he called the Lithuanian language, on his own. He practiced his reading skills successfully, bought textbooks and dictionaries he needed, tried to communicate in this language as much as possible, as well as enrolled in the society of Lithuanian students. The Diary shows that his effort enabled his better knowledge and command of the language. A good evidence of it is that he managed to switch from his local dialect to what can be recognised as the emerging standard language in his writing. The investigation also shows that the egodocuments may be considered highly informative sources for the history of education. Keywords: Lithuanian language, language learning, ego documents, Anyksciai subdialect, standard language. DOI  http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/zz.2017.3