On August 4, during the III International Klaipėda Festival, the premiere of the story opera “Klaipėda” will remind the audience not only of historical events, but also of the Šišioniška dialect, in which Vaida Galinskienė, who was awarded the “Silver Reed” prize of Šilutė district for outstanding merit, will speak to the audience.
In 2023, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the annexation of the Klaipėda region to Lithuania, the Klaipėda State Music Theater commissioned four composers living in Klaipėda to create an opera that would revive the events of a century ago, the aspirations of the old Lithuanians who lived in the Klaipėda region and the Lithuanians who came to help them from Greater Lithuania, the special place and time the spirit In the libretto of the opera, written by the philosopher and writer Arvydas Juozaitis, the role played by V. Galinskienė was not foreseen, but, as the director Gytis Padegimas says, this idea was born almost by itself.
“The preservation of the Šišioniškii dialect was declared an intangible cultural heritage value this year. After learning that the teacher Vaida Galinskienė knows how to speak Šišionis, we decided that she should become the heroine of the opera – Šišionisskedvasia. I wish that the sacred phrases of the final could also be heard in the language of Lithuanians. Maybe it will become a great accent that will interest young people in learning to speak Shishoni? The whole world is searching for its roots and reviving what is old and forgotten. Local traditions are a great value that must be protected and supported,” asserts G. Arson.
V. Galinskienė-Šilutė First Gymnasium Lithuanian language teacher, methodologist, rhetoric teacher, famous spreader of the Šišioniški dialect, nurturer of the cultural traditions of Little Lithuania.
-Tell me, what interested you in the language of Šišoniškis? After all, do you also speak in Samagitian?
-The roots of my family are from Northern Žemaitija, douninkairegion, but I was born and grew up in the village of Svencelė on the shore of the Curonian Lagoon, which everyone now knows as the capital of kitesurfers and sailors. In the past, this region was called “the end of the world”, because the bus that arrived here turned back, and further – only the lagoon or the Kinto forest.
In a group of eleven brothers and sisters, I was the youngest and the most loved girl. Since childhood, I dreamed of being an “artiste”, I recited poems both at home and while working on the farm. Even he lived in that dream uncle (uncle) Pričkus, always waiting for me – at least one person from the village of Svencelė – to be shown on TV. From the old residents of the village of Svencelė – friends and uncles (aunts and uncles), omam and blisters (grandmothers and grandfathers) while still sitting on a pile of firewood (because there were often no more chairs when guests arrived) I learned not only the language of Šišionis, its colors, but also wisdom. This was the source that later flowed into the river of the never-ending disappearing dialect. Unfortunately, this dialect remains only a parade dialect, intended for the stage. When speaking, you need to think very carefully, not to mix it with the words of the Žemaitian dialect… As a child, I spoke perfectly, only when I heard my neighbors from Šišioni, I was shy, because all the neighbors knew that my family was Žemaitian. They would have understood it as an imitation.
I didn’t feel any deprivation, even though I grew up in a big family. Most of our children have graduated from higher education. My mother worked for three or four. We lived well, although, like everyone living in the village, we had to work a lot.
-You haven’t forgotten your childhood talk as an adult?
– There is no dialectal environment in Šilutė region. This is not Kretinga or Skuodas for you, where everyone still speaks Sami. Little Lithuania is a land of newcomers: those who lived here moved to Germany, only the old ones remained, who used to say “I was born – I will die”, and empty farms were occupied by those who moved from various corners. My parents are pure Žemaitsi, they once moved from Plikai to Svenceli, because my father found three empty homesteads here, and he chose the one closest to the forest and lagoon. Then he brought his large family.
My land, connecting the new arrivals and the aging locals, has no dialect, except for the Šišioniška dialect, which is already rare. The Lithuanian or Šišioniški dialect, which reflects the identity of the region of Little Lithuania, is rapidly disappearing. According to the data of the census carried out ten years ago, it is spoken by less than 100 people in Šilutė, Klaipėda districts, Pagėgii municipality. XX century. in the second half, the language of the people of the Klaipėda region was assigned to the Žemaitian dialect, but the Lithuanians themselves never identified with Žemaitija and still call themselves Šišioniškis (here they say sishon). The dialect is characterized by the established soft l, the construction of a preposition with a suffix instead of a substitute (I live in Klaipėda), using the vowels -ė and -o instead of the diphthongs -ie, -uo (will, dona), Germanisms (to fob – to talk). You can get to know the peculiarities of the speech of Lithuanians by visiting the interactive exposition of the Hugo Šojaus Museum, which is headed by a great connoisseur and nurturer of this language, my former student Indrė Skablauskaitė, and by consulting with the experienced experts who took over it. Pupils learn the dialect while preparing for storytelling contests and ethnic culture Olympiads. Before I try to introduce it in the classroom, I have to prepare the students well, otherwise it only causes laughter… If you motivate the children by saying that people spoke that language while walking on familiar tracks centuries ago, they listen very seriously or even try to use some words jokingly every day . The children of Šilutė region already know well that they do not live in Žemaitia, but in Little Lithuania. One of the most important dialect preservation activities is 2013-2019. A Saturday Lithuanian dialect school was held at the Šilutė H. Šojaus Museum, which encouraged local people to learn the dialect and trained 30 people of various ages who nurtured the Šišioniška dialect.
– Is there currently a great interest in the Sisioni dialect?
– This language has become interesting to everyone, because the number of people who speak it is decreasing… Many people speak Žemait, Aukšta, Dzuk and don’t even know anything else, which is very beautiful and pleasing to my ears. Meanwhile, the language of Šišioniškis is becoming more and more exotic because it has not been heard. When my trained students speak in Shishonian in competitions, everyone is confused because they are hearing it for the first time. People who have a musical ear or who can learn to soften their tongue can learn to speak Shishion, because it is necessary to take over the sound of the dialect. Unfortunately, you can only learn the texts, but you cannot convey the identity of this country… When choosing the children I will teach this language, I make a strict selection… Those who try, bend their tongues and succeed.
Indrė Skablauskaitė from Šiluti, who also speaks the Lithuanian dialect perfectly, was my student, she used to go to her grandmother in Saugi, and two aunts lived in the neighborhood, Indrė learned a lot from them, and I also taught her. Now I work only with Šilutė’s folklore collective “Ramytė”, and I have become a consultant for others from all corners of Lithuania. Calls, asks, advises. Interested in customs, costumes, how to say this or that in the Lithuanian dialect. My health is so bad that I no longer participate in festivals and contests, although they offer money, which was not the case before…
– Do you think there will still be people saying it in 100 years? shish?
-Kažin… Huge attention of the media, its contribution to the popularization of the language is huge. For this, it is necessary to thank and even bow down, interest does not allow the language to go into oblivion for the time being, we keep reanimating it…
In my village, there are still people who speak Shishion, but they don’t want publicity, and there is no need for young people to speak the dialect anymore. When the children start school, everything becomes even.
It is not worth regretting that the language will disappear: in life, something disappears, something appears.
– On the other hand, the language of Šišioniški is also disappearing because it no longer has the necessary words for today’s people, like, for example, computer?
-Of course. Even while translating the libretto of the story opera “Klaipėda” written by Arvydas Juozaitis into the Shišionis dialect, I coordinated with the director Gytis Padegis, how, for example, to name people in “civilian clothes”, concepts such as “images”, “figures”, etc. Language today is vastly different from a century ago…
– Are textbooks for this language published?
– There are no textbooks, but the library of the Šilutė F. Bajoraitis Public Library has published the “Dictionary of Lithuanian Dialects”. Little Lithuania as a separate region began to form after 1422 years (after the conclusion of the Black Peace – red. past.), so Lithuanians are an old ethnic group. Otherwise, they are also called Boers, Prussians, Šišioniškis. The words used exclusively by this group of people were not collected from the living mouths of living people, but from printed sources of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Vaida Galinskienė is the host, creator and organizer of various events, nurturer of the cultural traditions of Little Lithuania. Since 1994, speaking to the people gathered for the holidays and festivals held in Lithuania in the Šišioni dialect, teaching various games, the enthusiast passes on the old traditions, customs, and folklore of the Little Lithuanians of the Pamari region, and popularizes the disappearing dialect of Lithuanians. She did this with the folklore ensembles “Verdainė” (1994-2001), “Ramytė” (since 2002), and the band “Bikava” (1997-2006).
With these collectives, he organized performances not only in Lithuania, but also in Russia, Poland, Turkey, Spain. Little Lithuania, as the fifth ethnographic region of Lithuania, and the dialect of Lithuanians were presented at Song Festivals, official events in the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. He taught the basics of the Lithuanian dialect to young people, recorded an audio tape for the universities of Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Vilnius. He released a record in this dialect about the traditions and customs of Little Lithuania, participated in television and radio programs.
Interviewed by Žaneta Skersytė
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– 2024-04-03 21:59:18
