On the Dual Number in the Manuscript Collection of Sermons by Jurgis Ambroziejus Pabrėža

Abstract

A bibliographic note about the teaching from Karol Fabiani’s book Missya apostolska CZĘŚĆ II (1783) found in one of the sermons of Jurgis Ambroziejus Pabrėža (1824) not only revealed the mystery of the origin of the 30 sermons written in the first part (p. 312) of Kiprijonas Lukauskas’ manuscript (1797) (see Pajėdienė 2022) but also provided the opportunity of comparing three versions of the same text. Two sermons on the Eighth Commandment from the above book by Fabiani appear in both the Lithuanian version by Lukauskas and the Samogitian version by Pabrėža. Comparing versions of the text written in different languages allows us to see quite subtle linguistic peculiarities. The grammatical distinctiveness in Pabrėža’s Samogitian version of Fabiani’s sermons is related to the usage of the dual number. The article discusses the different models of using the dual number, which became apparent in comparing Fabiani’s Polish text, the Lithuanian (Lukauskas), and Samogitian (Pabrėža) translations.

The consistent use of the dual form is not only found in the translation of Fabiani’s texts by Pabrėža but also in other sermons from Pabrėža’s manuscript collection PAMOKSŁAY Wayringosy Materyjosy.