This arcticle discusses dialect dictionaries where words are recorded either from living language or from other, written sources of dialect. Up to now, ten Lithuanian dialect dictioniaries have been published and five are being compiled. Dialect changes along with our everyday life. A lot of words from the old dialect are being forgotten. Those words are no longer being used in the common language as well as in other dialects. In addition, some words gain new meanings. The same processes apply to loanwords which are used in dialects and are included in dialect dictionaries. The lexical system of a dialect dictionary shows the functioning of loanwords and their relationship with the words of the common language. The majority of Lithuanian loanwords are Slavisms, used in those dialects which have had a direct contact with Slavic languages, such as Polish, Belarusian or Russian. Slavisms and loanwords from other languages are marked variously in different dictionaries. In one of them, shortened language names are written in parentheses after the entry, which indicates that it is a word of foreign origin. Other dictionaries simply indicate Slavisms or additionally present the foreign equivalent from which they originate. A number of Slavisms from the dictionaries is analysed in the article. This examplary group are occupation names: kamarnykas ("debt collector"), cf. Polish komornik (Drsk2 134, Dv2 I 239, K1t2 97, Kp2 11 161, KrtnZ 142, Zan2 I 604); kupius ("merchant"), cf. Polish kupiec, Belarusian Kyneu (Drsk2 176, Dv2 I 323, Klt2 130, Kp2 II 525, KrtnZ 196, KzR2 I 407, Zan2 I 808, Zt2 332); strielaus ("shooter, huntsman"), cf. Polish strzelec, Belarusian cmp3Reu (Drsk2 352, Dv2 II 299, Kp2 III 876, KrtnZ 394, Zan2 III 196); rimorius ("leatherworker"), cf. Polish rymarz (Drsk2 305, Kp2 III 499, KzR2 11 176, Zan2 II 557). Dialects are affected by various linguistic and extralinguistic factors. The intensity of word loaning depends on the outer circumstances of language or dialect. Loanwords only fill gaps in some fields. The research of Slavisms provides abundant material for the study of their origins as well as how and why they spread, and of the history of Lithuanian dialects in general.
