VITALIJA KARACIEJŪTĖ

Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences

Research areas: contemporary morphology, dialect morphology, dialectology.

THE CATEGORY OF NOUN GENDER IN THE VARĖNA SUB-DIALECT

The Category of Gender of Nouns in the Varėna Sub-dialect

ABSTRACT

The category of gender in the Varėna sub-dialect has not yet been investigated or described from the perspective of natural morphology. The main aim of the article is to discuss the structure of the gender category in this sub-dialect, to provide a semantic and morphological characterization of noun gender on the basis of empirical material, and to identify cases of gender variation. The analysis showed that: 1) in the Varėna sub-dialect, noun gender (masculine and feminine) is not strictly differentiated by stems, which, together with inflections, mark gender only in part; it is also inaccurate to speak of a special “gender morpheme” in the structure of nouns in the Varėna sub-dialect; 2) variation in gender forms is characteristic of the sub-dialect under study.

ANNOTATION

The category of gender of Varėna sub-dialect has not been researched and described from the perspective of natural morphology up to now. The main aim of the article is to discuss the structure of the category of gender in this sub-dialect, on the basis of empiric material to present semantic and morphological characteristics of the gender of noun and to identify cases of variations in gender. The conducted analysis revealed that: 1) there is no strict differentiation in (masculine and female) gender of the sub-dialect of Varėna according to stems, which only partially mark the gender together with flexions; it is inaccurate to point to specific ‘gender morpheme’ in the structure of nouns of the Varėna sub-dialect. 2) Variation in forms of gender are characteristic of the sub-dialect under the research.

KEY TERMS: Southern Aukštaitians, Varėna sub-dialect, natural morphology, gender category, gender variation.

KEYWORDS: Southern Aukštaitian, Varėna sub-dialect, natural morphology, gender category, gender variation.

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A category—a certain system of language elements—has a grammatical meaning and a grammatical form that expresses it, i.e. a formal marker (cf. Hockett 1965: 211; LKG I 18–19; Paulauskienė 1983: 157; Matthews 1997: 48)¹. To define which morphological categories a given language has, one must first examine the inflectional forms found in that language. In other words, a morphological category exists wherever it formally appears as such (Wurzel 1989: 53).

In contemporary morphological theory, words are classified into categories according to their syntactic functions, word formation, grammatical content, and context (for more on categories and their features, see Carstairs-McCarthy 2000: 264–272). The grammatical categories of number, case, and gender² are interrelated³: the grammatical morpheme of a word form (an inflection, or inflectional ending) always encodes the categories of number and case, while the fact that the grammatical category of gender is related to the category of number is confirmed by the language universal stating that every language with a gender category also always has a number category (Greenberg 1968: 95).

It is customary to assume that the gender of a noun is indicated by the grammatical morpheme of the singular nominative⁴. In that case, in the Varėna subdialect, the grammatical morphemes (inflections) of singular nominative forms of nouns belonging to the inflectional classes a, įa₁, įa₂, u, iu would have the special status of “masculine gender,” for example: ná.m-as, kã.l-es, rug-ĩs, sùn-ùs, špiẽč-ùs. The grammatical morphemes of singular nominative forms of i and C stems would not have this status (cf. Rosinas 2005: 45).

In the Varėna subdialect, the grammatical category of gender is also symbolized by the singular genitive, cf. the genitive forms of nouns belonging to the inflectional classes a, įa₁, įa₂, im, u, iu: ná.m-o., kã.l-o., rùg-o., dã.bes-o., su.n-ãus, špiẽč-ãus. However, comparing the singular accusative forms of these same inflectional classes ná.m-u., kã.l-u., sún-u., špiẽč-u., rùg-i., dã.bes-i. with the accusative forms of feminine nouns daĩn-u., mãr̃č-u., žõl-bl., ã.k-i., sã.ser-i., we would see that the grammatical morphemes of these forms do not have such “supercharacteristics” (cf. Rosinas 2005: 46). Thus, a problem of gender arises when the grammatical morphemes of inflected forms, because of excessive syncretism, cannot always symbolize gender; this means that the subdialect is not fully differentiated by gender (cf. Rosinas 2005: 44).

¹ Apie kategorijos termino skirtingą vartoseną žr. Carstairs-McCarthy 2000: 267; Plungian 2010: 20.

² Apie giminės ir skaičiaus bei giminės ir linksnio sąveiką žr. Corbett 1991: 132, 154–157.

³ According to Wolfgang Ulrich Dressler, morphological categories may be productive or unproductive. For example, in German, number is just as productive as case, whereas gender is symbolized only morphosyntactically (Dressler 2003: 34).

⁴ The singular nominative ending is also called a thematic marker (Savickienė, Kazlauskienė, Kamandulytė 2004: 5).

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FIG. 1. Map of Varėna and its surroundings⁵

The topic is relevant not only because of the gender problem raised, but also because the gender category of the Varėna subdialect—which, along with the dialects of the villages nearest to it, Akmenė, Babriškės, Barčiai, Beržūpis, Giráitė, Kašėtos, Mer̃gežeris, Matuižos, Perloja, Pauosupė, Rūdnìa, Senõji Varėna, Ūta, Zervýnos, and Žiūrai (see Fig. 1), is classified as part of the Southern Aukštaitian subdialect—has not yet been studied or described from the perspective of either traditional or contemporary—natural—morphology.⁶

The aim of the article is to discuss the structure of the subdialect’s gender category, present a semantic and morphological characterization of noun gender based on empirical data, and identify instances of gender variation.

⁵ The map was prepared by Laura Geržotaitė.

⁶ Apie Varėnos šnektos skaičiaus kategoriją žr. Karaciejūtė 2012: 53–59.

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The research material consists of dialect texts collected individually by the article’s author between 2005 and 2013 in Varėna and the villages closest to it (the audio recordings amount to approximately 70 hours). The speech data analyzed are those of older-generation speakers born between 1913 and 1939 and continuously residing in the area of the dialect under investigation. The study is conducted according to the principles of natural morphology theory, which emerged from the convergence of the concepts of markedness and phonological naturalness (Dressler 2000: 289). The study employs descriptive, oppositional, and comparative methods.

The gender opposition in the Varėna dialect⁷ comprises masculine (e.g., šienas ‘hay’, ūkis ‘farm’, arklìs ‘horse’, sunùs ‘son’, dancis ‘tooth’, vanduo ‘water’) and feminine (e.g., krucinė. ‘chest’, dúona ‘bread’, valžà ‘authority’, klẹtis ‘granary’, sesuõ ‘sister’, duktė̃ ‘daughter’) genders. The current category of noun gender is binary; however, in the past, in addition to masculine and feminine (unmarked and marked) gender, the Balts also had a neuter gender⁸⁹.

Traditionally, nouns are divided into genders on semantic and morphological grounds (Laigonaitė 1961: 122–123; see also DLKG 62–63)¹⁰.

The gender of nouns classified semantically, based on lexical meaning and sex distinctions¹¹, may be expressed not only by different stems, inflectional endings, or derivation, but also by a different root, e.g.: kàt su_šeimù [vyro] tė.ko. búc ‖ tėvas ⋮ mamà jō ‖ ‘That I had to be with the family [of the man]. His father, his mother’ (Mrg); tai_cà màno. vīras anàs ‖ ‘That there is my husband’ (Prl), and tai_dar ⋮ va_šitōj mo.teris | tai_jōs mamà nevai kšto. ‖ ‘And now this woman here—her mother doesn’t walk’ (Prl); tàs tai_jàu jōs ⋮ jo.s_ brólis | jo._brólis ‖ ‘That one is already hers, her brother, his brother’ (Vrn), and o._jō˙ ⋮ tà jo._sesuõ irà

⁷ Apie giminės kategoriją žr.: Hockett 1965: 231; Aikhenvald 2004:1031–1045; Holvoet, Semėnienė 2006: 101–120; WALS. Apie giminės kategoriją šiaurinių širvintiškių, Joniškio ir Ramaškonių šnektose žr.: Markevičius 2009: 15–31; Kaikarytė 2010: 28–33; Tuomienė 2010: 53–61.

⁸ Aldonos Paulauskienės (2007: 23) teigimu, „kur yra opozicija, ten turi būti ir neutralizacijos galimybė, t. y. priešinamu jų narių suartėjimas iki sinonimijos arba net visiškas opozicijos išnykimas“.

⁹ Davidas Crystallas (1999: 130) šalia opozicijos vyriškoji giminė / moteriškoji giminė / bevardė giminė pateikia dar ir gyvas / negyvas priešpriešą (dar plg. Paulauskienė 1989: 172; Matthews 1997: 142). Manoma, kad vyriškosios ir moteriškosios giminės daiktavardžio klasės susiformavo iš aktyviųjų, gyvųjų daiktavardžių (genus activum), kurių denotatai yra gyvybiškai aktyvūs, o bevardės giminės daiktavardžio klasės – iš inaktyviųjų, kitaip tariant, pasyviųjų, negyvųjų daiktavardžių (genus pasivum), kurių denotatai yra gyvybinio ciklo neturintys objektai (Rosinas 2005: 156; dar žr.: Kuryłowicz 1964: 207; Mažiulis 1970: 76; Zinkevičius 1980: 176–177).

¹⁰ Alexandra Yurievna Aikhenvald (2004: 1034–1036) greta semantinio, formalaus morfologinio giminių skyrimo kriterijų mini fonologinį.

¹¹ Cf. Russian “belýčius” (English epicenes) nouns krolik ‘rabbit’ and sobaka ‘dog’, the first of which takes masculine agreement and the second feminine agreement, although both can refer to animals of either sex. This example shows that a language may have different agreement systems for the genders of distinct word classes (Aikhenvald 2004: 1033).

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married ‖ ‘Oh yes, his sister is married’ (Prl); nórs jis pác lietùvis bùvo. | bet jau skaitė.s lenkū mó.ki.to.jes ‖ ‘Although he himself was Lithuanian, he was already regarded as a Polish teacher’ (Žr), and nù ir_paskui sã.ko. | per_pá.mo.ka(s) sė́žin visì | nu_ir_mó-ki.to.je¹² kláuse | vaikai ‖ iš_kur jūs ėmė.t šitù(s) žaislùs ‖ ‘And then they say, we’re all sitting in class, and the teacher asks: children, where did you get these toys?’ (Vrn) (cf. Valeckienė 1984: 175–178; 1998: 231–234).

Pairs denoting domestic and wild animals and birds should be mentioned; their young are always masculine, e.g.: jãėm dá.vę. kavėj– | katinùku. ‖ ‘They gave him a kitten’ (Vrn), and nei_katės netùrū ‖ ‘I don’t even have a cat’ (Bbr); taĩ ir_katę [there was] ‖ ir_kačiuku. [had] ‖ ‘There was a cat too, and [they] had a kitten’ (Bbr) (see also: Laigonaitė 1961: 124–126; Jakaitienė, Laigonaitė, Paulauskienė 1976: 33; Paulauskienė 1983: 179–180; 1989: 173–174; 1994: 161; 2006: 70–73; DLKG 63; Valeckienė 1998: 235–236).

All nouns that do not denote persons, animals, or birds of different sexes have arbitrary gender (cf.: sakàũ ‖ taigi_jis tùri mašinėlbl. | ir_tùri kitù. matòciklu. ‖ ‘I say, so he has a little car and another motorcycle’ (Prl); taĩ_iêi [the children] nupirki. to.ki. stà.lu. | kàb va_dar̃ nuog_cà | dá.r lig_cà ‖ ir_cà tùri tokès kė́des ‖ ir̃ | tai_cà dáugáuse va_válgàu ‖ ‘So they [the children] bought a table like this, about this high, from here to here. And here they have chairs like these, and mostly I eat here’ (Prl), and so on)¹³. These nouns do not inflect for gender, cf.: mašinėlę. and **mašinėlis¹⁴; matòciklas and **matòcikla; stà.las and **stà.la¹⁵ (LKG I 19; Paulauskienė 1989: 170; 2006: 69; DLKG 62–63).

The gender of nouns classified morphologically is determined by morphological features, that is, their form: stem and inflectional endings (Laigonaitė 1961: 122–123; see also DLKG 62–63).

Masculine and feminine genders are identified according to the syntactic, or syntagmatic, criterion, which describes the agreement of forms, e.g.: mė́li.na šviesà tràkšt ‖ ‘The blue light—crack!’ (Prl); gã.ras to.kis cìltas tai_bùvo. ‖ ‘It was a good bridge, like that’ (Mrg).

Nouns of the ¹² móki.to.jes and móki.to.je type are called substantiva mobilia (cf.: Valeckienė 1998: 236–240; Holvoet, Semėnienė 2006:110; see also: Zumpt 1846: 17; Jacob 1851: 146; on the markedness of noun pairs, see Paulauskienė 1994: 159), or motion nouns (German Movierung (Sexusdifferenzierung)); cf. the examples given by Philippo Conzetto: ‘lieùv-is (“male Lithuanian”)’—‘lieùv-ė (“female Lithuanian”)’ (the t is omitted—author’s note); ‘pedagòg-as (“male teacher”)’—‘pedagog-ė (“female teacher”)’ (Conzett 2010: 148–149); for examples from Spanish and German, see Corbett 1991: 67; Lohde 2006: 124–126).

¹³ Compare the French examples: feminine maison ‘house’ and masculine château ‘castle’. These nouns are inanimate, that is, they have no connection with male and female sex (Aikhenvald 2004: 1031).

¹⁴ Forms marked with two asterisks are theoretically possible but are not used in the dialect.

¹⁵ In general, all nouns are classified and have gender, but do not inflect for gender.

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Let us also compare cases of form agreement in which the endings are not differentiated according to gender: nu_žūrâu kap_jįs dá.ro. | ir_às [I do] | kap_tàs *mìke. kvailùtis || “Well, I watch how he does it, and I [do] like that Mike silly fellow” (Grt); sà.kę. ¦ kad_jisai vàlkata || “They said that he was a vagrant” (SVrn).

The morphological, or formal, criterion is based on stems and the inflections that depend on them. For example, u-stem nouns are always masculine: sùn-ùs dîrba *vîlnun || “The son works in Vilnius” (Žr); o. dabar ¦ ir_parduo-tùvę.s ¦ ir_tùrg-us dar_vieto.i ¦ viškas tenái vieto.idabar || “And now both the shops and the market are there, everything is there now” (Vrn).

In the Varėna dialect, as in other Lithuanian (and Latvian) dialects studied using the methods of natural morphology (cf. Rosinas 2005; Markevičius 2009; Kaikarytė 2010), the gender of nouns is not strictly differentiated by stems, which, together with inflections, mark gender only in part (cf. Valeckienė 1998: 234).

The dialect has nouns (denoting kinship relations, occupations, and surnames) that have the grammatical morpheme (inflection) i̯ā, ē of feminine stems, although semantically they are masculine¹⁶, e.g.: sakâu ¦ màno. tėtę. būuo. mėsininkas || “I say, my dad was a butcher” (SVrn); labai totà¹⁷ būuo. gę.-ras || “That tota was very good” (Brč); paskuì ¦ màno. dėdę. ¦ mamõs brólis | tai_labai ¦ peilukù gražęi skutinėdavo. | visókeis raštaìs || “Then my uncle, my mother’s brother, used to carve very beautifully with a little knife, in all sorts of patterns” (Mtz); nu_kur ¦ kur iš-- ¦ iš_ valžõs àte.me. | atidúodavo. ¦ šíciem | *blínda¹⁸ | a(š) sakâu | to.kõ raíkėjo. | kàt ¦ vi̯siem ùšpakalu(s) su_nagáiko.m¹⁹ iškapót || “Well, where, where they took [him] out of—out of custody, they would hand [him] over to these people, Blinda; I say, that’s what was needed, to beat everyone’s backsides with nagaikas” (Žr).

People from Varėna use nouns that, without context, are understood as masculine. In context, the gender of such nouns is shown by dependent words that inflect for gender; the form of these nouns remains the same, although their function changes (cf. Stundžia 1979: 82; Valeckienė 1998: 240), e.g.: kokìs jis_tì būožę.²⁰ būuo. | alè²¹ žã.-- ¦ žã.mę.s būuo. taì ¦ išvėžę. || “What a kulak he was, but he had land, so they deported him” (Ūt); iìs [man] mušeikà būuo. || “He [the man] was a brawler” (Brč); but certainly

¹⁶ This phenomenon is also called a conflict between grammatical gender and sex (see Markevičius 2009: 19–22; for the conflict between grammatical gender and sex in Russian nouns, see LS 138–141).

¹⁷ Dad, father, or a man’s father.

¹⁸ Tadas Blinda.

¹⁹ With whips. A Slavic loanword.

²⁰ A wealthier farmer.

²¹ A conjunction characteristic of the Varėna dialect, most often used to express contrast or cause.

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sã.vas vagìs ⋮ taĩ | argi_tù ⋮ argi_tù ⋮ daskaũosìs²² ‖ “But really, a thief of one’s own, so are you, are you going to sneak in (hide)?” (SVrn)²³; o._kačiùkas bùuo. kóks zdráica²⁴ | ir_an ⋮ bùfeto.²⁵ | ir_an_špìnto.s | ir_ùisùr lá.kštę. to:kìs ‖ “And the kitten was such a rascal, both on the buffet and on the cupboard, and it climbed everywhere, the rascal” (Bbr); va_dabaŕ ⋮ ir_màno. káiman [there are people] | kuŕ ⋮ kur_bùuo. tokì priešai | išgamo.s bùuo. ‖ “Well, now in my village too [there are people] who, who were such enemies, such scoundrels” (Vrn). Clearly, the nouns mentioned have a negative, derogatory connotation (cf. Stundžia 1980: 79; Gudžinevičiūtė 2009: 273; for more examples, see Gudžinevičiūtė 2008).

Nouns búožę., mušėikà, válkata, vagìs, zdráica, išgama “do not have a separate ‘own’ stem or inflections; there is no special adjective class of ‘common gender’” (Stundžia 1980: 82), but have two genders and are therefore traditionally called hybrid (English hybrid nouns²⁶) nouns (cf. Corbett 1991: 38, 66; Judžentis 2002: 43), or double-gender (Polish dwurodzajowe rzeczowniki) nouns (cf.: Otrębski 1956: 5; Rinkauskienė 1999: 13; Judžentis 2002: 43).

In Lithuanian, the feminine gender of nouns of the “common gender” (Latin common nouns, English common gender), which does not have the status of a grammatical category, is almost never used in the Varėna dialect. The unmarked masculine form is used more often by speakers of the dialect²⁷.

The gender of some nouns is not always clear, and no grammatical markers indicate it, for example: visùs giminės ⋮ visùs | kap kokè ⋮ kalėjimes tī. | višku. jì žinójo. ‖ “All the genders, all of them, like some kind of, the prisons there, she knew everything” (Bbr) (cf. gi.váen-to.jes būu. ⋮ priė ⋮ pàt *ulõs | ir_dár ⋮ dár jō giminū va_cà skaitę.s [there are] ‖ “The resident was right by the Ūla, and still, still his relatives were counted here [there are]” (Žr)); that is, žmo-gùs tī. iāu ⋮ taĩsę.s²⁸ | dá.rę.s²⁹ | tvãrkę.s | bèt ⋮ daŕ girdėjáu ⋮ kat_pardúoda | tuos_na-mùs ‖ “So that person there was already mending things, getting things done, putting things in order, but now I heard that they are selling those houses” (Bržp) (cf. kù.gi gali žmògùs dáuk pà.sako.c ‖ “What can a person say, really, a lot?” (Vrn)); kad_gál spakainà³⁰ vaĩkas ‖ “Maybe the child is calm”

²² Slavicism.

²³ Compare the form used with a generalized meaning: galì ráǯìkstīs | bet_daŕ ⋮ bijėi ⋮ visóku. và ⋮ vagū šitū ‖ “One can express oneself, but now you’re afraid of all sorts of these thieves” (Žr).

²⁴ Rascal, restless person.

²⁵ Cupboard for storing dishes or food.

²⁶ Cases in which the masculine form is retained when referring to a woman can be associated with the extension of natural masculine grammatical gender into the domain of marked feminine gender (Holvoet, Semėnienė 2006: 106).

²⁷ Apie graikų kalbos daiktavardžių common gender žr. Holton ir kt. 1997: 61–62.

²⁸ Made better.

²⁹ Made, worked.

³⁰ Calm.

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“a child” (Vrn) (cf. acìmenu ¦ ì ¦ vaìku ¦ dúono.s ¦ sukrãmtė. ¦ sukrãmtė. | tai_vadi-no.(s) žandà | dro.bìnen skudurùkan ¦ cùkro. [įdeda] | ir_dúoda ¦ kap_čùlptūku. | ir_vaìkas³¹ trãuke tu._duonìti. ‖ “I remember, they chewed bread for the child, chewed it up; that was called a žanda; they put sugar in a little linen rag [and give it] like a pacifier, and the child sucks that little piece of bread” (Grt).

Indeclinable nouns, that is, nouns with an invariable form, have no morphological markers of the category of gender; their gender is expressed syntactically (Paulauskienė 2001: 6; Judžentis 2002: 39; DLKG 64; on the gender of morphologically unadapted nouns, see Rimkutė 2011: 184–201). None of these nouns were recorded in the dialect under study.

However, the examples show that some nouns of foreign origin which should be declined (KP66) are used as indeclinable, that is, not integrated into the dialect’s inflectional system. They may be either masculine or feminine, cf.: ir_và paprašāu *bro˙nùlė.s | pàrnėšė. šìtùs ¦ dù | kàp_ten ¦ nu_tokì žalì | kur_àplupi | kì.vi | kì.vi dùi suválgāu ‖ “And I asked Broniulė, and she brought these two, what are they called, well, the green ones that you peel; kiwis—I ate two kiwis” (SVrn) and aplùpo. ¦ supjãuėštė. smùlkėi | suválgāu ¦ tuós | kì.vi | dù ‖ “Peeled them, chopped them finely, and ate those two kiwis” (SVrn). Such variation in the gender of loanwords apparently arises because older people do not know which gender form should be used³².

Cases of gender disagreement have been recorded in the Varėna dialect, for example: nu kàs ¦ senã.tvi-ne. zãùksmas ¦ bùvo. | tai_vàt ‖ “Well, it was, you know, an old-age joy” (SVrn); tai_jì. ¦ tas_*advãrda ¦ sã.ko. ‖ “So he, that Edvardas, says” (Prl); su_tóm pavijõčėum³³ [the daughter was swaddled] ‖ “With that swaddling band [the daughter was swaddled]?” (Grt); nù ¦ tai_paskāu kap_atàina | tai_jàu ¦ pa-àiškina jiẽm ‖ kad_ti. iz_bã.lo.s balà ‖ tokè šàltinis ‖ “Well, then, when it comes, it explains it to them. That there is a pool from the marsh. Such a spring” (Bržp)³⁴. Such instances of gender disagreement are isolated and apparently occur by chance in the speech of informants.

Separate mention should be made of nouns used in the dialect under study whose gender sometimes differs from that in some other dialects (for example, the Joniškis and northern

³¹ In the Varėna dialect, the noun vaikas is sometimes used with the meaning “boy” (“son”), for example: tai_vaìku. ¦ cig_víenu. vaìku. iāu [turime] | õ: ¦ o._trìs ¦ mẽrgo.s ‖ nu_tai_tàp | trìs mẽrgo.s ir_sunùs ‖ “So, a child, just one child we have [already], oh, and three girls. Well, yes, three girls and a son” (Žr) (cf. also Laigonaitė 1961: 124).

³² The noun kìvi, according to the youth survey data, belongs to the group of loanwords most often inflected (Rimkutė, Raižytė 2010).

³³ A strip used to tie up a swaddled baby.

³⁴ Let us also compare an example recorded in Barčiai: kokè bū̀s pradžà / tokè būs ir_pãgi.nas “as the beginning was, so will the end be” (Brč) (Markevičienė 1999: 32).

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the gender of nouns in the Shirvintos dialect³⁵⁾ and standard language. Speakers of the Varėna dialect (most often under the influence of Slavic languages³⁶⁾) change gender when talking about:

1) maistą, gėrimus, pvz.: o.sù bulbìne.m blìno.m | à ⋮ spîrginẽi ćíei gárdu.s ‖ „O su bulviniais blynais³⁷ spirginiai tie gardūs“ (Ūt); bandù prikepa | prìmala ⋮ aguõnu. | ir_tan_įau pienañ aguõ-- ⋮ aguõnpienę.n privìlgo. ‖ „Bandų prikepa, primala aguonų, ir tame piene, aguonpienyje, privilgo“ (Ūt); va_c̀a cukrà jãĩ reikė ‖ „Va čia cukrus, jei reikia“ (Vrn);

2) materials or their remnants, e.g.: drucì³⁸ rù.stai | cig_pa-- ⋮ pě.leno.s [remained] ‖ “The logs are burned to embers; only ashes [remained]” (Mrg); prá.stas | šmẽlis | ì ⋮ va_kiek_ce pieskà³⁹ ‖ “The sand is poor; look how much sand there is here” (Vrn)⁴⁰; the firewood burns up and ⋮ and there are coals ‖ “The firewood burns up and, and there are coals” (Brč); tempertìno.s ⋮ búdavo. žìbalo. ‖ “Turpentine; there used to be kerosene” (Grt);

3) place names, e.g.: one daughter of his ⋮ *in Balbieriškis [lives]‖ a teacher ‖ “One of his daughters lives in Balbieriškis; [she is] a teacher” (Prl); and my ⋮ *Almytė still knew that little prayer; but I only [know] these words, here: “wine, wine, wine from Galilee”; and at their place there was already red wine for Kūčios ‖ “And my Almytė still knew such a little prayer, but I only [know] these words: ‘wine, wine, wine from Galilee’; and they already had red wine at their place for Kūčios” (Grt); *in Beržupis⁴¹ there were three houses ‖ “There were three houses in Beržupis” (Bržp); here with us, here is a stream ‖ *Duobupis ‖ hollowed, hollowed ‖ our stream used to be beautiful ‖ “Here with us, here there is a stream. Duobupis. Hollowed, hollowed. Our stream used to be beautiful” (Mtz)⁴²;

³⁵ Plačiau žr.: Markeviičius 2009: 17–24; Kaikarytė 2010: 32–33.

³⁶ Also compare the variants of number (cf.: po. *kalėdai ‘after Christmas’ and Polish kolęda, Russian коляда) and gender (cf.: kišė.nus ‘pocket’ and Polish kieszeń) recorded in the Varėna dialect.

³⁷ When transcribing examples with a gender differing from that found in some dialects and in the standard language, the form more usual and more frequent in the dialect is written.

³⁸ Strong.

³⁹ Sand.

⁴⁰ Also compare ka(t)_tì. piesko. ⋮ viško._gi prìlanda ‖ “Because there is sand there, all sorts of things wash up” (Prl).

⁴¹ Cf.: bought a cow and returned to live again in *Beržupis, in his own village, and that little house is still standing ‖ “He bought a cow and came back to live in Beržupis, in his own village, and that little house is still standing” (Bržp). Not only do the forms of the place name vary, but so does the accentuation; cf.: and it (the stream) was named after the fact that there were large birches, so it was named *Beržupis ‖ “And it (the stream) was named because there were large birches, so it was called Beržupis” (Bržp); *Beržupis || they had made it *Biržupis ‖ “Beržupis. They had made it Biržupis [referring to the accentuation – author’s note]” (Bržp).

⁴² Cf.: Well, look, the stream goes here. ‖ *Duobupis. ‖ First this stream flows into the pond. ‖ Also, when you go to Molius along this road, through the little forest, to the village of Molius, then that stream also runs across into the Merkys ‖ “Well, look, there goes the stream. Duobupis. First this stream flows into the pond. Also, when you go to Molius along this road, through the little forest, to the village of Molius, that stream runs across into the Merkys” (Mtz).

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4) a part of clothing, e.g.: va_kišė.nun à(š) sudėjau ⋮ dùkrela || “I put it into my pocket, daughter” (SVrn); aš_tai nórų ⋮ išvilkė rankóvų || “I want to pull the sleeve off” (SVrn);

5) plants, e.g.: kàs tas_vɑr-- ⋮ varnaléšas || “What is that burdock?” (Brč); viškas augíta | viška(s) savo. | nieko. beveik pirkta | nugì parša. pasipjėuni ⋮ tai_salótai | lašinùku. turì || “Everything is home-grown, everything is our own; we’ve bought almost nothing. Well, you slaughter a pig, then you have salads and some bacon” (Mtz); tai_và ramūneis papláunu || “So, I wash (my eyes) with chamomile” (Brč). In the dialect area, instances have been recorded in which the noun ramunėlė occurs in a sentence in both masculine and feminine forms, e.g.: ramunė̃lė.s tai_vaikám | jàu_cìg ⋮ kab_kur gė.ma | jàũ tai_vaikàm ramunėlėi bùuo || “Chamomile is for children now only, when it grows somewhere; then there was chamomile for the children” (Ūt). The variant ramunė̃lis ‘chamomile’ is used quite widely—examples have been recorded from Rudnia, Giraitė, Matuizos, and Ūta;

6) a part of the human body's systems, e.g.: normá.lu.s màno. kepenai || “My liver is healthy” (Vrn); kab_virto. nebà.gas⁴³ | taĩ ː ná.t an_tvo.rõs šmegenai būuo. isitã.ški. || “When the poor fellow turned over, there were brains splattered even on the fence” (Ūt);

7) certain spaces and premises (buildings, institutions, etc.), e.g.: màno. anūkė. dírba ⋮ alùbarę.n | *varę.nõj || “My granddaughter works at the pub, in Varėna” (Zrv); múrs lietùvų. ko.kũ irà | prazgi.væ.no. | prazbùuo. ⋮ jàu_c̀æ žinãi | taĩ ⋮ tai_kantɔri dírba ⋮ tai_vėl jàu_ti. | ta(i)_isimo˙kinus | tén mó.ki.to.jes | tén bugáltere.s | taĩ ir, paskãũ nuvažã.wo. *sibiran | nugì turìstinin || “There are all sorts of our Lithuanians; they prospered, settled here, you know, and then—some work in the office, some are over there now, educated, teachers there, accountants there, and later they went to Siberia, well, to the tourist place” (Vrn); c̀æ v́irtuvis màno. || “Here is my kitchen” (Vrn); už_*má.k-simo.⁴⁴ ⋮ maždãuk và ⋮ už parduotùvę.s ⋮ šitam tárpi ligónine. būuo. || o˙.tén po.-leklìnikas būvis | prie_sto.tiẽs || tai_po.leklìnikas || “Behind ‘Maxima’, roughly, there, behind the shop; in this space there was a hospital. And over there was a polyclinic, by the station. So, a polyclinic (was there)” (Vrn); paskui lenkai⁴⁵ kap_sužinójo. | tai_ti. ⋮ dár už_mũs ⋮ to.kõn klõnę.n⁴⁶ ⋮ ji. slėpė. vis || “Later, when the Poles found out, she was still hiding everything over there, beyond us, in that hollow” (Bržp)⁴⁷; dírbau ša.xtuose: po.žemì ||

⁴³ Poor thing.

⁴⁴ The store “Maxima”: The noun form *mà.ksimas is also recorded in Kašėtos, e.g.: va_visa savo. vièto.n | nu_và pažù.rėk | kai kãi ⋮ *mà.ksiman ko.kèn | kai *mà.ksiman || “Well, everything is in its place, there, look, when, when in some ‘Maxima’, when in ‘Maxima’” (Kšt).

⁴⁵ The noun lenkas ‘Pole’ in the South Aukštaitian dialect, and thus in the Varėna subdialect, is the only one with stress patterns across all four accent paradigms (see Ragaišienė 2010: 45 for more detail).

⁴⁶ Cf. also: nùvertė. | múrs tí kluònę.n būuo. || “It was demolished; ours was there in the hollow (a house)” (Kšt).

⁴⁷ Cf. also aš_dár klo.ná.łę.n gi.venàu || “I also lived in the little hollow” (Vrn).

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“I worked in the mines, underground” (Vrn). Forms of the masculine noun šã.xtas ‘shaft’ have also been recorded in Perloja.

Further examples have been recorded in the area where the dialect under study is spoken, for example: nu_anūkas irgi ¦ žvìda. šim ¦ kečvìrto. ¦ dabàr ¦ va_bùs ¦ gegùžo. || įàu_dvinìs || ir_žá˙ntas màno. gegùži. gìmìs || “Well, the grandson too is twenty-fourth (born); now it’ll be May (his birthday). Already a twin. And my son-in-law was born in May” (SVrn); bùuo. sùŋku⁴⁸ ¦ mó.-- ¦ kab và lá˙nku. laikàis ¦ ir mó˙kesči.s bùuo. labaĩ dìdelę.s || “It was hard, like in the Polish times, and the taxes were very high” (Grt); túos anà ¦ ten | mìna mìna sù | iš ¦ į_tàs | lìeka jū skū.-- ¦ skur°rą.le. | va_kà-- ¦ plàukū ¦ kúokšto.s || “Those (flax stems) she there treads, treads with, out of, those remain little husks, like tufts of hair” (Mrg); dùkrela ¦ rà.dije sugē.do. || “Daughter dear, the radio broke” (SVrn); nù_tai įàu_šìčiei trīs šienáuna dalgę.m⁴⁹ | šiē-- ¦ pašienáuna | tadù ¦ įàu_à(š) susìtvarkāu antrà.dienin | įàu_raìke ¦ kuģūs | ir_kuģūs šùždedu || “Well, these three (sons-in-law and son) are already mowing with scythes; they mow some, then I get things in order on Tuesday; it’s already time to rake the haystacks, and I put the haystacks together” (Kšt). Many other forms of the noun rà.dije ‘radio’ have also been recorded in Giraitė, and the noun dalgę. ‘scythe’ in Matuizos.

A separate group of nouns consists of women’s names, which in the dialect are used with a different gender when addressing someone affectionately, for example: sakàū ¦ *maritùkai | àš tavìm ¦ tikù | tikėk ir_tù manìm || “I say, Marytuke, I trust you; you too, trust me” (SVrn). A woman may be called turteliu ‘treasure’, for example: pataisìk ¦ dukrèla | pataisìk ¦ turtèla mà-no. || “Fix it (the radio), daughter dear, fix it, my treasure” (SVrn). Masculine nouns may sometimes take feminine inflection, for example: guļkis ¦ *rikùli | guļkis guļkis ¦ *rikǝ.le | *rikùli ¦ nepristók || “Lie down, Rikuli; lie down, lie down, Rikele, Rikuli, don’t stop!” (Kšt).

When discussing the grammatical gender category of nouns, it is important to emphasize that it is a classificatory, not an inflectional, category (Rosinas 2005: 45; cf. Paulauskienė 1994: 165; DLKG 62)⁵⁰. For example, the inflections of the forms of the noun avilìs symbolize two grammatical categories—number and case. If we compare the declensional paradigm of this noun with other declensional paradigms in the Varėna dialect, we will see that

48

Danguolės Mikulėnienės (1996: 151) nuomone, forma sùŋku su šaknyje išlaikytu kirčiu yra senesnė, nei galūninio kirčiavimo forma suŋkù.

49

For a fuller discussion of the form, see LKA 1111, map no. 50.

50

Jerzy Kuryłowiczius (1962: 205) skiria deiktinę (daiktavardžių) ir anaforinę (būdvardžių) giminę. Jo teigimu, apie gramatinę giminės kategoriją galima kalbėti tik tada, kai kalboje egzistuoja anaforinė (būdvardžių) giminė. Axelis Holvoetas ir Loreta Semėnienė (2006: 120) kalba apie daviklio ir gaviklio gimines: „giminė dažniausiai reiškiama viena ar kitai giminei būdingomis galūnėmis, tačiau giminės kategorijos gramatinis statusas remiasi tuo, kad giminės atžvilgiu skiriamos derinamųjų žodžių (būdvardžių, daugelio įvardžių) formos. Šis dalykas lemia, kad giminės požymius reikia priskirti ne tik patiems daiktavardžiams, bet ir su jais derinamiems žodžiams. Tai verčia skirti daviklio ir gaviklio gimines.“

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the endings of not all inflected forms of the noun avil̃s encode gender. For example, the grammatical morpheme /-i./ in the singular accusative form of the noun á.vil-i. symbolizes the bundle of categories ‘singular’ & ‘accusative’, but not ‘singular’ & ‘accusative’ & ‘masculine’, since that would require us to claim that the grammatical morpheme /-i./ in the noun á.k-i. symbolizes the same categories. Nor would it be accurate to say that the grammatical morpheme /-i./ encodes gender: the nouns mentioned belong not only to different inflectional classes (stems) but also to different genders (for the gender system of Standard Latvian, see Rosinas 2005: 44–45). According to Albertas Rosinas (2005: 45), the lexical morpheme of many nouns is inseparable from the grammatical meaning of one gender or another; therefore, it would be somewhat inaccurate to speak of a special “gender morpheme” in the structure of nouns in the Varėna dialect⁵¹.

Since “in cases where a noun has a stem atypical of its gender, its gender is indicated by a syntagmatic or semantic criterion,” while the noun stem together with its inflection may indicate gender only partially (Valeckienė 1998: 234), it would be appropriate to classify the nouns of the Varėna dialect by stem:

1. All nouns with a (e.g., šiėn-as ‘hay’, vã.bal-as ‘beetle’, žãnt-as ‘son-in-law’), iₐ₁ (e.g., kã.l-es ‘road’, vė́l̃n-es ‘devil’, vė́j-es ‘wind’), iₐ₂ (e.g., smẽl-is ‘sand’, grãustin-is ‘thunder’, šulin-ī̀s ‘well’), iₘ (e.g., debes-ìs ‘cloud’, danc-ìs ‘tooth’, žvė.r-is ‘animal’), u (e.g., al-ùs ‘beer’, med-ùs ‘honey’, tur̃g-us ‘market’), iu (e.g., spiec̃-ùs ‘crowd’, rubã.ž-us ‘border’, ámž-us ‘age’), Cₘ (e.g., vɑnd-uõ ‘water’, akm-uõ ‘stone’, sto.m-uõĩ ‘torso’) stem classes are masculine. Also included in this group are nouns with ā (e.g., tõt-a ‘daddy’, *kundr-à ‘Kundra’, *smetõn-a ‘Smetona’), iā⁵² and ē (e.g., tẽt-ę. ‘daddy’, dẽd-ę. ‘uncle’, *mik-ę. ‘Mikė’) stems that denote male persons.

2. All nouns with ā (e.g., dúon-a ‘bread’, šatr-à⁵³ ‘thatch’, mo.kiːkl-à ‘school’), iā (e.g., kój-e ‘leg’, marč-i ‘daughter-in-law’, pará.pij-e ‘parish’), ē (e.g., žo.l-ẽ̃ ‘grass’, bit-ę. ‘bee’, vīrtuv-e. ‘kitchen’), i_f (e.g., pirč-is ‘bathhouse’, šìrž-is ‘heart’, klēt-is ‘granary’), C_f (e.g., ses-uõ ‘sister’, dukt-ẽ̃ ‘daughter’) nouns are feminine.

Morphological gender is determined⁵⁴ on the basis of the singular dative⁵⁵ (cf. singular dative šiėn-u, kã.l-ū, smẽl̃-u, dẽ.bẽs-u, á.l-u, spiéc-u, vɑ́ndēn-u; dúon-ai, kój-ei,

⁵¹ It is assumed that earlier the grammatical morphemes *-as, *-is, *-us symbolized masculine gender, while *-āi *-ē indicated feminine gender, and the grammatical morphemes *-a, *-u and *-i indicated neuter gender. Only the grammatical morphemes *-is and *-ō did not symbolize the gender category (Rosinas 2005: 159).

⁵² No nouns belonging to this stem class were recorded.

⁵³ A long, thin branch.

⁵⁴ Aleksejus Andronovas (2002: 123) siūlo morfologines gimines vadinti „vyriškoji, arba ui giminė“ ir „moteriškoji, arba ai/ei giminė“.

⁵⁵ This rule does not apply to the Širvintos subdialect or to some dialects of the Southern Anykščiai area (Markevičius 2009: 16–17).

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mãrc-ei, žõl-ai, šĩrž-ei, sẽ.ser-ei), i.e. that grammatical morpheme which “symbolizes (it is maximally or at least minimally iconic as well) a bundle of three grammatical categories and indicates the inflectional type” (Rosinas 2005: 46)⁵⁶.

The study conducted showed that:

1) The structure of the gender category in the Varėna dialect, as in other dialects studied using the methods of natural morphology (Joniškis and the northern Širvintos dialects), consists of the opposition between masculine and feminine gender.

2) The gender of nouns is not strictly differentiated according to stems; stems with inflections indicate gender only in part.

3) Speakers of the Varėna dialect usually change gender when speaking about food and drinks (e.g., su_blĩno.m, aguõnpienę.n); materials or their remains (e.g., pẽ.leno.s, aŋglei); place names (e.g., *balbieriškę.n, *duobupę.); plants (e.g., varnalẽšas, ramu-nẽlei); parts of clothing (e.g., kišẽ.ñun, raŋkõvu.); particular spaces and rooms (e.g., vĩrtuvis; po.lekliñikas); parts of the human body's systems (e.g., kepenaĩ, šmegenaĩ), etc.

4) It is also inaccurate to speak of a special “gender morpheme” in the structure of nouns in the Varėna dialect, since for many nouns the lexical morpheme is inseparable from the grammatical meaning of one gender or the other.

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Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI

Varėnos šnektos daiktavardžio giminės kategorija

PLACE-NAME ABBREVIATIONS

Bbr – Babriškės Brč – Barčiai Bržp – Beržūpis Grt – Giráitė Kšt – Kašėtos Mrg – Mer̃gėzeris Mtz – Matùizos Prl – Perlojà SVrn – Senóji Varėna Ūt – Ūtà Vrn – Varėna Zrv – Zervýnos Žr – Žiūraĩ

The Category of Noun Gender in the Varėna Subdialect

SUMMARY

In the Varėna subdialect and the villages nearest to it (Akmũo, Babriškės, Barčiai, Beržūpis, Giráitė, Kašėtos, Mer̃gėzeris, Matùizos, Perlojà, Pauosupė, Rudnìà, Senóji Varėna, Ūtà, Zervýnos, Žiūraĩ), which is classified as Southern Aukštaitian, the category of gender has not been investigated or described from the perspective of natural morphology.

The main aim of the article is to discuss the structure of the category of gender in this sub-dialect, on the basis of empiric material to present semantic and morphological characteristics of the gender of noun and to identify cases of variations in gender.

The research conducted showed that: 1) the structure of the category of gender in the Varėna subdialect consists of an opposition between masculine and feminine gender, as in other subdialects (Joniškis, northern Širvintiškiai) investigated using the method of natural morphology; 2) there is no strict differentiation of masculine and feminine gender according to stems; stems with inflections only partially mark gender; 3) speakers of the Varėna subdialect usually vary gender in words referring to food and drinks (e.g., su̇bl̇ino.m, aguõnpiene.n); materials and their waste (e.g., pė.leno.s, áŋglei); place names (e.g., *balbìeriškė.n, *duóbupe.); plants (e.g., varnalė̃šas, ramunėlėi); parts of clothing (e.g., kišã̃.ṙun, rankóviu.); certain spaces and premises (e.g., vìrtuvis; po.leklìnikas); human body organs (e.g., kepenaĩ, šmegenaĩ), and other things; 4) it is inaccurate to refer to a specific ‘gender morpheme’ in the structure of nouns in the Varėna subdialect, because the lexical morpheme is inseparable from one or another grammatical meaning of gender.

Submitted on 11 June 2014.

VITALIJA KARACIEJŪTĖ

Lietuvos edukologijos universitetas

Taraso Ševčenkos g. 31, LT-03111 Vilnius, Lietuva

[email protected]

Straipsniai / Articles

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