Mažmožiai 4–6

ACTA LINGUISTICA LITHUANICA LI (2004), 113-114 Remarks MAŽMOŽIS 4 Already there was a tendency to compare the form heard by F. Kuršaitis in Katyčiai with the cylo ‘language’ of the Prussian language manuscripts. In the entire Klaipėda region, since the time of Walter Fenzlau, the incorrect transformation ie, uo > i, u is known (see W. Fenzlau, Die deutschen Formen der litauischen Ortsund Personennamen des Memelgebiets, Halle, 1936, 45). New facts published by Vlado Grinavecki (Žemaičių tarmių istorija, Vilnius, 1973, 195) from the same place, repeated in the translation of Janis Endzelynas' writings!, Vytautas Maziulis' Prussian language etymological dictionary (vol. 2, Vilnius, 1993, 184). Aloyzas Vidugiris’s important monograph Zietela Lithuanian spoken language, which has now been published, again announces the same message — the fact of the legacy of Zietela and the Prussian language (p. 342). Unfortunately, the transformation of ie, uo into vowels i, ut in these dialects is a new thing, often there is a fluctuation — the same person can say dik | dok, lip | lė:p, vine | venc and kille | ke-le (from Šilutė to Dovilų and Dréverna), while the dialect of Katyčiai (with the words pri:Sinks ‘comfortable’, karū:m'in'i ‘army’, m'ils ‘dear’ that I heard in 1964) shows more connections with the dialects of Žemaitija. The Katyčiai dialect, where F. Kuršaitis had heard it originated, according to the old dialect representatives, was overshadowed by the Zemgaly mud miners' mercenaries' dialect. Otherwise, all the locals were bilingual — they spoke German and Lithuanian, especially when communicating with Catholic hired workers. (More detailed information about this has already been provided earlier, see V. Vitkauskas, „Lietuvių kalbos kilo — naujybė“, Kalbotyra 44 (1), 1995, 93-94; only it has gone unnoticed- ). The form of Antanas Juška is only the fact of so-called mud mining (LKZ, 776). MAZMOZIS 5 Between Kuršėnai and Raudėnai there was a large marsh called Gelzé (g'el'?'i KRš | g'él'z'e RDN, TRS, Pp). People collected bags of cranberries, acorns, prepared hay, and saved not one cow or other animal during the summer. In the Soviet years, during the reorganization of nature, the marsh was drained, water was drawn from the stream, there were no cranberries, no acorns, no hay, no pastures. They were going to dig peat, the government built even several three-storey troupes for peat farmers. Geologists predicted large deposits, vast peat fields, but it took some time and after a few months production stopped, only for some time they still carried the peat crumbs. ! Endzelins, J., Darbu izlase 4a, Riga: Zinatne, 1982, 238 (provided generally as a variant of the language kyle). 114 | REMARKS The local people, of course, regretted the loss of such a source and said metaphorically that Gelžė is no longer — only g'el'? 'ė.le | g'elžė.li, g'el'žė.k'e | g'el?ik'i. The young name book collectors supported this as variants of the toponym Gelžės and submitted to the name book as new forms Gelžėlė, Gelžikė from Raudėnai apyl. Švendrių k.2, which were examined in a special dissertation and article (Acta Linguistica Lithuanica 41 63, 78). 6 Žemaičiai (and Vilnius Highlanders) do not have deminutive suffixes -ėlis. In Northern Sami it is duobel'ielis | duobelėlis —dobilélis, -člio, m'ergož'- ė.l'e ~ mergužėlė, balon'dėl'- ė: —papūtėliai, South Samogitian duobi'il'ėl- 'is, merguzé- .l'i, balun'déle-, West Samogitian duob'elėl'- is, mergož'- ėlę, bala.n'deél'é, etc. I think that this happened because of regressive assimilation of vowels, where earlier the paradigm of e before the tense i, u, ie was confused, because they started to pronounce ei, e, so the generalized form -elis, -elė was used. This was not due to the influence of Latvian, which does not have this suffix at all (only in borrowed words from Lithuanian), and other languages in general have hardly had any influence in this case. Vilnius dialects also have the forms b'ernužė- .l'i.s, m'erguz'- é.l'c., karv'ela.l- 'eei, etc. It is also not due to the influence of Slavic languages that both diphthongs and polysyllabic nouns have the suffix -el. Since many Vilnius dialects do not have the vowel e" and will not have had it in the past, only the long broad vowel e (next to the elongated e.): vaik'ė.l'i.s and b'ernuzé- .l'i.s, m'erg'ė.l'- e. and my mother. and others. Therefore, it is not possible to say that this may be from the Slavic languages, as the influence of the Latvian language is assumed to have been on the Zemgaling (Laimis Bilkis, Acta Linguistica Lithuanica 41, 70) (the suffix -ėlis (-elis) of that language does not mean minority- ). It seems that the geography of deminutive suffixes -ėlis, -elis is unknown to toponymy specialists, because in Ceikiniuosė there are Šežiaukėlė (ALL 41, 70), Tirkšliuosė —Kužiškėlė (ALL 41, 72), in Linkmenyse —Polymėlis (ALL 41, 72), in Ignalina —Tėlėtnykėlis (ALL 41, 76) etc. Vytautas Vitkauskas Received 2004 11 08 Lithuanian Language Institute P. Vileišio g. 5, 10308 Vilnius, Lithuania 2 There are newer inhabitants living there, because the old ones were burned alive in 1945 during Christmas Eve and Christmas.