LEKSIKOS TYRINĖJIMAI

LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA

PRINCIPLES FOR COMPILING A DICTIONARY OF DIALECT GROUPS

V. VITKAUSKAS

As living conditions change, the countryside draws closer to the city, the realities of the old village disappear, and the influence of the literary language grows stronger; many old dialect words are rapidly falling out of use. The stable morphology of dialects and their phonetics, which is more resistant to change, have been widely described and examined in Z. Zinkevičius’s major work “Lithuanian Dialectology” and in many doctoral dissertations, whereas vocabulary is usually described only to the extent required by the areas mentioned above. Vocabulary is the most dynamic element of language, and has always tended to change along with life as it develops and transforms. This is particularly characteristic of the present day. The younger generation in our villages is actively studying the standard language and no longer knows many things that were once common in village life. It is therefore quite doubtful whether today’s younger generation will inherit the entire dialect vocabulary and its lexical system from the present older rural generation, born in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and having well preserved the old dialect vocabulary. Recording the wealth of words belonging to the older generation as it disappears from everyday life, as well as the principles by which new words are coined, is becoming both relevant and necessary.

It has therefore become necessary to begin compiling dialect dictionaries, which make it possible to examine dialect vocabulary comprehensively, present its system—or at least part of it—for the purposes of linguistic scholarship and practice, and reveal the true state of the lexical stock (the use of dialect words in dialect areas, their changing and decline in use, the emergence of new words, and so on).

Dialect dictionaries are now among the matters of greatest concern to lexicographers and dialectologists in the Soviet Union and many other countries. Russian linguists are especially active in this field: alongside a 17-volume dictionary of the literary language, they will soon have a multi-volume dictionary of all Russian dialects, collections and studies of the vocabulary of dialect groups from almost all regions and territories of the Russian Federation, and have even published a carefully prepared dictionary of the vocabulary of a single village¹.

After becoming acquainted with a dozen or so different dictionaries and their principles of compilation (a more extensive article on this subject, “Types of Dialect Dictionaries and Principles of Their Compilation,” was published in the Academy of Sciences’ Proceedings, Series A, vol. 2(33), pp. 153–170), I decided to discuss a dictionary of one particular group of Lithuanian dialects and the principles for compiling it.

The following matters should be examined for this purpose:

1. The extent of the dialect area and its shared isoglosses, in order to bring out the dialects’ commonalities, proximity, and membership in a single area.

¹ Dictionary of the Modern Russian Folk Dialect (the village of Deulino, Ryazan Region). Materials collected and dictionary compiled by G. A. Barinova, G. S. Kogotkova, E. A. Nekrasova, I. A. Ossovetsky, V. B. Silina, and K. P. Smolina; edited by I. A. Ossovetsky. Moscow, 1969, 612 pp.

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2. The purpose of the dictionary—what this work seeks to achieve. Particular attention should be paid to the vanishing layer of vocabulary, which is important for the history of the language and is no longer used by the younger generation today.

3. The type of dictionary, since the choice of type determines how the material is organized and collected, and how the quite varied dialect vocabulary is assessed (several distinct layers are evident here: vocabulary common to the whole nation, words specific to a dialect or group of dialects, loanwords, and words newly entering the dialect through schools, radio and television, theatre, and specialists arriving from other parts of Lithuania).

These are the questions I wish to discuss specifically.

Words from Samogitian dialects (mainly around Kuršėnai, Vāputenai, Dirvōnėnai, and elsewhere) began to be collected in 1954 at the urging of Prof. J. Balčikonis. Each summer, a few hundred items would be recorded and submitted to the editorial office of the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language. After I began working at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature in 1958 and traveling on expeditions, substantial collections of vocabulary from the southern Samogitian (eastern dūnininkai) dialect accumulated, forming the basis for the planned dialect dictionary. It is expected to reflect not only the vocabulary of a single, compact dialect, but also to give an idea of Samogitian vocabulary in general, since words from this dialect are often used in many parts of Samogitia.

The area of the dialect group for such a dictionary, from which we have most of our material, would be as follows: Kuršėnai and Micaičiai districts in Šiauliai district (the more important settlements: Kuršėnai, Vārputėnai, Pakšteliai²); the eastern part of the Raudėnai district in Šiauliai district (Dirvōnėnai); the Pašilėnai and Užventis districts in Kelmė district (villages to the west: Vidsodis, Užventis); the southern part of the Pāvandenė district in Telšiai district and the southern part of the Luōkė district in Telšiai district (Viekšņaliai).

1. Their common phonetic features:

a) ie, uo > i·, u·:

kī·c, sī·nc, ū·ses, singular genitive dū·bę(PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn), ži·c, ī·vas, ū·ga, plural nominative ū·les (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

b) Stem and stressed endings ė, o > ie, uo:

ūōškā, uōškē·lę, viežę, īemā·u (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn), grūobi, žuolē·li, riek, grieb-lī·s (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

c) General retraction of stress³.

d) *tj, *dj > t, d before ā:

jā·utē·, jā·utē·ms, jā·utē·s, but jā·učę || jā·učę (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn), gaidē·, gai-dē·ms, gaidē·s, but gai·dže (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

2. Phonetic features that are shared in principle but differ in nuances:

a) am, an >

ōm, ōn: ō·mžos, sō·mda, kȯ·nd, dō·ngōs (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn),

um, un:⁴ krūmta, lūmda, žūnc, guñ·din (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

² This village was chosen for the following reasons: it is a point in the Atlas of the Lithuanian Language, one of the larger villages in the northern part of the Kuršėnai dialect area, which belongs to Papilė District and has experienced greater influence from the Latvian language (there used to be Latvian homesteads).

³ Z. Zinkevičius, Lietuvių dialektologija, Vilnius, 1966, p. 38–39, 447. Pavyzdžių žr. Vyt. Vitkauskas, Kuršėnų tarmės kirtis ir priegaidė, „Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai“, 3, Vilnius, 1960, p. 62.

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b) i, u >

ę, ǫ: plėks, žėnãu, žlõks, sǫpò (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn),

i, u⁴: trĩkti, kišì, lùp, sukãu (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

c) ą, e, i, u ~

on, en, in, un: žõnčes, brẽncte, gri:nčk, skũ:ncte (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn),

un, en, in, un: drùn.čus, sprẽncti, liñ.c, sũn.čti (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

d) Western dialects exhibit more consistent regressive vowel assimilation, whereas in eastern dialects only the vowel e is affected⁵:

siẽnes || siẽnes, miẽdžo || miẽdžo, dìrbę, si˙rksę, sù˙mtes, vaikù.ko, vi.ne, žù.ve (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn),

sẽnis, mielėnų, žėmų, plėpìs (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

3. Phonetic differences among these dialects:

a) Western dialects lengthen the short stressed stem vowels a, e, i, u, while eastern dialects do not:

rã:ste, pė:šte, žė.na, dì.de.les, klõ.va, snũ.kes (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn),

šàšti, gẽšti, sutìna, žùva (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

b) Western dialects lengthen the first elements of stressed mixed diphthongs i, u + l, m, n, r and the diphthong ui when they bear the circumflex accent, whereas eastern dialects pronounce them short:

kẽ˙lpa, pɪ˙nte, kù˙mšes, pɔ˙rptelės || pɔ˙rptelės, khù˙mpes, vaikù˙tes (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn),

peas, grey, milk, potato (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

c) Western dialects have em, en > ęm, ęn, while eastern dialects retain them unchanged (perhaps this is due to the influence of neighboring Highland Lithuanian dialects⁶, since one can quite often hear people say rìntini˙s, kìntieje, žìntã˙, vartúojini, važù˙sinti, etc.):

pė˙mpe, kė˙mšɔ, dė˙ng, mėŋketelì˙s, but sė˙nte, sė˙mte, gi˙vė˙nte (PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn),

[phonetic forms] (Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

d) Western dialects pronounce the circumflex accent of lk as a broken tone (gã˙uda, i˙ed, vaikù˙tes, rì˙te, lù˙št PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn), whereas eastern dialects preserve the circumflex, pronouncing it with only a barely perceptible break, similar to the break described for the Šakyna dialect of Western Aukštaitian⁷ (vì˙rs, bù˙k, plẽsc, kã˙ula, tvã˙iks Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp).

e) In the pronunciation of the sustained accent in diphthongs and mixed diphthongs, the eastern dialects do not differ from lk⁸, while the western dialects vary considerably: in mixed diphthongs a, e, i, u + m, n, r, the force of the sustained accent falls on the first component (vã˙rks, skɔ˙mbã˙ls || skɔ˙mbals, kẽ˙rp, plì˙nk, sù˙nt, plù˙nkšt PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn), whereas in all

⁴ The vowels i, u are only slightly more open and lax, but differ from the short i, u of lk.

⁵ See V. Vitkauskas, “On regressive vowel assimilation in the northeastern Žemaitian dunininkai dialects,” “Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai,” 6, Vilnius, 1963, pp. 269—273.

⁶ This was the opinion expressed by Prof. Dr. J. Kazlauskas at the second all-Union conference on Baltic studies in 1970. Cf. his article “On the development of Baltic *ei and *ō in the Lithuanian Žemaitian dialects,” “Baltistica,” V(1), pp. 32—33.

⁷ A. Laigonaitė, “On the understanding of stress and accent in the Lithuanian language,” “Kalbotyra,” 1, Vilnius, 1958, p. 94; A. Jonaitytė, “Stress and accent in the Šakyna dialect,” “Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai,” 2, Vilnius, 1959, p. 122.

⁸ K. Būga, Rinktiniai raštai, III, Vilnius, 1961, p. 29.

6. Leksikos tyrinėjimai

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in others, around Viekššnaliai; in the eastern part of the Pãvandenė area, stress is placed on both components (šã̃ks, vẽikte, drãūd, mõils, skãlptė, sėl̃kė), whereas around Užventis and Vidsodis the emphasis seems to fall on the second component (sveĩ.k, plãu.p, terãu.nĩ·, plãu.sks ‘a splinter’), although sometimes here too the sustained accent extends across both (vãiks, klãupãs, vẽlk)⁹.

f) In the western dialects, long post-stress syllables are pronounced with a broken accent: almost consistently in the Pãvandenė and Viekš́naliai areas (sã·usietė, sãužbė·rõždlė, kūõtrĩ·na ~ Kótryna, bėteni.nkã·ms), but in the Vidsodis and Užventis areas only in old, non-secondary endings and in some suffixes: aštu·nuolektãs mė·tãs, kalẽkkiems, plãu.tė·, tievunã·tes, but: puo saulėgrõndže, saulėkaita, vẽ·rpals, i·sesã·usiejems, etc. ¹⁰

It is also important that all these dialects belong to a single ethnographic region, that is, they share the same buildings, tools, foods, many customs and superstitions, and other ethnographic features¹¹.

Purpose of the Dictionary

Collecting dialect words is probably an endless task. At present, the card index contains more than 48,000 slips and would seem to cover the entire lexical composition of the dialect; nevertheless, whenever one encounters speakers of the dialects, one can hear quite a few words that had not been heard or expected before. For example, a woman, wishing to characterize a curly-haired girl’s seducer, uttered the following sentence: tiõks prisišìka garbankrãmis/ uštã·i.si vaĩ.ka. Other dialect speakers, when tactfully asked about the unusual word garbankrãmis, also in more distant places, repeated and understood it. This formation, initially suspected of being a nonce formation, an occasionalism, now seems to be a somewhat more stable word as well, easily formed according to the laws of the dialect. There may be more such words. This is one of the ways in which dialect vocabulary expands and grows, since the associative thinking of the people and their spontaneous grasp of word-formation rules make it possible to quickly coin a new word to denote some characteristic. Here we should recall the words of Prof. Dr. J. Palionis: “... They (dialectal individualisms. — V. V.), on the one hand, show the processes of natural word formation very well, while on the other, they always have the potential to turn from occasionalisms into usual words. Finally, without a comprehensive study of the distribution of a given dialect word, it is not easy to establish whether that word is in fact a dialectal individualism, an occasionalism, or is more widely used”¹².

Another “storehouse” of unknown words consists of words that are being forgotten and falling out of use. As the younger generation now inclines toward the standard language and the rural population declines, many words characteristic of the dialect begin to acquire counterparts from the standard language. These are used increasingly often and even completely displace the old dialect words¹³. Un-

⁹A more extensive article on this subject, “On the Position of Stress in Diphthongs with a Sustained Accent (in Some—But Not All—Samogitian Dialects),” was published in volume VI(2) of “Baltistica” (pp. 167—172).

¹⁰On the secondary acute accent occurring in the eastern dialect, see Vyt. Vitkauskas, Kuršėnų tarmės kirtis ir priegaidė, “Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai”, 3, Vilnius, 1960, pp. 67—68.

¹¹Especially useful here is P. Višinskis’s article “Anthropological Characteristics of the Samogitians,” which contains a particularly large number of facts from the Užventis area (see P. Višinskis, Raštai, Vilnius, 1964, pp. 129—234).

¹²J. Palionis (rev.)— “Baltistica”, V(2), Vilnius, 1969, p. 202.

¹³For interest’s sake, the following incident may be mentioned. In Pakuršėnis, a grandmother said to a 19-year-old girl, in order to tease her (her sweetheart was waiting in the yard to take her to a dance): ai.kltãva prei.kšãs lą·uk. The girl, who knew very little and had not been courted, replied: ne, an.c krĩ·vckis*! To her, “what’s in front of me” was not a suitor but a surname! And there are many such incidents, even funnier ones.

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considered lk, school-related; old dialect forms are disappearing, and only after talking at greater length with older people, representatives of the dialects aged 70–80, do they unwittingly say and use words that have almost fallen out of active use, as if digging them up from oblivion. In the summer of 1969, a great many such examples were recorded. For example: gyventuvė ‘place of residence, farm’ Vkšn, pastovai ‘farm buildings’ Dr, Pkš, prygnybenti ‘to press down, bend down’ PvnR, gramanitas ‘clod’ Vds, Vkšn, gribišauti ‘to pilfer’, grikuzikė ‘cradle’ PvnR, Užv, grumõžas ‘some battered object’ Dr, grūtis ‘two horses hobbled together’ Vkšn, gūmūriuoti ‘to stuff into a bag’ Dr, gurgždas ‘woodland angelica’ Dr, ištikrai ‘indeed’ Krš, įmainais ‘in exchange’ Dr, išžiova ‘one who has their mouth hanging open’ Vkšn, ižti ‘to crack’ PvnR, Vkšn, jovalinis ‘separating chaff from grain’ (of a threshing machine) PvnR, Vkšn, kaitrėti ‘to become hot’ PvnR, Vkšn, the phraseological expression kálkais eiti ‘to go to ruin, go to seed’ Dr, kaslioti ‘to rummage’ PvnR, Užv, keperėža ‘a kind of three-pronged tree used in children’s games’ PvnR, Užv, kerštyjimas ‘taking revenge’ Dr, kybinėtis ‘to tease little by little, to provoke’ Užv, kiltas ‘cloth made from tow’ Užv, kitūmenė ‘other people’ Dr, atsikūnėti ‘to come to one’s senses’ Dr, Užv, krūcysta ‘petty thieving’ Vds, palūpėti ‘to benefit’ Dr, and so on and so forth. Sometimes these records, these facts brought back from oblivion, even make it possible to form an idea of the much wider range of some Samogitian words. For example, in the vicinity of Pãvandenė and Viekšnãliai, the word perėnė ‘bathhouse’ was recorded (the word pirtis, now used almost universally); in the same area and in the village of Rekčiai, north of Kuršėnai, the adjective smagūs means ‘heavy’: smagė žõnčės PvnR, vėkė smagė [vėtomi] tuoli-lėk Vkšn, diel parduosa linā-sunkesnį smagės-ni Pkš, and so on.

One of the aims of this dictionary is to record and present to linguistic scholarship as many as possible of these words, used universally until quite recently and, owing to changed circumstances, now receding or even having disappeared from use, yet retained in the memory of older dialect speakers.

Of course, this feature of the dictionary is not its principal one. Its aim is to present as comprehensively as possible the characteristic vocabulary of a single dialect and to bring together the work of a lexicologist and lexicographer carried out over several decades¹⁴.

The aims of a dictionary of this group of dialects are:

1. To reveal the history, everyday life, customs, and features of folk poetry of the local people, as shown by the sentences recorded on almost every slip in the dictionary’s card file. These sentences concern various events and customs of the area (to which particular attention is paid), work and tools, farm buildings, the surroundings, and so forth. In addition, a considerable number of songs, tales, excerpts from folk narratives, and wedding-matchmakers’ speeches have been recorded. An effort is made to include most of this material in the dictionary.

14 One may ask: since the vocabulary of all dialects, subdialects, and local varieties is included in the great Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, why are dictionaries of individual dialects also needed? The great dictionary has quite different interests and aims, and specific principles for presenting words; moreover, all the material included there is rendered in lk, often without hesitation translating or replacing dialect forms with lk forms (this is mentioned in reviews; see K. Vosylutė, Vyt. Vitkauskas, Akademinio Lietuvių kalbos žodyno naujas tomas, „Pergalė“, 1967, Nr. 1, p. 163; Vyt. Būda, Naujas leidimas, „Pergalė“, 1969, Nr. 3, p. 172). Furthermore, the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language cannot be concerned with the entirety of any one dialect or subdialect; it draws from dialects only what is of interest and importance to linguistic scholarship, useful to the structure and overall coherence of a dictionary entry, or the like. It is very difficult to form a picture of the lexical system of any single dialect. Nor can the editors of the great dictionary include every dialect word. By focusing on a defined dialect area, it is possible to collect dialect vocabulary more thoroughly and present it.

6*

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2. To compare the dialect vocabulary with lk as comprehensively as possible and establish their differences. Each dialect word is compared with lk forms, and its use and pronunciation are examined for differences from lk (this difference is recorded first and foremost in the dialect dictionary). The comparison is made not only with the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian,” but also with other prescriptive dictionaries (for example, “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Written Language,” I–V, Heidelberg, 1932–1968; “Lithuanian-Latvian Dictionary,” Riga, 1964; and others), as well as with the great Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language and its card file.

3. To identify which dialect words (which may also be characteristic of neighboring dialects) have entered lk, since a study of the geographical distribution of certain words showed that lk has adopted quite a few words from this and neighboring dialects, for example, alkū́ s ‘one who gets hungry quickly’, amžininkas, -ė ‘long-lasting, durable’, apyvoka ‘household chores’, atvejis, audra, augmuo ‘boil, abscess’, kaūkas ‘aitvaras, a household spirit of this kind’, márkšytis ‘to blink’, pražūsti ‘to cause to disappear’, pūgāls, vežėti, and others. Determining the provenance of words that have entered lk from individual dialects is fairly difficult, because in this case one must establish their geographical distribution from various, sometimes quite contradictory, sources. Some of these words are also used by many dialects beyond lk, so one must be very cautious and include only words whose range is entirely clear (covering only part of certain dialects) and which have not been known since ancient times in the most important and largest Aukštaitian dialects from the standpoint of lk.

4. To present a wealth of folk-language phraseology. Particular attention is paid here to phraseological expressions; some had already been edited and published in the booklets of „Kalbos kultūra“¹⁶.

5. To help clarify and compare the vocabulary, constructions, and word forms in the writings of authors originating in this or a nearby Samogitian dialect area with the language of the people—Žemaitė¹⁷, Lazdynų Pelėda, Šatrijos Ragana, and P. Višinskis. The need for such clarification and comparison was demonstrated very clearly by A. Šešgėlis in his study of textual questions in Žemaitė’s writings¹⁸. For example, he points out instances where words and constructions used by Žemaitė, pastyroti, ropštis, užmigęs, ryžintis, iš pažemės, ana vaikas, and so on, have been rendered—and are sometimes still rendered—as pastovėti, lipti, užmigti, vyrintis, iš po žemės, ana vaikos, and so forth. Such textual inaccuracies from Žemaitė’s writings even find their way into the great Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, for example, būsią¹⁹ (= būsis, i.e., pretends, makes out), kviekšti²⁰ (= kvėkšti), and others. The same būsis was also misunderstood by the editors of Lazdynų Pelėda’s writings²¹. Of course, these are not particularly problematic matters, but this dialect dictionary can nonetheless help us edit our literary heritage more accurately.

6. To supplement the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language and the Atlas of the Lithuanian Language. Words recorded in this dialect area were, at least initially, when there was not yet any intention of compiling a dialect dictionary, submitted to the great Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language. Later

¹⁵ Perhaps it is no coincidence that Žemaitė was the first to use this word in lk; see J. Balčikonis, Žemaitės kalba, „Tiesa“, 1945.VI.12. (Nr. 135).

¹⁶ “Language Culture,” 6, 54–67; “Language Culture,” 9, 67–78; “Language Culture,” 11, 78–90; “Language Culture,” 12, 69–82.

¹⁷ Drawing on the material in this dictionary, the dialect affiliation of the vocabulary in Žemaitė’s writings was examined in the author’s article “Kelios pastabos dėl Žemaitės raštų kalbos” (submitted to „Literatūra ir kalba“).

¹⁸ A. Šešgėlis, Žemaitės raštų tekstologiniai klausimai, Vilnius, 1968, p. 114, 133–135.

¹⁹ Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, I (antras leidimas), Vilnius, 1968, p. 1209.

²⁰ Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, VI, Vilnius, 1962, p. 1084.

²¹ V. Vitkauskas, On a Minor Detail of the Language of Lazdynų Pelėda’s Writings, “Language Culture,” 8, Vilnius, 1965, p. 17.

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Often, some words (e.g., derivatives of the cidabr- root, all the leisti slips, and so on) were copied into the card file of the large dictionary when material for a particular word or meaning was lacking. In this way, words entered the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language that are marked only with the abbreviations of this dialect dictionary, for example: agrastynė ‘gooseberry jam’, aižinėti ‘to crack’, ančgulu ‘stubbornly, lying close’, ančkerta ‘a certain way of cutting grain’, antiena ‘duck meat’, apolas ‘round’, apolbūrnıs ‘a person with a round face’, atškins-talas ‘dilution’, lamargai ‘with a clatter and a rumble (of travel)’, lengvinybė ‘lightness’, liurškimas ‘chattering’, melagystė ‘lie’, maurynas ‘a place where there is much duckweed’, mažkraujystė ‘anemia’, mėginimas ‘attempt’, sumėikimas ‘ability’, sumėikti ‘to be able’, meisgalys ‘piece of meat’, meisinė ‘butcher’s shop’, meisinėti ‘to butcher’, meklioti ‘to stutter’, nūrudiniai ‘autumn fruit’, and so on. In addition, the card file of this dialect dictionary contains words absent from the card file of the large Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language (and, of course, from its published volumes), for example: agūninti ‘to sprinkle, smear with poppy seeds’, akyveiza ‘a sight’, apgaulystė ‘deception’, apyápstis ‘rather coarse, fairly wide’, apyškinstis ‘rather thin’, apyžleiba ‘by groping’, arklėna (arklėna) ‘horse meat’, gembininkas ‘a kind of old-fashioned clothes hanger’, ginšlinis ‘a dried-up person’, ginšlinti ‘to go, to weaken’, ginšlys, -ė ‘someone who is dried up’, gyvolūtis ‘little animal’, gromantas ‘clod’, grybikė ‘medicine tablet’, grobinis ‘cleaned off the intestines’, gruilijimas ‘an untidy haircut’, gružybė ‘brittleness’, gurbyti ‘to kill’, įnumauti ‘to be a lodger’, išdykystė ‘mischief’, išdžiūtrietis ‘someone who is dried up’, išžargaus ‘in a hurry, walking with legs spread apart’, jovalinūotas ‘smeared with slop’, kartelýne ‘tea made from bitter herbs, wild plants’, kirmingas ‘having many worms’, and so on.

Editors of the texts for the large Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language will be able to reconstruct dialect forms in the standard language more accurately and avoid inconsistencies that occur in it at present, when, for example, dialect ti· (~ tiė), ė·je || ā·je (~ ėjo), turū || torō (~ turū), tujau || (~ tujaū) is rendered as tę (following eastern Lithuanian ti· ~ tė), ėjo, turiū, tuojau, and so on. These may be accidental irregularities or oversights, but it will nevertheless be useful if this dialect dictionary draws the large Dictionary’s editors’ attention to some questions concerning the reconstruction in the standard language of words and forms from this and neighboring Samogitian dialects.

Useful material for the Atlas of the Lithuanian Language can also be found in this work, especially in preparing its syntax, phonetics, and morphology sections, since answers from those places to the questions in the atlas’s data-collection program are often incomplete because of limited expedition time, the breadth of the program’s questions or their being misunderstood, the inexperience of young data collectors, and so on. In this dictionary, all dialect facts have been checked as carefully as possible—only sentences without contradictions, inconsistencies, or sounds that were not clearly heard are included.

Thus, it is to be hoped that this dialect dictionary will be useful both to scholarship and to practical purposes, will reveal the riches of the people’s living language, and will help readers become better acquainted with the vocabulary of one of our dialects, which is not so very small.

On the type of this dictionary

A dictionary of a group of dialects is, in this case, said to be capable of being differential. Why? I. Osovetsky wrote that “the type of dictionary is determined by the aspect from which the linguistic material will be examined and presented in the dictionary”²². The aim of this dictionary is to show the very

²² I. A. Ossovetsky, On the Compilation of Regional Dictionaries (Some Issues in Russian Lexicography), “Questions of Linguistics,” 1961, No. 4, p. 77.

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characteristic vocabulary of the dialect, which is what linguistics needs first and foremost. Neither the dialect we are studying nor the others can (at least at present) be considered closed linguistic systems: all are particularly closely connected with the standard language and, in part, with neighboring dialects. It is therefore difficult to determine the scope and boundaries of a dialect dictionary, since entirely new words, until recently wholly unused in the dialect, are pouring into every dialect from the standard language through schools, radio, television, and newspapers.

The following aim was chosen: to show and bring out the layer of Baltic and Lithuanian vocabulary that is unknown in the standard language or differs from it in some way; not to let the characteristic words of the dialect disappear into the general vocabulary of the whole nation, which is adequately represented and explained in normative Lithuanian dictionaries. Thus, the dictionary highlights the dialect’s specific vocabulary. (No account is taken of whether other dialects, subdialects, or local varieties have the same word. Only one criterion of comparison is used—the literary language.)

Once this type of dictionary has been established, the question of word selection immediately arises. In view of the considerations set out above, the following kinds of dialect words are selected for a dictionary of a group of dialects.

1. All Lithuanian words that have a different root from lk, as well as those usually used only in the works of one or another writer of Samogitian origin and marked in normative dictionaries with the abbreviation žem. (i.e., classified as narrowly regional dialectisms characteristic of Samogitians). For example: aldija (áldija) “spacious room,” apvaža “lack of disgust,” apvažūs “not disgusted,” ármijos “abyss,” aržūs “fierce,” beñgti “to finish,” blėrbinas “a wide, loose-fitting garment,” cyrulỹs “skylark,” dėinauti “to court girls,” dujà “drizzle,” dujóti “to drizzle,” gėžė “grey heron,” gurlùs “fat,” indėvė “some kind of evil spirit,” káisti “to scrape,” kastinỹs “a Samogitian dish made from sour cream,” káupa “the crossbar of a sleigh, fastened across the spokes,” kérna “a worthless person,” krùmė “the head of a snake, toad, or herring; skull,” krùpė (krùpis) “toad,” krasnà (kresnà) “ear of grain,” kùlỹs “(millstone) stone,” išlėžti “to lie wilted,” liepėlė “a kind of nail-fold abscess,” lyžinties “to flatter,” maigùs “sleepy,” nàgãzis (nàkažis) “some wretched animal,” nážyties “to show off,” niòkti “to run; to drive, chase,” pàitvėties “to grow weaker,” rabėi “to rustle,” rėis “scar,” stėgti “to strive, take care,” vàrštas “spring-sown crops,” žiùžis “a garment twisted up to strike with,” and so on.

2. Words used in the standard language and not regarded as dialect words in normative dictionaries, which have mostly entered it through the writings of Valančius, Žemaitė, Lazdynų Pelėda, Šatrijos Ragana, and other writers from that region. For example: alkùs ‘quick to become hungry’, ašvienis ‘workhorse’, katėti ‘to cluck, chatter’, nùlanka (lk niùolanka) ‘a person who expects deference and a bow’, prãmonė ‘amusement; an invention’, vešùs ‘lush’, žãgas ‘stirta’, and so on. Words in this group are relatively rarely used in the standard language and have a clear isogloss encompassing the northwestern part of Lithuania; they should therefore be included in a dialect dictionary.

However, there is a sizable group of words that have become firmly established in the standard language (probably also through the writings of the aforementioned authors), but likewise have a clear isogloss covering part of the Samogitian dialects and nearby Aukštaitian areas. For example: atvėjis, ménkė, áudra (the standard language most often uses audrà), ýda (in towns people often like to distort this accentuation, saying ydà), fūgà, skárda, šiáurė²³, and so on. The desire to include such words in a dialect dictionary may be debatable, but in this dialect and its neighboring dialects they have been used traditionally for ages (not learned), retaining their archaic

²³ For the disputed areal distribution of some such words, see J. Kazlauskas (rec.), „Baltistica“, VI(2), Vilnius, 1968, p. 326.

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traditional accentuation, has its own phraseology, and so on. Although the examples mentioned are, in F. Filin’s words, dialectisms only by origin, but not by usage²⁴, nevertheless, since they have been assigned to certain dialects by the LK and their range covers only part of the Lithuanian-language area, we consider it necessary to include such words in this differential dialect dictionary. Moreover, these words have more or less retained defined areas of use up to the present day (outside their currently known ranges, they are used only by intellectuals or by dialect speakers with somewhat greater command of the LK), while from the LK perspective they are synonyms of words that have entered the LK from other dialects. For example: vėtra – audra (or audrà), žiūrėti – veiz-(d)ėti, sąmanos – kiminai, pelūnai – mėtelės, and so on.²⁵

If the geographical range of a word extends somewhat beyond the boundaries of the Samogitian dialect, this should not determine anything. Interaction between dialects is an everyday occurrence, and has not taken place only yesterday or the day before. Therefore, if a Samogitian word is sometimes found in the speech of Žagarė, Šakyna, or Joniškis (where one can even hear the “most typical” Samogitian words kailys “gim̃ akmuo” and krūpis “toad”) or even in the speech of Krakės (that is, in the territory of the former Duchy of Samogitia), it should nevertheless be included in a differential dialect dictionary. That is what is done in this case. Sometimes, owing to a lack of material, it may not be possible to establish the exact range of such words, but once included in this dictionary, they will attract the attention of lexicologists, and their range can be refined through collective effort.

F. Filin makes a rather interesting remark about including various difficult-to-explain dialectisms in a differential dialect dictionary: “In all cases where it is uncertain whether a word is a dialectism or is used by the whole nation, or where it is difficult to determine that it is a dialectism, such a word should be included in the Dictionary”²⁶.

3. Dialectal variants of words of foreign origin that have become established in the LK. For example: ablius “plane,” agurklas “cucumber,” amatininkas “craftsman,” būlbė “potato,” krūopai “groats,” kādrylius “quadrille,” kanāpis “hemp,” mörkas “carrot,” nastürkas “nasturtium,” pūdas “pūdas”²⁷, pūndas “pūdas,” uōstai “moustache,” and so on.

Older international-word forms used by dialect speakers generally and having their own isogloss are also included with caution. These are most often names of various diseases, tool parts, mechanisms, and the like, for example: krūopas “a throat disease of a choking kind,” legulėktorius “a part of a plough,” mašyna “threshing machine,” and others.

4. Dialect-specific word-formation forms that differ from the LK: a) suffix derivatives: kiaulėna (kiaulėna) “pork,” ožkėna (ožkėna) “goat meat,” blakstėnas “eyelash,” balžėnas “balžienas,” kālvėnė “blacksmith’s wife,” karalėnė “queen,” grybikė “medicinal tablet,” mergikė “grown girl,” duonynė “a meal thickened with bread; bread soup” setinynė “soup of rutabagas and setiniai,” žirnynė “pea soup,” cūpsena “squeaking,” eisena (ešena) “manner of walking, gait,” lēksena “running, racing,” pilvūžas “pilvūzas,” vėpeza (vėpiza) “garrulous, open-mouthed person,” jaunystà “youth,” mažystà “childhood,” pākaroklis “hanged man,” ātžindoklis “mammal,” vaikūitis “little child,” žvėrūtis “little animal,” paukštūtis “little bird,” karūmenė “army,” didūmenė “population,” sausūlis “dry stem,” aguonīnas “sprinkled with poppy seeds,” ālinas (alinūotas) “beery,” smiltīnas (smiltinūotas) “sandy,” žēminas

²⁴ Ф. П. Филин, Проект „Словаря русских народных говоров“, Москва — Ленин-град, 1961, р. 23.

²⁵ Plg. A. Lyberis, Lietuvių kalbos sinonimų žodynas, Kaunas, 1961.

²⁶ Ф. П. Филин, ten pat, р. 139.

²⁷ Abbreviated, probably so that it would not coincide with the word pū̃~puodas.

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(earthy) “earth-covered,” tuštitelės (tuštitelaitis) “completely empty,” jaunitelės (jaunite-laitis) “very young,” kastinys “dug by digging,” mintinys “trampled,” aštuoniò-leka “eighteen,” šešiòleka “sixteen,” aštuoniòlektas “eighteenth,” šešiò-lektas “sixteenth,” dùlenti “to go, to dust,” kiaušenti “to go, to go kiaušinti,” juokuoti “to joke,” mėgenti “to try,” etc.; b) prefixed derivatives: ántburba “water frozen on top of ice,” áṅčgalis “rear end,” áṅčgalinis “stubbornly presses on with work,” áṅčvalkas (aṅčvalktis, aṅčvalktys) “cover,” nùšasa “someone whose nose has been rubbed raw,” nùvalka “vagabond,” nùdarbė “ability to do a job; work completed in compensation,” nùmonė “understanding; intelligence,” nùkra-tos “chaff remnants,” nùdarbūs “suitable for work,” prýduris “place by the door,” prýe-dis “overeating,” prýkabe (prykabė) “trailer,” prýkletis “front porch,” prýša-kinis “front,” prýštarauti “to contradict,” etc.; c) derivatives with a different formant: išilguõ (išilgu) “lengthwise,” padienuõ “by the day,” pamėčiuõ “by the year,” pa(v)andeniuõ “in spring,” dabarčiuo (dabarčiuo) “now,” dvijuõ “in twos,” keliuõ “in groups of several,” kuriuõ “where, how,” šiòkie “on an ordinary day,” etc.; d) forms with a different derivational stem: ausė “ear,” ántė “duck,” klėtė “granary,” nósė “nose,” išėitė “exit,” kalčià “guilt,” kerčia “corner,” verčia “value,” jūrė “sea,” girė “forest,” skrynė (skrynė) “chest,” pietai “lunch,” ákmenas “stone,” kūrtas “deaf,” rūgštas “sour,” sūras “salty,” šviežūs “fresh,” liūdnūs “sad,” lengvū̄s “light,” etc.; e) words in a different number: slógos “a cold,” šakė “pitchfork,” mètas “year,” etc.

5. Forms with certain phonetic changes in the root or stem that cannot be explained by regular dialectal vowel and consonant developments. For example: nèkas “nobody,” nèkšas “someone unserious, who busies himself with trifles,” nupėpti “to draw,” lytùs “rain,” mýlas “dear,” naujynà “news,” prýdas “addition,” prýš “against”²⁸, numai “houses,” nùmas “house,” numšargas “person who looks after the house,” mùno “my,” muniškis “mine,” mùnas, munóji “mine”²⁹, kýbinti “to tease,” akýplėša “brazen person,” torà “fence,” nakóti “to spend the night,” apolùs (āpolas) “round,” apártis “turnover,” jėibė “prank,” jėibininkas “prankster,” apýrudinis “time around autumn,” kóṗti (kóṗti) “to gather, clean,” gráuti “to demolish,” srūbčioti “to sob,” rogsóti “to lie around,” ginšla “vein,” skinstas “thin,” skinstalas “thin liquid,” kningà “book,” trīnis “three,” gunžys “bosom,” klėbys “armful,” glegeti “to clatter,” kerėbla “clumsy person,” baržà “beard,” lizàs “nest,” bezėti “to break wind,” etc.

6. Words with different stress, stress variants: a) individual words, e.g.: akėčios (3) — 1k (1), akūotas (3) — 1k (1), aušrà (2) — 1k (4), ganyklà (4) — 1k (2), giltinė (1) — 1k giltinė (3ª), gývybė (1) — 1k gyvybė (1), nèbuvėlis (1) — 1k nebuvėlis (1), pãdegėlis (1) — 1k padėgėlis (1), kelnės (2) — 1k kél nės (1), metinė (metinės) (2) — 1k metinės (1), nykštis (1) — 1k nykštys (3), dauginti — 1k dauginti, kalbinti — 1k kalbinti, telžti — 1k telžti, šokinėti — 1k šokinėti, sproginėti — 1k sproginėti, etc.; b) derivatives with suffixes: -ýnas (3) — 1k (1): avėtýnas (3), beržýnas (3), žabarýnas (3), žvyrýnas (3); -ėjas, -ėja (3) — 1k (1): audėja (3), milžėja (3), piovėjas, -à (3), šokėjas, -à (3); -ienà (3) — 1k -iena (1): avižienà (3), kvietienà (3), miežienà (3); from two-syllable

²⁸ Cf. the northern Samogitian (dounininkai) dialects of Raudėnai, Tryškiai, etc.: lì·tòs, mì·ls, náujì·na, prì·dà, prì·š, etc.

²⁹ On the mun-, num- root, see J. Lebedys, V. Urbutis, Two Samogitian Letters from the Mid-Eighteenth Century, „Baltistica“, IV(2), Vilnius, 1968, p. 301; B. Vanagienė and V. Vitkauskas, On Samogitian mun- and num-, „Lietuvių kalbos gramatikos tyrinėjimai“ (Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai 11), Vilnius, 1969, p. 211–217.

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verbs with an acute root in the past simple tense, formed from ė- and o-stem verbs, are nouns with the suffix -imas: audimas, augimas, brėžimas, gėlimas, kandimas, milžimas, tėžimas, tėvėrimas, žindymas³⁰ (in standard Lithuanian these are second-accent-class nouns).

7. Other words with meanings specific to the dialect. For example: brėkšti “to grow dark,” gerbti “to prepare, put in order,” gróbas “intestine,” gūdas “eastern Aukštaitian,” irklas “small boat,” išeiga “going out of the house for entertainment,” ištisas “long,” kāblis “part of a plough for attaching the draft chain,” kaīmpas “the bow of a horse’s harness; the bow of a basket,” kamštis “sweet mash put in a little rag for a child to suck,” kiäutas “(nut) shell,” krōkti “to cry,” kroklys “crybaby,” mūlkis “loom crosspiece over which the cloth is wound,” mūšis “blow, strike; foot soldiers,” ō “because,” žmogžudys “torturer of people, of a person,” žūdyti “to torture,” etc.

There are also words familiar both in standard Lithuanian and in the dialect, but which in standard Lithuanian do not have all the meanings they have in the dialect. Following the example of the “Dictionary of Russian Dialects”³¹, in such cases this dictionary gives only those meanings of a word that are absent from standard Lithuanian. For example: alsuoti, -uoja, -avo tr. fig. to tell something while panting and lying down: ànā mūn alsū·|ka alsū·|mūn ne galvūo|ne ū·degūo Krs... apačia sf. (3ᵇ) the floor of a bread oven: apačė i·kai·ta|kęšk [duoną] kēpk Vds... kelmas sm. (3) a kind of curse, devil: je viōki·eu· padīs atuōma|būs ke·lms Dr; ãik puō kelmūn tiōks mō·ndrōs PvnR... gyvas kelmas “a great many”: jāu kūo kūo|ālė gi·vuolo tərējom gīva ke·lma PvnR... nauda sf. (3) harvest: šėltū·sę krāštū·sę dvė nā·udę jē·m PvnR, etc. The words alsuoti, apačia, kelmas, nauda, and others, of course, also have further meanings in the dialect, which coincide with those given in the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian” and are used by almost all Lithuanians; however, given the nature of this dictionary, these are left unstated (in the relevant entry in the Register, to which the reader is directed by the letter R), and only those meanings that seem to be atypical of standard Lithuanian are highlighted. The relevant entry in the Register will indicate that these words also share meanings with standard Lithuanian.

It was also deemed important not to overlook cases in which a word is used in the dialect with a narrower, more specific meaning than in standard Lithuanian. For example, adjectives with the suffix -ėnis designate only a type of straw or chaff: miežieniai, kvietieniai, rugieniai may refer to chaff or straw, but the expression miežieniai, kvietieniai, rugieniai miltai “barley, wheat, rye flour” is entirely impossible. Words used with this narrowed meaning are included in the dictionary itself, since otherwise the nuances of their usage cannot be brought out.

8. Contemporary dialectal neologisms regularly used by the majority of dialect speakers, that is, words not used on an incidental basis but already firmly incorporated into the dialect’s lexicon. For example: ārininkas “owner of threshing floors,” kīnininkas (kinininkas) “cinema projectionist,” elėktrininkas “electrician, wiring installer,” paukštinė “female poultry-farm worker,” etc.

In this case, the question may arise whether these are not words coined individually by one or several people. F. Filin, editor of the “Dictionary of Russian Dialects,” writes on this subject:

³⁰ On the similar stress pattern of these nouns in M. Daukša’s “Postilė” and in Samogitian dialects, see Pranas Skardžius. Daukšos akcentologija, Kaunas, 1935, p. 71–72.

³¹ “Словарь русских народных говоров”, vol. I, compiled by Ф. П. Филин, Москва – Ленинград, 1965, p. 6–7. See also the third volume of the same dictionary, the entry блин: 1. пресная лепешка, поджаренная на неподмазанной сковороде…2. Блины мн. Названия некоторых обрядов… 3. Нижняя печная вьюшка… 4. То же, что и блинок (в 4-м знач.).— „Словарь русских народных говоров, вып. III, Ленинград, 1968, p. 24. In the same volume, p. 35, see also entry 2 боб, -а, м. Кормовой горошек, etc., etc.

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“In many recordings from dialects, we often find situational, contextual (окказиональные) words of a similar kind which, although not used in literary language, at first glance seem to be dialect words. However, these words are not dialect words either, since they are not widespread, are used inconsistently in dialects, and are sometimes not known there at all.”³² It is further stated as follows: “Words coined later, especially those formed from international words, and those that have appeared in the dialect only recently, must not be included in a differential dialect dictionary.”³³ While fully agreeing with the claim that words said by dialect speakers only occasionally and by chance should not be included in a differential dialect dictionary (this has nothing to do with the dialect’s lexical system), one or another word included in this dictionary deserves somewhat fuller discussion.

If newly coined formations from international words were excluded, dialect formations such as kynininkas (kinininkas) would be left out; this has become an ordinary, well-known word not only in the area covered by the dialects represented in this dictionary, but also among Samogitians around Laukuva³⁴, Raudėnai, Tryškiai, Papilė, Judrėnai, and elsewhere; as would ūrininkas, known around Luokė, Janapolė (Viržuvėnai), and Varniai; and elektrininkas, used in the dialects of the Girdiškė, Raudėnai, and Tryškiai areas. They demonstrate the vitality of the dialect and its speakers’ ability to coin new words independently, without the help of the standard language, and to adopt them consistently across fairly extensive areas. Moreover, some of these words, as dialectal facts, have found their way into the comprehensive Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language³⁵. Following the older words arklinis “horse keeper” and kiaulinė “woman who tends pigs on an estate,” the word paukštinė “poultry keeper” was also coined. This word, too, is used by many dialect speakers, including agricultural specialists who have graduated from technical schools or the academy. (The word kiaulinė has now also acquired another meaning—“female pig farmer.”) Such distinctive formations, though new, have become established and already have an isogloss; as proper dialect formations, they are included in this dictionary.

Thus, this brief overview shows that the dictionary includes not only lexical, derivational, and accentual dialectisms (words with different roots; nominal forms with different suffixes, prefixal formations, altered stems, or stems preserved from antiquity; adverbs and prepositions bearing dialectal formatives; words with a different root vowel or consonant; and stress variants), but also semantic dialectisms, that is, words whose meanings differ from those of standard-language words. If only some form of a word (case, person, tense), usually not given as a headword, differs from the standard language, this will be apparent in the index, and such words will not be included in the dictionary.

The following are not included in the dictionary:

1. Words common to all Lithuanian dialects (or at least known to many), firmly established in the standard language and included in normative dictionaries, e.g.: akis, koja, burnà, stãlas, žõdis, varlė, etc.; nor are the meanings of individual words used by everyone included, e.g.: kélmas “the remnant of a felled or broken tree at its roots,” mazginys “washing-up vessels,” naudà “profit,” etc.

2. Words from feudal jargon, e.g.: čiortas, čierka, ciekavyties, pijõkas, paliecavóti, spãvienė, ukatà, ukãtyti, etc.; obvious hybrids, e.g.: bobélka, kumélka, giedorkà,

³² Ф. П. Филин, Проект „Словаря русских народных говоров“, Москва — Ленинград, 1961, р. 31—32.

³³ Ф. П. Филин, same place, p. 33.

³⁴ Vl. Grinaveckis, The Study of Lithuanian Dialects during the Years of Soviet Rule, Vilnius State Pedagogical Institute Proceedings, 11, 1960, p. 18.

³⁵ Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, V, Vilnius, 1959, p. 811 (kinininkas); Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, I (antras leidimas), 1968, p. 300 (ūrininkas).

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umāvas, juokavoties, smarkavoti and so on, usually have no isoglosses, are known to most Lithuanians, and only after excluding them did these borrowings come to be used in individual dialects. (Doubtful, still unclear borrowings or hybrids are included in the dictionary, for example: bėgsena ‘manner of running’, lūpšena ‘beating’, sprōgsena ‘expiration; derog. death’⁽³⁶⁾, krūpmausis ‘-ė “scoundrel, little toad” and the like.)

3. Slang words originating in cities or towns, sometimes used by younger dialect speakers (most often to “show off” or puff themselves up), for example: dziūnė ‘fool, female fool’, dziūndžė ‘vodka’, dziūdžininkas ‘drunkard’, papūtną ‘random car’, sabrānija ‘gathering’, stiliūga ‘fashionable person’, and the like, which are of little significance to linguistics and practical use and are rubbish in the dialect dictionary (once introduced, these words are soon forgotten by the very people who use them).

4. Unstable adaptations of international words, usually individual linguistic facts, for example: makāninkas || makārnininkas ‘mechanic’, partagrāfija ‘photography’, pamkum binātas ‘industrial combine’, pratikolas ‘protocol’, pendicitas ‘appendicitis’, vermāgas ‘department store’, and the like. (The authors of the “Dictionary of Russian Dialects” act similarly, declining to include vernacular adaptations of international words³⁷, but giving words of the same origin that entered Russian dialects long ago, for example: валет, ванель, варган || варгант, воевангелье, and so on.³⁸)

5. Words newly borrowed from the standard language and still entering the dialect, used inconsistently and, in general, not yet having a tradition of use in the dialect. For example: klaida (dial. paklydimas), tešla (dial. mink-lė), kiaulidė (dial. kiaulininkas), tvārtas (dial. kūtė || kūtė, staldas), žārna (dial. grōbas), pelė (dial. žiūrkė), and so on.

6. Place names and personal names, since these form a separate part of dialect vocabulary and require specialized study.

Register of uninserted words

A differential dictionary can cover only part of the dialect vocabulary. In order to acquaint the reader also with the part that could not be included in it, and to provide as comprehensive a picture of the dialect vocabulary as possible, drawing on M. Karasis’s ideas, it was decided to append to this dictionary a register of words in regular use, or used until quite recently by older people, but omitted from the dictionary for the reasons stated above. (Words mentioned under cases 3, 4, and 5 of the subsection “Not included in the dictionary” are not entered in it.)

The register shows: 1. which words are shared by the standard language and the dialect; 2. which borrowings the dialect has, and which of them are still widely used and which have already been forgotten (relevant notes are added); 3. which standard-language words, known in many Lithuanian dialects, are not used here at all. For example, the dialect had none of the words (only now beginning to understand their meanings) ariōdas, gardūs, karvėlis, kūōlas, kūrpė, pelė, tvārtas ‘building for keeping livestock’, and so on.

Without the “Register of omitted words,” much would remain unhighlighted, and the words presented in the dictionary would seem to be the only ones in use, or as if extracted from the entire dialect lex-

³⁶ On the possible Lithuanian origin of the suffix -šena, see A. Jonait y tė, Latvijų kalbos poveikis palatvės vakarų aukštaičių šnektų gramatinei sandarai, „Lietuvių kalbos gramatinė sandara“ („Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai“, 9), Vilnius, 1967, p. 174.

³⁷ Ф. П. Филин, ibid., p. 34.

³⁸ Словарь русских народных говоров, вып. IV, Ленинград, 1969, p. 26, 38, 46, 354.

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certain examples of the lexicon. In particular, it would not be clear which standard Lithuanian words the dialect does not use at all (e.g.: arūodo older dialect speakers do not understand at all, and even consider them Slavic words), since a dialectal substitute for a standard Lithuanian word does not yet show that the dialect is unfamiliar with that literary lexical unit (after all, a dialect may have several synonyms, cf. tėvas and plėnas; nib­rė, pliūškė and vakaruškos; sunkus and smagūs; mėsti and maišyti; pražaisti, prapūlyti and pamėsti; arklys, žirgas and ašvienis, etc.). Without this index, readers may also be unsure whether words whose individual meanings alone differ in the dialect from standard Lithuanian have meanings other than those given in the dictionary, or not.

With such a register, researchers of dialect lexicon and lexicographers will know almost the entire lexical inventory of the dialect, that is, all the words that have been recorded in the dialect area. Thus, in effect, this will be a comprehensive dialect dictionary, in which the part of the lexicon that differs in some respect from standard Lithuanian is highlighted and presented in greater detail, while the part that does not differ is merely recorded.

Phraseology

Having discussed the question of word selection, it is also necessary to discuss the selection of phraseological units for this dictionary. F. Filin wrote on this matter: “The principle for selecting phraseological units is equivalent to the principle for selecting words adopted in the dictionary”³⁹. Accordingly, the “Dictionary of Russian Dialects” includes only those phraseological units whose components differ from standard Lithuanian or which it does not have at all. This dictionary follows a similar approach: it includes phraseological units in which at least one component differs in some respect from standard Lithuanian, e.g.: gerklę išversti, laidyti “to shout,” kaili jėngti, “to beat,” numų krūkis “the most important person in the household, the one who keeps order,” numiė būti “to pass away,” numiė važiuoti “to die,” etc. If a dictionary of standard Lithuanian phraseology were published and the characteristics and usage of standard Lithuanian phraseological units established, it would be possible to include in this dialect dictionary also those phraseological units whose components all coincide with standard Lithuanian, but whose meanings or usage differ from it (or which are used only in that dialect). Phraseology has been studied only recently in our country; we do not have a published collection of standard Lithuanian phraseological units—so there is no way to compare dialect phraseological units with standard Lithuanian. For this reason, the dictionary’s author has grounds for declining to compare phraseological meanings in this case. The dictionary includes only those phraseological units whose forms, or one of their forms, are dialectal.

Dictionary Structure

1. All dictionary words are arranged strictly in alphabetical order. The headword is given in its restored standard Lithuanian form. This is done because the phonetic systems of individual North-Eastern Samogitian dēnininkai dialects differ somewhat; if the forms were not restored, a given word would have to be listed in several places. Moreover, dictionary users would need to know the individual dialects, or else they would be unable to find the word they need. Thus, the principle followed by some German and Polish dialect dictionaries—giving headwords in dialect form—is not suitable here, nor is phonetic transcription.

2. a) Nouns that differ in stem or number are listed separately. Likewise, a word that has a different stem ending or number in some dialect locality is also listed separately, e.g.: augtūvē PvnR and augtūvės Vrp “growing place,” garinė PvnR, Dr

³⁹ Ф. П. Филин, тен пат, р. 151.

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and garinis Krš, Vkšn, gimtùvė PvnR and gimtùvės Vds, Vrp, mažýstà Dr, Krš and mažýstė PvnR, Vkšn, etc. Ia-stem nouns ending in -is and -ys are placed in a single entry, since the forms of all their other cases have identical endings and differ mostly in stress (they are almost equivalent to stress variants), e.g.: ánčvalktis (1) and ančvalktýs (3ª), gyvólis (1) and gyvolýs (3ª), vóky tis (1) and vokýt ys (3ª), etc. (Only stress variants are placed in a single entry, e.g.: áldija (1) and áldija (1) ‘a spacious room’, kaminšluostis (1) and kaminšluõstis (2) ‘chimney sweep’, kiaulėna (1) and kiaulenà (3) ‘pork’, laukabėgis (2) and laukābėgis (1) ‘someone frivolous, who runs about in the fields’, mókesnis (1) and mókesnis (1) ‘tax’, etc.)

Sometimes, following the example of LKŽ, derivatives with a long and a short suffix vowel are placed in a single entry. E.g.: dėdýna ‘aunt by marriage’ and dėdina, plónymas ‘temple’ and plónimas, etc.

b) Pronouns with the postposition -ai (e.g.: ansai ‘he’, patsai ‘oneself, you’, tasai ‘that’) are listed separately, so that the derivational type characteristic of the dialect only in this instance stands out.

c) Prefixed verbs and nouns derived from them that do not have a special, distinctive meaning are placed in a single entry (to avoid expanding the work), without even marking them as differing in any way by their prefix.

glėgėti, glėga, -ėjo intr. 1. to laugh, cackle: glėgėję kã b žūn.ces uždarítas Dr.; nu-sęglėgėję|nu-sęju-kìes vėsę PvnR…

krūpti, krumpa, -o intr. to become rough, develop pimples: krãu.s neizvarnìe|ir pradėet krūptį [person] Krš; karpìki pri karpìkis|tãp run.kas apkrūpa Dr; lùpa kažìkuõ nukrūpa Krš.

kūrimas n. (1) burning: už daržinìes pakūrima tù-kstunti sumuokėje Krš; tai õg-ni·s nai·kù·rė·ms|kô·r|kô·r|kāp õžgė·nct|tãp õžgė·nct PvnR, etc.

If a prefixed verb or a deverbal noun derived from it has some distinctive meaning, it is listed separately at the end of the entry for the unprefixed verb. E.g.:

greibti, -a, -ė,.5. fig. to buy in large quantities: grei.bi išgreibi višku Krš.

įgreibti, įgreiba, įgreibė tr. to deceive: vì·na sì·kę i·grė·bę|daugãu napasedú·so PvnR; i·s|greibi vī·rã·tis tū· lau·ka [arams] pasiėmis Pkš.

nėigti, -a -ė tr. to despise…

apsinėigti, -a, -ė to neglect oneself: kuol mergas|kuokel[s] slã·nes|apsižã·ni|apsinė·ig|apsi-lá·už Dr.

lėidimas n. (1)

pasilėidimas n. (1) harvesting: begali.nęs pasėlė·idemz gė·rtę Vds; dūri diēva[s] žūburi į akes už tuokį pasilė·idimą Krš.

A verb or deverbal noun used in the dialect only with a prefix is listed as an unprefixed form with a hyphen in front. After a colon placed following certain listed forms, the infinitive of the prefixed verb or the prefixed noun is given. E.g.:

-gęsti, -ta, gęnto:

to become related by marriage intr. to become related by marriage: ãnùos labā· sōgė·ntosęs|kāp siėserės Vkšn; lėk į lėk pri muoti·nas (anytos)|susigėn.ta|kad bā·imes Krš.

-longing noun (1):

longing noun (1), yearning: pàbù·n [vaikas] svėtur į neptūr pasiilgima Dr.

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d) Adverbs and prepositions with the formatives -u and -uo (e.g., iš ilgų and išilgų || išilguo) are entered separately because these are different derivational variants. Adverbs formed from adjectives with the formative -(i)ai are listed under the adjective entry, e.g.: įkypūs, -i adj. (4) slanting, oblique… įkypiai adv.: ne statė/alė į ki pe dūri Krš, etc.

e) Prepositions shortened through enclisis, nu, pri, priš, are entered in one article with those that retain a long vowel, nū, pry, pryš (these prepositions with short vowels are used mostly around Kuršėnai, in Dirvonėnai, Paukšteliai, and Varpėtai, although until quite recently the oldest speakers of those dialects still pronounced—and sometimes still pronounce—them with long vowels i, u).

f) Ideophones pronounced with a short and a long root vowel are entered separately, since in such cases they have a different meaning or shade of meaning (a different intensity). For example, kirkšt interj. used to describe a faint, slight creaking… kyrkšt interj. used to describe a loud creaking… lūpt interj. used to describe a child’s quick but awkward walk… lūpt interj. used to describe a vigorous, heavy walk… etc.

g) Words whose reconstruction in standard language is uncertain, and which are presented in various ways in some dictionaries, are written twice: once with only a reference to the variant we consider more reliable, and once with the full entry. For example: angūs, -i adj. (4) see (v)angus (v)angūs, -i adj. (4) lazy, calm: un.gūs pri darbą/kuol prīvārā/prā•kaic išmūš Dr; onge•m gērā/nēpavārkst Vds… || figuratively: tīok[s] sē•nvaikis/un.gūs pri žanā•tvis Vrp. anduō noun (3ª) see (v) anduo. (v)anduō noun (3ª) liquid in rivers, lakes, and seas: ūndenc pārnešk/liešti vē•rdu Pkš; ūndini išpī•li krūpis Dr; agō•rklā• vī•ne ūndū Vds… etc. Derivative words from such forms are given only once, that is, only under the reconstructed form we consider more reliable, e.g.: (v)angstyties, (v)angštos, (v)angštės ‘to shirk work’, (v)andėnė ‘accumulation of fluid in the body’, (v)andėnnešis, -ė ‘water carrier’, etc. (In the Dictionary of Russian Folk Dialects, some words whose reconstruction in standard language is complicated or whose form is unknown are likewise listed several times⁴⁰.) There are not many such examples, and they will not undermine the system of this dictionary—presenting each word separately.

The structure of a word entry is similar to that of an entry in the large Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language (the only difference is the editing of verbs, which resembles that of the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian). Only a few points need to be recalled.

1. The grammatical characterization of words follows that of the large Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, that is, it uses Latin abbreviations.

2. Word meanings are marked with numbers, while shades of meaning are separated by two parallel bars (||). For example: māma sf. (2) mother: mō.na mā•ma ženūoje [a healing method] Vds. || dvī•lekas mē•tu/tikrā mā•ma (very large) Krš. milžti, mėlža, -o… 2. figuratively, to entice: gūdrī kā•p lā•pi/mīlšti išmīlža višku į[š] sē•nis Krš. || to draw out, demand: išmīlš iš tāvīs višų gīlūs (while playing cards) Krš. grybikė sf. (2) medicinal tablet:… || poison: uždūk tuokė•m pā•dla• gri•bikis kā•p šūni/nūskrīps kur pātuorīe Krš…

3. Word origins are not examined in detail; references such as Lat. Slavic, Germanic, hybrid, Swedish (in this case, the specific source is unknown), and so on, are considered sufficient. Etymologies of words of foreign origin have been omitted for the following reasons: first, the origins of most words borrowed from other languages and included in this dictionary have long been established (e.g., in E. Frenkel’s etymological dictionary, K. Būga’s writings, etc.), and there is no need to repeat this information—

⁴⁰ Словарь русских народных говоров, вып. I (сост. Ф. П. Филин), р. 8–9.

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first, secondly, in order to avoid inconsistencies, as, for example, in the “Dictionary of Russian Dialects,” where some words are etymologized (арда, ы, ж… карельск. род. п. ардо, венск, ард →жердь, на которой просушивается невод⁴¹, etc.), while others, also of foreign origin, are not (e.g.: арды мн. … Вешала для просушки льна⁴² …, битник, а м. Совладелец пчелиного улья, пасеки. Йонав. Лит. ССР, 1961⁴³, etc.)

4. Explanatory words, implied but not spoken by the speaker, inserted into dialect sentences transcribed phonetically are written in parentheses in ordinary spelling.

5. Proverbs and vivid or witty sayings are placed after the caret (⌃) at the end of the illustrations. E.g.: gėrimas sm. (1)… ⌃ ví·ra·rū·ki·ma gėrima nepamet|búobas li·žùve lá·di·ma|tuòkes tuokė·les pri mú·sa Pkš. nėlaimė sf. (1)… ⌃ sená·m smė·tiz dùriesi|jauná·m nė·laimie Krš. etc.

6. Phraseological units are given at the end of the word entry after the diamond (◇), i.e. they are not divided into idioms and metaphorical phraseological units, since in many cases it is difficult to determine “to which type of phraseological unit a given phraseological unit should be assigned”⁴⁴. The division into idioms and phraseological units is often highly subjective and a source of endless disputes; it was therefore decided to place all phraseological units in one place, at the end of the word entry. E.g.: mākaluoti, -uoja, -avo tr. 1.…2. …◇ liežuvį makaluoti to chatter, wag one’s tongue: sė·ne vai·kòs vė·iz |uo jaunúoje lá·ksta li·žòvį makalu·dama Vds. nósė sf. (1)… 5. ◇ an[t]nósės very quickly: krikšti·nas u[n] niósis Krš… nósė pakišina to be in a better mood: pagi·ri|pakila mú[n] niósi Dr. nósė nuknėmba to become discouraged, lose heart: pí·li|dirba|alė káp nieka negáva|i nukne·ba niósi Krš. etc.

7. Where clearly known, stylistic labels are given, e.g.: arch. (=archaic), psn. (=obsolete word, a word expressing an obsolete concept), iron. (=ironic word or expression), prk. (=figurative meaning), vlg. (=vulgarism), etc.; frequency of use is indicated, e.g.: ret. (=rarely), reč. (=less often), dzn. (=more often), etc.

8. Definitions of meanings vary. a) Words with roots or suffixes different from those in standard Lithuanian are explained by their standard Lithuanian equivalents, i.e. synonymically (rarely descriptively). E.g.: naržyties, -os, -ės to squirm, show off: nà·rži·t·s tuokóms jaunóms a·t·b gà·l PvnR… nėrykła sf. (2) knitting needle: šaùlù·s i·r niéri·klà|priner nėrtiņi· Dr. neršta sf. (4) fury: òžėin kūòkė nė·rštvà|pagà·tą u[s] sɔplėšti·tę pà·čę|vaikòs PvnR. nėšinas, -à^3b adj. carrying… etc. b) Words that in the dialect differ only in stress, or have no standard Lithuanian equivalent, are explained descriptively. E.g.: nėbuvėlis, -ė smob. (1) someone who has been away from somewhere for a long time: …kamė tà[s] sù·rė[s] sopòvėlės|atė·je svėrti·s nė·bovėlės PvnR. nykštis sm. (1) the first finger or toe… nagai s sm. pl. (4) 1. a device of this kind for retrieving buckets that have fallen into a well: kur nagà|viedra niòru ištráukti Dr. 2. a device of this kind for processing flax: su tuokė·s nagàs [linų] gálvas nutráuka Vrp. narinis, -ė adj. (2) made up of certain parts, members: narinė· žùmbrė· [buvo]|par vidùrį širàls à·je Dr etc. c) More stable nuances of meaning are explained in the same way as word meanings, e.g.: númonė sf. (1) 1. understanding: …|| opinion: ka vėšė tuokóos nu·mùonez bū·to|nebū·to bà·mo Vds. 2 numiškis, -ė adj. (2) one’s own, living in that household: numiškis vai·kis tàs Krš. || accustomed to that household: ta nomė·škę várna|veščù·ko neòskabė·n Vds; tų· pažįnctu|tas numiškis žvìrbļs|beur·degis Dr. etc. e) Phraseological units are explained by equivalents among standard Lithuanian words-

⁴¹ Словарь русских народных говоров, вып. I. p. 271.

⁴² Same place, p. 272.

⁴³ Словарь русских народных говоров, вып. II, p. 298.

⁴⁴ Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, I (antras leidimas), Vilnius, 1968, p. XII.

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…by a less frequent descriptive method (in that case, the components of the idiom usually differ from the standard-language equivalent only in stress or stem, or cannot be explained in a single word). E.g.: dindėri (dindas) beat to be lazy…, go to the earth die…, raise storms to rage, run riot…, with promises come away with nothing but promises…, dõvis prieš dõvi as you do to me, so I do to you…, throat turn inside out, shout very loudly… etc. f) Various word variants are not explained, but referred to a more characteristic, more frequently used dialect word. E.g.: girteláitis, -ė adj. (1) see girtite-lys…, grįžtis sf. (4) see grįžčia…, gvìlbyti, gvìlbo, gvìlbė see gvalbyti…, gvìlbti, -a, -ė see gvelbti…, įkandine adv. see 1 įkandin…, lùpšena sf. (1) see lupsena… etc. g) Verbal nouns are referred to the verbs. E.g.: greibìmas sm. (2)→greibti…, gróvimas sm. (1)→grauti…, grùlijimas sm. (1)→grūlyti… etc. When a verb has not been included in this dictionary, but the noun derived from it is included because of a difference in stress, that word is explained descriptively. E.g.: grėbimas sm. (1) pulling together with a rake…, griežimas sm. (1) trimming, paring (of vegetables)…, gróbimas sm. (1) snatching, grabbing… etc. h) Names of plants, animals, and diseases are explained by their standard-language equivalents (if the root or word formation differs) and descriptively (if the stress differs), with their Latin names given in parentheses. E.g.: lėgerst́va sf. (1) marsh thistle (Circium oleraceum)…; lėndrė sf. (1) reed (Phragmites communis)…, gėžė sf. (1) grey heron, gešė (Ardea cinerea)…, girgdžėlė sf. (3°)…2. such a bird, corncrake (Crex crex)…, 2 kruõpas (sv.) sm. (2) a throat disease of this kind, croup (Laryngitis cruposa)… etc.

Phonetic transcription

This work uses the somewhat simplified phonetic transcription now adopted by dialectologists.

Attention should be drawn to the following points:

1. Vowel length is marked with a dot beside the letter (above long vowels, below half-long vowels) in all cases, regardless of whether the vowel is stressed. (The refusal by some dialectologists to mark vowel length when the vowel is stressed is not appropriate here, because part of the dialect area west of the dialect pronounces short the first elements of the diphthongs il, im, in, ir, ul, um, un, ur and of the diphthong ui when stressed with the acute accent, while the second elements m, r of diphthongs bearing the circumflex accent likewise do not lengthen. E.g.: ìlks, išvìrsiau, sùmtis, žūnc, kūila, vaikùtis, vàrks, žūmbris Krš, Vrp, Dr, Pkš etc.⁴⁵

2. The short vowels i, u of the standard language are somewhat more open in the western part of the dialect area. They are written with a small mark below. E.g.: prasišvi·p|senūtis uo senūtis Krž; brūkni|tūr uogūma… Dr; nìbri|vìsi šuok|uo tù škandà·la kėli Pkš; kū· tù padarì·si|nusmùkelni Vrp etc.

3. Consonant palatalization is marked with an arc above the letter, to avoid confusing the breve (˘), which many dialectologists have begun using in their work, with the mark for the acute accent. Palatalization before front vowels and within a consonant cluster is not marked, since here the dialect does not differ from the standard language. E.g.: nùliemiem tūs mī·žūs pasieti… Dr; mà·s lù·bam jū·kti·s iš tuókū· dìtpā·pū Krš; mi·žė· sù àku·tā·s|be àku·tū·n|ì·r veì·slo vēšuokū· Vds; tā·p i·sebaisėjā·u|di·vā·lā·u Užv etc.

⁴⁵ For more on this, see Vyt. Vitkauskas, Kuršėnų tarmės kirtis ir priegaidė, Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai, 3, Vilnius, 1960, p. 71.

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4. Enclisis is marked only when the stress is shifted from the main word onto a preposition or particle. E.g.: lù·b mùni ùškvi·s| į dvì savá·iti prì_ anũ· įžbù·su Pkš, etc.

5. Since capital letters are not used at all, an asterisk is written slightly above the last letter of a proper noun (so that readers can tell). E.g.: blì·nda* bõ·va lù·kėškęs | lù·kie* ãnuõ tievìnę Vds; tarnavá·u lù·duo-rù·s* pri tuõ mùžika Vrp; parmaká·sji ju iš daugìelù* Vrp; apì·apstė· dalìkis* tì·druo-bùžė Krš, etc.

Everywhere, an effort is made to write words as they are heard when spoken, although at times this produces a rather unusual picture of word-final consonants. In the stream of speech, when the final consonants of one word meet the initial consonants of the next, consonant assimilation usually occurs in the dialect. E.g.: tù·okez bùva vá·išęs Krš; numal̃ši vi·rus|siet kã·[p] pabučì·ti Dr.; vėt karã· łauz dùkterį pri mã·r|kat smáks prarì·tu (ps.) Dr., etc. If the final consonant of one word completely merges with the initial consonant of the next, the former is written in parentheses so that the word’s meaning remains clear. E.g.: sėjūonc margì·nes|kìoje[s] soskėrdoses PvnR; põ·tras tõrė õstė·ktė vėsą·[m] mė·tũ· Vds; kã·[p] par lìngą vé·izi|mãškuõ pavá·saris… Dr; duovenìok jũ·zapu* o[ž] skuõla Užv, etc.

After each sentence given in dialectal phonetic transcription, an abbreviation for the locality is written, followed by a semicolon (a period follows the final sentence).

In the register, words are presented as follows:

a) Words that correspond completely to lk in both form and meaning (meaning the “Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian”) are marked as in lk.

b) For words that have the same form as in lk but do not have all its meanings, a reference is given indicating which of the meanings listed in DŽ they have. E.g.: alkūnė sf. (1) DŽ 1, 3 meanings. (That is, in the dialect this word has only the meanings listed in DŽ: 1. the joint of the arm bones at the middle of the arm… 3. figuratively, a bend or turn in a road or river…)

c) Vulgar words used in many Lithuanian dialects—that is, words without isoglosses—but omitted from normative dictionaries for understandable reasons are not explained; only the note “as in other dialects” is given.

d) Words of foreign origin that are not used and are not acceptable in lk are written in square brackets, with their meaning provided. E.g.: [aprubė (Slavic) sf. (3ᵇ) isolated farmstead]

e) If a word from lk or a loanword is found only in some of the dialect subvarieties, this is noted where possible. E.g.: apvártis sm. (1) as in lk: Krš, Pkš, Vrp (other subvarieties have the form apárтис); aušrà sf. (4) as in lk: Dr, Krš, Pkš, Vrp, Vkšn, Užv (PvnR, Vds aušrà with the second accentuation pattern); [stalõdas (Germanic) sm. (2) barn: PvnR, Užv, Vds, Vkšn] (other subvarieties use the word kùtė || kùtė), etc.

PRINCIPLES OF COMPILING A DICTIONARY OF A GROUP OF DIALECTS

В. ВИТКАУСКАС

Material for the dictionary of the group of dialects (48,000 slips were collected) was gathered in the northeastern Dūnininkai dialects (Kuršėnai, Dirvonėnai, Pakšteliai, Varputėnai in Šiauliai District; Vidsodis, Užventis in Kelmė District; Pavandenė, Viekšnaliai in Telšiai District).

7. Leksikos tyrinėjimai

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The main aim of the dictionary is to show, as consistently as possible, how the vocabulary of the dialects under study differs from that of the standard language; to determine which dialect words have entered the literary language and the language of fiction; and to present as comprehensively as possible the phraseology of living folk speech. The dictionary will also clarify and facilitate the study of the language of those Lithuanian writers who were born or lived for a long time in the area of these dialects or nearby (Žemaitė, Lazdynų Pelėda, Šatrijos Ragana, P. Višinskis). In addition, the dictionary will supplement the materials of the academic dictionary and atlas of the Lithuanian language.

In essence, a dictionary of a group of dialects can be a differential dictionary. It foregrounds that stratum of Baltic and Lithuanian vocabulary which is either altogether unknown to the Lithuanian literary language or differs from it in some respect. The sole criterion for comparison is the standard language. Lexical, word-formation, accentual, and semantic dialectisms have been selected for the dictionary.

To enable readers to become acquainted also with the stratum of vocabulary common to both the dialects under study and the literary language, the dictionary is accompanied by an index listing words shared with the literary language. The part of the vocabulary of the dialects under study that differs in some respect from the literary language is presented in greater detail in the dictionary, with example sentences, while the rest is merely recorded in the index. Thus, taken as a whole, the dictionary covers the entire system of this dialect area.

ABBREVIATIONS

Dr = Dirvonėnai (Juozapavā), Šiauliai District

Krš = Kuršėnai, Šiauliai District

Pkš = Pakšteliai, Šiauliai District

PvnR = Pavandenė (eastern part of the area), Kelmė–Telšiai District

Rdn = Raudėnai, Šiauliai District (comparison)

Užv = Užventis, Kelmė District

Vds = Vidsodis, Kelmė District

Vkšn = Viekšnaliai, Telšiai District

Vrp = Varputėnai, Šiauliai District

Other abbreviations are as in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language