LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, IV

LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA

VOWEL AND DIPHTHONG PHONEMES OF THE LITHUANIAN STANDARD LANGUAGE

V. VAITKEVIČIŪTĖ

I PHONEME

Since the determination of the phoneme system of any language and the characterization of phonemes are based on the theory of the phoneme, when examining the composition of the vowel and diphthong phonemes of the Lithuanian standard language, it is therefore necessary first to indicate, albeit briefly, the general principles underlying the understanding of the phoneme and its variants, which are followed here.

The foundation of every language consists of its grammatical structure and vocabulary, which we use to express our thoughts in sentences. Most often, a sentence consists of groups of words or individual words, but sometimes it can also consist of a single sound, e.g.: A? You wanted to lick. Isn’t it enough for you that yesterday you partook of our tears! Krėv ŠP 102. Oh! — the excited teacher did not let him finish, — nothing could compare! Cvir R II 132. Words consist of morphemes — the root, prefix, suffix, and ending. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent part of a word. Morphemes consist of individual speech sounds — phonemes. Phonemes are historically formed sound types that distinguish words, their forms, or morphemes, and whose pronunciation does not depend on the phonetic position they occupy in the word. For example, the vowels ž: ō, i: a, etc., are independent phonemes because they distinguish the words lýtas: lótas (cf. lótį), ritù: ratù, etc., and the differences in their pronunciation in these words do not depend on the influence of the surrounding sounds, since in each pair of words both vowels occur between the same consonants. However, although a phoneme distinguishes words, their forms, and morphemes, it usually has no meaning of its own, except when it alone forms a whole sentence, word, or morpheme (cf. Lithuanian interjections O!, A!, etc.). Such cases, however, are relatively rare in language.

The same phoneme is pronounced differently in various words under the influence of adjacent sounds, its position in the word, word stress, pitch accent, etc., and has several sound realizations. Different sound realizations that depend on the sound’s adaptation to positional circumstances, but constitute a single sound type — a phoneme — are called phoneme variants. For example, the back vowel ō in the word saũso, etc., and the strongly fronted back vowel ō in the word saũsio, etc., are two variants of the phoneme ō, but not two independent phonemes, because there are no words whose difference depends solely on these vowels—

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whose difference would depend solely on these vowels. Thus, phoneme variants are concrete speech sounds that differ somewhat from one another but do not distinguish the words, forms, or morphemes of that language. A speech sound is a variant of any phoneme, while a phoneme is all its variants together and each variant individually, since in each one we recognize a particular phoneme. Thus, a variant is not a separate element of a phoneme existing beyond the phoneme — it is merely one of the forms in which the phoneme exists, whereas a phoneme is not an isolated speech sound but a complex concept, a group of sounds, the totality of all the variants of a phoneme, which does not coincide with any single variant. The phoneme and its variants constitute a dialectical unity.

Differences between phonemes do not depend on the extent of the phonetic difference: the phonetic range of the variants of one phoneme may be extremely wide, and conversely, the difference between variants of two independent phonemes may be extremely small. Under certain conditions, identical sounds may be variants of different phonemes, while different sounds may be variants of one phoneme¹.

The phonemic composition of any language is not constant; it changes all the time, albeit very slowly. For this reason, a variant may become an independent phoneme and, conversely, an independent phoneme may lose its functions and disappear. The phonemic status of any sound is most clearly revealed when a language has pairs of words with different meanings that differ by only one sound (cf. šuo: šiuo, etc.). When a language has no such word pairs, sounds are considered independent phonemes only if their pronunciation does not depend on phonetic position.

Phoneme variants are of three kinds:

a) Variants that depend on word stress and the pitch accent of stressed and unstressed syllables in a word are called positional, e.g.: the a in višta and the a in višta (singular vocative) are two variants of the phoneme a; the ž in dýgę (past active participle) and the ž in dýgę ‘a kind of marsh moss’ (singular accusative) are two variants of the phoneme ž (see the section “Vowel Phonemes and Their Classification” for more).

b) Variants that depend on the influence of neighboring phonemes are called combinatory. An example is the two variants of the phoneme ō: back-row ō after the hard consonants p, s in the words kùmpo, saĩso, etc., and back-row ō with a fronted articulation after the soft consonants p, s in the words kùmpio, saĩsio, etc.

c) Variants that depend on the manner of speaking, which is determined by the purpose of the conversation, its circumstances, and the emotional content of speech. Two main manners of speaking are distinguished: the careful and the conversational manner. The careful manner is defined as somewhat slowed, precise pronunciation of all sounds in the stream of speech, in accordance with established pronunciation norms. The conversational manner is defined as pronunciation of sounds in the stream of speech at an accelerated pace, without any particular emotional coloring. In this manner of speaking, unstressed Lithuanian vowels and diphthongs are shortened more than in the careful manner.

The careful manner of speaking is used as the basis for determining the phoneme inventory of Standard Lithuanian.

¹ See А. А. Реформатский, К проблеме фонемы и фонологии. — «Известия АН СССР, Отделение литературы и языка», 9, вып. 5, 472, 1952.

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II VOWEL PHONEMES AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION

Modern Standard Lithuanian has 12 vowel phonemes: ī, i, ē, e, ė, ō, ū, u, ō, ɔ, a, ā, which are divided into independent long phonemes ī, ē, ē̇, ū, ō, ā and short phonemes i, e, ė, u, ɔ, a. The phonemes ī: i; ē: e; ē̇: ė; ū: u; ō: ɔ; ā: a form pairs of long and short phonemes. Length is the principal phonemic feature of Lithuanian vowels, since long phonemes and their corresponding short phonemes distinguish words, their forms, and morphemes, e.g.: the phonemes ī: i distinguish the words līs: lis, tīko: tiko; ē: e — the words mēs: mes; ā: a — the words kās: kās, māno: māno; ū: u — the words būtas: būtas, jūs: jūs; ō: ɔ — the words jōtas (cf. jōti): jōtas (name of a letter); see below for the role of pitch accent in the phoneme. The phoneme ē̇ is long and has no short counterpart. The phoneme ė, found only in international words, can be compared qualitatively with the Lithuanian phoneme ē: both are close vowels, pronounced with very tense speech organs, except that ē̇ is much longer than ė and is slightly more fronted. Quantitatively, ė differs little from the short open phoneme e² in Lithuanian words, from which it is closer and differs in its inherent quality: ė in the words fakultētas: fakultetē and the second ė in the words universitētas: universitētē, etc. It is short both under stress and when unstressed, whereas the unstressed short e in Lithuanian words often alternates with stressed long ē, e.g.: metù: mēta, lesù: lēsa. Moreover, the openness of the phoneme e in Lithuanian words depends greatly on the sounds forming the other syllables of the word (see Phoneme ė), whereas that of the phoneme e in international words does not depend on them, and its variants are generally very indistinct (see Phoneme ė). For these reasons, e in international words is considered an independent phoneme in Lithuanian.

In determining the inventory of Lithuanian phonemes, it is very important to establish the relationship of stress and pitch accent to the phoneme: whether stress and pitch accent are separate phonemes or markers of a syllable, or a feature of the word as a whole.

In Standard Lithuanian, as in other languages, one syllable of a word is usually stressed, while all its other syllables are unstressed. The stressed syllable of a word is the most intensive (strongest), while all its other syllables are less intensive. As is known, Lithuanian stress most often does not occupy a fixed position in a word, and a change in stress position alone (only cases in which the pitch accent is the same are considered here) may determine the meaning of a word or its form (cf. the words svērė (3rd person singular past tense): svērė ‘a kind of field weed’, višta (singular vocative): vištà (singular nominative), etc.). Thus stress plays a clear phonological role. However, two words that differ only in stress position, such as višta: vištà, etc., differ from each other in two features: not only in that the i in the first word is stressed and in the second is not, but also in that the a in the first word is unstressed and in the second is stressed. Consequently, stressed i is opposed to unstressed i not in the same phonetic position, and they cannot occur in identical positions, because the stressed i in the word višta is necessarily associated with the unstressed a in the following syllable of the same word, whereas the stressed à in the word vištà is necessarily associated with the unstressed i in the preceding syllable of the same word. Consequently, stressed and unstressed sounds in words depend on phonetic position. If we consider as phonemes sound types that distinguish words, their forms, or morphemes, and whose pronunciation does not depend on the phonetic position they occupy in a word,

² Cf. V. Vaitkevičiūtė, Lietuvių kalbos balsių ir dvibalsių ilgumas, arba kiekybė. — „Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai“, 3, 210, Vilnius, 1960.

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We cannot regard the stressed and unstressed sounds as independent phonemes; stress, however, is a phoneme marker. That stress is not a marker of a separate phoneme is also shown by the fact that any speech sound can be pronounced in isolation from other sounds while retaining all its qualitative and quantitative features, whereas a stressed or unstressed sound cannot be pronounced separately, since stress depends on the relative intensity of the whole word. The intensity of an isolated vowel or diphthong cannot be compared with anything. Thus, stress is a phonological device that extends beyond the bounds of a sound and is associated with the whole word, joining its separate elements into a single whole.

The relationship between accent and phoneme is much more complex than the relationship between phoneme and stress³. In Standard Lithuanian, every syllable of a word has an accent. The accent is most clearly audible on the stressed syllable of a word, which is pronounced with the greatest intensity. Although the accents of unstressed syllables are somewhat levelled, those of pre-stress syllables are close to the circumflex accent of stressed syllables, while those of post-stress syllables are close to the acute⁴. Since the accent characteristic of every syllable in a Lithuanian word extends over the syllable-forming sound from beginning to end, it could be regarded as a marker of that sound. For example, by contrasting the words apklótas (cf. klótą): apklõtas ‘bedspread’; lópo (3rd person singular present): lõpo (singular genitive); áukštas: aũkštas; kiẽtis ‘a kind of weed’: kiẽtis ‘hardness’, and so on, we could regard the acute and circumflex accents as markers of the vowel ō and diphthongs au, ie, etc., and the vowels ō: õ and diphthongs áu: aũ, etc., as independent phonemes. However, given that in Lithuanian only the acute and circumflex accents of stressed syllables can be contrasted, and that a word’s stressed syllable can be identified only within the word as a whole, accent must be viewed as a phonological device associated with the syllable and its syllable-forming sound, but extending above the phonemic composition of the word and pertaining to the word as a whole. Therefore, vowels and diphthongs with different accents in Lithuanian, such as á: ã, ė: ẽ, áu: aũ, etc., are not regarded as independent phonemes, but only as two variants of the same phoneme.

Under the influence of stress and accent, the intensity and pitch of the syllable-forming sound change somewhat; the syllable-forming sounds of stressed and unstressed syllables

³ In general phonetics, there is no uniform view of the role of accent in relation to the phoneme: some linguists regard sounds with different accents as variants of one phoneme, while others regard them as independent phonemes. Latvians regard sounds with different accents as variants of one phoneme (cf. А. Г. Л а у, Фонетически-фонологическая система современного латышского литературного языка, автореферат, 9, Рига, 1954 and Mūsdienu latviešu literārās valodas gramatika, 1, 20—26, Rīgā, 1959). Soviet linguistics takes the same view of the relationship between accent and phoneme in Serbo-Croatian (cf. П. С. К у з н е ц о в, О фонологической системе сербо-хорватского языка. — «Известия Академии Наук СССР, Отделение литературы и языка», VII, вып. 2, 130, 1948 and П. С. К у з н е ц о в, К вопросу о фонологии ударения. — «Доклады и сообщения филологического факультета Московского ордена Ленина государственного университета имени М. В. Ломоносова», вып. 6, 17, 1948). A. Isačenko adopts the opposing view (see A. I s a č e n k o, Zur phonologischen Deutung der Akzentverschiebungen in den slavischen Sprachen. — „Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Prague“, 8, 178—179), among others. In the field of Lithuanian, J. Dambrauskaitė (see J. D a m b r a u s k a i t ė, Lietuvių kalbos foneminės balsių sistemos nustatymas. — „Vilniaus Valst. ped. in-to Mokslo darbai (istorija ir filologija)“, 3, 221—240, Vilnius, 1957), without offering any argument, regards sounds with different accents as independent phonemes.

⁴ In general, the accents of unstressed pre-stress and post-stress syllables should be investigated in an experimental study devoted specifically to this question.

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the relationship between the pitch of sounds, sound length⁵, vigor of articulation, tension of the speech organs, and so on. However, these changes are relatively minor (cf. i: i, ō: ō, etc.). The vowels a, ā, ę, ē attract somewhat more attention. Since unstressed vowels a, e are usually short, while stressed ones are long, as in the words kasà: kãsà, nešù: nèša, etc., it might seem that the quantity and quality of vowels a, e are essentially altered only by stress and accent, whose influence gives rise to the long phonemes ā, ē, which form pairs with the short vowels a, e. However, bearing in mind that there are numerous examples in which the stressed short vowel phonemes a, e can be contrasted with the stressed long phonemes ā, ē in the same phonetic position (cf. kãšti: kãstas, kãšiu: kãsą, mãno: mãno, távo: távo (cf. tãvas); nèšti: nèša, nèšti: nèštas, mèsti: mèstas, mès: mẽs, rãšti: rãštas, trẽšti: trẽšti, etc.), and that the unstressed long phonemes ā, ē< an, en differ in quality from those same stressed long phonemes ā, ē only to the same extent as any other unstressed phoneme differs from its stressed counterpart (cf. ā, ē in the words žąsìs, kẽstė (an adverbial form) and ā, ē in the words žãstas ‘the part of the arm between the elbow and the shoulder’, kẽstės ‘poles for carrying a wall, straw’), the effects of stress and accent on phonemes a, ā, e, ē cannot be considered exceptional.

As a result of the changes caused by stress and accent described above, each Lithuanian long vowel phoneme has four positional variants:

a) stressed, with an acute accent, pronounced with great intensity and vigor, with strong tension of the muscles of the walls of the mouth;

b) stressed, with a circumflex accent, pronounced less intensely and vigorously than the first, and with somewhat less tension in the muscles of the walls of the mouth;

c) unstressed and pre-stress, pronounced with very little intensity and without tension in the muscles of the walls of the mouth; its accent is close to the circumflex accent of the syllable-forming sounds in stressed syllables;

d) unstressed and post-stress, differing from the unstressed pre-stress variant only in its accent, which is close to the acute accent of the syllable-forming sounds in stressed syllables.

Each short vowel phoneme has three positional variants:

a) stressed, pronounced with great intensity and vigor, with strong tension in the muscles of the walls of the mouth, and with a short accent;

b) unstressed and pre-stress, pronounced less intensely and vigorously than the first variant, with less tension in the muscles of the walls of the mouth, and with an accent close to the circumflex accent of stressed syllables;

c) unstressed and post-stress, similar in intensity and tension of the muscles of the walls of the mouth to the unstressed pre-stress variant, but with an accent close to the acute accent of stressed syllables.

The vigor and intensity of articulation of each vowel phoneme serving as the first component of a mixed diphthong are similar to those of the long and short vowel variants described above, but the different accent makes it possible to distinguish four positional variants of each vowel phoneme in a mixed diphthong⁶:

a) with an acute accent, pronounced very intensely and energetically, with the muscles of the walls of the mouth strongly tensed;

5 See V. Vaitkevičiūtė, The length, or quantity, of Lithuanian vowels and diphthongs. — “Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai”, 3, 209—216, Vilnius, 1960.

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b) with a circumflex accent, pronounced less intensely and energetically than the first, with less tension in the muscles of the walls of the mouth;

c) an unstressed pre-accented one, whose accent is close to the circumflex accent of stressed syllables, pronounced without intensity and without tensing the muscles of the walls of the mouth;

d) an unstressed post-accented one, whose accent is close to the acute accent of stressed syllables, pronounced without intensity and without tensing the muscles of the walls of the mouth.

Vocalic phonemes of the Lithuanian language are classified according to the activity of the two principal active speech organs—the tongue and the lips—when vowels are pronounced.

According to horizontal tongue movement, vocalic phonemes are front and back:

a) When front phonemes are pronounced, the tongue moves forward, forming a small resonator in the front part of the oral cavity and a fairly large one behind the root of the tongue. The tip of the tongue rests against the lower teeth; the middle part of the dorsum of the tongue rises toward the hard palate, and the sides of the tongue touch the edges of the palate. Lithuanian has the following front phonemes: ī, i, ē, e, ę, ē̇.

b) When back phonemes are pronounced, the tongue retracts from the front lower teeth. A small resonator forms near the root of the tongue, and a fairly large one in the front part of the oral cavity. The back part of the dorsum of the tongue rises slightly toward the soft palate. Lithuanian has the following back phonemes: ū, u, ō, ɔ, a, ā. When the phonemes a, ā are pronounced, the tongue moves farther forward than for any of the other back phonemes. For this reason they were formerly also called central phonemes. However, a, ā should be classified as back phonemes, since when they are pronounced the tip of the tongue retracts slightly from the front lower teeth (for the degree of retraction, see Phoneme a and Phoneme ā), as it does when back phonemes are pronounced, while the back part of the dorsum of the tongue rises slightly toward the rear edge of the hard palate (cf. Figs. 20 and 22 with Figs. 13 and 15). Moreover, before a, ā, as before the other back phonemes, hard consonants do not become palatalized.

While assuming one of these two horizontal positions, the tongue also rises vertically toward the hard palate.

According to vertical tongue movement, vocalic phonemes are:

a) High, or close (narrow), phonemes. When these are pronounced, the mouth opens only slightly, while the tongue rises very high toward the hard palate. Lithuanian has the following high phonemes: ī, i, ū, u. Of these, the long ī, ū are somewhat closer than the short i, u.

b) Mid phonemes. When these are pronounced, the mouth opens moderately, and the edges of the tongue touch the margins of the hard palate slightly. The Lithuanian mid phonemes are ē, e, ę, ē̇, ō, ɔ. Among the front mid

⁶ For positional variants of the sonorant consonants l, m, n, r, which occur as the second component of mixed diphthongs, see V. Vaitkevičiūtė, The composition of consonantal phonemes in the standard Lithuanian language. — “Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai”, 1, 44, 45, 46, 62, 64, Vilnius, 1957.

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Height | Front-row phonemes | Back-row phonemes | long | short | unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | High-height phonemes: i, ī, ū | Mid-height phonemes: e, ē, o, ɔ | Low-height phonemes: a, ā

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Among the high-height phonemes, ė is the closest and ę the most open, while the phonemes e and ė occupy an intermediate position between them. The long back-row phoneme ō is closer than ɔ.

c) Low-height phonemes. In pronouncing them, the mouth is opened wide, and the tongue does not touch the hard palate at all. The phonemes a, ā belong to this group.

According to lip articulation, on which the size of the oral resonator depends, vowel phonemes are divided into two groups:

a) Rounded (labial) phonemes. In pronouncing them, the lips are rounded and protruded forward, enlarging the oral resonator. The following rounded phonemes occur in Lithuanian: ū, u, ō, o.

b) Unrounded (non-labial) phonemes. In pronouncing them, the lips are not rounded or protruded forward, and the oral resonator is not enlarged. The following unrounded phonemes occur in Lithuanian: ī, i, ė, e, ę, ē, a, ā.

Note. Unrounded vowel phonemes are also articulated with the participation of the lips, but their participation is passive: high-height unrounded vowel phonemes are pronounced without tensing the lips, while those of mid and low height are pronounced with the lips stretched very slightly lengthwise (cf. lip articulation in pronouncing ī and ā in the words tỹrė and tārė, ī and ė in the words gīrą and gērą).

The classification of vowel phonemes is shown in Table 1 (see p. 25).

III FRONT VOWEL PHONEMES

1. High vowels

Phoneme ī. In current orthography, it is represented in two ways: the inherently long sound is marked with y, whereas lengthened ī, resulting from the loss of the n that followed it, is marked with į, except in verbs that had an infixed nasal consonant n in the root, e.g.: bỹra < bīra, dỹla < dīla, gỹja < gīnja, ỹra < īra, lỹja < līnja, kỹla < kīla, rỹja < rīnja, sỹla < sūīla, šỹla < šīla, and others, which etymologically should likewise be written with ī. Of all the front high-vowel phonemes, ī is the closest. In pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth, while the front and middle parts of the tongue dorsum rise toward the hard palate. The sides of the tongue touch the edges of the hard palate more than in pronouncing any other vowel phoneme (see Fig. 1 and compare it with Figs. 3 and 5). In the front part of the oral cavity, a narrow, elongated resonator forms between the tongue and the hard palate, and in the back part, near the root of the tongue, a somewhat larger one forms (see Fig. 2).

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme ī are as follows:

a) a slightly retracted, close ī after the velar consonants g, k, e.g.: gỹrė, kȳla, tōki, etc.;

b) a somewhat advanced, close ī after the coronal consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., after j, and after the labials m, b, p, v, e.g.: tỹli, lydėti, įž, mylėti, etc.;

Fig. 1. ī ē

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c) a slightly rounded ī between the labial consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: pỹpke, pỹ-pė, etc.

In Samogitian dialects, a rounded ī occurs before the rounded vowel ū, e.g.: apyūš- ris ‘dawn’, apyūšriais ‘at daybreak’ Grg, SInt, etc.

Fig. 2. ī ē

Phoneme i. It is a front high vowel phoneme, but of somewhat lower height than ī. It is pronounced similarly to ī: the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth; the sides of the front and middle parts of the tongue dorsum rise toward the hard palate and touch its edges much less than in pronouncing ī (see Fig. 3), while the dorsum itself curves inward considerably along its length. As a result, much wider front and back resonators than those of phoneme ī form between the tongue and the hard palate in the front and back parts of the oral cavity, and these qualitatively distinguish phoneme i from phoneme ī (see Fig. 4 and compare Fig. 3 with Fig. 1).

Fig. 3. i ima

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme i are as follows:

a) a somewhat retracted i after the velar consonants g, k, e.g.: giria, kitas, kitas, etc.;

b) a slightly advanced i after the coronal consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., after the labials m, b, p, v, and after j, e.g.: lūpa, tikras, tyli, ji, etc.;

c) a not very close i in words whose other syllables contain sounds formed by the back vowels a, ā, o, ō, u, ū and the diphthongs ai, au, ui, uo, e.g.: kitą, surūko, kitą, lipu, laidū, laukį, milui, pilūosi, etc.;

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d) a very close į in words whose other syllables contain front vowels ī, į, ė, etc., and diphthongs ei, ie, e.g.: kitį, žylį, brė, pėkti, plėkti and others.

Fig. 4. į ima

e) a very rounded į before the rounded vowels ō, ū, u and between the rounded consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: prašė, priurzgė, priūžė, pipiras and others.

2. Mid-height phonemes

Phoneme ė. Of all the front mid-height phonemes, it is the closest long phoneme. When it is pronounced, the sides of the front and middle parts of the tongue dorsum touch the edges of the hard palate less than when pronouncing ī, į (see Fig. 5); consequently, relatively broader resonators are formed in the front and back parts of the oral cavity than the resonators of phonemes ī, į (see Fig. 6 and compare Fig. 5 with Figs. 1 and 3).

Fig. 5. ė

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme ė are as follows:

a) a slightly retracted ė after the velar consonants g, k, e.g.: gėrė, sėgė, kėlė and others;

b) slightly fronted after the coronal consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., the labials m, b, p, v, and after j, e.g.: lėlė, nėrė, vėdė, pylė, grėbėjėlė and others;

c) a very close ė in words whose other syllables contain high- or mid-height close vowel phonemes ī, į, ū, u, or ė, etc., e.g.: gėlė, mėtė, mušė and others;

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d) a somewhat more open ė than the one indicated above, in words whose other syllabic sounds are the open vowel phonemes a, ā, or ē, e.g.: kalė, kėlės, etc.;

c) a slightly rounded ė between the labial consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: vėpso, vėmė, etc.

Fig. 6. ė

Phoneme ė. A short front, mid vowel phoneme occurring only in international words. In pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth; the sides of the front and middle parts of the tongue rise toward the hard palate and touch its edges somewhat less than when pronouncing ė in Lithuanian words (see Fig. 7 and compare it with Fig. 5). In the front part of the oral cavity, a small but wide resonator is formed between the tongue and the hard palate, while in the rear part, near the root of the tongue, a resonator somewhat larger and slightly wider than the resonator of phoneme ė is formed.

In international words, at the open and closed ends, and sometimes in prefixes and roots, ė is replaced by the Lithuanian front, mid vowel phoneme e, e.g.: ateljė, reziumė, idėja, helėnas, orchidėja, saracėnai, perigėjus, rėja ‘a crossbeam of a ship’s mast’, etc. (see above for its pronunciation).

Phoneme ė has two indistinct combinatory variants:

Fig. 7. ė poet

a) a slightly retracted ė before the back-of-the-tongue consonants g, k, before the vowel i, etc., e.g.: egzamìnas, ekonòminis, kėksas, geodėzinis, etc.;

b) a somewhat rounded ė between the labial consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: hemòlis, membra-nà, memuārai, etc.

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Phoneme e. A short, front, mid-height phoneme that is somewhat more open than ė. When it is pronounced, the tip of the tongue rests against the lower teeth, while the sides of the front and middle parts of the tongue rise toward the hard palate and touch its edges slightly (see Fig. 8). In the front part of the oral cavity, a small but wide resonator forms between the tongue and the hard palate; in the back, near the root of the tongue, a resonator forms that is larger and wider than that of phoneme ė (see Fig. 9 and compare Fig. 8 with Fig. 5). The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme e are the following:

Fig. 8. e ėr

a) a slightly retracted e after the velar consonants g, k, e.g.: gęsti, kęsti, etc.; b) a slightly fronted e after the front-tongue consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., the labials m, b, p, v, and after j, e.g.: dedį, ledai, mesti, bėt, joję, etc.; c) a very open e at the end of an open syllable, e.g.: kiemė, manė, katė (singular vocative), and in words whose other syllables contain back vowels a, ā, o, ō, u, ū and diphthongs ai, au, ui, uo, e.g.: dedų, nešų, medauš, retoję, garai, meluoti, etc.;

Fig. 9. e ėt

d) a somewhat closer e than the one indicated above, in words whose other syllables contain front vowels i, į, e, ė, etc., and diphthongs ei, ie, e.g.: neši, kepšnys, metį, pelė, mėilė, mielės, etc.; e) a somewhat rounded e between the labial consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: memė, vemti, etc. Unlike in Standard Lithuanian, in many dialects phoneme e is pronounced with a very marked a coloring, e.g.: mēt Krš, Lkv, etc.

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Phoneme ē. In current orthography it is represented by two signs: a stressed long vowel by e, and a lengthened vowel, when the n that followed it has been lost, by ę (their pronunciation does not differ). Of all the front mid-height phonemes, ē is the lowest and most open, with a slight a coloring; it is somewhat closer than the very open Capsian ė, e.g.: ėžeras, neša Brt, Vilkv, etc. When phoneme ē is pronounced, the tip of the tongue rests against the front lower teeth, while the back part of the tongue dorsum rises slightly toward the rear edge of the hard palate, and its sides touch only the very edges of the palate (see Fig. 10). The front and back resonators form a single whole (see Fig. 11).

Fig. 10. ē retas

Unlike in Standard Lithuanian, in a few dialects ē is pronounced with a very marked a coloring, e.g.: mē̇t Škn, etc.

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme ē are the following:

a) a slightly retracted ē after the velar consonants g, k, e.g.: gęsta, kękę, kėlila, etc.;

b) a somewhat fronted ē after the front-tongue consonants d, t, n, l, s, š, z, ž, etc., the labials m, b, p, v, and after j, e.g.: bėria, kątę, tęsia, jóję, etc.;

Fig. 11. ē retas

c) a very close ē in words whose other syllables contain front vowels i, ī, e, ē, ė and diphthongs ei, ie, e.g.: kęsti, lęšę (≈ lęsti), kėli, kėpė, mėtė, etc.;

d) a very open ē in words whose other syllables contain back vowels a, ā, ɔ, ō, u, ū and diphthongs ai, au, ui, uo, e.g.: neša, mėtą, mėtų, mėtai, šėniui, mėtuos, etc.;

e) a slightly rounded ē between the labial consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: vėmia, etc.

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IV UŽPAKALINĖS EILĖS BALSINĖS FONEMOS

1. High-close vowels

Phoneme ū. In contemporary orthography, it is represented by two signs: the inherently long vowel by ū, and the vowel lengthened through the loss of a following n by u, except in the verbs dūžta < dunžta, griūva < griunva, kiūra < kiunra, pūva < punva, spūra < spunra, žūva < žunva, and others, which etymologically should also be written with u. Among all the back high vowels, phoneme ū is the most closed and rounded. In pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue draws slightly back from the lower teeth. The sides of the middle part of the tongue’s dorsum touch the edges of the back part of the hard palate very slightly (see Fig. 12). A fairly large resonator forms in the front part of the oral cavity, merging with the labial resonator formed by the rounded lips protruded forward. A small resonator is located in the back part of the oral cavity (see Fig. 13).

Fig. 12. ū

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme ū are the following: a) a strongly fronted ū after all palatalized consonants, e.g.: siūti, siūsti, niūrus, pjūtis, and others;

Fig. 13. ū

b) a slightly fronted ū after the coronal consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, and others, as well as the labials m, b, p, v, e.g.: dūmė, lūpa, šūkis, būti, and others; c) a slightly retracted ū after the back velar consonants g, k, e.g.: gūšis, kūlė, and others.

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Phoneme u. It is a rounded back high vowel. In pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue draws back from the front lower teeth. The sides of the middle part of the tongue’s dorsum touch the edges of the hard palate even less than when pronouncing ū (see Fig. 14 and compare it with Fig. 12). A fairly large and broad resonator forms in the front part of the oral cavity, enlarged and extended by the lips, which are less rounded and protruded forward than when pronouncing ū and form the labial resonator. Phoneme u is somewhat more open than ū.

A small resonator forms in the back part of the oral cavity, somewhat narrower than the front one (see Fig. 15).

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme u are the following:

a) a strongly fronted u after all palatalized consonants, e.g.: kiūro, valgiū, siūs, geriū, jūs, and others;

b) a slightly fronted u after the coronal consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, and others, and the labials m, b, p, v, e.g.: lūpa, tū, pūšė, šūka, šūntį, mūsė, būvo, pūpā, laivū, and others;

c) a slightly retracted u after the back consonants g, k, e.g.: gūsti, kūpeta, kūrts, and others.

Fig. 14. u ūpė

Fig. 15. ū ūpė

2. Mid-height phonemes

Phoneme ō. This is a long, back-row, mid-height rounded phoneme, somewhat more open than ū. When pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue retracts farther from the lower front teeth than when pronouncing ū, while the sides of the tongue touch the edges of the hard palate

3. Kalbotyros klausimai, IV

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very slightly (see Fig. 16). A very large resonator forms in the front part of the oral cavity; it is further enlarged and extended by the lips, which are somewhat less rounded than when pronouncing ū and protrude forward, forming a labial resonator. A small resonator forms in the rear part of the oral cavity (see Fig. 17).

Fig. 16. ō

The most characteristic combinatory allophones of phoneme ō are the following: a) a strongly fronted ō after all palatalized consonants, e.g.: šios, grįos, kirmio, kūmpio, jója, jó, etc.;

Fig. 17. ō

b) a slightly fronted ō after hard coronal consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., and after labials m, b, p, v, e.g.: dovana, šōris, mōka, vōkas, etc.; c) a somewhat retracted ō after hard velar consonants g, k, e.g.: godūs, kōks, kō, etc.

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Phoneme ɔ. A short, back-row, mid-height rounded phoneme, somewhat more open than ō. When pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue retracts slightly less from the lower front teeth than when pronouncing ō. The sides of the tongue also touch the edges of the hard palate less (see Fig. 18 and compare it with Fig. 16). In the front part of the oral cavity

Fig. 18. ɔ

the resonator formed there is enlarged very little by the lips, so it is smaller than the front resonator of phoneme ō. The resonator formed in the rear part of the oral cavity is larger than the rear resonator of phoneme ō (see Fig. 19 and compare it with Fig. 17).

Fig. 19. ɔ

The most characteristic combinatory allophones of phoneme ɔ are the following:

a) a strongly fronted ɔ after all palatalized consonants, e.g.: liòdas ‘light loam’, regionãlinis (cf. regijonãlinis), jòdas, impresãrio (cf. impreṣãrijo), etc.;

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b) somewhat fronted ə after the hard anterior lingual consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., and the labials m, b, p, v, e.g.: lótas ‘unit of weight’, móto, tonà, toponìmika, and in interjections ópa, óp;

c) slightly retracted ə after the hard back lingual consonants g, k, e.g.: gòlas, gondolà, kėdas, kėdeksas, etc.

3. Low vowels

Phoneme a. A short, unrounded, back-row low vowel phoneme; when it is pronounced, the minimally tensed tongue moves forward more than when pronouncing any other back-row vowel, while the tip of the tongue retracts slightly from the front lower teeth. The back of the tongue lies flat and does not touch the hard palate at all; only its rear part rises somewhat toward the back edge of the hard palate. The anterior and posterior resonators form a single whole (see Fig. 20).

Fig. 20. a àkti

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme a are the following:

a) a strongly fronted a after all palatalized consonants, pronounced with the tip of the tongue not retracting at all from the lower teeth, e.g.: lėmiamas, nèria, kaũkia, aukščiausias, vėjas, vėja, etc.; instead of this variant of a, southwestern Highlanders pronounce an open ę, e.g.: šalè, láuke ~ šalià, láuhia Brt, Kbr, Vlkv, Všt, etc.; however, the norm of literary Lithuanian has long been considered not e but a strongly fronted a, which differs from e in quality (see Fig. 21 and compare it with Fig. 9), is pronounced in many dialects, and is written in the literary language;

b) a slightly fronted a after the hard anterior lingual consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., the labials m, b, p, v, and at the beginning of a word; when it is pronounced, the tongue is very

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recedes only slightly from the lower front teeth, e.g.: mamà, salà, tas, žalà, amà, akìs, etc.;

c) a slightly retracted a after the hard velar consonants g, k, pronounced with the tongue tip drawn well back from the lower teeth, e.g.: garai, ganà, raklai, kas, etc.;

Fig. 21 d įlapid

d) a very open a, when the sounds forming the other syllables of the word are back-vowel vowels a, ā, ɔ, o, u, ū or diphthongs ai, au, ui, uo, e.g.: matù, pasrūn, šakòtų, šòras, pasùko, rašų (gen. pl.), etc.;

e) somewhat closer than the one indicated above, when the sounds forming the other syllables of the word are front-vowel vowels i, ī, e, ę, ē, ė and diphthongs ei, ie, e.g.: kalì, palýti, bėta, neatėjęs, neša, nėras, etc.;

ė) a very rounded a before the rounded vowels o, u, ū, with which it does not form a diphthong, and to a lesser extent between the rounded consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: paupýs, paužti, paūdrė, paõšti, mamà, pabūti, etc.

Phoneme ā. In present-day spelling, it is represented by two symbols: a long stressed vowel by a, and a lengthened vowel, when the n following it has been dropped, by ą (their pronunciation does not differ). It is the longest, unrounded, back, lowest, and most open phoneme among all Lithuanian vowels. In pronouncing it, only the backmost part of the relaxed tongue dorsum rises slightly toward the back edge of the hard palate. The tongue tip recedes slightly from the lower teeth. The front and back resonators form a single whole, as in pronouncing phoneme a (see Fig. 22). Phoneme ā is qualitatively very similar to phoneme a, only somewhat more open than the latter (cf. Fig. 22 with Fig. 20).

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme ā are as follows:

a) a strongly fronted ā after all palatalized consonants; in pronouncing it, the tongue

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the tip does not move away at all from the front lower teeth (see Fig. 23), e.g.: kilniąsias, niūriąją, ją, sąją and others (southwestern Aukštaitians instead of this Lithuanian

Fig. 22. ā

Fig. 23. ā rupūja

in the literary language, the fronted ā is pronounced ē without an a-like colouring, e.g.: važėvo ~ važ(i)avo Brt, Kbr, Vlk, Všt and others);

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b) slightly fronted ā after the hard alveolar consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž and others, and after the labials m, b, p, v, is pronounced with the tip of the tongue moved very slightly away from the front lower teeth, e.g.: dāro, sāko, māto and others;

c) slightly retracted ā after the back hard consonants g, k, pronounced with the tip of the tongue moved considerably away from the front lower teeth, e.g.: gāras, ālgā, kāhlas, kātė, kāsa and others;

d) very open ā when the syllabic sounds in the other syllables of the word are back vowels a, ā, o, ō, u, ū or diphthongs ai, au, ui, uo, e.g.: gālas, mālo, gōlę, rūdāja, lāpai, plāukę, lāpuose and others;

e) ā somewhat closer than the one indicated above, when the syllabic sounds in the other syllables of the word are front vowels i, ī, e, ē, ė, ė and diphthongs ei, ie, e.g.: gāli, kīta, tīla, pēra (singular genitive), sākė, mālė, lēisą, mėlė and others;

ė) ā with strong lip-rounding before the rounded vowel u and others, and somewhat less so between the labial consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: pāupiu, māma (singular vocative), vāpa (present tense, third person singular) and others.

V DIPHTHONGAL PHONEMES AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION

The Lithuanian literary language has 9 diphthongs: ai, au, ei, eu, oi, oi, ui, ie, uo, which always occur before consonants and at the end of an open word.

Diphthongs are a special category of sounds characterized by complex articulation: they begin with one vowel element and end with another, forming an inseparable combination pronounced necessarily within a single syllable. The question of the phonemic status of diphthongs is one of the most complex and difficult problems in general phonetics, since in some languages they may be independent phonemes, while in others they are combinations of two phonemes. Diphthongs are considered independent phonemes only when:

a) both their components belong to the same morpheme, and neither component of any diphthong is an independent morphological unit;

b) with respect to syllabification, it is indivisible, i.e., no syllable boundary can be drawn between the two components of the diphthong;

c) the diphthong is approximately as long as a long vowel (if the duration of the diphthong equals the sum of the durations of two vowels, it is a combination of two phonemes);

d) the duration of the elements making up the diphthong does not correspond to either long or short vowels;

e) in vowel alternation, the entire diphthong changes to some vowel, i.e., both its components change as a single unit, rather than just one of them?

Kadangi dvibalsis oi pasitaiko tik viename žodyje — jaustuke ói, tai jo negalima laikyti savarankiška fonema. Dvibalsių ai, ei, eu, oi, ie, uo, visada esančių tik prieš priebalsį arba atvirame žodžio gale, abu komponentai priklauso tai pačiai morfemai arba tam pačiam skiemeniui, ir vienas bet kurio dvibalsio komponentas niekada negali būti savarankiškas morfologinis vienetas. Juo paprastai esti visas dvibalsis, t. y. abu jo komponentai, k. a. žodžiuose vaikas, vaikų, vaikams ir t. t. ai yra šaknies dvibalsis, žodžiuose šukuoti, šukuosiu, šukuosis uo yra prie-sagos dvibalsis, o žodžių eilė, eiti, eiga šaknį sudaro vien tik dvibalsis ei ir t. t.

⁷ Žr. Л. Р. Зиндер, Общая фонетика, 217—222, Ленинград, 1960.

⁸ Cf. the Russian diphthongs ai, ei, oi in the words mai, dai, pei, poi, etc., where they are considered not independent phonemes but only combinations of two phonemes (a and i, e and i,

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Mixed diphthongs al, am, an, ar, el, em, en, er, il, im, in, ir, ul, um, un, ur, like the diphthongs listed above, occur only before consonants and at the end of an open word. In cases where a, e, i, u are adjacent to l, m, n, r before vowels or diphthongs, a syllable boundary always falls between them, assigning the vowel a, e, i, u to one syllable and the consonant l, m, n, r to another, e.g.: kėl-ti: kā-la; bār-ti: bā-ra; kėl-ti: kē-lia; lēm-ti: lē-mia; gyvėn-ti: gyvė-na; per-ti: pē-ria; pėl-ti: pi-la; kim-ti: ki-mo; pin-ti: pi-na; ėr-ti: i-ro; kūl-ti: kū-lia; stum-ti: stū-mia; būn-ka (and here it arose because of the root infix n) bùk-ti; kùr-ti: kù-ria etc. Between the component elements of the diphthongs am, an, a syllable boundary never occurs, since a consonant always remains after them, e.g.: kam-šo: kam-šỹti; án-tis: án-ties, except in verbs containing the infix n or, before the labial consonants b, p, the infix m, e.g.: añ-ka: a-kaũ; slān-pa: šla-paũ, tam-pa: ta-paũ; and so on.

The second component of the diphthong au has become the consonant v before vowels and diphthongs through hiatus and has shifted into the next syllable, e.g.: šáu-ti: šó-ve < *šau-e, gáu-ti: gā-vo; here the diphthong au alternates with the vowels a and o. In place of the diphthong ui, which arose from ū, before vowels and diphthongs we find the vowel u, e.g.: gū-ti < *gū-ti, gu-ja. Since in these cases the alternation of the diphthongs au and ui with vowels arose through the laws of historical development, and not through simple splitting, as in the examples of mixed diphthongs given above, and since in all other respects au, ui do not differ in any way from the remaining diphthongs (see below), they should be grouped with the latter.

Note. The morphological and syllabic indivisibility of diphthongs must not be confused with vowels a and i, a and u, etc., which always belong to different morphemes and different syllables and never form diphthongs, as in the words ne-išeĩh, pa-im̃k, pa-upỹs, sù-ošė, etc.

The diphthongs ai, au, ei, eu, oi, ui, ie, uo are approximately as long as long vowels¹⁰, while the duration of the components of a diphthong differs from that of both long and short vowels (see below). By contrast, the average duration of any mixed diphthong equals the sum of the durations of its component vowel and consonant, whose average durations equal those of the corresponding vowel and consonant phonemes, e.g.: the average duration of the mixed diphthong uñ in the word uñkščia is 32″ (of which 15, 5″ belongs to the vowel u, and 16, 5″ to ñ); the average duration of the mixed diphthong ùn is 31, 5″ (of which 19″ belongs to the vowel ù, and 12, 5″ to n), and so on.¹¹

In the roots of related words, any diphthong can alternate with any one vowel or diphthong, and vice versa, e.g.: šuolas: šėsti; šviesti, švẽsti, švaistyti: švįsti, švystelėti, etc. The alternation of the diphthong uo with au in the words duóti: daviaũ, etc., and

with the combinations o and ū), since in other forms of these words both components of the diphthongs mentioned are entirely independent and unrelated to one another; each has its own morphological function and belongs to a different morpheme: a is the root vowel of the word mai, ū is the ending; a, e, o are the root vowels of the words дай, пей, пой, while ū is the imperative suffix. In other forms of these words, the second component of the diphthongs shifts into the next syllable, e.g.: ма-я, да-ю, по-ю, etc. (for more detail, see Большая Советская Энциклопедия, 14, 496; Л. Р. Зиндер, Общая фонетика, 219, Ленинград, 1960; М. И. Матусевич, Введение в общую фонетику, 79—80, Москва, 1959).

⁹ See J. Endzelynas, Baltų kalbų garsai ir formos, 19, Vilnius, 1957. ¹⁰ See V. Vaitkevičiūtė, Lietuvių kalbos balsių ir dvibalsių ilgumas, arba kiekybė. — „Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai“, 3, 213, Vilnius, 1960. ¹¹ Cf. V. Vaitkevičiūtė, min. veik., 211.

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The alternation of the diphthong au with ōu in the words šauti: šovė is not an exception, since av<au, and ōv<ōv<au, while v in both cases arose, as mentioned, before a vowel or diphthong to avoid hiatus. In contrast, in mixed diphthongs only one component alternates—the vowel—while the second remains unchanged, e.g.: rimti: ramūs, rāmų, remių, rėmia, rėmė, romūs; tamša: támšinti, temau, témti, tímšras ‘darkly sifted’, etc. Thus, the diphthongs of literary Lithuanian ai, au, ei, eu, oi, ui, ie, uo are independent phonemes that distinguish words, their forms, or morphemes, and their pronunciation does not depend on their phonetic position in a word. They can all be contrasted with other vowels and diphthongs, e.g.: kaš, kis: kais: kaūs: keš: kuis; lės, lès: leš: liės; másto: město: mòsto: máisto: máusto: miėsto: mùisto; sieks: suoks; Bōli: bāili, etc. In contrast, mixed diphthongs do not constitute a single independent phonemic unit and are combinations of two phonemes.

The same diphthong, like a vowel, with different pitch accents is considered not to consist of independent phonemes, but merely to represent positional variants of a single phoneme (for more detail, see the section “Vowel phonemes and their classification”). Each diphthong phoneme has the following positional variants¹³:

a) Acute, very intense, pronounced with the muscles of the walls of the mouth tensed. In the variant ãi of the phoneme ai, the first component is a very open vowel element a (approximately 22″—23″ in duration), and the second is a short close i (approximately 6″—7″ in duration). In the variant ãu of the phoneme au, the first component is a very open vowel element a (approximately 14″—16″ in duration), and the second is a relatively open vowel element u (approximately 10″—11″ in duration). In the variant éi of the phoneme ei, the first component is a very open vowel element e (approximately 16″—18″ in duration), and the second is a close i (approximately 13″—16″ in duration). In the variant ùi of the phoneme ui, the first component is an open vowel element u (approximately 18″—20″ in duration), and the second is a close i (approximately 10″—12″ in duration). In the variant ėu of the phoneme eu, the first component is a short, close vowel element e (approximately 12″—13″ in duration), and the second is an open u (approximately 10″—11″ in duration). In the variant òi of the phoneme oi, the first component is an open vowel element o (approximately 20″—22″ in duration), and the second is a close i (approximately 18″—20″ in duration). In the variant ie of the phoneme ie, the first component is an open vowel element i (approximately 13″—15″ in duration), and the second is an open e (approximately 15″—16″ in duration). In the variant úo of the phoneme uo, the first component is an open vowel element u (approximately 20″—21″ in duration), and the second is a somewhat delabialized open ǝ (approximately 14″—15″ in duration).

b) Circumflex, pronounced less intensely than the acute, with less tension in the muscles of the walls of the mouth. In the variant aĩ of the phoneme ai, the first component is an open, short vowel element a (approximately 15″—17″ in duration), and the second is a close i (approximately 19″—21″ in duration). In the variant aũ of the phoneme au, the first component is an open vowel element a (approximately 12″—14″ in duration), and the secon-

¹² A secondary diphthong ui, which arose through the shortening of certain nominal forms, e.g.: dangųi (read dangui) dangu-i, etc., is not an independent phoneme.

¹³ The principal components of diphthongs and the transitional vowel elements (see below) were identified using an instrument called a separator, which divides a diphthong into its component parts and determines the duration of each. Diphthongs and their component elements were measured in the first open syllable of disyllabic words.

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sis is a fairly closed u (approximately 19″–20″ in duration). The first component of the ei phoneme variant ėi is a short, closed vowel element e (approximately 10″–13″ in duration), while the second is i (approximately 20″–23″ in duration). The first component of the ui phoneme variant ūi is an open vowel element u (approximately 15″–18″ in duration), while the second is closed i (approximately 16″–19″ in duration). The eu and ơi phonemes have no variant of this kind.

c) Unstressed pre-accentual, pronounced with even less intensity than the circumflex variants, with the muscles of the oral walls untense. Its intonation is close to the circumflex intonation of the sounds forming stressed syllables.

d) Unstressed post-accentual, differing from the unstressed pre-accentual only in intonation, which is close to the acute intonation of the sounds forming stressed syllables.

The diphthong phonemes of standard Lithuanian are classified according to the sequence of their constituent components, the quality of the components, and lip activity.

According to the sequence of their components, they are divided into:

a) pure diphthongs, both components of which are pronounced clearly, one immediately after the other, without a pause, without merging, in the same syllable; the pure diphthong phonemes of standard Lithuanian are ai, au, ei, eu, ui, oi;

b) pure coalescent diphthongs, both components of which are pronounced together in the same syllable, inseparably, in a fused manner; the pure coalescent phonemes are ie and uo.

According to the quality of their components, the diphthong phonemes of standard Lithuanian are divided into phonemes in which:

a) the first component is a more or less open vowel element, and the second is closed; this group includes ai, au;

b) the first component has medium openness, and the second is closed; this group includes ei, eu, oi;

c) both components are more or less closed; this group includes ui;

d) the first component is closed, and the second has medium openness; this group includes ie, uo.

According to lip activity, they are divided into phonemes in which:

a) both components are rounded; this group includes uo;

b) the first component is unrounded, and the second is rounded; this group includes au, eu;

c) the first component is rounded, and the second is unrounded; this group includes oi, ui;

d) both components are unrounded; this group includes ai, ei, ie.

1. Pure composite diphthong phonemes

Phoneme ai. It begins with a back, low vowel element a and ends with a front, high vowel element i. Between a and i there are two short transitional vowel elements: an open e (approximately 4″—6″ in duration) and a very open i (approximately 5″—7″ in duration).

The phoneme ai occurs at the beginning of a word, e.g.: aikčioti, aigara ‘a wisp, a small straw’, aikštė; in the middle of a word after hard consonants, e.g.: kailis, kaista, gaidys, mergaitė,

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aukštaitis, našlaičiauti; at the open and closed end of a word after hard consonants and after the soft affricates č’, dž’¹⁴, e.g.: visai, vaikai, jaučiai, gaidžiai, vaikais, pirštais, ūsais, karčiais, gaidžiais; in monosyllabic words, e.g.: gaš, kaiš, žais, etc.

The most characteristic combinatory variants of the phoneme ai are the following:

a) a strongly fronted ai after the soft affricates č’, dž’, e.g.: jaučiai, marčiai, medžiai, valdžiai, etc.;

b) a slightly fronted ai after hard coronal consonants d, t, n, l, s, š, z, ž, etc., and labials m, b, p, v, e.g.: namais, tais, vaikas, etc.;

c) a slightly retracted ai after velar consonants g, k, e.g.: gaila, vargai, kaišo, kai, etc.

Phoneme au. Its articulation begins with an open, back, low vowel element a and ends with a closed, back, high vowel element u. Between these two components are three very short transitional vowel elements: an open delabialized ɔ (approximately 4″—6″ in duration), a closed rounded o (approximately 3″—5″ in duration), and an open u (approximately 6″—7″ in duration). They are pronounced as the tongue moves back from the articulation position of a and rises toward the back part of the hard palate until it reaches the articulation position of the closed vowel element u, while the lips are simultaneously rounded and protruded forward.

The most characteristic combinatorial variants of the phoneme au are as follows:

a) a strongly fronted au after all palatalized consonants, e.g.: kniaukė, liautis, šiaustis, jausmas, etc.; articulation of this variant begins with a strongly fronted vocalic element a and ends with a somewhat fronted u;

b) a somewhat fronted au after hard coronal consonants d, t, n, l, s, š, z, ž, etc., and labial consonants m, b, p, v, e.g.: bausti, nauda, táu, etc.;

c) a slightly retracted au after hard velar consonants g, k, e.g.: gaurai, kaukė, kaulas, etc.

The phoneme ei. In current orthography it is represented by two signs: after hard consonant phonemes, by the sign for a softened shade ei, e.g., lakė (past tense, 2nd person singular); after consonant phonemes derived from a consonant cluster with j, and after j, by the sign ai, except in the conjunctions jei, jeigu, e.g., lakiai (cf. lakė), broliai (cf. brólė), vyžiai (cf. vyžė), jai (cf. jei), and so on. In both literary Lithuanian and the dialects, the etymologically written ai in this case is pronounced ei, because the first component of ai, the vowel element a, under the influence of the preceding soft consonant or j (progressive assimilation) and the following front vowel element i—its second component (regressive assimilation)—becomes fully fronted and turns into the front mid vowel element e. The exception is ai after the soft affricates č’, dž’ (see Phoneme ai). Between the principal components of the phoneme ei are two short transitional vowel elements: a very close e (5″—7″ in duration) and an open short i (6″—8″ in duration), pronounced as the tongue rises from the position for the open vowel element e toward the hard palate until it reaches the articulation position for the close i.

The most characteristic combinatorial variants of the phoneme ei are as follows:

¹⁴ After palatalized consonants and after j, except for the palatalized affricates č’, dž’, ai is pronounced ei in standard Lithuanian, while in writing it is represented by the sign ai.

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a) a slightly fronted ai after coronal consonants d, t, n, l, r, s, š, z, ž, etc., labial consonants m, b, p, v, and after j, e.g.: ateis, leis, mėilė, mėil iai (cf. mėilei), jeigu, etc.;

b) a slightly retracted ei after velar consonants g, k, e.g.: geisti, valgėi, valgiai (cf. valgei), kešta, sakėi, etc.

Phoneme eu. Its first component is a front, mid, very close, short vowel element e (therefore the stressed diphthong is marked èu), while the second is a back, high, open vowel element u. Between the principal components is one transitional vocalic element—a short, open, delabialized ɔ (approximately 6″–7″ in duration); it is pronounced as the tongue rises from the position for e toward the position for pronouncing the vowel element u. At the same time, the lips are rounded and protruded forward.

The phoneme eu occurs at the beginning of international words, e.g.: Europa, eufemizmas, eukaliptas, and in the middle, e.g.: pleurà, leukocitai, pneumotoraksas, terapeutas. It does not occur at the end of a word.

In the Southwestern Aukštaitian dialects, the diphthong eu is pronounced in place of the fronted diphthong au of Standard Lithuanian after all palatalized consonants and after j, e.g.: gaudžėu, jėu, kėulė ~ gaudžiau, jau, kiaulė Brt, Ig, VIkv. It is possible that in old written texts, where eu is written after palatalized consonants in place of the Standard Lithuanian diphthong eu, it was pronounced that way, e.g.: džeugtiš DP 211, labieus DP 89, etc. Some Eastern Dzūkian speakers have the diphthong eu in the past-tense form, first-person singular, e.g.: padėu, indėu ~ padėjau, indėjau, etc. However, the diphthong eu in Lithuanian dialects differs in the quality of its constituent vocalic elements from the diphthong eu in international words in Standard Lithuanian: the vocalic element eu of the dialectal diphthong is e open, whereas in Standard Lithuanian it is very close.

Phoneme oi. Its first component is a back, mid, very open, delabialized vowel element ɔ, while the second is a front, high, short, close vowel element i. There are no transitional vocalic elements between the two components.

The most characteristic combinatorial variants of the phoneme oi are as follows:

a) a somewhat fronted oi after hard labial consonants b, p, etc., e.g.: bōileris, poikiloterinai, etc.;

b) a very slightly retracted oi after velar consonants g, k, e.g.: koinė ‘common Ancient Greek language’, etc.

Phoneme ui. Its first component is a back, high, open, rounded vowel element u, and the second is a front, high, close vowel element i. Between the main components of phoneme ui there is one transitional vowel element—a short open i (approximately 7″—8″ in length); it is pronounced when the tip of the tongue moves forward from the u position, while its dorsum rises toward the hard palate to assume the articulatory position for vowel element i. In moving from the pronunciation of u to i, the protruded, rounded lips return to the neutral position.

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme ui are the following:

a) strongly fronted ui after all palatalized consonants, e.g.: akmeniu, vėršiu, vėžiu, etc.;

b) slightly fronted ui after hard anterior lingual consonants

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d, t, l, n, s, š, z, ž, etc., labials m, b, p, v, and at the beginning of a word before these consonants, e.g.: vėltui, tėvui, ūžti, etc.;

c) slightly retracted ui after hard posterior lingual consonants g, k, e.g.: vargui, sargui, vaikui, kūtei, etc.

2. Pure coalescent diphthong phonemes¹⁵

Phoneme ie. Its first component is a front, high, open vowel element i, and the second component is a front, mid, open vowel element e. Since elements i and e are both front vowels, the tongue changes its position very little (as it moves from the pronunciation of i to e, it moves very little both vertically and horizontally); consequently, the two components of diphthong ie merge inseparably, and there are no transitional vowel elements between the components of phoneme ie.

Phoneme ie occurs in the middle of a word, e.g.: bulvėna, kiek, kietis, bulviẽnė, bulvienójas; at the open and closed ends of a word, e.g.: ariẽ, jiẽ, kuriẽ, svĩrtie, vagĩẽs, vinĩẽs, svĩrties, juokĩes, prausies; and in monosyllabic words, e.g.: šie, tie, jie, ties, etc. In Standard Lithuanian, as in the Western Aukštaitian dialects, phoneme ie does not occur at the beginning of a word: in the written language, words that begin with the diphthong ie are pronounced with j, e.g.: iešlaktis (pronounced jiešlaktis), iena (pronounced jiena), ieškóti (pronounced jieškóti), iešmas (pronounced jiešmas), ietis (pronounced jietis), ieva (pronounced jieva), etc., while prefixed words whose root begins with the diphthong ie in the written language are pronounced in Standard Lithuanian with j between the prefix and the root, e.g.: pājėškos (pronounced pājiėškos), pajiėškāis (pronounced pajiėškāis), etc.

Some Eastern Aukštaitians pronounce jiẽško, jiẽva Ppl, Slm, etc., but jiẽna. The pronunciation of diminutive forms of these words also differs: jievėlė ~ ievėlė Ppl, Slm, but ienėlė ~ ienėlė Ppl, Slm. In the Dūnininkai Samogitian dialect, at the beginning of a word before ž, which corresponds to Standard Lithuanian ie, j is likewise not pronounced, e.g.: ėnas ~ ienos Lkv, ėva ~ ievā Lkv; but before ie, corresponding to Standard Lithuanian ė, j is pronounced at the beginning of a word, e.g.: jiẽme ~ ėme Lkv, jiẽroks ~ erūkas Lkv, etc.

The most characteristic combinatory variants of phoneme ie are the following:

a) slightly fronted ie after anterior lingual consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., labials m, b, p, v, and after j, e.g.: dieną, šienas, pienas, miega, vienas, jie, etc.;

b) slightly retracted ie after posterior lingual consonants g, k, e.g.: vagĩės, lenkies, etc.

Phoneme uo. Its first component is a back, high, close vowel element u, and the second is a back, mid, fairly open, unrounded vowel element ɔ. Since, in pronouncing phoneme uo, the tongue changes its position very little both vertically and horizontally, the components of uo merge inseparably, and there are no transitional vowel elements between them.

¹⁵ In the past, linguists called the diphthongs ie, uo of Standard Lithuanian triphthongs, or triftongs, iea, uoa. Experiments conducted using a separator show that neither of these Standard Lithuanian diphthongs contains the vowel element a; rather, there is only a recursional movement after the diphthongs ie, uo—a brief movement of the speech organs from pronouncing these diphthongs back to the neutral position, which other diphthongs also have. In dialects, of course, ie, uo may have the vowel element a at the end.

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The most characteristic combinatory variants of the phoneme uo are as follows:

a) a strongly fronted uo after all palatalized consonants, e.g.: žiliūoti, šiuose, paupiuose, jūodis, etc.;

b) a somewhat fronted uo after hard coronal consonants l, n, d, t, s, š, z, ž, etc., labials m, b, p, v, and at the beginning of a word before these consonants, e.g.: duoti, šūo, pūodas, uostė, etc.;

c) a slightly retracted uo after the velar consonants g, k, e.g.: parguosė, kuoša, kuõlas, etc.

Abbreviations

Brt — Bartininkai, Vilkaviškis District.

Grg — Gargždai.

Ig — Ignalina.

Kbr — Kybartai.

Krš — Kuršėnai.

Lkv — Laukuva.

Cvir R II — P. Cvirka, Raštai, II, 1949.

Ppl — Papilys, Pandėlys District.

Slm — Salamiestis.

Slnt — Salantai.

Škn — Šakyna.

Tvr — Tverečius.

Krèv ŠP — V. Krėvė, Šiaudinėj pastogėj, 1940.

Vlkv — Vilkaviškis.

Všt — Vištytis.

VOWEL AND DIPHTHONG PHONEMES OF THE LITHUANIAN LITERARY LANGUAGE

В. А. ВАЙТКЯВИЧЮТЕ

Summary

Following the fundamentals of phoneme theory briefly set out in the article, the section “Vowel Phonemes and Their Classification” establishes that the Lithuanian literary language has 12 vowel phonemes: i, į, ē, e, ę, ē, ū, u, ō, ə, a, ā, which are divided into long i, ē, ė, ū, ō, ā and short i, e, e, u, ə, a. Duration is considered the principal phonemic feature of vowels in the Lithuanian literary language.

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Since a stressed and an unstressed sound cannot be pronounced separately in a word, stress, which plays a phonemic role in Lithuanian, cannot be a feature of an individual phoneme but belongs to the word as a whole. Intonation could be considered a property of an individual sound, since in Lithuanian every syllable has it and since it encompasses the entire syllable-forming sound. However, given that only the intonation of stressed words can be contrasted, and that a stressed syllable can be identified only within a word, the intonation of stressed and unstressed vowels and diphthongs is considered a feature extending beyond the syllable and belonging to the word as a whole.

Next, the section “Vowel Phonemes and Their Classification” identifies the positional variants of each vowel phoneme, which depend on stress and intonation, and classifies vowels according to the horizontal and vertical movement of the tongue and the action of the lips. This is followed by a description of each vowel phoneme, based on experimental data (radiographs, palatograms, etc.) and auditory analysis, and an account of their combinatory variants.

The section “Diphthong Phonemes and Their Classification” identifies the general features that qualify diphthongs as phonemic and establishes that the Lithuanian literary language has 8 diphthong phonemes: ai, au, ei, eu, oi, ui, ie, uo. It also identifies their positional variants, describes each diphthong phoneme, and distinguishes their combinatory variants.