LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, III

LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA

THE WORD-FINAL DIPHTHONG “-AI” IN THE PLIKIAI DIALECT

-ai¹

D. GARGASAITĖ

Plikiai (plikė) is a settlement 12 km northeast of Klaipėda. The local dialect belongs to the Donininkai Samogitians and lies in the northern corner of their area. During a 1959 dialectological expedition, while the dialect was being studied in the villages of Plikiai, Pakamorai, Šimkai, and Šatriai, an interesting phonetic phenomenon was observed—the word-final diphthong -ai changing into -uo.

The monophthongization of the diphthong ai in the dialect of the Klaipėda and Priekulė areas was observed by A. Becenberger as early as the late 19th century. A. Becenberger represents the monophthongized diphthong ai as ă, for example: rankătas “little hands,” žėdăszei “little flowers.” Regarding the pronunciation of this sound, the author says that ă is pronounced like o, tending toward a long a. Sometimes the author hears a clear, bright o².

R. Trautman also addresses this question when discussing the diphthong ai in Prussian and other Baltic languages. He says that in Lithuanian dialects the falling diphthong ai can become ă, and this, in turn, ā; compare aizkus > ăszkus > āszkus. However, R. Trautman gives examples of monophthongization not only of a falling-tone diphthong (dăkts), but also of a rising-tone one (vāks), involving the diphthong ai. In the same passage, the author notes that the rule that only falling diphthongs can be monophthongized is not strict³.

The monophthongization of the diphthong ai in the dialect of the Klaipėda area was also discussed by V. Fenclau. He notes that in the northern part of the Klaipėda dialect aˈ < ai is pronounced ɔˈ, for example: ṣ̌.mḳṣ̌ ~ Šimkai, ṛu̇.ṣ ~ Rūsai, cf. maṭṣ̌ ~ *matāi⁴. On the basis of the differing outcomes of ai, V. Fenclau divides the Klaipėda dialect into a northern variety, where ai > ɔˈ, and a southern variety, where ai > aˈ, and provides an isogloss for this phenomenon. The southern Klaipėda-area dialect is spoken in Rumšiškė, Pėmpininkai, Švėpeliai, Lūžai, Pocia(i?), Paugai, Alksniai, Eglynai, and Smilgynai. Barškiai, Sudmantai, Lūykiai, Dirvupiai, Leliai, Dūričiai, Bauštininkai, Jokšai, and Šatriai are the first villages along the boundary that speak the northern dialect⁵.

¹ Paper read at the dialectological conference in 1959.

² See A. Bezzenberger, Litauische Forschungen, 13, Göttingen, 1882.

³ See R. Trautmann, Die altpreussischen Sprachdenkmäler, 143, Göttingen, 1910.

⁴ See W. Fenzlau, Die deutschen Formen der litauischen Orts- und Personennamen des Memelgebiets, 13, Halle, 1936.

⁵ “Die Isoglosse zwischen der Südm inemeler und Nordmemeler Mundart:

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Plikiai, Šimkai, Pakamorai, and Šatriai lie within the northern dialect area.

The linguists mentioned above have neither discussed in detail the monophthongization of the diphthong ai in the dialect of the Klaipėda area nor noted the change of ai to uo.

In the dialect of the Plikiai area, the word-final diphthong -ai becomes -uo (pronounced as o with a slight u coloring) when it follows a hard consonant, e.g.: baltuo ~ baltai ‘white’, gėruo ~ gerai ‘well’, matuo ~ matai ‘you see’. The word-final diphthong -ai, after becoming -ei following a soft consonant, is pronounced e, e.g.: bjaurė: ši pavasarį buvo šalt bjaurė ~ this spring was cold and terribly; gražė: prekuliškė gražė kalb ~ the people of Priekulė speak beautifully.

The word-final diphthong -ai becomes -uo:

1. In the nominative plural of a-stem nouns, e.g.: trīs beržūo ~ trys beržai ‘three birches’, penkī sūnū ~ penki sūnai ‘five sons’, plūnī rūbū ~ ploni rūbai ‘thin clothes’.

2. In the instrumental plural of a-stem pronouns and nominal words, e.g.: su tūs vaistūs: manē gērkli rēk patēpī su tūs vaistūs ~ I need to apply those medicines to my throat; su nagūs kāp, a su nagūs ēmisi ~ how, will you take it with your fingernails; pu pātalūs: gulēk pu pātalūs ~ lie down under the bedclothes.

Most likely by analogy, -ai at the end of a word sometimes becomes -o even after a soft consonant if a word containing the diphthong -ai after a hard consonant occurs nearby, e.g.: su pênkūos, su ketūruos: su pênkūos vežēmūos i ketūruos lōb ūkininkū mėšlus pūdī mū vežtė ~ to take manure to the fallow fields with five carts and four carts, as the farmers used to do.

3. In the dative singular of o-stem pronouns and nominal words, e.g.: švėsuōb: aš esu vežēmōs krūovus pi’ mėnesa švėsuō ~ I have loaded carts by the light of the moon; tūo rankūo: kās tūo mana rankūo ~ what is that to my hand; tūo mērgūo: aš pasakēsu tūo mērgū ~ I will tell that girl.

4. In the second-person singular present-tense form of o-stem verbs, e.g.: sakūo: kān tu manē sakūo ~ what are you telling me; dērbūo: kān tu vakār vėsō dēnō dērbūo ~ what did you work on all day yesterday; bovūo: kōr tu bovūo ~ where were you.

5. In adverbs formed from a-stem adjectives, e.g.: gērūo, vūkēškūo: aš mūku gērūo vūkēškūo ~ I speak German well; baltūo: liliji baltūo žī’d ~ the lily blooms white; nēgērūo: manē nēgērūo ~ I feel unwell.

The material shows that the change of word-final diphthong -ai to -uo in the Plikiai dialect is a phonetic rather than a morphological phenomenon, since the change generally occurs in different parts of speech in a particular phonetic environment, namely after a hard consonant.

In general, the diphthongs ai and ei tend to undergo monophthongization in Samogitia. However, it should be assumed that the monophthongization of the diphthongs ai and ei is not old. In Mažvydas’s catechism

Southern Memel Lithuanian is still spoken in Rumpischken, Neuhof, Schwepeln, Schuscheiken-Jahn, Podszeit-Stankus, Paugen, Bajhor-Mitzko, Eglienen, and Schmillgienen. On the other hand, the first representatives of the Northern Memel dialect are the localities of Barschken, Sudmanten-Trusch, Liebken, Clausmühlen, Löllen, Dinwethen, Baugskorallen, Gr. Jagschen, and Schattern. “See ibid., 16.

⁶The transcription used is similar to that of J. Aleksandravičius. See J. Aleksandravičius, Stress and intonation in the Kretinga dialect. — Issues in Lithuanian Linguistics, 1, 97—106, Vilnius 1957. The opening of short i and u is marked according to V. Fenclau. See W. Fenzlau, cited work, 29—37.

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it is almost absent. It is thought that this monophthongization began to occur later, already after the time of Mažvydas⁷.

The change of the word-final diphthong -ai in the Plikiai dialect has probably proceeded further than elsewhere in Žemaitija. Initially, ai was monophthongized, and a began to be pronounced instead of ai. Subsequently, aː is likely to have changed into ā; compare the transitional sound between a and o in the Klaipėda area (Kačklininkai, Melnragė), for example: vaːks ~ vaikas (V. Fenclau transcribes it as ɔː: βɔːks ~ vaikas⁸), which indicates that the process of a changing into o was only half complete. Subsequently, the vowel o may have become slightly diphthongized, like other stressed final o vowels in the Plikiai dialect, for example: ãnūos ~ anõs, ànūõ ~ anõ, šãkūoms ~ šakõms “with branches.”

It is worth noting that the fate of stem ai is different: here ai is rarely monophthongized, for example: dākta ~ daikto. Most often it remains intact, for example: kerdãitis ~ kerdaitis “little shepherd,” pāiks ~ paik as “stupid,” vaikẽlis ~ vaikėlis. Stem ei is monophthongized more often than ai in the Plikiai dialect, for example: rēk ~ reikia, ēit ~ eiti, patēkte ~ pateigti “to tell,” lēd ~ lèida, “allows,” although vėizu ~ vėizu “I look.”

Thus, the word-final diphthong -ai in the Plikiai dialect has undergone a longer developmental path than stem ai, since word-final -ai was regularly monophthongized earlier in this dialect, as in other Žemaitian dialects. It should be assumed that this change of word-final -ai into -uo is not an old phenomenon. On the contrary, it is the result of the further development of the diphthong -ai, which most likely occurred only after the time of Mažvydas.

THE WORD-FINAL DIPHTHONG -ai IN THE PLIKIAI DIALECT

D. I. Gargasaite

Summary

The settlement of Plikiai is located 12 km northeast of the city of Klaipėda. The dialect of this settlement belongs to the donininkai subdialect of Žemaitian.

During a dialectological expedition in 1959, an interesting phenomenon was observed in the vicinity of Plikiai—the change of word-final diphthong -ai into -ʊo.

At the beginning of the article, an overview of the literature on this question is provided (A. Bezzenberger, R. Trautmann, V. Fenzlau). The cases in which the diphthong -ai at the end of a word can change into -ʊo are then indicated. This change occurs in all parts of speech when -ai follows a hard consonant (except in cases of analogy). The author concludes that this is a phonetic, not a morphological, phenomenon.

The process by which -ai changes into -ʊo is probably as follows: the word-final diphthong -ai was monophthongized (ai > aː). Subsequently, aː in this dialect changed-

⁷ See J. Senkus, The dialect of the first Lithuanian book. — Lithuanian Linguistics Questions, 1, 73, Vilnius, 1957.

⁸ See W. Fenzlau, cited work, 13.

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came to be pronounced as o (cf. the transitional sound ă in the vicinity of Klaipėda) and, finally, o came to be pronounced with a barely perceptible hint of u, like all stressed o sounds in the Plikiai dialect.

It should be assumed that in the Plikiai dialect the final diphthong -ai underwent a longer course of development than -ai in other Samogitian dialects. This transition probably took place only after the time of Mažvydas (1547).