LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI,I

LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA

PHONETICS OF THE MITUVA RIVER BASIN DIALECT¹

E. GRINAVECKIENĖ

Transcription

Dialectal examples throughout this work are written using the usual orthography of the literary language (hereafter LL), but an effort is made to record them as they are heard. This is done because the dialect under study is not very far removed from LL either in the quantity or in the quality of its individual sounds. At times, when it is essential to represent more precisely a particular instance of the pronunciation of a dialect sound, the transcription symbols of the “Program for Collecting Materials for the Atlas of the Lithuanian Language”² are used.

I. General Symbols

1. Length. a) The length of stressed vowels is always indicated by the acute or circumflex accent mark, e.g.: lãšas, lẽkė ~ lėkė, mõlis, nỹkšt ~ nyksta, pẽrīt ~ pėrinti, sūris.

b) Unstressed long vowels are marked in the same way as in LL, e.g.: didiji, grẽžiu, kąsniùks ~ kąsniukas, pėdai, plyšys, sūnùs, šokìms ~ šokimas, vãrnu.

c) The length of the long a in the unstressed suffix -av- of verbs and nouns derived from them is not marked. It is indicated by the acute accent of secondary stress, e.g.: šūkava ~ šūkavo. The length of this vowel a is discussed in § 20.

d) The long element of stressed diphthongs is marked with the acute or circumflex accent on the first element, e.g.: sáulė leĩdžes ~ saulė leidžiasi, šẽms ~ šėmas, žvỹrduobė ~ žvyrduobė; however, in acute diphthongs i, o, u + l, m, n, r, the first element is always short, e.g.: pùlt ~ pulti, pìlt ~ pilti, raudõnė ~ raudonas.

e) The half-length of the elements of stressed diphthongs is likewise not marked. It is indicated by the circumflex or mid-tone accent placed over the second element. In diphthongs stressed with the circumflex accent, both elements are half-long, e.g.: kõ teib graũdžei veĩket ~ kõ teip (= taip) graudžiai veikiate; in diphthongs stressed with the mid-tone accent, the first element is half-long, while the second is always short, e.g.: geram⁴ ~ geramė, medum⁴ ~ medumi.

¹The phonetics of the Mituva River basin dialect (hereafter Mut) is Part I of the work “The Mituva River Basin Dialect.” The complete work is held in the manuscript collection of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (see E. Grinaveckienė. Mitu vos upyno tarmė, Vilnius, 1955).

²See Program for Collecting Materials for the Atlas of the Lithuanian Language, 2nd ed., Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR, Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature, Vilnius, 1956.

³In diphthongs and words of foreign origin, the vowel o is weakly labialized and pronounced with a slight a coloring. This kind of o is discussed in greater detail in § 13. On the change of s to c after n, see § 98.

⁴When it occurs before a hard consonant, the vowel e in the dialect is always broadened and pronounced like LL ia. This broad e is discussed in § 83.

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2. Softness. The softness of consonants before front vowels is generally not marked, e.g.: šešė, sesulė, šešė jaunoje, delkė atėjoji no motinėlės ~ sese sesulė, sese jaunoja, dėl ko atstojai nuo motinėlės, but in the “Consonantism” section, under “Consonant softness,” it is marked by an arc over the consonant. Before retracted back vowels, consonant softness is marked with a softening sign i, as in lk, e.g.: numėšiu didžių dovanėlių.

3. Aspiration. In general, consonant aspiration is not marked in the work, except in the “Consonantism” section “Consonant aspiration.” There it is marked by an inverted hook sign above the right-hand side of the consonant.

4. Vowel fronting. Regular vowel fronting under the influence of j is not marked anywhere in the work, e.g.: apjudīt ~ apjūdinti, jōje ~ jójo, žiōplas.

5. Semivowels. The intermediate sound of newly formed diphthongs and triphthongs between u and v is written v, and the intermediate sound between i and j=j, because when these sounds occur at the end of a word, their pronunciation is more consonant-like, e.g.: dangų̃ ~ danguję, medų̃ ~ meduję, šautuvus ~ šautuvas, tėvus ~ tėvas.

6. Punctuation. The usual lk punctuation marks are used throughout the work: period, comma, colon, and so on, e.g.: tai nāms būna gražūs, o dabar tik triōbėtes lika ~ tai nāmas buvo gražūs, o dabar tik triōbėvietos liko; kam jį gal pasikūsti: niēkam ō niēkam.

7. Other signs. a) A sign shaped like a lying question mark, placed between two words or sentences, indicates the transposition of a dialect form into lk—it is a tilde. In the work, the tilde is used only where, owing to sound change, a dialect word or form has diverged from its lk counterpart (word), e.g.: kiēt ~ kiētas, lēč ~ lēdas, but: pēda, šalta.

b) If a dialect word is not used in lk, or differs in meaning from the corresponding lk word, its meaning is also explained in parentheses, e.g.: bilkštis (a bang, noise), drūc ~ drūtas (strong).

II. Stress

a) The position of primary and (in rare cases) secondary stress is marked in the work by pitch-accent signs, e.g.: dūona, kitì, mylėdāva ~ mylėdavo, vilkāi.

b) A word carrying sentence stress is printed in bold type, e.g.: suvalgiau, niēka tāu nepalikau.

III. Accentuation

1. Accentuation of stressed syllables. a) The short accent is marked with a grave (`), e.g.: girè ~ giria, rankà, visi.

b) The acute accent is marked with an acute accent (´), e.g.: brōlis, lóva, sāulė ~ saulė.

c) The circumflex accent is marked with a circumflex (~), e.g.: krāujas, luobai, raugai.

d) The mid accent is marked with a vertical s-shaped sign, e.g.: pùs, vaikai (plural vocative), visōms ~ visomis.

2. Accentuation of unstressed syllables. Throughout the work, accents on unstressed syllables are not marked. In the section “Accents of unstressed syllables,” they are marked with the sign for the corresponding accent, e.g.: grēbēje ~ grėbėja, bópturgis ~ bóbturgis.

3. Accentuation of secondary stress. Throughout the work, the accent of secondary stress is not marked anywhere. In the section “Accentuation of secondary stress,” it is marked in the same way as the accent of unstressed syllables, e.g.: šūkava ~ šūkavo.

Introduction

I. The dialect area, name, inhabitants, sources, and principal dialect features

§ 1. Mut lies on the northern bank of the Nemunas. It occupies the area between Smalininkai, Vėdžgirys, Šimkaičiai, Stakiai, and Skišnemunė (see map, Fig. 1; hereafter map). The largest cultural and administrative center of this area is Jūr-

⁵ The nasal n, when preceding velars k, g, is always back-of-the-tongue.

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barkas. Under the old administrative division, the dialect area belonged to Raseiniai County and constituted Jurbarkas District; under the current division, the dialect under study occupies the southern edge of Raseiniai District and most of Jurbarkas District, excluding the western corner near Smalininkai and the southeastern corner near the village of Paulių-Barzdžių. Forests surround the dialect area to the west, north, and east, and form clear boundaries. The southern boundary of the dialect runs along the Nemunas.

§ 2. On the basis of the shortening of the unstressed old long endings -a, -as, -e, -es (standard Lithuanian -o, -os, -ė, -ės) (šaka ~ šako, šākas ~ šākos, šākė ~ šākė, šākės ~ šākės), the dialect is classified as Northwestern Aukštaitian. The boundary of conditional stress retraction (along the route Juodáičiai — Júodkėnai — Paislynys) separates it from the other Northwestern Aukštaitian dialects. The dialect under study preserves the standard Lithuanian stress position. The retention of hard l before back vowels distinguishes the dialect under study from the Northwestern Aukštaitian dialects of the former Klaipėda Region (west of Smalininkai, because of German influence, people say plíaũks ~ plãukas, suplióta ~ suplóta).

The dialect lies between the Samogitian Dūnininkai and the Veliuona Aukštaitians. In the northwestern part of the dialect area (the border with the Samogitian Dūnininkai: the villages of Vertimai, Valučkai, Dargaitėliai, and Pāvidaujys), there are more dialect features shared with the Samogitian Dūnininkai. Here, the sporadic change of standard Lithuanian ė to > ie: miesą ~ mesą, tėves ~ tēvas, is already noticeable; as is > uo: muotina ~ mótina, muor ~ nória (wants); ie > y: vysnė ~ viešnia, žvyg ~ žviegią; and uo > ū: akūc ~ akuotas. The infinitive ending -t is consistently (including among young people) usually soft here, as in the Samogitian Dūnininkai infinitive ending -ti; for example: jōt, kráũt, šōkĭ. In the eastern part of the dialect area (the border with the Veliuona Aukštaitians: the villages of Pāalsis and Pāantvardis), there are more features shared with the Veliuona dialect: the infinitive -t is pronounced hard and aspirated: mištc, sūkrė; unstressed word-final Baltic ē > ė > i: maiši ~ maišė, šākĭ ~ šākė; ā > o > u: dāru ~ dāro, lāšu ~ lāšo; sporadically, word-initial e changes to a: āgli ~ eglė, ainū ~ einū, aigulys ~ eigulys. In the northern part of the dialect area, near the boundary with the Northwestern Aukštaitians who conditionally retract stress (the villages of Kniečiai, Vōlungiškė, and Degimai), sporadic retraction of stress from a short ending to a long penultimate syllable is observed, for example: ēinu ~ einù, žēngiu ~ žengiu.

From what has been said, it is clear that the dialect under study, occupying only a small part of the Northwestern Aukštaitian dialect area and situated between two comparatively large dialects, is a transitional dialect.

§ 3. The dialect under study was named the “Mitu vos River Basin Dialect” on purely geographical grounds. The Mitu vos River flows through the dialect area, along with almost its entire river basin (see map), which mostly begins in forests that make up a large part of the dialect’s boundaries (cf. § 1). For this reason, the name Mitu vos River Basin Dialect is the best fit for this area.

§ 4. Linguistically, the dialect may be said to be homogeneous (taking into account the differences at the edges of the dialect area mentioned above). Socially, the majority of the dialect’s inhabitants are collective-farm workers. In addition to them, there are many workers and intellectuals. The speech of the intellectuals shows considerable influence from standard Lithuanian and other dialects. Besides the periodical press and radio, they are one of the most important sources of standard Lithuanian influence in the dialect.

§ 5. Material for the description of the dialect was collected from people’s speech in 1948–1955. A considerable part of it was collected from the author’s family and neighbors,

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living right near Jurbarkas, in Krišiai village. A substantial part of the material was recorded in places situated in the middle of the dialect area: Kalnėnai, Smukučiai, Vajotai, Lukšiai, Gedžiai, Girdžiai, Dainiai, Kuturiai, Rūtuliai, Geišiai, Jokūbaičiai, and Pažerai villages (see map). Another part of the material was recorded in villages on the borders of the dialect area and beyond them: Palėkiai, Žirniškiai, Meškininkai, Mantviliai, Globijai, Žindaičiai, Bandzinai, Balniai, Jėrubškiai, Kavoliai, Pavidaujas, Paškynai, Vādžgiris, Žvirblaukis, Bebirvai, Pātolupis, Pagriaužis, Griaužai, Rievai, Aužgiris, Rupėikiai, Degimai, Jōvališkė, Kazokai, Pāritupis, Pauliai, Pāantvardis, Naūkaimis, Skirsnemuniškiai, and Jakaičiai villages (see map).

In all, approximately 8,000 slips of material containing sentences and phraseology were collected. About 400 dialect speakers—older and younger people—and about 50 people living in the vicinity of the dialect under study were interviewed. In interviewing dialect speakers, care was taken to ensure that the interviewee was a local resident and spoke the dialect well.

II. Dialect boundaries

§ 6. Western boundary. This boundary is short. It separates Mut from the northwestern Aukštaitians of the former Klaipėda Region. The boundary essentially coincides with the former border of the Klaipėda Region near Smalininkai—it is formed by the Pašventys, Jurbarkinė, and Mantviliai forests as far as the Laukėsai marshes and Eičiai. The Mut area includes the villages along the boundary: Pašventys, Žirniškiai, Plėntrakiai, and Mantviliai.

Beyond this boundary live the same northwestern Aukštaitians as in Mut, except that, owing to the influence of German, they always pronounce the sound l as palatalized, e.g.: gliuosnỹs ~ gluosnỹs, žỹliūtės (little blue tits), pliuokštas (bundle), liūbas ~ liūbos. Here one can also observe the influence of the Samogitian dūnininkai: irregular o > uo: pakūojes ~ pakōjos, rūope ~ rōpė; ie > y: prỹbutis ~ priebūtis, ruoputỹnė ~ roputienė (potato dish); Germanisms are plentiful, e.g.: nėgelis (nail), šmānta (sour cream), rindà (feeding trough), stalċ ~ staldas (barn), and so forth.

§ 7. Northwestern boundary. This boundary starts at the Laukėsai marshes near Mantviliai village. It runs north along the eastern edge of the Mantvilinė forest to the Mituvė at Bandzinai and Vertimai villages. From there it turns northeast and runs past Žindaičiai, along the southern edge of Balandinė Forest and Drebuly­nė Forest, through the Pavidaujinės and Šimkaitinės forests, as far as Vādzgiris and Kniečiai.

Northwest of this boundary live Samogitian dūnininkai, who in certain cases have lk ie > y: pỹnc ~ pienas, svỹsc ~ sviestas; uo > ū: púc ~ pūodas, siūls ~ siūolas (bench); ē > ie: gieda ~ gėda, lielē ~ lėlė, žiūriek ~ žiūrėk; o > uo: mūotyna ~ mótyna, tūoke biūoba ~ tókio bóba, vyniōdas kalbūos ~ vienōdos kalbōs.

Mut speakers call those who speak Samogitian laiviais, and call speaking Samogitian laiviuoti.

§ 8. Northeastern boundary. Starting near Vādzgiris, this boundary runs east past Kniečiai and Mėdininkai and meets the vast forest—Birbiliškė—at Griaužai.

This boundary separates Mut from the northwestern Aukštaitians, who conditionally retract the accent. It varies over a span of 6–7–10 km, since the characteristics of stress and intonation,

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generally, has no sharply defined boundaries⁶. North of this boundary, stress is retracted from a short ending to the long penultimate syllable, e.g.: netuõli ~ netoli, žmuõna ~ žmonà, miẽsa ~ mẽsa, kruõpas ~ kruopas. In addition, near this boundary the mixing of the Žemaitian dūnininkai and Veliuona dialects is clearly perceptible: as in the Žemaitian dūnininkai dialect, sometimes 1k ė > ie: niẽra ~ nẽra, sujiedi ~ suẽdė; and > uo: kuõjes ~ kójos, stuovemuoje ~ stoviamója (grįčia, dwelling); as in the Veliuona dialect, sometimes unstressed 1k ie > e, uo > u: megõt ~ miegóti, rešutai ~ riešutai, tujau ~ tuojau, žedusė ~ žieduose; 1k e at the beginning of a word has shifted to a: aĩk ~ eik, nuaini ~ nueini; stressed e is pronounced in all cases like 1k ia, represented in phonetic transcription by the ligature æ, formed from the letters a and e, e.g.: sænis ~ sėnis, vaikẽli ~ vaikėli, žẽme ~ žẽmė; first- and second-person plural future-tense verbs have the endings -sme, -ste: būsme ~ būsime, būste ~ būsite.

Mut speakers call people who retract stress conditionally laukinaičiais, and call speaking in their dialect laukinaičiuoti.

§ 9. Eastern boundary. The boundary between the Aukštaitian Veliuona dialect and the northwestern Aukštaitian dialect near Skirsnemunė, as shown on the dialect map compiled in 1933⁷, does not coincide with the present-day boundary between Mut and the Veliuona dialect. In fact, the following places now also belong to the Veliuona dialect: Skirsnemunė, the village of Paulių-Barzdžių, Stakiai, and the area along this stretch: Stakiai — Griaužų village — Ariógala. Thus the boundary between Mut and the Veliuona dialect, beginning at the northwestern edge of Birbiliškė near Griaužai, runs along the western edge of Birbiliškė, southwest of the villages of Rievai, Rupėikiai, Kazokai, and Jōvališkė, then follows the Alsė River and the northern edge of Paslauskīnė Forest as far as Paulių-Barzdžių village and the northwestern side of Rudzinskīnė Forest. From here it turns directly south. The Differencijos and Jasinskīnė forests form this stretch. Near Skirsnemunė it meets the Nemunas.

This isogloss also fluctuates across an area several kilometers wide, since the speech of the same people exhibits characteristic features of both Mut and the Veliuona dialect.

East of this boundary lies the Veliuona dialect, characterized by the following principal features:

a) unstressed word-final 1k -ė corresponds to -i, and o to u, e.g.: kárvi ~ kárvė, kiaũli ~ kiaũlė, miši ~ mušė, nėši ~ nėšė, nāmu ~ nāmo, sāku ~ sāko, vaiku ~ vaiko;

b) the unstressed endings -ės and -os remain intact, as in 1k⁸, e.g.: kātės, pēlės, rañkos, vāgos;

c) e at the beginning of a word always shifts to a, e.g.: ainù, aigulỹs, arškētis;

d) stressed e is always pronounced with an a-like coloring, as 1k ia, e.g.: mergēli ~ mergėlė, vaikēli ~ vaikėli.

e) the infinitive ending -t is invariably pronounced hard and aspirated, e.g.: ait⁽c⁾ ~ eiti, jōr, šōktę;

⁶ Cf. P. Jonikas, Pagramančio tarmė (hereafter PT), § 5, Kaunas, 1939.

⁷ See A. Salys, Archivum Philologicum (hereafter APh), 4, Kaunas (1933), and the map.

⁸ These sounds are rendered as -is, -us at the end of a word only by those speakers of the Veliuona dialect who live east of the Veliuona–Ariogala line.

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f) future-tense verbs have the ending -sme in the first-person plural and -ste in the second-person plural, e.g.: nešme ~ nešime, skalpsme ~ skalbsime, skalpste ~ skalbsite;

g) the first element of secondary diphthongs y, ū + l, m, n, r is always pronounced short, e.g.: báltims (protein), sūrmaišis (sūrmaišis).

§ 10. Southern boundary. This boundary, beginning at Skirsnemunė, follows the Nemunas westward as far as the former border of the Klaipėda Region at Smalininkai.

In Užnemunė the same Veliuona dialect is spoken, e.g.: ėmi ~ ėmė, dári ~ darė, lášu ~ lášo, mánu ~ máno, vīrs ~ výras, žvīrs ~ žvýras, but here word-initial e does not change to a: einu, eilė; stressed e before a palatal consonant is not pronounced as ia here: kvailėlė ~ kvailėlė; the first and second persons plural of future-tense verbs are pronounced as 1k: ėsim, nėšim, šóksit.

III. Dialect map

§ 11. A dialect map showing the dialect area and its boundaries accompanies the description. Since the map’s main purpose is to highlight the dialect boundaries, it does not mark smaller localities; instead, attention is focused chiefly on places relevant to delineating the dialect boundaries and clarifying the dialect’s name. All the place names written on the map are in the forms used by speakers of the dialect, but transposed into standard Lithuanian.

Fig. 1. Boundaries of the Mituva River basin dialect. 1 — administrative district boundaries, 2 — forest boundaries, 3 — boundary of the northwestern Aukštaitian dialect that palatalizes t before back and central vowels, 4 — boundary of the Samogitian dūnininkai dialect, 5 — boundary of the Mituva River basin dialect, 6 — boundary of the northwestern Aukštaitian dialect that conditionally retracts stress, 7 — boundary of the Veliuona dialect, 8 — zone of variation in conditional stress retraction

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IV. Some historical data on the area under study and an overview of dialect research

§ 12. a) The Mut area lies in the western part of the Aukštaitian dialect region and adjoins the Samogitian dūnininkai area (see § 2). From ancient times, the names Aukštaitians and Samogitians denoted not a linguistic but a purely geographical concept: Samogitians were inhabitants of lowlands, Aukštaitians inhabitants of uplands⁹. K. Būga¹⁰ conjectures that these two names originated around the beginning of the 13th century. The Samogitians then lived in the lowlands of the Nevėžis. The name Samogitians appears in Russian sources at the beginning of the 13th century¹¹. This shows that the name itself must have originated earlier. If these names were not associated with language, it is entirely possible that the Lithuanians living west of the Nevėžis, who were not Samogitians, also came to be called Samogitians—that is, inhabitants of lowlands. Thus, until the emergence of Lithuanian dialectology as a discipline, when the names Aukštaitians and Samogitians became names for dialects, the Mut area belonged to Samogitia geographically and administratively.

b) Historical data show¹² that until the mid-14th century the area of the dialect under study, like most of the southern Samogitian area, formed part of the territory of Karšuva. Facts reported in the chronicles indicate that Lithuanians lived in this area¹³. The chronicles mention some names of castles and places in the area at that time, which have survived unchanged to the present day; for example, the Chronicle of Dusburg mentions¹⁴ that Bebirvaitė Castle stood in this area and was burned by the Teutonic Knights in 1307. Bebirvytis is a small river in the north of the area under study. Near Bebirvytis is the village of Bebirvai, established on the site of the former Bebirvai estate (see map). In 1315 the Chronicle of Dusburg mentions Skirsnemunė Castle (Cristmemele) for the first time¹⁵ (today the town of Skirsnemunė, on the eastern edge of the area described). The Chronicle of Wigand of Marburg mentions the river M i t u v a in the area under study for the first time in 1357¹⁶: “In 1357 Marshal Siegfried … suddenly entered the land of the Lithuanians and came to a river called Mituva in the language of the local people”…; the Chronicle of Dusburg states¹⁷ that in 1259 the Teutonic Knights built George’s Castle in the land of Karšuva (now the city of Jurbarkas), along with many others.

During the 13th–15th centuries the area under study was constantly raided and plundered by the Teutonic Knights. As a result, the population of the land of Karšuva declined, and its administrative divisions also changed. Several districts were formed in this land. Sources from around the 16th century already mention the district of Karšuva in Samogitia¹⁸. At that time, only the southeastern Samogitians belonged to this district. In the 16th century, the area under study was part of Veliuona county and formed the northern part of Jurbarkas and

⁹ Žr. Lietuviškoji enciklopedija, 2, 199, Kaunas, 1934.

¹⁰ Žr. K. Būga, Lietuvių kalbos žodynas (toliau LKŽ), LIII, Kaunas, 1924.

¹¹ Žr. A. Salys, Die žemaitischen Mundarten (toliau ŽM), 6, Kaunas, 1930.

¹² Ten pat, 31—32 ir žemėlapis.

¹³ Lietuvos TSR istorijos šaltiniai, 1, 53, Vilnius, 1955.

¹⁴ Ten pat, 53.

¹⁵ Ibid., 37.

¹⁶ Ibid., 78.

¹⁷ See A. Salys, ŽM, 31.

¹⁸ See Acts published by the Vilnius Commission for the Analysis of Ancient Acts, 25, 8—93, Wilna, 1898.

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part of Veliuona County. Jakubowski’s map¹⁹ shows that in the 16th century Veliuona District extended northwestward to the Pajūris and Karšuva counties, bordered the Viduklė and Raseiniai counties to the north, reached the Vilkija County to the east, and stretched south across the Nemunas as far as the Šešupė. The map shows that at that time the area under study was heavily forested and sparsely populated. This is also indicated by the relatively low annual revenues collected from these counties.

c) It is known from the history of dialectology that various natural obstacles (forests, marshes, rivers, etc.) that hindered communication among people, as well as old administrative units, have influenced the formation of the boundaries of certain dialects²⁰.

The geographical location of the area and its administrative affiliation may have influenced the formation of the dialect boundaries and the establishment of its dialectal features, as has been the case with many other dialects. As already mentioned, from the 16th century the area under study belonged to Veliuona District and was sparsely populated. In addition, large forests separated this area from Samogitia to the northwest. Consequently, according to some linguists²¹, the population may have been augmented by Western Aukštaitian newcomers who migrated from the Nevėžis lowland.

In view of these circumstances, one might suppose that all this could have created conditions for Western Aukštaitian dialect features to become established in this area. Maintaining contact with their neighbors, the Western Aukštaitians of this area may also have introduced some of their neighbors’ dialectal features into their own dialect. For example, following the northwestern Samogitian neighbors’ example, they may have begun to pronounce both components of stressed diphthongs with a circumflex accent at equal length, placing the accent midway through both components, e.g.: ãu.c ~ aũtas, ba.i.sei ~ baisiai, da.l.gis ~ dalgis²². The rules for the shortening of word-final vowels in the dialect under study may also be explained by the influence of the Samogitian dialect.

d) With the advent of the scientific study of the Lithuanian language, its territory began to be divided into dialects. D. Klein already notes in his grammar that the Samogitian dialect differs most from all the other Lithuanian dialects, although he uses the name Samogitian in an administrative sense²³.

About 200 years later, A. Schleicher divided the Lithuanian language into Aukštaitian and Samogitian dialects. He, too, did not specify a clear boundary between these dialects²⁴.

In 1861, J. Juška’s work “Kalbos Lėtuviszko lėžuv’o ir lėtuviszkas statraszimas arba ortografija” was published²⁵. Here J. Juška divided the Lithuanian language into dialects for the first time, approximately. He distinguished four dialects: Samogitian, Prussian Lithuanian, Ariogala, and Eastern Lithuanian. The Ariogala area roughly coincides with the Western Aukštaitian area. In specifying the boundaries of the Ariogala dialect, J. Juška

¹⁹ See J. Jakubowski, Map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Mid-Sixteenth Century, 1, Kraków, 1928.

²⁰ See A. Salys, APh, 4, 22, 27, 28, 29, Kaunas (1933).

²¹ See A. Salys, ŽM, 112—113.

²² See APh, 4, 28; PT, § 15.

²³ Žr. Grammatica Litvanica... M. Danieli Klein, XVI, Regiomonti, 1653.

²⁴ See A. Schleicher, Handbuch der litauischen Sprache, 4—6, Prag, 1856.

²⁵ Jon’s Juszka, Kalbos Lėtuviszko lėžuv’o ir lėtuviszkas statraszimas arba ortografija, Peterburgas, 1861.

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says that the western Ariogala dialect extends as far as Jurbarkas²⁶. Jurbarkas is, in fact, close to the Samogitian border (see map). Since J. Juška did not specify precise boundaries, it may be said that he was the first to assign the Mut area to the Western Aukštaitian dialect (in J. Juška’s terminology, the Ariogala dialect). Speaking about the Ariogala dialect, J. Juška correctly notes some characteristic dialectal features of the Ariogala speakers (including those of Mut), which have survived in the dialect under study and have remained unchanged to this day²⁷.

At the end of the nineteenth century, as interest in Lithuanian dialects grew for practical and scholarly purposes, the Mut area also began to be studied more extensively. This is evident from a letter dated September 14, 1882, which has survived and was written from Pasvalys²⁸. The author of the letter (whether J. Jablonskis or J. Spudulis has not been established) points out a considerable number of phonetic and lexical features of the Skirsnemunė area (now the Mut area).

In describing the dialectal features of the Skirsnemunė speakers, the letter’s author distinguishes them from the Eastern Aukštaitians by their different pronunciation of the consonant l, e.g.: “...Like the Gruzdžiai speakers (now the northwestern Aukštaitians, who retract the accent — E. G.), the Skersnemunė speakers (the letter’s author calls the Skirsnemunė speakers Skersnemuniečiai, apparently because, being somewhat broadened in the dialect, cf. § 13, it could have sounded similar to the Samogitian ė to an unaccustomed ear < l—E. G.) say saulė, meilė, and not saulta, meilta…”²⁹, and, comparing them with the Gruzdžiai speakers, correctly groups these localities into a single dialectal unit and assigns the Skirsnemunė speakers to the Western Aukštaitians, e.g.: “...The Skersnemunė speakers, like those of Gruzdžiai, belong to the highland dialects; if I am not mistaken, according to the distribution of Rev. Baranauskas, to the Western Lithuanians, for they have already crossed beyond the boundary between the Eastern Lithuanians and the Samogitians...”³⁰.

The letter also gives some lexical differences between the Skirsnemunė speakers and the Gruzdžiai dialect, and compares their dialect with others, e.g.: “...The speech of the Skersnemunė speakers can be said to be almost the same in dialectal pronunciation as that of the Gruzdžiai speakers, except that it has many words borrowed from German: thus they call a house gricza, a shovel — sztuba, lopeta — szpatu, badly — szlektai...”³¹ and “...Furthermore, they call many things differently from elsewhere, namely, they call a toad rupužę pamatinę, and bulbes they call rapukais; apuszę — drebulę; bezdą — alywą; miszką — giriją; medžus — firewood; sodžus — villages; kutę — courtyard;... piszorių — clerk;... mergaitę they call merga, and, as a very endearing form, merguczę...”³².

The dialectal features of the Skirsnemunė speakers given in this letter, although accurate, are incidental and incomplete.

K. Jaunius studied the dialect of this area somewhat more extensively in his description of the Raseiniai dialect³³. This work mentions that the “...triangle...” of Raseiniai County lay between

²⁶ Jon’s Juszka, cited work, 8.

²⁷ See ibid., 24, 25, 27.

²⁸ See the Lithuanian SSR Academy of Sciences, Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature manuscript collection, No. 2256.

²⁹ Ibid., 1.

³⁰ Ibid., 1.

³¹ Ibid., 1.

³² Ibid., 2.

³³ Žr. Кс. К. Явнисъ, Описание Россіенскаго уѣзда, 20—55, Ковна, 1893.

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The area between the post stations of Vereduva and Tauragė is inhabited by Lithuanians who pronounce pie- muo, lietuvis…’³⁴ (in this case the acute accent marks a stressed sound — E. G.). The examples given here show that K. Jaunius, like J. Juška, correctly assigned the southern corner of Raseiniai County (the Mut area) to the Western Aukštaitian dialect, although, possibly owing to a shortage of more precise and abundant dialect data, he greatly enlarged the area of Western Aukštaitian in Raseiniai County (as far as Tauragė!). The description of the Raseiniai dialect goes on to say that “the Aukštaitian dialect in Raseiniai County belongs to the group of Western Aukštaitian dialects and differs in almost no respect from the neighboring dialects of Kaunas County; for example, there is no essential difference between the pronunciation and grammar of the Girkalnis and Ariogala areas”³⁵. Since K. Jaunius described dialects only in general terms, this observation of his is correct, especially bearing in mind that Lithuanian dialects were still little studied at that time.

Alongside comparing and systematizing the dialects of Raseiniai County and the neighboring counties, K. Jaunius correctly noted that south of Kalnujai (in the Mu area — E. G.), word-final sequences -ja, -va regularly disappear when they follow old long vowels. Many examples of similar word forms, phonetically changed according to the same rules and found in the dialect now under study, could be added to those he gave to confirm this rule: pūi (= pū̃ ~ pū̃va), gỹy (= gỹ ~ gỹja) (see §§ 61, 93).

In 1894, texts from Lithuanian dialects collected by A. Pogodin, a fourth-year student at St Petersburg University, were published in the journal „Живая Старина“³⁶. Alongside Samogitian texts, several texts are presented here that were recorded in places south of the Šaltuona River, that is, in the Mut area. A. Pogodin calls this dialect the Lithuanian lk dialect. The texts recorded by A. Pogodin are the first from the Mut area. However, Pogodin wrote the texts using ordinary spelling; moreover, he did not distinguish vowel length (to look = to look, was = was), and in many places wrote e and ė alike, for example: created. Moreover, since A. Pogodin apparently considered the dialect he was recording to be the lk dialect, he tried to write endings of the kind accepted in grammars, for example: asked, answered, etc., although unstressed e is never pronounced at the end of a word in the dialect. This shows that A. Pogodin could not distinguish e from ė by ear, and therefore confused these sounds in the middle of words; in endings, knowing theoretically where ė and where e should be written, he wrote without regard to pronunciation. Therefore, A. Pogodin’s texts are entirely unsuitable for the study of dialect phonetics. They may be somewhat more useful for lexicon and, in part, syntax.

In 1898, A. Baranauskas indicated the boundary between the northwestern and southwestern Western Aukštaitian dialects in his study „Заметки о литовскомъ языкѣ и словарьѣ“³⁷. A. Baranauskas traced it through Vadžgirys, Šimkaičiai, Girkalnis, and Betygala, and thus incorrectly assigned the Mut area (the southern corner of the Raseiniai dialect, along the line Jurbarkas — Skirsnemunė — Šimkaičiai) to the southern Western Aukštaitians³⁸.

³⁴ Кс. К. Явнисъ, Описание Россіенскаго уѣзда, 23.

³⁵ Ibid., 23 — 24.

³⁶ See Живая Старина, 2, 233 — 258 (1894).

³⁷ А. Барановскій, Заметки о литовскомъ языкѣ и словарьѣ (toliau Zamietki), Санктпетербургъ, 1898.

³⁸ Ibid., 50.

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A. Baranauskas took the retraction of stress and the word ending as distinguishing criteria here. In fact, the boundary indicated by A. Baranauskas coincides only with the boundary of conditional stress retraction³⁹; however, it is not the dividing line between the southern and northern Western Aukštaitian dialects, since both north and south of it, as far as the Nemunas, word endings have undergone exactly the same phonetic changes: that is, on both sides of this boundary, the sounds o, io, jo at the ends of words cited by A. Baranauskas are pronounced in precisely the same way. Baranauskas himself also asserts that north of this boundary the sounds at the ends of words, o, io, jo, are pronounced as a, ia, ja⁴⁰; and that south of this boundary these sounds are likewise pronounced as a, ia, ja in unstressed word endings is partly confirmed by texts recorded in A. Pogodin’s time, for example: suleida ~ suleido, ateidava ~ ateidavo⁴¹, as well as by present-day data from the dialect under study (which lies south of the boundary established by A. Baranauskas); see §§ 63, 84. That the sound o, both by itself and in the combination with j, could not have been pronounced as o, io in unstressed word endings in Mut during the period described by A. Baranauskas is shown by the development of the dialect’s phonetic laws. The old long-ending a in the dialect under study has simply shortened to a at the end of a word; it has by no means passed through the stage of changing into o.

Thus, the boundary drawn by A. Baranauskas through Vadžgirys, Šimkaičiai, and Girkalnis merely divides the northwestern Aukštaitians themselves correctly into two groups: the northwestern Aukštaitians north of it retract stress from a short ending to the long penultimate syllable, while to its south live the same northwestern Aukštaitians, who retain the standard-language stress position.

It was not until 1924 that K. Būga, in LKŽ⁴², divided the Western Aukštaitians into subdialects much more precisely and thoroughly. Taking the length of the vowels in the final syllable as his criterion, he likewise distinguished two Western Aukštaitian subdialects: the Northwestern Aukštaitians (in his terminology, the northern Westerners) and the Southwestern Aukštaitians (in his terminology, the southern Westerners). K. Būga correctly regarded the Nemunas as the boundary between these two dialects. Thus, K. Būga was the first to assign the Mut area to the Northwestern Aukštaitians, although he did not yet distinguish it from the Veliuona dialect.

In 1933, A. Salys refined the boundary between the Northwestern Aukštaitian and Žemaitian Dūnininkai dialects⁴³. It approximately coincides with Mut’s northwestern boundary (cf. § 7 and the dialect map). In the same volume, APh IV, A. Salys established for the first time the boundary between the Northwestern Aukštaitians and the Veliuona dialect⁴⁴, but it is not entirely precise: at Skirsnemunė it does not coincide with the boundary between Mut and the Veliuona dialect, since today the Veliuona dialect still includes the area east of the line running through Skirsnemunė, Paulių-Barzdžių village, Stakiai, Griaužų village, and Ariogala (cf. § 9 and the dialect map). In that volume, the Mut area was correctly assigned to the Northwestern Aukštaitian dialect, which retains the standard-language stress position, on the basis of the shortening of unstressed long final a and e.

Like many Lithuanian dialects, the area under study was scarcely investigated from 1933 until the restoration of Soviet rule in Lithuania. At present

³⁹ See APh, 4, the map and the description of the dialect under study in § 8.

⁴⁰ See A. Baranauskas, Zamietki, 54.

⁴¹ See Живая Старина, 2, 256 (1894).

⁴² See K. Būga, LKŽ, LXIII–LXIV.

⁴³ See A. Salys, APh, 4, 26–28 and the map.

⁴⁴ See ibid., 28 and the map.

0. Kalbotyros klausimai

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During this period, as the network of schools and club-reading rooms was greatly expanded throughout the country, new cultural phenomena began to spread rapidly into our villages through literature, the press, and radio, which were accessible to everyone. The Lithuanian dialects, exposed to these influences, began to undergo rapid leveling and decline. During the years of Soviet rule, all the conditions were created for large-scale study of Lithuanian dialects as a valuable remnant of the language’s past, for writing dialect descriptions, and for preparing monographs. The Mut area, too, was intensively studied during 1948–1955; its boundaries were refined (especially the eastern one; see § 9 and the map), a monograph on its dialect was written, and the abundant dialect material collected was recorded, summarized, and systematized.

Sound system

I. Vowels

§ 13. Mut has the following vowels: a, ą, e, ę, ė, i, y, į, o, u, ū, ų. In quality, the dialect’s vowels differ little from the corresponding vowels of the standard language. It should be noted only that the vowels i, u are always pronounced somewhat more openly and less tensely than in the standard language. The vowels e, ę, when preceding hard consonants, are always more open in the dialect, become more tense, and acquire a coloring of the fronted vowel a. Thus e, ę are pronounced in words such as lėsa, mės, nėš, pėštų, škėšta. The vowel o in diphthongs and words of foreign origin is weakly labialized and pronounced with a slight coloring of the vowel a. Thus o is pronounced in words such as raudónas⁴⁵~ raudōnas, šónc~ šōnas, visóms, kalióšai. The dialect’s a (< ā), alone and in the sequence ai, am, an, when occurring at the end of a word after j and other soft consonants, always becomes fronted and changes to e (see § 84), e.g.: girė~ girià, grėbėl~ grėbliai, šėne~ šėnio.

In quantity, the vowels a, e, o in the dialect may be long (nāks~ nāgas, sēnis, sōč⁴⁶~ sōdas), half-long (gerām~ geramė, pačēm~ pačiamė, visōms~ visomis), or short (mamà, sāva~ sāvo; nėždāva~ nėšdavo, vakarē, vyrešne~ vyrėšnė; gerōms, senōms); the standard-language vowels ą, ę, į, ų are long (kąsnis, sąšlavynas~ sąšlavynas; grėšt⁴⁷~ grėžti, grėžiu; li̇́st, grį̇́žau; si̇́ūst, vārnu) and short (vaika~ vaiką, pēle~ pėlę, žūvi~ žūvį, sīnu~ sūnų); the vowels i, u are short (kiti, lupū) and half-long (akims~ akimis, alum~ alumi); the vowels ė, y, ū are always long (pēda, pēdaī, plyšys, šīrūs).

Vowel quantity is described in greater detail in the “Vocalism” section, where each vowel is discussed separately.

II. Consonants

§ 14. The dialect has the following consonants: b, d, g, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, š, t, v, z, ž, f, ch, h. All of them may be hard or soft (sárks ~ sárgas, sēnis); only j is always soft. In the dialect, all consonants before front vowels are

⁴⁵ The consonant s, which has come to stand after n because of the loss of a and e, changes into the affricate c in all cases in the dialect; see § 98.

⁴⁶ The consonants t and s, and likewise d and s, which have come to stand next to each other because of the loss of a, merge into one in the dialect, producing the affricate c; see § 98.

⁴⁷ The infinitive ending -t is usually pronounced softly in the dialect, but at the Veliuona border it is pronounced hard.

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somewhat softer than in the Kapsai-Zanavykai dialect. This difference in softness is perceptible to the ear when listening to and comparing the pronunciation of speakers of the dialect under study and the Kapsai-Zanavykai dialect. The softness of individual consonants is discussed in §§ 102—106. The consonants f, ch, h are rare in the dialect, because older speakers of the dialect still use the sounds p, k, g in their place (pãbrikis ~ fabrikant, kórs ~ chòras, ligminas ~ himnas). The nasal n, when it occurs before the velars g, k, is always velar. Thus n is pronounced in words such as lankė, lengvas, and so on.

III. Affricates

§ 15. The dialect has the following affricates: c, č, dz, dž. The least frequently occurring of these is the affricate dz. The affricates are pronounced like lk. They may be hard or soft, for example: lẽč ~ lėtas, ačáiža ~ atšaiža, dzangúot (to walk aimlessly and to no purpose), adžalà ~ atžala, čỹpt, čė ~ čia, džìnkt ~ džingt, adžėlė ~ atžėlė.

IV. Diphthongs

§ 16. The dialect has the following diphthongs: a) v o c a l i c: ai, au, ei, ie, ui, uo, e.g.: raĩč ~ raitas, naĩt ~ nueiti, saũle ~ saulė, sėĩle ~ sėlė, prẽit ~ prieiti, siẽksnis, zuĩkỹs, žaibúo ~ žaibuoja; b) m i x e d: al, am, an, ar, el, em, en, er, ėl, ėm, ėn, ėr, il, im, in, ir, yl, ym, yn, yr, ol, om, on, or, ul, um, un, ur, ūl, ūm, ūn, ūr, av, ev, yv, uv, ov, uj, e.g.: kálnas, kanãls⁴⁸ ~ kanãlas, kañps ~ kañpas, pẽrkam, krañč ~ kraštas, álkanč ~ álkanas, daržas, kárs ~ kãras, kėlt, kėls ~ kelias, remt, lengvas, gẽls ~ gėlas, šėms ~ šėmas, tetėnč ~ tetėnas, bėrs ~ bėras, žĩls ~ žilas, arims ~ arimas, kãšpinc ~ kašpinas, piŕštas, akỹls ~ akylas, beržỹnc ~ beržynas, vãlgymc ~ valgy mas, vyrs ~ vyras, atóls ~ atólas, raudónc ~ raudonas, bufbuls ~ burbulas, piktūms ~ piktumas, malūnc ~ malūnas, šūrmaišis, jávs ~ javas, klẽvs ~ klevas, kalektyvs (kolektyvas), šáutuvas ~ šautuvas, stóv ~ stovia (stovi), meduj ~ meduje.

All the old diphthongs are pronounced as in Standard Lithuanian (lk), except that in the diphthongs ie, uo the separate components are not perceptible in pronunciation. All newly formed diphthongs correspond to sounds belonging to different syllables in Standard Lithuanian.

IV. Triphthongs

§ 17. The dialect has the following triphthongs: iev, iel, iem, ien, ier, uol, uom, uon, ail, ain, air, aul, aun, aur, ein, e.g.: tievs ~ tėvas, viẽl ~ vėl, tiems, viẽnc ~ vienas, pōpiermalkes ~ popiermalkės, sūols ~ suolas, būoms ~ būomas, dúonku-bilis, kvails ~ kvailas, ráinc ~ rainas, žvaĩrs ~ žvairas, aũls ~ aulas, gáun ~ gauna, kiáurs ~ kiauras, eĩn ~ eina. All triphthongs in the dialect have newly arisen as a result of word-final shortening and the compounding of words.

⁴⁸As a result of word-final shortening, newly formed stressed diphthongs a, e, i, u + l, m, n, r, v in the dialect are always pronounced with a falling-rising accent.

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Stress

I. Primary stress

§ 18. Position of stress. As mentioned in § 2, Mut does not differ from 1k in the position of its primary stress. Each word generally has only one stressed syllable (see also § 20). Stress is free, shifting regularly according to certain rules (which will become clear in examining the separate parts of speech); it may fall on any syllable in a word, e.g.: kėpals ~ kėpalas, tárdytojis ~ tárdytojas, lydėkas ~ lydėkos, kepurės, vyturys.

§ 19. Strength of stress. Stressed sounds are clearer than unstressed ones and are characterized by greater articulatory force. In pronouncing a word, the peak of articulatory force falls on the stressed syllable, e.g.: šakà, nebylýs, lóva, diegai, sakaũ, pėilis, kálvis, nusigãnda ~ nusigaĩndo, kélmas, veršis, kílpa.

II. Secondary stress

§ 20. In addition to primary stress, secondary stress is also heard in the dialect, though rarely. It is most often found in words with the suffix -av-, if this suffix does not bear primary stress and if the word-final syllables following it are short in the dialect. In this case, the vowel of the suffix -av- bearing secondary stress is always long. Its length is indicated by the acute accent of the secondary (post-stress) tone, e.g.: baltáva ~ baltavo, baltávima ~ baltavimo, baltavimą, juódáva ~ juódavo, mėly-náva ~ mėlynүavo, neĩdáva ~ neĩdavo, šúkáva ~ šúkavo, válgydáva ~ válgydavo, važiuódava ~ važiuódavo, but: šúkavau, válgydavau.

Among speakers whose dialect has been influenced by Lk, especially in the speech of school-age youth, secondary stress is not heard in this position, and the vowel a of the suffix -av- is pronounced short.

Sometimes secondary stress is heard on the penultimate syllable of compound words, but the vowels bearing it do not lengthen, e.g.: kàrkvabalis, dúonkubilis.

Secondary stress in post-stress syllables is also characteristic of other Western Aukštaitian dialects⁴⁹.

III. Sentence stress

§ 21. As in 1k, when asserting or emphasizing something, one of the words in the sentence is pronounced more forcefully. In an emphasized or assertive word, only the stressed syllable is always pronounced more forcefully. This is how sentence stress arises; apart from its greater force, it differs in no other way from the other stressed words in the sentence. For example, in the sentence tą plutelę žiūrėk kaip čiulp⁵⁰~tą plutelę žiūrėk kaip čiulpia, if the intention is to show that the child already knows how to eat by himself, žiūrėk is emphasized more strongly than the other words in the sentence; if attention is to be drawn to how he knows how to suck, then čiulpia is pronounced with greater force; and if one wishes to say that the child is sucking nothing other than the crust, plutelė is pronounced more loudly. In sentences

⁴⁹ Cf. Fr. Kurschat, Grammatik der Litauischen Sprache (hereafter Gr.), § 213, Halle, 1876; Кс. К. Явнисъ, Памятная книжка Ковенской губернии, 142, Ковна, 1900.

⁵⁰ The final consonant, or consonant cluster, of the third-person forms of ia-stem verbs in the dialect is always pronounced softly.

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with coordinate elements, as in 1k, there may be several sentence stresses, e.g.: visko tuos miežiuos yr: i vikių, i žirnių, i kvietūka can be found in everything in those barley fields: vetches, peas, and kvietūka.

When a word in a sentence is strongly emphasized, every syllable of that word is pronounced with equal force, e.g.: tai negražu tėb daryt ~ that is ugly to do like that (= taip) do; bėgėdė tū.

IV. Proclisis and enclisis

§ 22. In connected speech, two or even several words often merge into a single phonetic unit, which receives a single stress. This is how proclisis and enclisis arise. (A proclitic and an enclitic are not marked for stress in the sentence.) The following are most often proclitics and enclitics:

a) Prepositions, e.g.: jis puolęs an tęs avžates (he is going to buy that ewe); jau kätinc prei mešos ant aukšto (the cat climbed up to the meat on the loft); už ką tu ją baudį ~ why are you punishing her? The prepositions apie, nuo, prie when used as proclitics have become apė, no, prė in the dialect, whereas the same prepositions used as prefixes remain intact, e.g.: bėk apė tvartą ~ run around the barn; šnėkan no Agótas (we’re talking about Agota); ein prė manę (he is coming to me), but: prievalgis (overeating), núobrukos ~ núobrukos.

b) Conjunctions, e.g.: a jūs dabar imsit a nīmsit tą buliūką (are you going to take that bull calf now or not); būptelėjo i gūle (he plopped down and is lying there).

c) Adverbs, e.g.: kai čė senėj mažžiuks buvai, o dabar tóks didelis uždrembei ~ when you were little here long ago, and now you’ve grown so big, you’ve nodded off; tei kósū, tei suñku.

d) Various adverbial and other monosyllabic words, e.g.: kodė tas mana vaiks tóks neklaũsa (why does that child of mine disobey so much); kaip ji ešenti be kasų ~ how she goes out without braids; až daugiau nelaikau, dvi kiaulės, jagu tris, aukščiau (I don’t keep more than two pigs, at most three), Kasiuliene, ves tū ~ Kasiuliene, lead that one; mez dá viena ėkmeni ~ mešk dár one more stone.

V. Stress and word meaning

§ 23. In the dialect there are word forms that are identical in all their sounds, with stress alone serving as the distinguishing feature that indicates their meaning, for example:

a) within the same paradigm: tėvai (sing. voc.), tėvái (pl. nom.); vaikai (pl. voc.), vaikái (pl. nom.); vàrle (sing. acc., voc.), varlė (sing. instr.); vàrlės (pl. nom.), varlės (pl. acc.); žàlė (sing. nom., instr.), žálė (sing. acc.); žàlės (pl. nom.) and žálės (pl. acc.).

b) In verbs with the pár- (= per) and par- prefixes, e.g.: párduot (pérduoti) and pardúot; párėit (péreiti) and parėit; párbėkt (pérbėgti) and parbėkt ~ parbėgti.

c) In the forms of individual words, e.g.: àpnešta (passive past-tense neuter participle) and apneštà (feminine participle); àtnėš ~ atneša and atnėš; àpsėme ~ apsiemė and apsėme ~ apsėmė; kàsas ~ kąsasi and kasàs

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(pl. acc.); krūžini (pres. 2nd pers. sing.) and kruvini (pl. nom.); jūdu (dual nom., acc.) and judu (pres. 1st pers. sing.); nutraukyt and nutraukėt ~ nutraukinti (to boil off); purvini (pres. 2nd pers. sing.) and purvini (pl. nom.); šėja ~ sėja and sėjė ~ sėją; šalty ~ šaltyje and šaltyn ~ šaltyn; vartai (pl. nom.) and vartai (pres. 2nd pers. sing.); vėžis ~ vėžins (fut. 3rd pers.) and vėžys.

Although in the cases shown here stress acts as a distinguishing feature for several forms, it helps identify only some—and not all—individual word forms. In the dialect, there are forms that coincide not only in sound but also in stress placement, e.g.: várna, žýle (sing. nom., acc., instr., voc.), várnas, žýles (sing. gen.; pl. nom., acc., voc.). The same is true of many other word forms. In fact, stress as the sole criterion of word meaning occurs rarely. Word meaning is usually made clear by the context, so even forms that coincide in stress pose no ambiguity as to their meaning in a sentence.

VI. Stress shift from its usual position

§ 24. In songs and rhymed expressions, stress is sometimes shifted from its usual position for the sake of rhyme, e.g.: svečei, svečei, nebūkit veršėi: susipratot ateit, susipraškit ir išeit ~ guests, guests, don’t be calves: you realized to come, ask one another and leave; kai jūs mažas buvau, šile ožius ganiau; vai kur būvai, laputaite, vai kur čiūžinėjei ~ when I was little, I herded goats in the forest; oh, where were you, little fox, oh, where did you go sliding?

Accentuation

I. Intonation of stressed syllables

§ 25. The dialect has four intonations of stressed syllables: short (˘), rising (´), falling (~), and circumflex (˙).

§ 26. Short intonation. a) Short intonation is pronounced with a short and strong voice. Because of its brevity, its pitch movement cannot be determined by the unaided ear. However, like all the other intonations, it is rising–falling⁵¹; it is simply unclear which part, the rising or the falling, is longer. Even the transformation of one intonation into another does not help clarify this without experiments, since both the rising and the falling intonation may have become short in the dialect, e.g.: *galvó > galvà, dabàr > dabà.

b) Short intonation occurs in:

1. Old short stressed vowels, if they are not components of diphthongs, e.g.: kàst, krìst, nèšt, sùkti.

2. Stressed short word-final vowels resulting from the shortening of rising-tone vowels and diphthongs, e.g.: šakà < *šakã, laukè < *laukẽn, gerì < *geriẽ, vežù < *vežiò.

3. Stressed short word-final vowels in short words, resulting from the loss of stressed circumflex endings, e.g.: à < ar̃, ì < ir̃, dabà < dabar̃.

⁵¹ Žr. G. Gerullis, Litauische Dialektstudien (toliau Lit. Dial.), XXVIII, Leipzig, 1930.

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4. The vowel o, found in loanwords that have entered the dialect, e.g.: šòks ~ sòkas (juice), bòtikėi ~ bòtikiai (boots), kalìošai.

§ 27. Circumflex accent. a) The movement of the voice in the circumflex accent is clearly audible. It is rising-falling. To the ear, the falling part of this accent seems much longer than the rising part. At the beginning, the voice of a sound pronounced with the circumflex accent suddenly rises, then falls evenly, gradually weakening⁵². Sometimes, as the voice passes from the rising to the falling part of the accent, it weakens slightly and becomes quieter, then falls and weakens evenly, as usual. The most pronounced weakening of the voice during the transition from the rising to the falling part is heard in the suffix -átis ~ -áitis, -átė ~ -áitė, e.g.: avátė ~ aváitė, vežimátis ~ vežimáitis. Although in this case no such break as in the Samogitian dialects is heard, the dialect’s circumflex accent nevertheless comes somewhat close to the broken accent; therefore G. Gerulis, Lit. Dial. XLII, is entirely justified in saying that the broken accent is not unfamiliar in certain cases even to the southern Samogitian neighbors, the Highlanders of the Nemunas region.

b) In the dialect, the stress of the circumflex accent in vowels always falls at the beginning of pronunciation, and in diphthongs and triphthongs—on the first element. The sound bearing the stress of the circumflex accent is generally long; only the vowels i, o, u, when they are the first elements of circumflex diphthongs, are short, e.g.: pìlt ~ pilti, órs ~ óras, pùlt ~ púlti. Sometimes (in emphatic speech) they may lengthen to half-long: pìrms ~ pirmas, dùlka ~ dùlka.

c) The circumflex accent occurs only on long syllables. It may occur on:

1. Old long vowels, e.g.: éd ~ éda, lýgus, stóks ~ stógas, súris.

2. Old diphthongs, e.g.: (vocalic) báime ~ báimė, káulas, léist, liet, lúops ~ lúobas; (mixed) málka, mélžam, mìltai, dùlkes ~ dùlkės, sántis, sémt, kìmt, kùmščia ~ kumščia (fist), pántis, žénc ~ žéntas, kìnkas ~ kinkos, dùnda ~ dùnda, dárps ~ dárbas, gért, žìrnis, žiùrke ~ žiùrkė.

3. Newly formed mixed diphthongs: those whose first element a, e in the standard language corresponds to a circumflex vowel not included in the diphthong, e.g. (cf. § 58b): gáls ~ gálas, kéls ~ kėlias, náms ~ nám as, sénc ~ sénas, tvánc ~ tvánas, žéms ~ žémas; those whose first element i, u in the standard language corresponds to the same stressed vowel with a short accent that is not part of the diphthong, e.g.: arìms ~ arimas, piktúms ~ piktumas, šùls ~ šulas, vaìkinc ~ vaikinas; those whose first element, the broadened, labialized o in the standard language, corresponds to the same stressed narrow o with a circumflex or short accent (cf. § 58b), e.g.: kòrs ~ chòras, japónc ~ japónas, mólkasis, mergóms, šónkaulis, vórs ~ vóras; those whose first element ė, y, ū corresponds to the same circumflex vowel not included in the diphthong, e.g.: bèrs ~ bėras, eglýnc ~ eglýnas, kúnc ~ kúnas.

4. Newly formed mixed triphthongs, whose third element in the standard language corresponds to a consonant beginning a new syllable, e.g.: gáun ~ gáuna, súols ~ súolas, viénc ~ vienas.

⁵² Plg. F. Kuršaitis, Gr., §§ 193, 194; Кс. К. Явнисъ, Памятная книжка Ковенской губернии, 134—135, Ковна, 1900.

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5. Long ą (< ãi, ăn), e.g.: kigulātė ~ kiaulaitė, kumelātė ~ kumelaitė, mergātė ~ mergaitė, ią (< *iān) ~ ją, jąs ~ jas, katrą ~ kątrą, katrąs ~ katras, tą ~ tą, tąs ~ tas.

6. e (< ēn), e.g.: gyvēt ~ gyventi, kedēt ~ kedenti (to tease wool), sēt ~ sėti, sēnti ~ sęsta.

7. i (< īn): mīt ~ minti, pīt ~ pinti, skīt ~ skinti, tvīt ~ tvinti, vadīt ~ vadinti.

8. ų (< ūn): skūsk.

§ 28. Circumflex accent. a) The pitch movement of the circumflex accent is rising-falling. The rising portion of the accent is considerably longer than the falling portion. In a sound pronounced with the circumflex accent, the pitch is initially weak, then gradually rises steadily for a long time, growing stronger and reaching its peak intensity toward the end of the pronunciation, before falling rather sharply at the very end. In its pitch movement, the dialect’s circumflex accent closely resembles the so-called evenly rising circumflex accent described by K. Jaunius (слабоначальная равномерно восходящая интонация)⁵³. It is much shorter than the sustained accent of the Samogitian dialects.

b) In vowels and in ē, y, ū + l, m, n, r diphthongs, the pitch peak of the circumflex accent always occurs near the end of the pronunciation; in a, e, i, u + l, m, n, r diphthongs it falls at the end of the first component and the beginning of the second (cf. G. Gerulis, Lit. Dial., XXXVII), while in triphthongs the greater part of it falls on the end of the first component, with the remainder on the second and third. Stressed circumflex vowels are less tense than acute ones. Vowels pronounced with the circumflex accent are always long, e.g.: ãšaka ~ ãšaką, bērem ~ bēriame, dēžē ~ dēžę, gỹmis, kõšė ~ kõšė, pūka ~ pūką. In circumflex diphthongs a, e, i, u + l, m, n, r; ai, au, ei, ui, both components are half-long and pronounced much as some southern Western Aukštaitians pronounce them, e.g.: baĩges ~ baigiasi, dãñ.htis ~ dangtis, vi.l.ks ~ vilkas. In circumflex diphthongs ē, y, ū + l, m, n, r, the first component is pronounced long, while the second appears, to the ear, to be short, e.g.: kūlverčēis ~ kūlverčiais, žvỹrỹs ~ žvỹras. The first component of triphthongs is pronounced half-long, and the second and third are short, e.g.: kiaulšēres ~ kiaulšēres (female pig keepers), smāilgalis.

c) The circumflex accent may occur on:

1. Old long stressed vowels, e.g.: ēme ~ ēmė, gaidỹs, glõbis (a miser, wealth), griūva.

2. Long vowels that developed from circumflex tautosyllabic diphthongs, e.g.: grãžtas, grēšt ~ gręžti, grỹžt ~ grįžti, siūst.

3. Old short a, e under stress, e.g.: lãkals ~ lãkalas, mēdis.

4. Old diphthongs, e.g.: baĩda ~ baĩdo, baũdž ~ baũdžia, peĩlis, kañps ~ kãmpas, paršas, kìrminc ~ kìrminas, purkšt.

5. Newly formed mixed diphthongs whose first component ē, y, ū lk corresponds to the same stressed vowel with a circumflex accent outside the diphthong, e.g.: rēms ~ rēmas, kvỹnc ~ kvỹnas (caraway), žiūr ~ žiūria (watches).

⁵³ Кс. К. Явнисъ, Памятная книжка Ковенской губернии, 135, Ковна, 1900.

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6. Trisyllabic diphthongs, e.g.: Gaũrkelis (the road to Gaurė), Taũršilis (a forest name).

§ 29. Circumflex accent. a) The movement of the voice in the circumflex accent in the dialect is indistinct, but with the unaided ear one can hear that it is rising-falling. The rising portion of the accent is somewhat longer than the falling portion. In its movement, this accent resembles the dialect’s circumflex, except that its rising portion is shorter than the rising portion of the circumflex accent, and consequently it is pronounced much more briefly: here the voice only rises and falls.

b) As with the circumflex, the stress of the circumflex accent falls at the end of the first component and the beginning of the second. In diphthongs pronounced with the circumflex accent, the first component appears, to the ear, to be longer: it is marked as half-long; the second is somewhat shorter: it is marked as short, e.g.: geràm ~ ge-ramė, katram ~ katramè, mergoms ~ mergomìs, viršum ~ viršumi.

c) In the dialect, the circumflex accent arises directly from the circumflex accent or from other accents, most likely through the circumflex stage (cf. §§ 33 a, 34 b). It most often occurs on a diphthong in the final syllable, e.g.: geràm ~ geramè, vienam ~ vienamè, akìms ~ akimìs, alùm ~ alùmi, sūnum ~ sūnumì, skiedròms ~ skiedromìs, visòms ~ visomìs, anòms ~ anomìs, vòlš ~ vòlas, Adòms ~ Adõmas, Jõnc ~ Jõnas. It also occurs in various short words, e.g.: kài (when and how), tàì ~ tai, dùi ~ dùi, pùi ~ pui, kòl ~ kõl. Sometimes it is also heard in the stem of the vocative case of a-stem nouns, e.g.: vaĩke ~ vaike, vaĩkai ~ vaikai, vàrge ~ vàrge.

II. Accentuation of unstressed syllables

§ 30. Accentuation of pre-stress syllables. a) Regardless of the original accent, all unstressed long syllables preceding the stressed syllable have the circumflex accent⁵⁴, e.g.: audėjė ~ audėja, grėbėjė ~ grėbėja, skalbėjė ~ skalbėja, although: aũst, grė́pt ~ grėbti. The accentuation of pre-stress syllables in the dialect is weak and indistinct.

b) The retracted stress is closely connected with the accentuation of pre-stress syllables in the dialect. Retracted stress arises in the first pre-stress syllable or in a newly formed long final syllable when a stressed vowel in the ending is lost or elided. Retracted stress retains the circumflex accent of pre-stress syllables (except in cases where the circumflex accent becomes a circumflex, see § 29 c), e.g.: kelỹ (< *kelvỹen) ~ kelyjè, galvõ ~ galvojè, akỹ ~ akyjè, dantỹ ~ dantyjè, vandenỹ ~ vandenyjè, gerõ ~ gerojè, visõ ~ visojè, namũõs ~ namuosè, tėvũõs ~ tėvuosè, vienuõs ~ vienuosè, dideliuõs ~ dideliuosè, avižõs ~ avižosè, triobõs ~ triobosè, svarbiõs ~ svarbiosè, tõs ~ tosè.

§ 31. Accentuation of post-stress syllables. a) All unstressed long syllables following the stressed syllable have the acute accent, e.g.: čiaudėt ~ čiaudėti, kóšėt ~ košėti, žióvaut ~ žiovauti, žiõplėt ~ žioplinti, špū́lanktis ~

⁵⁴ See K. O. Явнисъ, Грамматика литовскаго языка, переводъ К. Бугн, 45, Петроградъ, 1916.

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spūllanktis, though: laiktis. In the dialect, the intonation of post-stress syllables is pronounced with a weak voice.

b) Long post-stress vowels (stem-final vowels), which have become linking elements in compound words, draw the stress onto themselves. Such shifted stress retains the circumflex intonation of the post-stress syllable, e.g.: gimnōkalis (a millstone chisel), saulėtekis, saulėleidis, seilėtakis, tursōmiegis (light sleep), vasarōdrumnis (tepid like summer water), žarnōgalei ~ žarnōgaliai.

§ 32. The same long unstressed syllables have different intonations when they occur before a stressed syllable and after a stressed syllable: ąžuols ~ ąžuolas and ąžuōlynė ~ ąžuolynas, maišai ~ maišai and sūrmaišis ~ sūrmaišis, žōlė ~ žolė and kiēmžōlės ~ kiemžolės (lawn).

III. Alternation of intonations

§ 33. Cases in which the circumflex intonation changes into other intonations. In the dialect under investigation, the circumflex intonation sometimes regularly changes to the short or acute intonation.

a) The short circumflex intonation has regularly changed word-finally in the same cases as in 1k, e.g.: rankà (< *rankā), patì (< *patī), namė (< *namēn). As stressed word-final endings disappear, stress in the dialect under investigation is retracted to the penultimate syllable. In this case, the short intonation that developed from the circumflex is regularly replaced by the acute or by the middle intonation. The acute intonation occurs in this case if the syllable preceding the lost final syllable was long, e.g.: šakō (< *šakōjēn) ~ šakoje (cf. § 30 b); the middle intonation occurs if the vowel in the pre-stress syllable was short, e.g.: aluj ~ alujė, meduj ~ medujė, gerām ~ geramè, akims (<*akimīs) ~ akimìs. Here, it is possible that the short intonation changed indirectly to the middle intonation, via the acute-intonation stage: *geramēn > geramè > gerām > gerām; cf. vols ~ volas, Jōnč ~ Jōnas and Gerulio, Lit. Dial. XLVII—XLVIII.

b) The circumflex intonation changes to the acute intonation:

1. When stems alternate in words belonging to the same root, e.g.: kùrpė ~ kurpė and kùrpius, kūoc ~ kuodas and Kuōde ~ Kuodė (name of a person with a topknot), piuoc~ pūodas and puōdžius, pīlnas and artipīlnis, sēile ~ šeilė and sēilis (one whose saliva strings out), tēvs ~ tēvas and tētis.

2. When adjectives and nouns sharing a root alternate, e.g.: áukštas and áukštis, īlks ~ ilgas and īlgis, kārštas and karštis, márks ~ márgas and Margius, ráips ~ ráibas and raibus (a piebald rooster), ráinc ~ ráinas and ráinius (a brindled cat), sárgus and Sargius (a dog's name), sárc ~ sártas (light brown, said of horses) and Sártis, šývs ~ šývas (white, said of horses) and Šývis, but: bērs ~ bēras and Bēris, júoc ~ júodas and Júodis.

3. When verbs and nouns sharing a root alternate, e.g.: áukt ~ augti ‘to grow’ and ūgis ‘growth’, dúot and duōkle ~ duōklė, dūrt ~ durti ‘to stab’ and dūris, ēst and ēskus (one who eats a lot), glōpt ~ glōbti ‘to have’ and glōbis (a rich person, miser), klōt and paklōde ~ paklōdė, mōkam and mōkesnis, mazgōt and mazgōte ~ mazgōtė, rēšt ~ rėžti ‘to cut’ and rēžis (a piece, a fold in cloth, a plot of land), rūpitis ~ rūpintis ‘to take care of’ and

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concern, to sit and pašōste ~ pašōstė, to sow and sėje ~ sėja, to skin and skūnic ~ skūndas, to shoot and šūvis, to fence and tvōra ~ tvōrą.

4. When cognate adjectives alternate with verbs, e.g.: bálc ~ báltas and baltuot, juoc ~ júodas and juóduot, márks ~ márgas and márguot, mėlync ~ mėlynas and mėlynuot.

5. In the third person of the future tense of verbs, e.g.: gulėsiu and gulės, grėpsiu ~ grėbsiu and grėps ~ grėbs, džiūsiu and džiūs (džius), išgysiu ~ išgysiu and išgỹs ~ išgys (išgis), miegosiu and miegos, pjau̇siu ~ pjausiu and pjaus, raut and raus, šaut and šaus, traukt and trauks, turėsiu and turės, žūsiu and žūs (žus).

6. When cognate common-gender nouns alternate with verbs, e.g.: gūra (a clumsy person) and gūrīt ~ gūrinti (to stare vacantly, to walk hunched over), gōželis (a gawker) and gōžit ~ gōžinti (to mumble).

7. When frequentative verbs expressing gradual action are formed from simple verbs, e.g.: láukt and lūkuriuot, snaust and snūduriuot, virt ~ virti and vỹruliuot.

8. When nouns with an acute root become the second component of compound words (excluding prefixed forms) and retain the position of the stress, e.g.: abželtkōjis ~ apželtkōjis and kōje ~ koja, devyndarbė ~ devyndarbė and dárps ~ darbas, dykadrūnis and diūna, juodgalvė ~ juodgalvė and gálva ~ galva, dvinỹtis and nỹtis, šeravilnės ~ šeravilnės and vılna ~ vilna, raudonveidis and véic ~ veidas, šunkōjis (the right handle of a scythe), but: besōtis, begėdis, beširdis.

§ 34. Cases of the circumflex accent becoming other accent types. The dialect’s circumflex accent has sometimes regularly replaced the short, acute, and middle accents.

a) In rare cases, the short circumflex accent occurs at the end of clipped adverbs, conjunctions, and other function words, e.g.: dabà (< dabar), à (< ar), ì (< ir). The circumflex’s shift to the short accent probably occurred via the intermediate accent, e.g.: ar̄ > arˢ > à.

b) In various short function words and foreign-origin proper names, the circumflex accent sometimes develops into the intermediate accent, e.g.: ańt ~ añt, kūr ~ kūr, kó̄l ~ kól, viẽl ~ vẽl, Adōns ~ Adōmas, pōnc ~ pōnas, uzbōnc ~ uzbōnas.

c) The circumflex accent becomes acute:

1. When an unstressed short a is lost (falls away) at the end of a word, and circumflex monosyllabic a, e with l, m, n, r form new diphthongs, or when the same new diphthongs arise in compound words, e.g.: àr ~ āras (0.01 ha), bār ~ bāra, gēm ~ gēma, gēl ~ gēlia, gāls ~ gālas, gyvēn ~ gyvēna, kēls ~ kēlias, kērs ~ kēras, nāms ~ nāmas, pēltakė ~ pēltakė (a sewing technique, in which a stitch is made by bringing the needle back. Such stitches resemble a mouse’s trail), kėlviētė ~ kėlviētė, sēnc ~ sēnas, šēr ~ šēria, trānc ~ trānas, žāls ~ žālias, žēmė ~ žēmas.

2. When intensive frequentatives are formed from simple verbs, e.g.: braida ~ braido and braidžio ~ braidžioja, drįst and drįsīt ~ drąsinti, gīt ~ ginti and gāiniot, lįst and lādžiot, rēkt and rēkīt ~ rėkinti (to make cry), siŕkt ~ siūgti and sārgiu ~ sār ginti, skēlst and skālsīt ~ skālsinti, skēst and skēndēt, šāukt and šūkaūt, švılp and švılpaūt ~ švilpauti, tēst and tēisīt ~ tēisinti, vılkt and vālkiōt, žvỹkt ~ žvỹgti and žvỹgit ~ žvỹginti.

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3. When prepositions are used as prefixes to nominal words, as in standard Lithuanian (except for the circumflex-prefix forms ant- and tarp-), e.g.: į and įpiną ~ įpinas (a tie into braids), įpil­s ~ įpilas (a filler), įsaulis (a place facing the sun), įkalnis (the foot of a hill), įkapes ~ įkapės (a garment in which the dead are placed in a coffin); nė ~ nuė and niobrukas ~ nuobrukos, niuomec ~ nuometas, niotaka, niovalas ~ nuovalos, niomone ~ nuomonė, núožiūra; par (per) and párbėkti (to run across), párvešt (to transport), párdurt (to pierce), párleist (to let through); pǒ and póretis, pósūnis, pókarštis, pó­kietis; pré ~ prie and príelips ~ prielipas, príepuola (a fright), príeglauda, príevalgis (overeating, a meal), príebuvails (half-witted); pró and prótekinis (almost at a run), próréksmeis ~ pró­rėksmiais (in a mournful voice), próbrėkšmeis ~ próbrėkšmiais (at daybreak); prieš and príešpilnis, príešpėčėi ~ priešpiečiai, príežgyna ~ priešgyna, príešpriešės ~ priešpriešiais.

4. In some verbs whose present-tense stem is -st, e.g.: gimsti ~ gimsti and gímti, mirsti ~ miršti and mirt.

§ 35. Cases in which the short intonation changes into other intonations.

The dialect’s short intonation may become acute when an unstressed short a is lost at the end of a word and short i, u together with l, m, n, r, v form new diphthongs; the same also occurs when such mixed diphthongs arise in compound words, e.g.: arims ~ arimas, gręštuvs ~ gręžtuvas, im ~ ima, piktūms ~ piktumas, pipėrs ~ pipiras, šilbaravykis ~ šilbaravykis, šūls ~ šūlas, vaikinc ~ vaikinas, vidūrlaukei ~ vidūrlaukiai.

When the stressed ending of a word is shortened, the short intonation in the dialect under study changes to the medial intonation, e.g.: alum ~ alumi, medum ~ medumi. It is possible that this change in intonation occurred via the circumflex intonation: lytūmi > lytūm > lytūm.

IV. Intonation and word meaning

§ 36. Intonation can serve as a sound-based distinguishing feature for word forms that otherwise coincide completely in sounds and stress, e.g.: galbó ~ galvoja and galvō ~ galvo­ja, liepsnó ~ liepsnoja and liepsnō ~ liepsnoje, rasó ~ rasója and rasō ~ rasóje, pavajó ~ pavajója (puts on a pavaja) and pavajō ~ pavajóje, siūlė ~ siūlėja and siūlė ~ siūlėje, šakó ~ šakoja and šakō ~ šakoje, vagó ~ vagója and vagō ~ vagóje; brinkt ~ bringti (to become dearer) and briñkt (to swell, grow), gýt (to recover) and gīt ~ gīnti, išgirda ~ išgirdo (pres. tense, 3rd person singular) and išgīrda ~ išgīrdo (past tense, 3rd person singular), iššaut ~ iššauti and iššaut ~ iššauti, iššaukt ~ iššaugti and iššaukt ~ iššauk­ti, kãmpa (part of a sledge) and kãmpa ~ kampo, kampą, kárpa (a plant) and kárpa ~ karpo (pres. tense, 3rd person singular), káršt (to grow old) and karšt (to card wool with a certain machine), kiñka ~ kinka (thigh) and kiñka ~ kiñko (pres. tense, 3rd person singular), kráujes ~ kraujasi and krau­jes ~ kraujas, lénke ~ lénkė (a hollow, valley) and lénke ~ lénkė (past tense, 3rd person singular), lýsta (a fence post) and lįsta (goes in), lópa ~ lópo (pres. tense, 3rd person singular) and lōpa ~ lópo, lōpą, mįt ~ minti (to process flax) and mįt ~ minti (to guess a riddle), susėmės (past active participle) and susėmęs ~ susiėmęs (having grasped), supįk ~ supink and supyk, susėję ~ susėjo and susėję ~ susiėjo, šīls ~ šilas and šīls (future tense, 3rd person singular), tįst ~ tinsta and tįst ~ tišta, užmiršt ~ užmiršta (faints) and už­miršt ~ užmiršta (forgets), vārpa and varpa ~ varpo, varpą, žīls ~ žilas and žīls (future tense, 3rd person singular).

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In the dialect there are also word forms whose meanings are entirely different, yet they coincide not only in stress placement but also in intonation, e.g.: sakãi, laĩkai, maĩšai, lañkai, vaikaĩ and other forms mean both the plural nominative and the second-person singular present-tense forms of verbs. The meaning of such words is always clear from the sentence.

Vocalism

I. Vocalism of the word stem

1. Vowels

a, ą. § 37. The dialect's a, corresponding to ĺk a, is of the same origin as ĺk⁵⁵.

a) This a is short when unstressed, e.g.: adatà, balanà, vakarè, žabarai (dried twigs used for fuel), and stressed in the following cases:

1. In such monosyllabic words that are also monosyllabic in ĺk, e.g.: aš, kàt ~ kàd, kàs, pàc ~ pàts, tàs.

2. In the prefixes of verbs and verbal derivatives (active participles and gerunds), e.g.: ápmete ~ ápmete, ápnesu, ápsimat ~ apsimate, áp skalbiau, àtkasam, àtkemšu, pàkišu, pàsimat ~ pasimate, pàžiūriu, pràdedu, pràkalèi, pràlenkiau, àpkirpc ~ àpkirptas, àpverstas, àteinant, àtkasant, pàmestas, pàreinant, pràmuštas, pràvežant.

3. In the infinitive of primary verbs with root a and their derivatives, as in ĺk, e.g.: làkt, plàkt, ràkt, ràsti, šàst, ràzdàva ~ ràsdavo, ràstų, ràzdavęs ~ ràsdavęs, ràzdams ~ ràsdams, but: plàkc ~ plàktas, ràstas.

4. In the forms of personal, possessive, and reflexive pronouns, as in ĺk, e.g.: màna ~ màno, sàva ~ sàvo, tàva ~ tàvo, mànę (me), sàvę (oneself), tàvę (yourself), mànį (me), tàvį (you), sàvi (oneself), mànim (with me), sàvim, tàvim.

5. In the nominative singular masculine forms of definite adjectives, numerals, and possessive pronouns, e.g.: baltàsis, geràsis, kietàsis, aštuntàsis, dešimtàsis, manàsis, tavàsis.

6. In the third-person present forms of onomatopoeic verbs with the suffix -ėti, e.g.: kvàkše ~ kvàksia (quacks), spràkše ~ spràksia (crackles), tàkše ~ tàksia (ticks).

7. In interjections and verbs formed from them with the suffix -elėti, e.g.: bàkst and bàkštelėt, stàpt ~ stàbt and stàptelėt ~ stàbtelėti, šmàkšt and šmàkštelėt, švàpt and švàptelėti, tràkšt and tràkštelėt.

8. In certain individual words, e.g.: àklei ~ àkliai (blind insects that attack livestock), anàpus, bàdik(uot) (to torment, prick), bràške ~ bràškė, ràkalis (a person who skins horses), ràkaliuot (to skin horses), šmàdaruot (to toss about), ràgius (very conceited, as if having horns), ràge ~ ràgė, skàlanduot (to splash about), vàpaliuot (to chatter nonsense).

b) This a is long:

1. When stressed with the primary stress (apart from the cases mentioned in section a) of this paragraph), e.g.: kràpšta ~ kràpšto, làksta ~ làksto, làps ~ làpas, pàšars ~ pàšaras,

⁵⁵ See J. Endzelīns, Baltu valodu skaņas un formas (hereafter SF), § 12, Rīgā, 1948.

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rãc ~ rãtas, stãkles ~ stãklės, šãke ~ šãkė, tãks ~ tãkas, vãkar, žãgre ~ žãgrė.

2. When bearing a secondary stress in the suffix -av-, see § 20. Unstressed a, corresponding to standard Lithuanian a, is long in the suffix -av- in Samogitian dialects as well⁵⁸. It may be that it is lengthened there for the same reason, namely secondary stress.

For the dialectal a corresponding to standard Lithuanian a at the end of a word, see § 61.

§ 38. Dialectal a, corresponding to standard Lithuanian a, developed from the diphthong an, as in standard Lithuanian. This a is always long, e.g.: ąžuols ~ ąžuolas, kąsnis, žąsinai, vąšas, vaškarą (a curved hook for hanging a pot over a hearth; more generally, any curved object, figuratively).

Younger dialect speakers, especially school-age youth, tend to pronounce this a short when it is unstressed, e.g.: šašlavỹnc ~ sąšlavýnas, vaš iùks ~ vaš iùkas, žasiùks ~ žąsiùkas.

Unstressed a < an is always short in the Veliuona dialect, e.g.: kasniùks ~ kąsniùkas, sanarỹs ~ sąnarỹs. It may be that this feature of the Veliuona dialect also influences speakers of the dialect under study.

For dialectal a at the end of a word, see §§ 64, 65.

§ 39. Dialectal a, corresponding to standard Lithuanian ai, occurs in the stressed suffixes -atis ~ -aitis, -ate ~ -aitė, pronounced with the acute accent, e.g.: kiaušinátis ~ kiaušináitis, lašináčei ~ lašináičiai, mergáte ~ mergáitė, obeláte ~ obeláitė, vežimátis ~ vežimáitis, viš táte ~ viš táitė.

§ 40. The dialect has an a corresponding in standard Lithuanian to the sounds a and ė, or u and ė, in adjacent syllables. This a arose through contraction and elision. It is discussed in § 85.

e, ė. § 41. Dialectal e, corresponding to standard Lithuanian e, is of the same origin as in standard Lithuanian; see Endzelynas, SF, § 10.

a) This e is short when unstressed, e.g.: besmegeniù (instrumental singular), debesìs, ežerė, genėsỹs (a livestock path across fields), and stressed in the following cases:

1. In such monosyllabic words that are also monosyllabic in standard Lithuanian, e.g.: bė, lėsk, nē, šė, tē, vė.

2. In the prefixes of verbs and verbal derivatives (passive participles and gerunds), e.g.: bėgulem ~ bėguliame (we lie down), bėker-tant, bėlesant, nēneši, nēperkam, nēkepc~nēkeptas, nēpirkc~nēpirktas, nēskustas.

3. In the infinitive of primary verbs with root e and its derivatives, e.g.: dēkt ~ dēgti, kēpt, mēst, nēst, pēst, v ēst, v ēš t ~ v ēžti, nēždāva ~ nēšdavo, nēštų, nēždavęs ~ nēšdavęs, nēždams ~ nēšdamas, but: pēstas, mēštas, vēstas ~ vēžtas.

4. In the comparative degree of simple adjectives, e.g.: gerēsnis, mažēsnis, sunkēsnis, vyrēsne ~ vyrēsnė.

In the comparative degree of pronominal adjectives, the stressed old short e is long, whereas standard Lithuanian has a short stressed e corresponding to it, e.g.: didēsniī, sunkēsniī, vyrēsnioje ~ vyrēsniojo.

5. In onomatopoeic words and verbs derived from them, e.g.: tēkšt and tēkštelēt, trēkšt and trēkštelēt, trēpt and trēptelēt.

⁵⁸ See P. Jonikas, PT, § 50 c.

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6. In proper names (usually of non-Lithuanian origin), e.g.: Adėlė ~ Adėlė, Angelė ~ Angėlė, Anelė ~ Anėlė, Bėnė ~ Bėnė (Benedikta), Bėnius ~ Bėnius (Benediktas), Ėlė ~ Ėlė (Elena), Gėc ~ Gėdas (Gediminas), Gėne ~ Gėnė, Klėmencas ~ Klėmensas, Lėva (Levosė), Marcėlė ~ Marcėlė, Pėtre ~ Pėtre (but Pėtras), Sėlė ~ Sėlė (Salomėja), Vėre ~ Vėrė (Veronika).

7. In surnames with the suffix -eckis, e.g.: Burbėckis, Demerėckis.

8. In certain individual words, e.g.: bėbras, kebėklis (something with which an object is hooked), perėklė ~ perėklė, šėbur, šiūrėklis (something used for scrubbing while bathing), švėplius (someone unable to pronounce certain sibilant sounds), švėplė ~ švėplė, vėpelis (a dolt, a simpleton), vėkur, žėbrius (a dirty person).

b) This e is long when stressed (apart from the cases mentioned in section a) of this paragraph), e.g.: bėrem ~ bėriame, gėret ~ gėriate, lėpin ~ lėpina, mędis, šėrem ~ šėriame, žėmuogė ~ žėmuogė.

For this dialectal e at the end of a word, see § 66.

§ 42. The dialectal ę, corresponding to standard Lithuanian ę (and, in verbs in certain cases, en), developed from the diphthong en; like standard Lithuanian e, it is always long, e.g.: gręst, gręžt ~ gręžti, gręžtuvas ~ gręžtuvas, kęst, skęst, spęst, gyvęt ~ gyventi, gyvęsiu ~ gyvensiu, gyvęs ~ gyvens.

Younger dialect speakers and school students tend to pronounce the pre-stress e short, as in the neighbouring Veliuona dialect, e.g.: grežiu ~ gręžiu, skęstu ~ skęstu.

For dialectal e at the end of a word, see § 69.

§ 43. The dialect has an e corresponding in standard Lithuanian to the e and a sounds in neighbouring syllables. This e arose through contraction and elision. It is discussed in § 85.

ė. § 44. The dialectal ė, corresponding to standard Lithuanian ė, developed from Old ē, as in standard Lithuanian; see Endzelynas, SF, § 11. It is always pronounced long, e.g.: dilgėlė, mėta ~ mėto, sėdėje ~ sėdėjo, šėrėje ~ šėrėjo, vėgėlė.

For ė at the end of a word, see § 70.

§ 45. The dialect has an ė corresponding in standard Lithuanian to e and ė in neighbouring syllables; and to the sounds i and ė. This ė arose through contraction and elision. It is discussed in § 85.

i, y, z. § 46. The dialectal i, corresponding to standard Lithuanian i, is of the same origin as in standard Lithuanian; see Endzelynas, SE, § 6. This i is always short (unless it is part of a diphthong), e.g.: Bišpilis (a hill fort in Jurbarkas District), gile ~ gilė, giminė, ritinas ~ ritinasi, Šiline ~ Šilinė (a town in Jurbarkas District).

For dialectal i at the end of a word, see § 71.

§ 47. The dialectal y, corresponding to standard Lithuanian y, is of the same origin as the latter; see Endzelynas, SF, § 7. The y is always pronounced long, e.g.: gydyt, krypót, lýdyt, lýgybė (lygybė), lýtys, lýtius, plyšys, ryšys, šulinys.

For the dialectal y at the end of a word, see §§ 72, 73.

§ 48. The dialectal į, corresponding to standard Lithuanian į (and, in certain cases, also in in verbs), arose from the diphthong in. It is always pronounced long, e.g.: grįšt ~ grįžti, įlįst, išpįst, išdrįst ~ išdrįsti, mįslė, tįst ~ tįsti, įsta, žįst, jūdįs ~ jūdins, krūtis ~ krūtins, lėpįs ~ lėpins, nekabįk ~ nekabink, pažįt ~ pažinti.

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For the dialectal į at the end of a word, see § 74.

§ 49. In the dialect, i, į, corresponding to standard Lithuanian, reflect the sounds e and i, e and į found in adjacent syllables. They arose through contraction of sounds. These vowels are discussed in § 85.

o. § 50. The short dialectal o, corresponding to short standard Lithuanian o, occurs in various loanwords, most often proper names, e.g.: Antšė ~ An-tōsé, Brōnius, Dōma, kōlera ~ cholera, Kōstas, Kōlius (Nikoliaus), Levōse ~ Levōsē, Ōlius (Aleksandras).

§ 51. The dialectal o, corresponding to long standard Lithuanian o, as in standard Lithuanian, arose from the old long a; see Endzelynas, SF, § 13. It is always long, e.g.: bōtkotis, mōtina, obelìs, piēvo ~ piēvoje, prōc ~ prōtas, roputē ~ roputē, stōks ~ stōgas, volungē, vovēris.

u, ū, ų. § 52. The dialectal u, corresponding to standard Lithuanian u, is of the same origin as the latter; see Endzelynas, SF, § 8. It is always short (if it is not part of a diphthong), e.g.: grumulìuks ~ grumuliukas, rugùčiūs, runkulius (runkelius), sukūtis, tupūtē ~ tupūtē (someone who does not get their work done).

For this u at the end of a word, see § 77.

§ 53. The dialectal ū, corresponding to standard Lithuanian ū, is of the same origin as the latter; see Endzelynas, SF, § 9. It is always pronounced long, e.g.: alkūne ~ alkūnė, drūc ~ drūtas (strong), grūdai, krūptelēt, mūšis (beating), prūc ~ prūdas, pūslē, rūgštūs ~ rūgštūs, rūkt (to cry), sūrūs.

For ū at the end of a word, see § 78.

§ 54. The dialectal ų, corresponding to standard Lithuanian ų, arose, as in standard Lithuanian, from the diphthong un. It is always pronounced long, e.g.: siųst, skįst.

For ų at the end of a word, see § 79.

2. Diphthongs

Quantity and quality of diphthongs. § 55. Every unstressed diphthong forms a long syllable, although both its components are short, e.g.: baigiù, baudžiù, einù, giedōk, kuislē (who cannot get the work done quickly), kuolù, malkaut, milžìms ~ milžimas, prapùltis, ramstau, stemplē, stimpù, šlumbù, šankì (who jumps high), šventà, švinkìms ~ švinkimas, tunkiù, tarpūtis, tirščiùs, tursūot (bent over to work).

When stressed, the individual components of diphthongs lengthen accordingly, depending on the intonation they bear, e.g.: aukštas, baigēi, būnùs (fat), bālč ~ bāltas, dēļčē ~ dēļčia, dīlkst ~ dīlgsta, dūlkē ~ dūlkė, glamžà ~ glamžo, glemaž ~ glemažia, grīžda ~ grīždo, grūmda ~ grūmdo, grānda ~ grāndo, grēndž ~ grēndžia, giṅčas, gūndyt ~ gūndyti, kārštas, kerštas, kirst, kurčēs ~ kurčias, cf. §§ 27, 28.

In diphthongs a, e, i, u + l, m, n, r pronounced with circumflex intonation, both components, as stated in § 28 b, are half-long; however, their second component is in fact always somewhat shorter than the first, since in the dialect there is very little tendency to lengthen the consonants l, m, n, r at all. In this case, too, they (l, m, n, r) are more like short sounds than half-long ones.

§ 56. In terms of quality, all diphthongs are almost the same as in the standard language (bearing in mind the previously mentioned distinctions between vowels (§ 13) and consonants (§ 14)).

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Vocalic diphthongs. § 57. a) The dialect diphthong ai, corresponding to standard-language ai, is of the same origin as in the standard language, e.g.: baisybė ~ baisybė, laiškas, maišas, padraikės ~ padraikės, šlait ~ šlaitas. In the stressed acute suffixes -atis ~ -aitis, -ate ~ -aitė, the diphthong ai in the dialect has regularly and invariably monophthongized to a (see § 39), e.g.: daržinate ~ daržinaitė, marškināčei ~ marškinaičiai.

b) The dialect diphthong au, corresponding to standard-language au, is of the same origin as in the standard language, e.g.: audims ~ -audimas, gliauma (a dirty person), kaũpt, kaũšas, paũkštis, šaũle ~ saulė.

Before vowels, the diphthong au, as in the standard language, develops into av or ov, e.g.: aūt ir āve ~ āvė, bliāut ir bliōve ~ bliōvė, gāut ir gāvo ~ gāvo, griāut ir griōve ~ griōvė.

For ai, au at the end of a word, see § 81 a.

c) The dialect diphthong ei, corresponding to standard-language ei, is of the same origin as in the standard language, e.g.: kreikt, kreivuot, leist, metėlis, peikt, šeimyna.

Before vowels, the diphthong ei, as in the standard language, develops into ēj, e.g.: eit ir ējė ~ ējō.

For ei at the end of a word, see § 81 a.

d) The dialect diphthong ui is of the same origin as in the standard language and corresponds to standard-language ui, e.g.: iškrūst (to gird, to turn black), kuil̃ys, kuislė, puĩkus, zuikỹs.

The diphthong ui with acute intonation is rare in the dialect. It occurs only in words of non-Lithuanian origin (personal names), e.g.: Čiūika ~ Čiūika, Šūika ~ Šūika.

For ui at the end of a word, see § 81 d.

e) The dialect diphthongs ie, uo are of the same origin as in the standard language and correspond to the same standard-language diphthongs, e.g.: ieška ~ ieško, liesas, pūoc ~ pūodas, siuodys.

Although the diphthongs ie, uo are represented by two letters, the sound sequence is not divided into separate parts when pronounced (i + e, u + o). For example, as with vowels, the acute accent is pronounced at the beginning of the sequence ie, uo (liežžiedis ~ liepžiedis, priepūola, žiec ~ žiedas, ūoc ~ ūodas, ūoga), and the circumflex accent at its end (diēna ~ diēna, riēke ~ rieka, žiēve ~ žievė; duōbė ~ duobė, kuōla ~ kuolą, šuō). In the dialect, these diphthongs are more like long monophthongs than diphthongs. A. Baranauskas holds a similar view when discussing these Lithuanian diphthongs⁵⁷.

Sometimes the diphthongs ie, uo arise irregularly in the dialect from the monophthongs ė and o in the roots of these words: dielė ~ dėlė, jiega ~ jėga, luoma ~ lomà, nenūjėgiu ~ nenūjėgiu (nepajėgiu), Pajėgei ~ Pajėgiai (Pagėgiai), niēr ~ nėra, tiēvs ~ tėvas, vēl ~ vėl. This is most likely a Samogitian dialect feature.

For ie, uo at the end of a word, see § 81 b.

f) By contraction and elision (§ 85), the diphthongs ai, ei have also newly formed in the dialect, e.g.: nainù ~ nueinu, painù ~ paeinu, preinù ~ prieinu, preit ~ prieiti. In their length and pronunciation, the newly formed diphthongs ai, ei do not differ in any way from the old diphthongs ai, ei.

Mixed diphthongs. § 58. There are two kinds of mixed diphthongs in the Mut dialect. Some are old, while others have newly formed as a result of the shortening of endings and the compounding of words.

⁵⁷ Žr. A. Baranauskas, Zamietki, 9.

10. Kalbotyros klausimai

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a) In origin, all the old mixed diphthongs are no different from the mixed diphthongs of standard Lithuanian. Their pronunciation also almost completely coincides with that of standard Lithuanian. For differences in the pronunciation of individual diphthongs from standard Lithuanian, see §§ 16, 13, 14. There are 16 old mixed diphthongs in the dialect, e.g.: málka, šámts, añtras, kártis, gélda, pémpe ~ pémpe, peñkc ~ peñktas, kérpcs ~ kérpės, pilvas, grimzda ~ grimzdo, kriñt ~ kriñta, pirštas, gùlkis, pùmpurs ~ pùmpuras, suñki, pū́rvas

Mixed diphthongs in the word stem are generally intact; only in certain cases have the diphthongs en, in in the dialect turned into ę, į, e.g.: gyvęt ~ gyvénti, vadįt ~ vadinti; see § 96.

For old mixed diphthongs at the end of a word, see § 82.

b) As vowels, and sometimes sonorant diphthongs, disappear at the end of dialect words (including the first component of compounds), the consonants of the former final syllable, left without a vowel and unable to form a syllable, attach to the vowel of the penultimate syllable. Thus, when two syllables merge into one, secondary diphthongs arise in the word stem. In the dialect, secondary diphthongs are formed by the vowels a, e, ė, i, y, o, u, ū and the consonants l, m, n, r, v, j. In addition to the 16 old mixed diphthongs, the dialect also has 38 secondary mixed diphthongs. Twenty secondary diphthongs are formed from the short vowels (a, e, i, u) and the consonants l, m, n, r, v, j, e.g.: gál (gali), eīnam, mėlynam ~ mėlyn ame, peŕkams ~ perkamas, álkanc ~ alkanas, kárs ~ karas, kėls ~ kelias, kélviete ~ kelvietė, sém ~ sėmia, séne ~ senas, kėpenc (kepeny s), éžers ~ ežeras, sprágils ~ spragilas, akimñs ~ akimis, nóšims, ím ~ ima, mílvelis (a device for felting wool), vaikin c ~ vaikinas, gír ~ giria, piktūms ~ piktumas, medum ~ medumi, Nėmun c ~ Nemunas, šúnmazgis, prákurs ~ prákuras, kūl ~ kūlia, jávs ~ jávas, klévs ~ klėvas, šáutuvs ~ šautuvas, leis túvs ~ leistuvas, aluj ~ aluje, meduj ~ meduje, spiėčuj ~ spiėčiuje. In pronunciation, these diphthongs do not differ at all from the old mixed diphthongs of the dialect. In other diphthongs, the first component is the long vowel (ė, y, o, ū), and the second is the consonant l, m, n, r, v. There are 18 such secondary diphthongs in the dialect, e.g.: bėrs ~ bėras, gėls ~ gėlas, tetėnc ~ tetėnas (aunt's husband), šėms ~ šėmas, akýls ~ akylas, bá ltyms ~ balt ymas, beržýnc ~ beržynas, výrs ~ vyras, atóls ~ atolas, kòl ~ kol, rañkoms, šakom s ~ šakomis, eīd avom, raudónc ~ raudonas, órs ~ oras, siūls ~ siūlas, krūms ~ krūmas, kú ncs ~ kūnas, pūrs ~ pūras, mó l kasis, raudonviršis, šūrmaišis, žvýrduobe ~ žvyrduobė, gyvs ~ gyvas, kalektývs (collective farm), stóv ~ stovia (stovi). The diphthongs y, ū + l, m, n, r are pronounced in the dialect just as standard Lithuanian conventionally pronounces their individual components. In diphthongs o + l, m, n, r, the first component (o) is considerably shortened, somewhat labialized, and pronounced with a slight a-like quality; cf. § 13. In word-final position (not in the stem), the vowel ė in the unstressed diphthong ėm, formed as a result of the shortening of endings, is pronounced much like e, e.g.: kėpem ~ kepėme, drobėms ~ drobėms, valgėm ~ valgėme, virėm ~ virėme. Neither component of the diphthongs ė + l, n, r changes its quality; they are pronounced as their individual components are pronounced. In the diphthongs a, e, y, o, u + v, j, the second component (v, j) is intermediate between u and v, and between i and j. In pronouncing such a diphthong, its second component is more like a consonant than a vowel, and therefore these diphthongs are considered mixed.

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It should be noted that the emergence of secondary diphthongs is a recent phenomenon, since their first components have retained their inherent length. Where secondary diphthongs arose earlier, their first component has generally been shortened, e.g.: Ik devīntas, aštūntas, pūlli, septīmtas; among the Veliuona speakers malūnc ~ malūnas, vīrs ~ vyras; the diphthongs in, un, ul, etc., developed from yn, won, ūn, yr, cf.: devyni, aštuoni, pūola, septyni, malūnė, vyrai. Stressed secondary diphthongs are most often pronounced with a falling-rising accent, regardless of the accent of the syllable from which they were formed, e.g.: arīms ~ arimas, gēr ~ gėria, nāms ~ namas, saldūms ~ saldumas; only diphthongs with ē, y, ū + l, m, n, r, v always retain their original accent, e.g.: kalektīvs (kolūkis), vȳrs ~ vyras, žvȳrs ~ žvėras; būn ~ būna, krūms ~ krūmas, malūnc ~ malūnas. The falling-accented diphthongs ol, om, on, or are pronounced with a circumflex accent in the dialect, e.g.: Jōnc ~ Jōnas. If stress on the second component of a diphthong arose together with the formation of that diphthong, its accent is also usually circumflex, e.g.: akīms ~ akimis, medūm ~ medumi, viršūj ~ viršuje.

3. T r i p h t h o n g s

§ 59. As a result of word-final shortening and word composition, triphthongs ie, uo (ai, au, ei) + l, m, n, r arise in the dialect from ie, uo (in rare cases also ai, au, ei) and l, m, n, r that occurred in adjacent syllables, e.g.: blakšienc ~ blakstienas, kiėms ~ kiemas, pīenc ~ pienas, šiėnc ~ šiėnas, vīenc ~ vienas; kuōls ~ kuolas, pūol ~ pūola, sūols ~ suolas; rāinc ~ rainas, kvails ~ kvailas, spjāun ~ spjauna, gāun ~ gauna; ēin ~ eina; aniėms, jiems, mažiemsiems ~ mažiesiems, piktįemsiems ~ piktiėsiems, tiėms, viśiems; dúonkubilis ~ duonkubilis, dúonvabālis, dúonmilčei ~ duonmilčiai, Gaurkelis (road to Gaurė); śienpetis, śienmedis, išvien, każdiėn ~ kasdien, diėndaržis, śienkarte ~ šienkartė, śienvirve ~ šienvirvė, vienbōrės ~ vienborės (having identical clothes), vienpūsis, vienciūlis ~ viensiūlis (a garment made of untwisted threads), vienmarškinis, vienplaukis, vientėkle ~ vientėklė (one-sided, triangular, said of a kerchief), vienmėčei ~ vienmečiai, vienrankis, viengungis.

Triphthongs are always long. In unstressed triphthongs all components are short; in stressed ones, the length of individual components depends on the accent (see §§ 27, 28). Triphthongs whose first components are the diphthongs ai, au, ei are rare in the dialect and are difficult to pronounce in full; consequently, their second component (i, u) is pronounced very weakly, like a fading, reduced sound. Moreover, triphthongs, especially those with a falling accent, are unstable in the dialect and quickly become diphthongs. Their middle vowel, i, u, is usually omitted altogether. In this case a new secondary diphthong is formed, e.g.: kiaūlsere ~ kiaušlserė, kiaūlmilčei ~ kiaułmilčiai, kiaūlpūpes ~ kiaūlpupės, sukvālt ~ sukvalti, sukvālsta ~ sukvailsta, pagālsta ~ pagailsta, nesukvālk ~ nesukvailk, smālgālis ~ smailgalis. There are cases in which the third, rather than the second, component of a triphthong is omitted. The second component is then pronounced in full, and the triphthong becomes a diphthong, e.g.: kiaūpūpes ~ kiaułpupės, kiaūviedris ~ kiaułviedris, smāigalis ~ smailgalis.

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To avoid pronouncing such a difficult triphthong, sometimes not one of its components but the consonant following its third component is omitted. The third component then falls into the next syllable, the triphthong breaks up, and a new secondary diphthong arises, e.g., kiaušliederis ~ kiaušlvedris.

4. Vowel alternation in the root

§ 60. The roots of related words, as in standard Lithuanian, can alternate their vowels. In the dialect under study, root vowels alternate quantitatively and qualitatively. This section presents words characteristic of the dialect that are etymologically associated with the corresponding vowel-alternation series.

a) i-series (i-y-ie-ė-ei-ai):

sucipau, čips ~ čipas (chick), cyplýš, ciepšet.

drikà (threads removed from the loom), driekes ~ driekiasi, draikytis, padraikės ~ padraikės.

dýgus, dygulỹs, diekt ~ to plant, daigīt ~ to propagate, padáigas ~ seedlings.

gývus ~ alive, gajùs, gaivīt ~ to revive.

gýšt ~ gyžti, giežt ~ giežti, gaizus.

keist, kaitýt, apkaitù (exchanging), pakaitoms ~ pakaitomis.

to stick, kištùks ~ stick, kyšỹs, peg, to insert, to poke.

scream, klykim̃s ~ screaming, to scream.

klýpt, kleipt, išklaipýt.

krýpt, kreipt, kraipytis, pakraipà (worldview).

lydėt, leist, leidžis ~ leidikas (one who feeds sheaves into a threshing machine), leistùvas ~ leistuvas, laidýt, palaïc ~ palaidas, išlaic ~ išlaidas.

numìkt ~ numigti, mìgis (bed), ìmigìs (falling asleep), mìėks ~ miegas, isimai-gīt ~ išsimaiginti, mìktácėi ~ migtačiai (bedding, bed).

pilù, pylà (rainfall, beating, pouring), priešpilnis, artipilnis, pilvas.

pinù, pìk ~ pink, pynė, pàine ~ painė (painiuava), painus.

plėkt (spread out, stretch), plaikstýt.

plýšt, plyšỹs, plėšėt.

rišt, riėst, riestùvas ~ riestuvas, ráiciot, raižyt.

rišt, ryšỹs, ráisiot, raišýt, raištis (tie).

smilius (index finger), smáilaut (to indulge in delicacies).

išmìga ~ išmigo, smėkt ~ smeigti, smáiks ~ smaigas, smaikstýt ~ smaigstyti.

snìkt ~ snigti, sniėks ~ sniegas, snaigùles ~ snaigules.

apsplšt, spiečius, spiečiù.

išpìnda ~ išpindo, spėst ~ spėsta, spindulỹs.

stìpt, nustýpęs (tall, without lateral branches), stiėptis ~ stiebtis, staipýtis, pristai-pýt ~ pristatinti (to exhaust, drive into the ground).

to pout, to mock, mockery.

to stretch ~ stretched, to stretch ~ to stretch oneself, to stretch ~ stretches.

to crack, to snap, to crackle, crackling ~ crackles.

bindweed ~ bindweed (a plant that winds around potato stems), to wind ~ to wind, hops, hop plants ~ hops, wind ~ wind, to wind around ~ winds around, to wind around, garland ~ garland.

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b) u eilė (u-ū-uo-au-o):

to draw, a stroke (a line), a stick (a rod, an implement for striking), to scrape ~ to scrape, to drag, to pull.

I was, to be, am ~ is, being (existence).

to be mischievous, naughty, mischievous ~ a rascal (a little troublemaker).

to dry, a dried-up thing (dried up), I dried, drying (the process of drying and a disease).

to crush ~ to crumble, was crushed ~ was crumbled, is crushed ~ crushed (squashed, deformed), a lump ~ a lump, to crush ~ to crumble, to crush into pieces. collapses ~ collapsed, to collapse, collapses, to collapse, a ruin (a collapsed structure).

a gnawed piece (a bite-sized piece), to gnaw ~ to gnaw.

to get used to ~ got used to, comfortable, to tame ~ to tame.

to make a hole ~ to make a hole, to flow ~ flows, a hole, to gather potatoes from a hill, to gather potatoes from a hill (to pick larger potatoes from a growing potato plant).

to slump ~ slumped, face down ~ face down, to bend down ~ to stoop.

a hammer (a mallet), to shoe horses.

to dawdle, bewildered (stupid, dim-witted).

mūck ~ mūktas (gulp, mouthful), mūkt (to dive), muñk ~ muñka, maūkt, maūktis.

lūpt, lupiks ~ lupikas, laupyt.

supūta ~ supūto, pusnīs, pūnt ~ pūnta, papautė (a rubbed blister).

piūvenas ~ piūvenos, papiūtis ~ papiūtis, lentpiūvē ~ lentpiūvē, piūklas ~ piūklas, piáut ~ piáuti, pjaulāi ~ pjaulāi (pieces of wood falling from beneath the saw), piáutuvs ~ piáutuvas, pjove ~ piovė.

užpūlt ~ užpūlti, prapultis, prapūldyt, puldinėt, priepūola (fright), puole ~ puolė.

rūc ~ rusty, rūdas ~ ore, rūdyt ~ to rust, rūdys ~ rust, raušvas ~ reddish, raudōnč ~ red.

rūkt, ruknā (a frowny person), raūktis, raukytis, raužgōles ~ raukžoles (a kind of medicinal herb), raūklēs ~ raukšlės, raukšlēc ~ raukšlėtas.

rūkt ~ to ferment, rūkštus ~ sour, rūkštis ~ acid, išrūgas ~ whey, raukt ~ to ferment, raugīt ~ to leaven, raugai ~ leaven.

snūstelėt ~ to doze, usnūda ~ fell asleep, snūduriuot ~ to doze, snāust ~ to nap, snaudulys ~ drowsiness, snaudālius ~ sleepyhead.

siuvinėt, siūt, siūls ~ siūlas, siūlē.

stumū, stūmdyt, stūmā (latching a door).

šliūžas (an iron device for holding a cart back on a downhill slope), šliūžē (a place where something has slid), šliūošt ~ šliuožti, šliaūšt ~ šliaužti.

tupēt, tupūte ~ tupūtė, tūptis, tūpčiot.

trūktelėt, trūkt, trāukt, trāugžoles ~ trāukžolės (a kind of medicinal herb).

c) e series (i-y-e-ė-a-o):

blėšt (to thicken soup with flour), blendžiū, blandus.

brinkt ~ to become dearer, brāngus, brangininks ~ one who makes things dear.

brīnkt, brankīt ~ to brace, to prop up.

brīst, brydē, bredū, braidyt, braīdžiot.

čirške ~ chirping, čirškīt ~ to chirp, čirškals ~ chirping (home-brewed beer), čeršk ~ creaks, čerkšlē (a willow), čerškīt ~ to creak (to make cry).

īlst, palsīt ~ to make pale, Alsā (a river in the dialect under study), Palsys ~ Paalsys (a village in the dialect under study).

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irt ~ to decay, ardýt, ardai (poles for drying flax).

dėkt ~ to burn, degėsė ~ embers, dèglas, nedègulis, dagiòt, dagùs.

dirpt ~ to work, išdirbis ~ processing (working, making), darb ~ work, earnings.

drìpt ~ to slump, drìmba (a slouch), drìpkus ~ slouching (a slouch), drèpt ~ to slump, drapstýt ~ to scatter.

sudvìsa ~ became parched, dvèse ~ is parching, dvèst, dvàškus (a dried-up person), dvàsnà (a dried-up person, the end), bedvàsė ~ a doll.

gìlt ~ to sting, gỹl ~ it stings, gỹlỹs, gėlt (to hurt), geluonìs, pagėlà (damp cold, cold dampness), sauzgėlai (in a dry, stinging manner).

gìmt ~ to be born, gỹmis, àbgams ~ a birthmark.

gìt ~ to herd, gėnam, genesỹs (a path across fields for livestock), ganýt, ganyklà, gãmiot.

gìrdyt (to water), girdùks ~ a calf being watered, pagiriot, pãgires ~ environs, gìrc ~ drunk, gért (to drink), gerklė (throat), gėriau (I drank), gėrìms ~ a drink.

glemžt ~ to crumple, glamžýt ~ to crumple.

grìmšt ~ to sink, gramžėt ~ to sink (to submerge).

adgrìsa ~ atgrìso, grès ~ grèsia, grèst, grãsus, grasīt ~ grasinti.

grėst, grándyt, pagrandišk ~ pagrandiùkas.

grįžt ~ grįžti, grìščė ~ grìžčia (nušukuotų linų sauja), grėžt ~ gręžti, grąžt ~ grąžinti, grąštas ~ grąžtas, sugrąštai ~ sugrąžtai.

kìpt ~ kibti, kìbe ~ kìbė (priekabė), kabìtis ~ kabintis, priekabė, kabùs, kabė, kabõlys.

kìlt, kilnòt, kylan, kėlt, kélc ~ kėltas, kėle ~ kėlė, kálmas, kalvà.

kimšt, kemš ~ kemša, kamšà (susikimšimas), kamšàls, kamštis, kamšyt.

klìmt ~ klìmpti, klampòt, klampùs.

krèč ~ krėčia, krėst, kràtyt, kratìnyš.

kriñšt, kreñt ~ krėnta, krantýt.

pakvìpa ~ pakvìpo, kvėpė, kvàps ~ kvāpas, ãtkvaps ~ ãtkvapas (atsikvėpimas), kvapùs.

lėk ~ lėkia, lėke ~ lėkė, lakiò ~ lakiòja, lakrà.

liñkt, linkýmns ~ linkymas (pakinklis, įlinkusi vieta), leñkt, leñke ~ lénkė (dauba), lankstýt, lankštus, lañks ~ lañkas, lañktis.

lìnda ~ lìndo, lìst, lendù, ländžiot, landýt, landà.

sumìzga ~ sumìzgo, mėkst ~ mėgzti, susimãzgęs ~ susimãzgęs, mazgiòt, mazgýt.

mìrkt, mirkýt, mėrkt, markýt ~ markinti, markà.

nešt, nešiot, nãšči ~ nãščiai, našùs, sąnašas ~ sąnašos, panašùs, pasinašýt ~ pasinašinti.

to spawn, spawning, spawned roe ~ roe, to spawn.

to emerge ~ emerged, to dive, dived ~ dived, to emerge, to emerge ~ to cause to emerge, joint (joint), to entangle.

to spread ~ spreads, to widen ~ widens, to live expansively (widely, wastefully), wide, jointly (in common), to widen, wide ~ wider.

to comb, comb-boy ~ comb, to comb.

to become tangled ~ became tangled, to creak ~ to crack, a tangle, to twist (to entangle).

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to gather, I gather, to gather up, guarantee (guarantee), convenient, handy ~ convenient (side plate, knife and fork), selective ~ selections.

to become clotted, clot ~ clotted, to ferment ~ to ferment.

to jingle ~ to jingle, to ring ~ to ring, ringing ~ a bell.

to distinguish, separately ~ separately, a distinction (a gift), a fringe ~ a fringe, a little skirt ~ a little skirt.

to pierce ~ to pierce, to perforate ~ to perforate, to penetrate, penetrating ~ penetratingly.

to slide, slope ~ slides, sliding (a crumbling escarpment), to slide.

to hide ~ hides, hiding place, into hiding ~ hiding places, to conceal ~ to conceal, to hide.

to buzz ~ to buzz (ring in the ears), deafening (deafening), deaf ~ deaf (deaf).

to kick ~ to kick, a kick, to kick repeatedly, resistance.

to choke ~ to choke, to cough ~ to cough (cough after choking), choking, to choke ~ to cause to choke.

to sway ~ to sway, a swing, to sway, to weigh, a weighing scale ~ a scale, equal balance ~ equilibrium (balance), heavy, weight ~ weight, weight.

tekēt, aptakà (a nail growth), intaks ~ įntakas, tāks ~ tākas, niùtaka.

telkt, talkà, patalkýs, talkinìņks ~ helper.

tìkšt, tēške ~ teškia, tēkšt, taškýt, taškiuot (to trudge through mud).

ištvìna ~ ištvino, tvindýt ~ tvindyti, tvīt ~ tvinti, tvāņc ~ tvānas, tvaniùs (will be flooded).

vēst, nauvedzēi (newlyweds), vadžiōt, vādžes ~ vādžios, vadīt ~ vadinti.

vìlkt, velk ~ velka, velke ~ velkė (a door bar), vālkiot, vālks, užvalkals ~ užvalkalas.

vìrst, vērst, išvartas ~ fallen trees.

abžìrt ~ apžirti, abžýr ~ apžyra, žērt, žarstỳt.

žìņksnis ~ žingsnis, žìņgine, žēņkt ~ žengti, žāngus (having a good stride).

žvilkterēt ~ žvilgterėti, žvēlkt ~ žvelgti, žvalgūtis, žvalks ~ žvalgas.

II. Word-final vocalism

1. Vowels

a, ą. § 61. The dialectal a, which developed from the old short a (standard Lithuanian a), has most often disappeared in an open ending. Cases of short a disappearing occur in the third person singular present tense of verbs and in the neuter gender of adverbialized adjectives, e.g.: dúdž ~ audžia, aug ~ auga, braūk ~ braukia, būn ~ būna, ēn ~ eina, gied ~ gieda, gyvén ~ gyvena, grēb ~ grėbia, girāž ~ girdžia, im ~ ima, kānd ~ kanda, kērt ~ kerta, kiš ~ kiša, lēs ~ lesa, lip ~ lipa, mýl (myli), nōr (nori), píl ~ pila, pīn ~ pina, skīn ~ skina, sūk ~ sūka, šāl ~ šąla, šnēk ~ šneka, velk ~ velka, žiūr (žiūri); kiēt ~ kieta, šālt ~ šąlta, šìlt ~ šilta, šveñt ~ šventa.

When it occurs at the open word end after l, m, n, r and a long syllable, a may also remain, e.g.: bãla, kāre ~ karia, rēme ~ rėmia, šēre ~ šėria; kvaila.

If word-final short a follows j and a historically long syllable, it always disappears together with j, e.g.: bliáu ~ bliáuja, dainióu ~ dainúoja, gaišūo ~ gaišūoja (gaišta), see § 93.

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When it occurs at the word end after v, short a most often remains intact, e.g.: būva, grįūva, kliūva, pūva, siūva (although siūo is also said), lengva.

In a closed ending, a disappears in some cases and remains in others. In the dialect under study, its fate in this context depends on the consonants preceding it. Short a always drops if preceded by a single consonant, e.g.: būc ~ būtas, drūc ~ drūtas (strong), diktōks ~ diktōkas, gyvẽnims ~ gyvenimas, ric ~ kitas, kiẽc ~ kietas, lāps ~ lāpas, nāms ~ nāmas, prūc ~ prūdas (pond, pool), prašýms ~ prašymas, puodūks ~ puodukas, raudōnc ~ raudonas, rýc ~ rytas, sārks ~ sargas, šic ~ šitas, vaiks ~ vaikas, vyrs ~ vyras; however, this a always remains after s, š, z, ž, c, č, e.g.: bōsas, bėržas, daržas, grāmžas ~ grāmždas (a white, hard, large edible mushroom), grūžas (a stream fish that lives under stones), gūžas, kalnōžas (collective farm), kermēžas (adolescent), kėršas, lāsas, līzas ~ lizdas, māžas, pālšas, paršas, plempēžas (a potato pancake baked without fat on a cabbage leaf), pūžas (a conceited person, conceit), rāžas, saūsas, šāšas, šliūžas (an iron device for fitting a wheel when lowering a cart downhill, as well as a wooden block resembling a sledge used for hauling harrows), vaikēžas (adolescent), vaikjōžas, vāžas; Eičas (surname), kicas (cat), lēcas (the peak of a cap), mācas.

More rarely, a drops in a closed ending after two consonants. In this case, a is observed to drop only if the consonant immediately before it is t or p, e.g.: dėkc ~ dėgtas, drigañc ~ drigantas (stallion), kañps ~ kampas, liēpc ~ lieptas, mālc ~ maltas, pālikc ~ pāliktas, rīmc ~ rimtas, sprikc ~ sprigtas, tīlc ~ tiltas, vīrc ~ virtas, but: pėstas, vėžtas ~ vežtas.

In all other cases, a remains, e.g.: baĩnas, bėrnas, driezlas (lizard), džĩaũksmas ~ džiaugsmas, gaĩsras, graĩpštas ~ graibštas (a triangular fishing net), griaũšmas, griūškas (a sieved dish), grūmstas, kaŕstas, kaũksmas, krāštas, kītkas, lāiškas, mīnkštas, pīrštas, pūras, pūškas (pimple), prāštas, spītras (blind), švėplas, tī́kras, vīškas.

§ 62. The a that developed from the old long word-final acute-stressed a is always short in the dialect, as in standard Lithuanian, and corresponds to standard Lithuanian a, e.g.: kità (< *kitā), kūosa, mālka, mamā, mažā, tešlā, vārna, vārpa, vienā. Thus, first *lāvā > lāvā, and only afterwards lóvā.

§ 63. The a that developed from the old long word-final circumflex-stressed, unstressed a is generally short in the dialect and corresponds to standard Lithuanian o, e.g.: būva ~ būvo, dīrba ~ dirbo, kāsas ~ kāsos, kāula ~ kāulo, kīrta ~ kīrto, laĩka ~ laĩko, liepas ~ liepos, rāsas ~ rāso, rañkas ~ rañkos, šākas ~ šākos, tāša ~ tāšo, vaĩka ~ vaĩko, vā́rnas ~ vā́rnos. The old circumflex-stressed a under stress has changed to o in the dialect; see § 76. For cases where unstressed old ã has changed to o, see § 76 a, b, c.

§ 64. The a (ą) that developed from the acute-stressed word-final diphthong an is generally short in the dialect, as in standard Lithuanian, e.g.: (singular instrumental) āviža, bangā, gerā, jūoda, kilpa, kitā, kelintā, rankā, vienā; (plural genitive) aguonās, kitās, kruopās, mažās, vištās.

There are cases where the dialectal a < ān at the word end is long (ą) and corresponds to short standard Lithuanian a:

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a) In feminine adjectival forms: (adjectives) didžėję⁵⁸ (<*didjan̄jan) ~ didžiąją, didžėsęs ~ didžiąsias, geresnėję ~ geresniąją, geresnės ~ geresniąsias, gražiuosėje ~ gražiausiąją, gražesnėsės ~ gražiausiasias, juodąję ~ juodąją, juodąsęs ~ juodąsias; (numerals) pirmąję ~ pirmąją, pirmąsęs ~ pirmąsias, trečęję ~ trečiąją, trečęsęs ~ trečiąsias; (participles) kulėmąję ~ kuliamąją, kulėmąsęs ~ kuliamąsias.

b) In pronouns anà, jì, katrà, šì, šità, tà, for example: aną ~ aną, anąs ~ anàs, jė ~ ją, jės ~ jas, katrą ~ katrą, katręs ~ katras, šė ~ šią, šės ~ šias, šitą ~ šitą, šitas ~ šitas, tą ~ tà, tąs ~ tas.

§ 65. a (ą), which developed from the circumflex diphthong an, at the end of dialect words, is generally always pronounced short and corresponds to Standard Lithuanian ą, for example: áusta ~ áustą, bálta ~ báltą, dárža ~ dáržą, dírpta ~ dírbta, kėpta ~ kėptą, kìta ~ kìtą, laũka ~ laũką, píeva ~ píevą, pílka ~ pílka, pílama ~ pílama, pírma ~ pírma, púoda ~ púodą, rañka ~ rañką, siūta ~ siūtą, sõda ~ sõdą, súdyta ~ súdytą, tėva ~ tėvą, válgoma ~ válgomą, vìena ~ vìeną, vìsa ~ vìsą.

There are cases in which this a, as in Standard Lithuanian, remains long (ą):

a) In pronominal forms, for example: (adjectives) didžėję ~ didžiąją, bál-tąją, geresnėję ~ geresniąją, geriausėje ~ geriausiąją, juodąjį, juodąję ~ juodąją, pìktąjį, rùdąjį, sáldžėje ~ saldžiąją, vyriaùsėję ~ vyriausiąjį; (numerals) antrąję ~ antrąją, pirmąję ~ pirmąją, trečėję ~ trečiąją; (participles) skaũdamąjį, švėstąję ~ švėstąją, sulýtąjį.

b) In the nominative singular and plural of masculine participles, for example: vãlgas, éisęs ~ éisias, gulsėsis ~ gulsiasis, dìrpsęs ~ dirbšias, mùšę ~ mùšią, nėsa (nesa), nėšęs ~ nėšias, pràsą, prisimėnas, sakýse ~ sakýsias, siūsę ~ siùsias, stãtą, šnėka.

c) In pronouns anà, jì, katrà, šì, šità, tà, for example: aną, jė ~ ją, katrą, šė ~ šią, šitą, tą.

e, ę. § 66. e, which developed from the old short e, generally disappears in the dialect at the end of a word in closed syllables, for example: ėkmenę (<*ekmenes) ~ ėkmens (akmenys), piemenc (piemenys), piemenč ~ piemeñs, smėgenc (smegenys), šuñc ~ šuñs, vovers (voverys), vovėrs, only in the words šùnes, žmónes this e is sometimes pronounced alongside the i-stem ending -ys, for example: šùnys || šùnes, žmónys || žmónes.

In an open word-final syllable, short e is retained, for example: vaikė (singular vocative), vaìge, vỹre.

§ 67. e, which developed from the old long e, is generally short when unstressed at the end of a word, in both closed and open syllables, and corresponds to Standard Lithuanian ė, for example: bãre ~ bãrė, dãre~dãrė, dìrse ~ dìrsė, kùrpes ~ kùrpės, medìnes ~ medìnes, nãgines ~ nãgines, pémpe ~ pémpe, rùgines ~ rùginės, vãrles ~ vãrlės, žiùrke ~ žiùrke, žiùrkės ~ žiùrkės.

The word-final e < ē of the first- and second-person plural endings of verbs in all tenses has been lost in the dialect, for example: bégam, bégat, bégom, bégot, bėgdavom, bėgdavot, bėksim ~ bėgsime, bėksit ~ bėgsite, bėktumem ~ bėgtumėme, bėktumėt ~ bėgtumėte, sėdžem (sėdime), sėdžet (sėdite).

⁵⁸ The ę that developed from ą through fronting is always more open in the dialect than the usual Standard Lithuanian ę and is pronounced like long ia. The fronting of a is discussed in § 84.

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When the word-final e < ē was lost in this case, the penultimate syllable came to stand at the end. When the e of such a penultimate syllable, now at the end of the word, formed a new diphthong with the consonant of the final syllable, it was more similar in the dialect to e than to ė, e.g.: ver̃pem ~ verpėme ‘we were spinning’, vir̃em ~ virėme ‘we were cooking’, žer̃em ~ žėrėme ‘we were raking’, žarštem ~ žarštėme ‘we were raking’; in all other cases, such e formerly in the penultimate syllable remains unchanged, e.g.: ver̃pėt ~ verpėte ‘you were spinning’, žar̃štet ~ žarštėte ‘you were raking’.

For cases in which unstressed old e has changed into ė in the dialect, see § 70 a, b, c. Stressed old long e has changed into ė in the dialect; see § 70.

§ 68. e, which developed from the acute diphthong en, is generally short at the end of a word in the dialect, as in the standard language, e.g.: (singular instrumental) girinė, kovietinė, medinė, pelė, šiaudinė, virvė, žievė; (singular locative) beržė, ląngė, laukė, rasalė, skiedrynė, stogė; (plural locative) akįsė (akyse), ausįsė (ausyse), dantįsė (dantyse), raumenįsė (raumenyse), smegenįsė (smegenyse), širdįsė (širdyse).

The enclitic reflexive-verb particles se (< sen) are also short at the end of a word, e.g.: pėstise (pėstis), pjaunase (pjaunasi), šausise (šausis).

There are cases in which dialectal e, which developed from the acute diphthong en, has disappeared at the end of a word:

a) In the singular locative, e.g.: (adjectives) baltam ~ baltame, gilem ~ giliame, gražem ~ gražiame, juodam ~ juodame; (numerals) ketvirtam ~ ketvirtame, pirmam ~ pirmame; (pronouns) anam ~ aname, katram ~ katrame, kitam ~ kitame, patim (pačiame), šitam ~ šitame, visam ~ visame; (participles) stovencem (stovinčiame), žydencem (žydinčiame).

b) In the plural locative, e.g.: (nouns, except i-stem nouns) daržuos ~ daržuose, ežeruos ~ ežeruose, grėbliuos ~ grėbliuose, loviuos ~ loviuose, šuliniuôs ~ šuliniuose, tvártuos ~ tvártuose, viduriuos ~ viduriuose; avižos ~ avižose, kūrpės ~ kūrpėse, triobôs (trobose), virkščios ~ virkščiose, but akįsė (akyse), pušįsė (pušyse); (adjectives) dideliuôs ~ dideliuose, didelės ~ didelėse, giliuôs ~ giliuose, gilios ~ giliosė, senuôs ~ senuose, senos ~ senose; (numerals) dviejuos ~ dviejuose, dviejôs ~ dviejose, trijuos ~ trijuose, trijos ~ trijose; (pronouns) anuôs ~ anuose, anôs ~ anose, kituôs ~ kituose, kitôs ~ kitose; (participles) valgomuos ~ valgomuose, valgomos ~ valgomose.

§ 69. e (ė), which developed from the circumflex diphthong en, is generally short at the end of a word and corresponds to standard-language ę, e.g.: didelę ~ didelę, eglinę ~ eglinę, karvę ~ karvę, kiaulę ~ kiaulę, mėlynę ~ mėlynę, milinę ~ milinę, pelę ~ pelę, ruginę ~ ruginę, varlę ~ varlę, virvę ~ virvę, žolę ~ žolę, žvaigždę ~ žvaigždę.

The e ending of the nominative singular and plural of masculine participles, which developed from circumflex en, is long (e) in the dialect and corresponds to standard-language ę, e.g.: atėję, buvęs, išdrisęs ~ išdrįsęs, išdžiūvęs ~ išdžiūvęs, išbėgę ~ išbėgę, nulakėję, nusiminęs, pasigrebęs, sugulę, supūvęs, susėdę, užsidėjęs ~ užsidėjęs.

Younger speakers of the dialect also pronounce unstressed word-final e < ēn short in this case, e.g.: būves ~ būvęs, ėjes ~ ėjęs, nusimines ~ nusiminęs.

ė. § 70. e, which developed from old long e, occurs at the stressed end of a word in the dialect. In the standard language it corresponds to ė, e.g.: duobės, gėlė, katė, kvieslė, rėksnė, srovė, varlė, varlės, vežės; lašės, stovės, rėkės, tylės, tingės, žiūrės.

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The old long e at the end of an unstressed word has developed into short ę in the dialect; see § 67. The dialect has cases in which ė, derived from long e, also occurs at the end of an unstressed word:

a) In the third-person future forms of root-stressed verbs with the suffixes -ėti, -sėti and -inėti, e.g.: al̃pės (will faint), áuklės, čiáudės, kláusinės, kósės, mi̇́rksės, sérgės, skéndės, súkinės, svérdės, šni̇́urpsės. In this case, ė < ē has remained unshortened, probably by analogy with other forms or with the accentuation (cf. mi̇́rksėsiu, mi̇́rksėsi, … mi̇́rksėm; žydės, krutės, judės).

b) In the endings of reflexive verbs, e.g.: braižėtės, bárės, máudėmės. Here ė < ē has remained unshortened because the reflexive particle has attached to it (cf. § 76 b):

c) Having only recently come to occur at the end of a word (because j, together with the entire syllable, was lost), e.g.: áuklė ~ áuklėja, kláusinė ~ kláusinėja, súkinė ~ súkinėja; kúrpė ~ kúrpėja, nósinė ~ nósinėja, pelūdė ~ pelūdėja, žémė ~ žémėja; nėšet ~ nėšėte, rãšet ~ rãšėte. In this case, ė < ē did not shorten because it came to stand in the ending only after ē > e (cf. § 76 c).

i, y, į. § 71. i, which developed from old short i, has survived unchanged in the dialect only at the end of stems of i-stem nouns, e.g.: ausis, naktis, pusis, svirtis.

In all other cases, short i has been lost at the end of a word, e.g.: akim ~ akimi, alum ~ alumi, medum ~ medumi.

§ 72. i (y), which developed from old long acute i, is shortened at the end of an open word, but is lost altogether in a closed ending (instrumental plural), e.g.: pati, marti, ji, vištoms ~ vištomis, avims ~ avimis, dróbėms ~ dróbėmis.

The y of a suffix or root in the third-person future form, when it comes to stand at the end of a word, is always long, e.g.: dáigstys ~ dáigstys, dỹks (will disappear), gỹs (will heal), gáudys, kúrstys, lỹs (will pour), pílstys, plỹš (will tear), rỹs (will roll), tráukys.

§ 73. i (y), which developed from old long circumflex i (-jas, -ijas, -ije), is long at the end of the stem of stressed ia-stem nouns, as in 1k, e.g.: kumelỹs, gaidỹ, vėžỹs. At the end of an unstressed word, this i is short, as in 1k, e.g.: dalgis, žvirblis.

When unstressed, this i is also long in the nominative plural of i-stem nouns, as in 1k, e.g.: ãkys, daũtys. Thus, *dures > durys came after *kirvis > kirvis had already undergone the change, and therefore this i could no longer shorten here.

§ 74. i (i), which developed from circumflex in, is generally short at the end of a word and corresponds to 1k i, e.g.: kirvi ~ kirvi, širdi ~ širdį, verši ~ veršį.

There are cases in which this i is long (i) at the end of an unstressed word:

a) In pronominal forms: (adjectives) didįjį, kietąjį, paskutinįjį, pirmutlnijį; (numerals) antrąjį, pirmąjį.

b) In the nominative singular and plural of masculine participles formed from the dialect’s ia-stem verbs, e.g.: žiūrįs, sėdįs, šienaujįs (šienaująs), šūkaujį (šūkaują), varliaujįs (varliaująs, gathering frogs), žoliaujį (žoliauja).

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c) In the singular accusative endings of the pronouns anoks, jisai, nejoks, šitoks, toks, visoks, vienoks, e.g.: anokį, jįjį, nejokį, šitokį, tokį, visokį, vienokį.

§ 75. i, which developed from the acute diphthong ie, is short at the end of an open word, as in 1k, e.g.: gert (<*gerė), balti, juodi, kiti, maži, pirmi, šeri, vežti.

The dialect has cases in which old ie at the end of a word does not become a monophthong; see § 81b.

o. § 76. o, which developed from stressed old long a, is pronounced as in 1k, e.g.: baladòs, kilavòs, lynòs; juodòs, purvinòs, sergančiòs, šakòs, tvarkòs, vagòs.

The old long a at the end of an unstressed word was shortened in the dialect; see § 63.

The dialect has cases in which unstressed old long a has not been shortened and has turned into o, as in 1k, e.g.:

a) In the third person of the future tense of root-stressed verbs with the suffix -oti: ašaros, kybos, kysos, kiūtos, klūpos, laidòs, pašakos, rymos, sąmanos, tykos. Most likely, long a was not shortened here by analogy with other forms or stress (cf. ašarosiu, ašarosi, ašarosim; bėgios, balnòs, nešios); cf. § 70.

b) In the endings of reflexive verbs, e.g.: brėžos ~ brėžosi, dirbos ~ dirbosi, kirpos ~ kirposi, laikos ~ laikosi, pirkos ~ pirkosi, ra šos ~ rašosi, skaitos ~ skaitosi, siūvos ~ siūvosi, šliūostos ~ šliūostosi.

In this case, long a remained unshortened because, after the reflexive particle was attached, it was no longer at the end of the word, but in the penultimate syllable.

c) Recently arisen at the end of a word: (at the end of an open word, due to the loss of j together with the entire syllable) girio ~ girioje, kybo ~ kyboja, kyšo ~ kyšoja, lóvo ~ lóvoje, pievo ~ pievoje, pašako ~ pašakoja, pašakoje, rymo ~ rymoja; (at the end of a closed word) būvot ~ būvote, ėjot ~ ėjote, važiuavot ~ važiuavote.

Here o < ā in the ending arose relatively recently, only after ending ā > a (see § 62). This can be asserted on the basis of the fact that if, say, the locative ending of *pievajēn had been lost before ā turned into o, then the locative would have been indistinguishable from the nominative *pievā (singular nominative) and *pievā (singular locative). Once the change of final long a to short i had occurred, ā would have been shortened in the same way in both cases; since this did not happen, the locative ending je (<jen) must at that time still have been present.

u, ū, ų. § 77. u, which developed from short u, has been lost in word endings, as in 1k, e.g.: aštuoniems (<*aštuon iemus), dukterims, gražioms, jiems, saktims ~ sagtim s, tiems, trims, vagims, varnoms, visiems.

At the end of a word stem, this u, as in 1k, is retained and is short, e.g.: gražūs, spiečius, sūnūs.

§ 78. ū, which developed from old ū, is always long at the end of a word, as in 1k, e.g.: lygūs, nykūs, sūnūs, sū rū s, saldūs.

The ū of the infinitive stem of verbs, when it occurs at the end of a word in the third person of the future tense, also usually remains long in the dialect, e.g.: džiū s (džius), griūs (grius), kliūs (klius), lūs (lus), pūs (pus), rūks (rugs), slūks (slugs), siūs, frūks (truks), žūs (žus), but: bū s.

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The length is retained here, probably because the acute pitch accent has changed to the circumflex.

§ 79. u (ų), which developed from the circumflex diphthong un, is long or short at the end of a dialect word.

u < un is always found in the genitive plural ending and in the third-person ending of the subjunctive, corresponding to Standard Lithuanian ų; e.g.: aiškių, anūkių, baltų, baltių, ėčių, karčiųjų, ketvirtų, mėnesių, neštų, nosų, pelių, pirmųjų, spiečių, vienokių, važiuojančių ~ važiuojančių.

In the genitive plural endings of the pronouns aš, tu, u < un is always short in the dialect, or may even be entirely lost; e.g.: mūsų || mūs ~ mūsų, jūsų || jūs ~ jūsų. The form without u is almost more common in the dialect.

u < un is always found in the accusative singular; e.g.: grąžų ~ grąžų, kártų ~ kártų, medų ~ medų, rūkštų ~ rūgštų, saldųjį ~ saldųjį, spiečių ~ spiečių, sraūnųjį ~ sraūnųjį, sūkru ~ sūkru, sūrųjį ~ sūrųjį.

§ 80. u, which developed from the acute diphthong uo, is generally short at the end of an open word, as in Standard Lithuanian, e.g.: báltu (<*báltuo), dainúoju, dėdeliu, gaišúoju, gerų, kelių, kitų, langų, laukų, penktų, pačių, sergančių, sėdžiu, stoviu, vienu.

There are cases in the dialect where the old uo remains a diphthong at the end of an open word, unlike in Standard Lithuanian; see § 81 b. For the old uo at the end of a closed word, see § 81 c.

2. Diphthongs

Vocalic diphthongs. § 81. a) The dialect diphthongs ai, au, ei remain unchanged at the end of a word, as in Standard Lithuanian; e.g.: baltái (singular dative), rašai, ró dái, sakai, vaikai, vienái; gaus, radau, šókau, vá lgiau, žarščiau ~ žarščiau; darėi, sakėi, žiūrėki.

Polysyllabic proper names in the singular vocative are generally pronounced with the particle ai, though sometimes they may lack this ai; e.g.: Aí́tan (Antanai), Juózap (Juozapai).

After a palatalized consonant, the diphthong ai becomes ei at the end of a word; e.g.: pėilei ~ pėiliai, marčėi ~ marčiai, sámčėis ~ sámčiais, žvirbleis ~ žvirbliais (see § 84).

b) In the dialect, the old ie, uo have generally monophthongized at the end of an open word; see §§ 75, 80. However, there are cases where they have been preserved intact even at the end of an open word.

1. In the ending of the second component of pronominal forms, e.g.: (adjectives) didėji ~ didieji, didesnėjie ~ didesnieji, didžiausėjie ~ didžiausieji, gerėjie ~ gerieji, kartėjie ~ kartieji, mažėjie ~ mažieji, saldėjie ~ saldieji, vyresnėjie ~ vyresnieji, gražiųjuo ~ gražiuoju, gražesniúoju ~ gražesniuoju, gražiausiuo-juo ~ gražiausiuoju, naujuójuo ~ naujuoju, piktúoju ~ piktuoju; (numerals) antrėjie ~ antrieji, pirmėjie ~ pirmieji, tretėjie ~ tretieji; antrúoju ~ antruoju, pirmúoju ~ pirmuoju, trečiúoju ~ trečiuoju; (participles) einantėjie ~ einantieji, ėjusėjie ~ ėjusieji; dirbančiuoju ~ dirbančiuoju, vėrdančiuoju ~ vėrdančiuoju.

In this case, older speakers of the dialect have ei (< ai) in place of the final ie of the second component; e.g.: gerėjei (gerieji), pirmėjei (pirmieji), sergantėjei (sergantieji).

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2. In the ending of the pronouns anas, anoks, jis, koks, kitoks, katras, nejoks, tas, toks, šioks, šitoks, šis, visokas, vienoks, e.g.: anie, anōkie, jie, kokie, kitōkie, katrie, nejōkie, tie, tokie, šiōkie, šitokie, šie, visōkie, vienōkie; anuo, anōkiuo, juo, kōkiuo, kitōkiuo, vienōkiuo. The final uo in this case may also have shifted to u in the dialect, e.g.: kōkiu, tōkiu. Both forms, one may say, are used in parallel.

Stressed ie, uo, at the end of an open word are pronounced in the dialect with a falling accent, unlike in Ik.

3. In the ending of the superlative degree of simple adjectives, e.g.: baisiausie ~ baisiausi, geriausie ~ geriausi, gražiausie ~ gražiausi, baisiausiuo ~ baisiausiu, geriausiuo ~ geriausiu, gražiausiuo ~ gražiausiu.

4. The old ie in the ending of the infinitive and the second-person singular imperative forms of verbs has usually disappeared in the dialect, e.g.: eit ~ eiti, nešt ~ nešti, pilt ~ pilti, siūt ~ siūti, verp t ~ verpti; eik, nešk, pilk, siūk, verp k. Older speakers of the dialect pronounce the final ie in these verb forms, e.g.: eitie, nėštie, praūstie, eikie, nėškie, praūskie.

c) At the end of a closed word, the old ie is always preserved, while uo has remained intact in some cases and shifted to u in others.

At the end of a closed word, ie, uo are pronounced intact:

1. In the endings of the first- and second-person present tense of reflexive verbs, as in Ik, e.g.: prausiūos, stōjuos, sėdžiuos, vežčios; audies, dirbies, prausies, vežies.

2. In reflexive forms that have the enclitic particle se (<sėn), e.g.: laukiantiese ~ laukiantiese (while waiting), šnekėdamiese (while talking).

3. As in Ik, in the ending of the first component of pronominal forms, e.g.: gerie ~ gerieji, geruōsiuos ~ geruōsius, geresniōsiuos ~ geresniōsius, pirmieje ~ pirmieji, ketvirtuōsiuos ~ ketvirtuosius, kelintieje ~ kelintieji, kelintiuōsiuos ~ kelintuosius, skaudamieje ~ skaudamieji, sergančiūosios ~ sergančiuosius.

4. In the singular genitive ending of i-stem nouns, e.g.: nōsties, širdies, usnies.

At the end of the closed word in the plural accusative of nouns, simple adjectives, numerals, and participles, the old uo has always become monophthongized and shifted to u, as in Ik, e.g.: laukius, plaukus, namūs, ratus, ragus, retus, virtus, išgijusius ~ išgijusius.

At the end of the closed word in the plural accusative of simple pronouns, the old uo has become monophthongized and shifted to u in all cases, as in Ik: kelintūs, kitōkius, kitus, kōkius, nejōkius, pačius, šiōkius, šitōkius, vienus, vienōkius, visus, visōkius, but: anuōs, juōs, katruōs, šituos, šiuos, tuos. In this case, unlike in Ik, stressed uo at the end of a closed word has a falling accent.

d) The dialect diphthong ui at the end of a word remains unchanged, as in Ik, e.g.: pašui, vaikui, vilkui, žvirbliui.

Mixed diphthongs. § 82. For the old mixed diphthongs an, en, in, un at the end of a word, see §§ 64, 65, 68, 69, 74, 79. All the other mixed diphthongs are generally very rarely found at the end of a word in the dialect. The only exception here consists of mixed diphthongs that have newly arisen at word-end as a result of shortening endings,

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e.g.: gẽr ~ gẽria, pìl ~ pila, šẽr ~ šẽria (see § 58 b). In adverbs, various adverbial particles and conjunctions, and sometimes pronouns as well, the second component of mixed diphthongs at the end of a word has usually been lost, and the diphthongs have broken up, e.g.: aukštỹn ~ aukštỹn, gerỹn ~ gerỹn, gražỹn ~ gražỹn, kiẽtỹn ~ kiẽtỹn, kvailỹn ~ kvailỹn, mažỹn ~ mažỹn, trumpỹn ~ trumpỹn; à ~ ãr, ì ~ ìr; dabà ~ dabar, dá ~ dar, kodẽ ~ kodėl, todẽ ~ todėl; mã ~ mãn, laũka ~ laũkan.

III. Combinatory laws of vowels

1. Broadening of the vowel e

§ 83. In Mut, as in some other Lithuanian dialects, broadening of the vowel e is observed in certain cases.

Dialectal e (e < ė, e < en, e + l, m, n, r) always broadens and acquires an a-like quality if it occurs before a hard consonant. In phonetic transcription, this broadened e is represented by the ligature of the letters a and e (æ). In the dialect it is pronounced like LK ia, e.g.: bėržas ~ bėržas, bėrdams ~ bėrdamas, deg ~ dėga, dėlna ~ dėlna (palm), ėžers ~ ežeras, gẽrs ~ gẽras, išvẽrs ~ išvẽrs, kẽlc ~ keltas, kẽlmai ~ kẽlmai, kẽršas ~ kẽršas, kẽrp ~ kẽrpa, lẽs ~ lẽsa, mẽlžu ~ mẽlžu, menkà ~ menkà, mẽrgas ~ mẽrgos, mãs ~ mẽs, ōbels (apple trees), pã-šam ~ pẽšame, šėnc ~ šėnas, skvẽrnas ~ skvẽrnas, supelijẽs ~ supelijęs, šōke's ~ šōkės, švẽnt ~ švẽnta, tẽks ~ tẽks, vẽdam ~ vẽdame, vẽl̇kam ~ vẽlkame, žẽms ~ žẽmas, žẽnc ~ žẽntas.

The long e at the end of an open word in the dialect, which developed from tautosyllabic en with a circumflex accent, also has a fronted-a quality, e.g.: nubẽgẽ ~ nubẽgę, nulašėjẽ ~ nulašėjė, įsisąūšėjẽ ~ išsisąūšėję, plukdýdavẽ ~ plukdydavę, válgydavẽ ~ válgydavę, tẽ ~ tẽn.

In fact, this e does not become retracted; in terms of tongue height, it merely moves slightly away from ordinary e and closer to a. Thus, it remains a front vowel, but a very open e.

Instances of e-broadening also occur in other Lithuanian dialects. In the puntininkas dialects of the Eastern Aukštaitians (around Kupiškis), e broadens into a, e.g.: và·da ~ vėda, vadù ~ vedu, va·stu. (subjunctive) ~ vēstų, vastù (conditional mood) ~ vestų, vàs ~ vės, avà·la. ~ avėlė, kumà·la. ~ kumėlė.

Examples of this kind are also cited in Pr. Skardžius’s article “On Vowel Assimilation,” which states: “It has been observed that vowels often influence one another by assimilation, both progressively and regressively. This is particularly easy to see in our dialects. For example, the Subatėnai and eastern Aukštaitians say: bã·ga ~ bėga, bã·ktu. (subjunctive) ~ bėktų, nã·ša ~ nẽša, nãšt ~ nẽšt (from neštų), kumà·la. ~ kumėlė, but bẽgì ~ bėgi, bẽkì ~ bėgti, nẽ·št ~ nešti, gen. pl. kumẽ·lu. ~ kumelių, etc. In this way, we can establish that in the speech of the Subatėnai, front vowels before back vowels in following syllables are consistently

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assimilated, that is, converted into equally broad, also back-row vowels”⁵⁹.

The claim in this quotation—that all following back-row vowels turn e into a back vowel as well—can be accepted only in part. However, as the quotation shows, when the vowel e turns into a back vowel, it is always also as broad as a. This raises the question of how e could have broadened in cases where the following vowel in the adjacent syllable is a narrower back-row vowel, say u. In this case, we could speak only of partial vowel assimilation. The vowel u may have backed this e, but not broadened it; the cause of the broadening of e must be sought elsewhere. Yet both in Mut and in the eastern Aukštaitian puntininkai dialects there are examples where e has changed even when no other vowel follows it, nor ever did, for example, the stem e of the third-person future tense of verbs (Mut): lės ~ lės, nẽš ~ nėš; (in the puntininkai dadininkai dialects) mās ~ mės, nāš ~ nėš, vàs ~ vės; long e, arising from tautosyllabic en (Mut): šẽ ~ šen, nėšẽ ~ nėšę, šérẽ ~ šėrę, vẽžẽ ~ vėžę; the word-final ē of ē-stem nouns < ē (in the puntininkai dadininkai dialects): avā́la. ~ avėlė, kumā́la. ~ kumėlė, katāˢ ~ katė, katāˢs ~ katės, sva.rā ~ svėrė, sva.rāˢs ~ svėręs, and so on.

The examples given show that in dialects there are many cases where e can become similar to a or turn into it entirely without any influence from other vowels. To determine the cause of e turning into a or becoming similar to it, let us return to the same article. There we find: “As other, neighboring dialects show, this (the change of e into a—E. G.) must have occurred gradually, namely: in the word kumā́la. the word-final ē, one must suppose, first turned into a˙ (<a.) after the velar l, and only later did a appear in place of e in the penultimate syllable”⁶⁰. Thus, the claim here is that the final ē of the word kumelė was first affected by the velar l, which turned it into a. It follows, then, that consonants also affect vowels. In this case, the quotation indicates that consonants affect vowels only progressively. But the question arises why the velar l, having turned the e following it into a and itself thereby becoming even harder, could not continue to affect the vowels next to it, and why the newly arisen final a should have assimilated the e preceding it. After all, both regressive and progressive interaction between vowels and consonants is familiar in Lithuanian. Moreover, regressive influence is more common and more characteristic of Lithuanian. So, might it not be the velar l that turned the e preceding it into a as well? Looking again at the dialect examples given earlier, we see that, in fact, in all cases e can be affected progressively and regressively by both present and former hard consonants. The broadening of e in the dialect under study in the open word-final position in such words as bėgẽ˙ (< *bėgēn) ~ bėgę, šẽ (< šen) ~ šėn, sāvē˙ (< *saven) ~ sāvę (savęs) cannot be explained otherwise. This shows that the broadening of e in Mut predates the loss of consonant n. Only at the time when that n

⁵⁹ See Pr. Skardžius, APh, VII, 40, Kaunas (1938).

⁶⁰ Ibid., 40.

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was still present, e could broaden. After n disappeared at the end of the word, the broadened e remained. Likewise, only under the influence of hardened consonants did the eastern Aukštaitian vowel e, ē (< ē) turn into a in words such as avāla ~ avėlė, gēra ~ gėrė, sva.rā ~ svėrė.

Thus, in the kūpiškėnai dialect too, e, ē (< ē) turns into a in cases where there is no soft consonant in the following syllable.

That consonants affect the vowels next to them is also clearly shown by these examples from the Kupiškėnai dialect: gėra ~ gėrė, kėptas ~ kėptas, gėras ~ gėras, šėra ~ šėrė, žėma ~ žemė, vėžė ~ vėžė, žėmas ~ žemas, jėma ~ ėmė. In these examples, after g, j, k, š, ž, the vowel e does not turn into a, even though it occurs before hard or hardened consonants (before a syllable with a back-row or central vowel), because its narrowness is maintained by the preceding palatal g, j, k, š, ž consonant, which in these dialects is more palatalized than other consonants. It is also noteworthy that in such cases the vowel e is not only unbroadened, but is further narrowed. Its narrowing can only be due to the palatal consonant, since nothing else can narrow it (a hard consonant and a broad vowel follow it).

More examples from Mut can be cited to show that only consonants are responsible for the broadening of e (or its turning into a). In most of Mut, the infinitive ending -t is soft. There the vowel e, occurring before soft t, remains unchanged, for example: nēšti ~ nešti, gyvēt ~ gyventi. At the eastern edge of the dialect, the infinitive ending -t is hard. Here the vowel e, occurring before hard t, broadens and is pronounced as ia, for example: gyvėt ~ gyventi, vėst ~ vėsti. The e of negation, occurring only before back vowels in the following word, never broadens, for example: nē uoga, nē olungė (nė volungė). Things are quite different when a consonant is inserted between this same e and the back vowels, for example: nēe uoga (nė uoga), nēe volungė ~ nė volungė.

Now that it has become clear that e is affected by hard or hardened consonants, the claim that “...front-row vowels before back-row vowels... are... converted into equally broad back-row vowels” cannot be considered correct. Moreover, this claim is also wrong because, in fact, not all back-row vowels are broad (e.g., o, u).

The vowel e never broadens when it occurs before a soft consonant, for example: metį, vedį, nešį, pelė, senesnį.

2. Fronting of vowels

§ 84. All back vowels (a, o, u), when they occur after j and other palatalized consonants, in Mut always become fronted, e.g.: jāuje ~ jāuja, pėllei ~ pėliai, gėrem ~ gėriame, lėkenčius ~ lėkiančius, kiāuras, ėjaū, jōjau, jōvals ~ jōvalas, žiōplas, jūks ~ jūkas (blood soup), kiūžis. The examples show that the vowels o, u, and a in the diphthong au did not turn into other sounds when fronted, and that the vowel a is most affected by fronting when it occurs alone and in the combinations ai, am, an. The fronted-

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vowel a has become e in the dialect. This e, derived from a, varies in breadth depending on its length and position in the word.

As a result of fronting, a becomes e in the dialect:

1. If it is short at the end of an open word, e.g.: gijė ~ gijà, sàujė ~ sàuja, žarijė ~ žarijà, delčė ~ delčià, pradžė ~ pradžià; uošvijė ~ uošvijà; akė ~ akià (with the eye), gėrė ~ gėrià, žiūrė ~ žiūrià (he/she looks).

2. When a palatalized consonant follows it, e.g.: áudženti ~ áudžianti, éisenį ~ éisianti, turentį ~ turinti (having), lekentỹsis ~ lekian tỹsis, laukentėse ~ laukiančiose (pregnant), žydenčiója ~ žydiančiója (the one that is flowering).

3. When it occurs in the diphthong ai, e.g.: brólei ~ bróliai, marčei ~ marčiai, šėnei ~ šėniai, peileis ~ peiliais, šereis ~ šeriais.

In the following cases, fronted a becomes ę:

1. If it is long at the end of a word, e.g.: audženčėsės ~ audžiančiasis, vyriáusėji ~ vyriausiai, baltąjė ~ baltąja, jąjė ~ jąja, naũjėjei ~ naujajai, graũdžėje ~ graudžiaja, mišė ~ mušia, šiūsė ~ siūsią, žvėjosė ~ žvejosia.

2. When hard consonants follow it, e.g.: pylėvà ~ pyliavà, baudžėvà ~ baudžiavà, arklems ~ arkliams, peilems ~ peiliams, vadžės ~ vadžias, kójas ~ kojas, žiūrem ~ žiūrime (we look), tūret ~ tur iate (you have).

The unstressed old historical long a at the end of a word (Lithuanian ę) has also narrowed and become e. At the end of an open word it is narrower, and in a closed word—broader, e.g.: gaidžė ~ gaidžio, jáuče ~ jaučio; kójes ~ kojos, sáujes ~ sáujos; plóje ~ plójo, sėdėje ~ sėdėjo. In this case, the origin of the new e is entirely clear: being unstressed, the old long a shortened at the end of the word and could no longer become o. Later, this shortened a, under the influence of the fronting effect of the consonant j, became e along with short a.

3. Contraction and elision

§ 85. Vowel contraction and deletion most often occur when verbs or words of verbal origin whose stem begins with a vowel take a prefix. The following sequences are most commonly contracted in the dialect: e + y; u + ė; a, u + ei; i + i, e.g.: najaũ ~ nuėjaũ, najė ~ nuėjai, nãję ~ nuėjo, najims ~ nuėjimas, naisiu ~ nueisiu, nãs ~ nueis, pãis ~ paeis, nãik ~ nueik, nãn ~ nueina, naini ~ nueini, nãty ~ nueitų, nãnam ~ nueiname, nãsiu ~ nueisiu, pãsiu ~ paeisiu, paini ~ paeinu, paikim ~ paeikime, pain ~ paeina, pãity ~ paeitu, pãik ~ paeik, prãisiu ~ pra eisiu, prainu ~ praeinu, praik ~ praeik, praitu ~ praeitų, prais ~ praeis, prainam ~ praeiname, tėr ~ tėra, nėr ~ nėra.

Elision in the dialect most often occurs in the following sequences: e + a; e, i + ė; e + i; e, i + ei; a + ė; i + a, e.g.: neptėrš̃k ~ neapteršk, netlaĩkys ~ neatlaikys, necakỹs ~ neatsakys, netidarỹs ~ neatidarys, necūks ~ neatsūks, netlaũš ~ neatlaũš, netpìrks ~ neatpìrks, netiduõs ~ neatiduõs, netmės ~ neatmės, nekėję ~ neakėjo, negurkãva ~ neagurkãvo, nerbãva ~ nearbãvo, nėjaũ, nėjėi ~ neėjai, nėmiaũ ~ nėmiau, nėmėi ~ nėmei, prėde ~ priėdė, prėst ~ priėsti, prėdžiau ~

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priedžiau, nęd ~ nėda, nėde ~ nėdė, prešk ~ priėšk, nėšk ~ nėešk, nėdrus ~ nėėdrus, nėdri ~ nėėdri, preijau ~ priėjau, prejęi ~ priėjai, preijims ~ priėjimas, preidims ~ priedimas, premiau ~ priėmiau, premėi ~ priėmei, premims ~ priėmimas, nikš ~ neįkiš, nievėš ~ neįvėš, ninėš ~ neįneš, ništums ~ neįstumš, nižąs ~ neįkąs, nidėks ~ neįdegęs, nimū ~ nėimu, nimį ~ nėimi, neinū, neinį, neilūok ~ neeiliuok, preinū ~ prieinu, preinį ~ prieini, preiliāva ~ prielįavo, susėinū ~ susieinu, susėini ~ susieini, prajaiū ~ praėjau, prajėj ~ praėjai, prajims ~ praėjimas, nižgėre ~ neišgėrė, nišvāre ~ neišvārė, nišmāude ~ neišmāudė, nišāude ~ neiššāudė, nižgāude ~ neišgāudė, ništrāuke ~ neištrāukė, nišlāupė ~ neišlāupė, susėjau ~ susiėjau, susėjė ~ susiėjai, susėjims ~ susiėjimas, nikš ~ neįkiša, nikel ~ neįkelia, nėme ~ nėėmė, nėmem ~ nėėmėme, nėmėt ~ nėėmėte, nėmes ~ nėėmės, preję ~ priėjo, prėjom ~ priėjome, prėjot ~ priėjote, prėjęs ~ priėjęs, nein ~ neina, nein am, neik, neiš, neikit, neikim, preiš ~ prieis, prei- bit ~ prieikite, nišplaukė ~ neišplaukė, nėtnėš ~ neātneša, nim ~ nėima, nimam ~ nėimame, premem ~ priėmėme, susėme ~ susiėmė, susėmei ~ susiėmei, pršėmiau ~ prišėmiau, pašėmė ~ pasiėmė, nišėme ~ nusiėmė, tšėmei ~ teišėmei, prājom ~ praėjome, prājė ~ praėjo, pājom ~ paėjome, pāję ~ paėjo, susėnam ~ susieiname, susėję ~ susiėjo, nuseičiau ~ nusieičiau (nueičiau), nepārc ~ neapārtas.

Sometimes vowel deletion and contraction in the dialect are so closely related phenomena that it is difficult to distinguish them; this most often happens when two identical vowels formerly stood next to each other in a word, e.g.: pasilga ~ pasilgo, pasilgau ~ pasilgau, pasilsėt ~ pasilsėti, pasilsėje ~ pasilsėjo, pantaušys ~ paantaušys, Palsys ~ Paalsys (a village by the Alsa River), pirmapaalsinei ~ pirmapaalsiniai (people from Paalsio I village), antrapaalsinei ~ antrapaalsiniai (people from Paalsio II village), Pantvardys~Paantvardys (a village by the Antvardė River), prímam~ priimame, prim~ priima, pasiimt ~ usimt ~ prisiimt~ pasiimti, užsiimti, prisiiimti, priimc ~ priimk ~ priimt ~ priimsiu ~ niimsiu ~ priimsi ~ priimtu ~ priimkim ~ priimdavau ~ pasim ~ susim ~ ūsim ~ prisim ~ susimam ~ susimat~ priimtas, priimk, priimti, priimsiu, neimsiu, priimsi, priimtų, priimkime, priimdavau, pasiima, susiima, užsiima, prisiima, susiimame, susiimate.

4. V o w e l D e l e t i o n

§ 86. Very rare cases of vowel deletion occur in words of foreign origin in the environment of nasals and liquids, e.g.: pālic (coat), gimnāzije (gymnasium), gimnāziastas (gymnasium student), cvilikai (nimble people).

5. V o w e l E p e n t h e s i s

§ 87. Vowel addition at the beginning of a word has been observed only in words of foreign origin, e.g.: Atkočāits~Atkočaitis (cf. Polish tkacz), iškala (Jewish house of prayer).

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6. Vowel loss

§ 88. Vowel loss at the beginning of words of Lithuanian origin has not been observed in the dialect. Initial vowels in words of foreign origin are usually lost when the meaning of those words or individual sounds is unclear, or when the word’s sounds resemble those of a Lithuanian word, e.g.: Nastāze (Anastazija), vangelìks (evangeli-kas), Samidàuckas (Aksamitauškas), raplānc (aeroplanas), balatōrije (ambulato-rija), tamabìlius (automobilis), Zabēle (Izabelė), Džidorìus (Izidorius), raštānc (areštantas), raštìot (areštuoti), raštāva (areštavo).

7. Vowel omission

§ 89. Vowel omission occurs rarely in the dialect, e.g.: vàdnas (vadinasi), Mitva (Mituva), Jērbiškei (Jerubiškiai, a village name), brōks (burokas), sąsūvinis (sąsiuvinis).

8. Variations at the beginning of the word

§ 90. At the beginning of a word, e occurs irregularly in the dialect in place of standard Lithuanian a, e.g.: elksnis (alksnis), elksnynė (alksnynas), Eñdrius (Andrius), ēitvars (aitvaras), ekmuõ (akmuo), ekmenyne (akmenynė), Emērikis (Amerika).

Consonantism

I. Pronunciation and origin

1. Consonants

b, d, g, k, l, m, p, r, s, š, t, v, z, ž. § 91. The consonants b, d, g, k, l, m, p, r, s, š, t, v, z, ž in the dialect are of the same origin and are pronounced in the same way as in standard Lithuanian, e.g.: balā, baltā, daržinė, gaigals ~ gaigalas, karštis, lapė, mōlis, pašiópa (a poor-quality building, usually a woodshed), rōpe ~ rōpė, sulā, šatrā, tōsis, vežēš, žūrūnis (a person who grumbles and is getting ready to cry), žāips ~ žaibas.

§ 92. The dialect’s j is of the same origin as in standard Lithuanian. It is always pronounced softly, e.g.: jāuje ~ jāuja, jōvars ~ jōvaras, juōks ~ juōkas, jijē (she).

§ 93. j occurs in the dialect less frequently than in standard Lithuanian. It is most often absent at the ends of dialect words. There it has disappeared together with the entire syllable after old long vowels and vocalic diphthongs in the following cases:

1. At the open end of a word before old short a, e.g.: gỹ ~ gỹja, klō ~ klōja, kiaušiniau ~ kiaušiniauja (searches in nests for eggs), kirmỹ ~ kirmyja, lỹ ~ lyja, lō ~ lōja, lynō ~ lynōja, lie ~ lieja, malkau ~ malkauja, mō ~ mōja, melūo ~ melūoja, plō ~ plōja, paukščiau ~ paukščiauja (catches birds and tears apart their nests), pelỹ ~ pelỹja, peliō ~ peliōja (catches mice), rāu ~ rāuja, rūdỹ ~ rūdỹja, sē ~ sēja, skrie ~ skrieja, spē ~ spēja, šienāu ~ šienāuja, važiūo ~ važiūoja,

but: sāuje (<*sāujā) ~ sāuja, jāuje ~ jāuja, Vidāuje ~ Vidāuja, gijē ~ gija, vējē ~ vēja.

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2. At the open end of a word before e (< ēn), e.g.: akỹ ~ akyje, galvõ ~ galvoje, gerõ ~ geroje, nõsy ~ nosyje, pievõ ~ pievoje, patvorỹ ~ patvoryje, šulinỹ ~ šulinyje, tulžỹ ~ tulžyje, vandenỹ ~ vandenyje, žaliõ ~ žalioje, but: meduj̃ ~ meduje, būčiuj̃ ~ būčiuje, spiečiuj̃ ~ spiečiuje.

3. At the end of the first component of compound words, when j occurred before a, e.g.: kraugerỹs (< kraujagerýs), kraũligė (< kraujaligė) ~ kraũligė, kraũžolės (< kraujāžolės) ~ kraũžolės, kógalvei (< kojagalviai) ~ kógaliai (extremities), nauvedỹs (< naujavedys), vėrauṗlės (< vėjarauṗlės) ~ vėrauṗlės.

§ 94. As in standard Lithuanian, j has disappeared in consonant clusters occurring before front vowels, e.g.: áudi, jautl, láukei, renkì, skalbei, žiemỹs (north).

§ 95. The fate of j in clusters with consonants before back vowels is as follows:

1. Senųjų dj, tj junginių antrasis sandas, kaip ir 1k, išnyko, pirmąjį paversdamas dž, č afrikata, o po šio junginio ėjusį balsį supriešakindamas, pvz.: gaidžė̃ ~ gaidžiai, gaidžė ~ gaidžio, gaidžiui, mačiaũ, matýčiau, paũkščė̃ ~ paũkščiai, svečė̃ ~ svečiai, kenč̃ ~ kenčia, leidž̃ ~ leidžia. Galūninis a šiuo atveju, matyti, yra nukritęs jau po junginių tj, dj > č, dž, nes priešingu atveju tj, dj nebebūtų galėję išvirsti afrikatomis (j būtų nukritęs kartu su a).

2. The old bj, pj clusters have remained intact only in the word stem, e.g.: bjaurùms ~ biaurumas, pabjūra ~ pabiūro, bjaurỹbė ~ biaurybė, bjaũrei ~ biaūriai, papjū̃ts (misfortune, end), pjovìms ~ piovimas, pjáustyt ~ pjáustyti, pjovìks ~ piovikas, pjudýt ~ piudyti, pjūklas ~ piūklas, rūkpjūtė ~ rugpjūtė, papjaũc ~ papiautas, spjõvė ~ spiovė, spjáut ~ spiauti.

At the end of a word, the second element of the clusters bj, pj has fallen out, as in standard Lithuanian, e.g.: gnybiau, gnybiu, kaupiu.

3. In old gj, kj, lj, mj, nj, rj, sj, šj, vj, zj, žj clusters, the second element has likewise fallen out, as in standard Lithuanian, e.g.: vãgė ~ vãgio, sakiaũ, brólė ~ brólio, kūrme ~ kūrmio, skýniau, stúobre ~ stúobrio, bìldese ~ bìldesio, šiauc ~ šiaũdas, žyziaũ (I whined), ėžė ~ ėžio.

ⁿ. § 96. The dialect’s n is the same in origin and pronunciation as in standard Lithuanian, e.g.: norãks ~ norãgas, vãnak s ~ vã nagas, žandai. Unlike in standard Lithuanian, n occurs less frequently in the dialect. Without any exception⁶¹, here it has disappeared not only before all fricative consonants in the word root and ending, as in standard Lithuanian, but also in verbs before s and the infinitive t (when disappearing, n affected the preceding vowel; see §§ 38, 42, 48, 54, 65, 69, 74, 79), e.g.: bãl ~ bãla, grãžtas ~ grãžtas, gyvẽs ~ gyveñs, gyvėt ~ gyventi, kẽst, kūręs ~ kūrẽns, kūrėt ~ kūrenti, kabit ~ kabinti, kabìs ~ kabins, lìst, pìt ~ pinti, pìs ~ piñs, raugėt ~ rauginti, sãpara, sãl ~ sãla, sãnar ei ~ sãnariai, sãnašas ~ sãnašos, sãžinė ~ sãžinė, sãrašas, skẽst, skỹst, skẽsiu ~ skinsiu, skẽsi ~ skinsi, skẽs ~ skins, skẽsim ~ skinsime, skẽsit ~ skinsite, skẽt ~ skinti, skẽdams ~ skindamas, skẽtų ~ skintų, sėt ~ sėnti, sėstu ~ sėñstu, sėst ~ sėnsta, sėstų ~ sėntų,

⁶¹ Cf. J. Žiugžda, Lietuvių kalbos gramatika, 1, 20, Kaunas, 1956.

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sėsi ~ sensi, sės ~ sens, sėčiau ~ senčiau, sėtum ~ sentum, sėdams ~ sendamas, šąslavas (sašlavos), šąl ~ šąla, tvės ~ tviñs, tvįt ~ tvinti, tvįst ~ tvinsta, tvįtu ~ tvintu.

For cases in which n changes to m, see § 109.

f, ch, h. § 97. The consonants f, ch, h occur in the dialect almost exclusively in words of foreign origin and are rare.

a) Of these consonants, f is the most common in the dialect, e.g.: fūktelis (a harrow-like agricultural machine), futrā (a warm women’s coat), férma, fināncai ~ finānsai, fýgusas (fig), féleris (shortcoming, flaw), frēnčius (jacket). In other words, f is replaced by p, e.g.: pābrikēs ~ fābrikas, pūrmonc ~ fūrmonas (carter), purmānka (a cart carrying people), partigrāps ~ partigrāpas (photographer), pudamenc ~ fudamēntas (foundation). Younger dialect speakers pronounce f in loanwords.

b) The h at the beginning of loanwords is usually dropped in the dialect, e.g.: aktārs (hectare), īmnas (anthem). Sometimes this h is changed to g, e.g.: Genārikṣ (Henrikas), gēṛps (coat of arms), gektārs (hectare). In dialect interjections, h is pronounced, e.g.: ahà (yes), ehē (poorly!), uhū (hello, attention!), ýhāha (a horse’s neigh), ohō. Younger dialect speakers also pronounce h in loanwords.

c) The consonant ch is not used at all in the speech of older dialect speakers. In every case it is replaced by Lithuanian k (including in neologisms), e.g.: kòrs ~ chòras, kòlera ~ chòlera, tēkninkūms (technikum as), tēkninks (technikas), kirūrks ~ chirurgas, karāktorius (charakteris), kliòrke ~ chliòrkē (chloras), kuligānc ~ chuligānas, kytrī (cleverly). Younger dialect speakers pronounce ch in loanwords.

2. Affricates

c. § 98. The affricate c is considerably more frequent in the dialect than in standard Lithuanian. For this reason, its origin is also more varied than that of standard Lithuanian c. As in standard Lithuanian, c is found in the dialect primarily in loanwords and words imitating natural sounds, e.g.: cūkruṣ, cigōnai (gypsies), cigārs ~ cigāras, cimēnc (cement); cipīks ~ cipūkas (chick), ciepšet, cýpt, cyplȳs, cāpt, capūks (the edge or projection of a garment that one can grab hold of). In addition, the affricate c also arises in the dialect through sound assimilation. Most instances of c in the dialect have this origin. In the dialect, adjacent sounds t and s, d and s most commonly assimilate. These sound sequences always become the affricate c. It occurs in the dialect in the following cases:

1. When prefix t and root or reflexive particle s come into contact, e.g.: acisēda ~ sat down, acīgule ~ lay down, acikēle ~ got up, ācliuoge ~ slid down, àcklende ~ unlocked, àckleiskim ~ let us unfold, àckverbe ~ penetrated, acmeik ~ strike at, acpēši ~ will guess, ackirtu ~ would separate, acvyrāva ~ swayed away, acpinda ~ shone back, acūka ~ turned off.

2. In adjacent words where the first is a proclitic, with final t followed by initial s, e.g.: an cāules ~ in the sun, an cēnas ~ on the wall, an cṭāla ~ on the table.

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3. The d, t at the end of the first constituent of compound words and s at the beginning of the second constituent, e.g.: drūčprandis ~ drūtsprandis, v̇ciene ~ vidsienė.

4. At the end of a word in closed position, except with short a (§ 61) and when the sounds t and s, d and s occur next to each other, e.g.: lẽc ~ lẽtas, kẽpc ~ kẽptas, kiẽc ~ kiẽtas, píc ~ pintas, rãc ~ rãtas, rẽc ~ rẽtas, skíc ~ skintas, arúoc ~ arúodas, grúc ~ grūdas, júoc ~ júodas, kūoc ~ kūodas, lẽc ~ lẽdas, pãc ~ pãdas, prúc ~ prūdas, púoc ~ pūodas, pẽc ~ pẽdas, rúc ~ rūdas, sõc ~ sõdas, úoc ~ úodas, žíec ~ žíedas.

The affricate c in the dialect arises from s occurring after n. This most often happens at the end of a word in closed position, except when the vowel is short, e.g.: geltõnc ~ geltõnas, mėlync ~ mėlynas, raudõnc ~ raudõnas, šẽnc ~ šẽnas, šiẽnc ~ šiẽnas, vandẽnc ~ vandẽns, víenc ~ víenas.

s changes into c in the suffix -nsk- of surnames of foreign origin as well, e.g.: Bagdánckis ~ Bagdánskis, Palánckis ~ Palánskis, Beržínckas ~ Beržínskas.

Probably by analogy with the suffix -nsk-, s changes into c in the suffix -ausk- as well as in other words containing the sound sequence -ausk-, e.g.: pliauckà ~ pliauskà, Lazdáuckas ~ Lazdáuskas, Grubliáuckė ~ Grubliáuskė (Grubliauskaitė), bauckinė ~ bauskinė (brought back from Bauskė).

č. § 99. With respect to origin and use, the affricate č is also more frequent in the dialect than in the standard language:

1. č arising from t + j, as in the standard language; see § 95.

2. č arising from the imitation of sounds in nature, e.g.: čerkšt, čerkšlė, čirkšt, čiaupótis, čiauškėt, čiaudėt, čiūpt, čiūputė ~ čiūputė (someone who does something for a long time, fiddling about).

3. č in loanwords, borrowed together with the word, e.g.: česnãkas ~ česnãkas, čemerỹs (a bitter herb), čiobras, žemčiūgai.

Many instances of the affricate č in the dialect have arisen through sound assimilation. When the sounds t and š meet, they always produce the affricate č, e.g.: ačẽrt ~ atšẽrti, ačãla ~ atšãlo, ačáiža ~ atšáiža, ačvìlpė ~ atšvìlpė, ačliáužė ~ atšliáužė; an čiaudų ~ ant šiaudų, an čirdies ~ ant širdies, an čaliẽs ~ ant šalies; pikčšasė ~ piktsąsiai. The sounds d + š, when they meet, also assimilate to produce the affricate č, e.g.: Ei čas (<Eid+šas, surname), Ei čei ~ Ei čiai (village), juõčkus (< juod+škus); Juõčakis ~ Juódsakis (a stream in the forests of Pašventys), mečerkė (<medsárkė). The sound š changes into the affricate č when it follows n, e.g.: grynčalã ~ grynšalã, Jončkìs ~ Jončkis (Jonas), Oñčke ~ Oñčke (Ona), Genčke ~ Genčke (Genė). The affricate č is pronounced through assimilation in a word group formed from the dialect sounds c and š, e.g.: vien čon čyla, ki čon čala ~ vienc šonc šyla, kic šonc šąla ~ one side warms up, the other side cools down.

dz. § 100. The affricate dz is rare in the dialect. It has arisen:

1. From the imitation of sounds in nature, e.g.: džinkt ~ džingt, džimbīt ~ džimbinti (to walk sluggishly), džangvót (to walk a long way without a clear purpose).

2. Through assimilation of adjacent sounds t and z, d and z, e.g.: adžimbė ~ atzvimbė, adzylójė ~ atzylójo, adžiržė ~ atziržė; ka džiřžė ~ kad žiržė.

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3. Through assimilation with a preceding n, the sound z, e.g.: Bandžnai ~ Banzinai (name of a village), bendžinc ~ benzinas, kombinzdžonc ~ kombinzonas.

dž. § 101. The affricate dž occurs in the dialect more frequently than in standard Lithuanian. It may have arisen:

1. From the cluster dj, see § 95.

2. From the imitation of sounds in nature, e.g.: ei džium džium džium.

3. Through assimilation of adjacent sounds, e.g.: (t+ž) adžvengė ~ atžvengė, adžėlė ~ atžėlė, adžygiuo ~ atžygiuoja, adžagrei ~ atžagariai, adžengė ~ atžengė, adžarštė ~ atža(r)štė, adžaibuo ~ atžaibuoja, adžabojė ~ atžabėjo; an džiemos ~ ant žiemos, an džėmes ~ ant žemės, an džolės ~ ant žolės; pigdžolės ~ piktžolės. The affricate dž is also found in compounds before voiced consonants, where the affricate č becomes voiced, e.g.: drūdžgalys ~ drūčgalys (the blunt end), kurdžgalys ~ kurčgalys (the end of a foot furrow), trėdždalis ~ trečdalis.

II. Combinatory laws of consonants

1. A s s i m i l a t i o n

a) Consonant softness due to assimilation. § 102. In the dialect, consonants may be hard or soft. The hardening or softening of consonants in the dialect is regressive⁶².

Consonants are always hard before back vowels, as in standard Lithuanian, e.g.: balà, bóbà, baigù, vãbalas ~ vãbalas, skam̃ba ~ skamba, šlum̃ba ~ šlumba, žvaigždùtė ~ žvaigždutė. If the short a is lost through word-final shortening in the dialect, the consonant preceding it, now in word-final position, remains hard, e.g.: dírbo ~ dirba, drėb ~ drėba, ėd ~ ėda, kánd ~ kanda, leñd ~ lenda, žíb ~ žiba, žínd ~ žinda.

When immediately preceding front vowels or fronted vowels, consonants are always soft, e.g.: bìtis (bee), Bėbirvýtis ~ Bebirvytis (a stream), kiaušìnis ~ kiaušinis, kępìes ~ kepiesi, lėkìms ~ lėkimas, lýgýbė (equality), pélkė ~ pelkė, šiekšnìs, žydėt ~ žydėti, žioplas ~ žioplas. If, through word-final shortening in the dialect, the short a or i is lost before a soft consonant, the consonant preceding it is always pronounced softly, e.g.: mýl ~ mylia (loves), lýdž ~ lydi (accompanies), týl (is silent), žýd (blooms), pér (washes), gúl (lies down), gyvẽt ~ gyventi, matýt ~ matyti, sakýt ~ sakyti, žiūrėt ~ žiūrėti.

§ 103. The consonants g, k are soft only when they immediately precede a front vowel or a fronted vowel, e.g.: gìrgždėt ~ girgždėti, kìrbėt ~ kirbėti. When other consonants intervene between g, k and front vowels or fronted vowels, the velars g, k are pronounced hard, e.g.: grūžas ~ grūžas

⁶² In the dialect we find a few words in which consonant softness is progressive. In the words kėl’s ~ kėlias, žál’s ~ žalias, when the short a is lost through shortening of the ending, l remains soft and softens the following s.

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(gružlys), gnỹbu ~ gnybiu, pagrėbstai ~ pagrėbstai, grižčė ~ grižčia (grįžtė, a handful of pulled-out flax), greitai (greit), griebau ~ griebiau, grėblis ~ grėblis, gróva ~ grióva (which quickly collapses), grūva ~ griūva, griaužė ~ griaužė, kraukšlė ~ kriaukšlė (the cracked part along the sides of a loaf), kriokė ~ kriokė, krūkis ~ kriūkis (stick), klỹkė ~ klykė, klengė ~ klengė (door latch), klipytą ~ klipytą (a hunched person), skliauda ~ skliaudo (tilts, said of an animal’s ears), kreipės ~ kreipiasi, krypst ~ krypsta. g, k are somewhat softened when they stand at the end of a word before a soft t belonging to the same syllable, e.g.: pravirkti, išderkti (to disparage, slander), apnikti, išmigti, įtikti, ištrūkti, išalkti, išbrinkti, pradinkti, palinkti, ištrinkti, sėkti ~ sėkti, bėgti ~ bėgti, dēkti ~ dègti, sprógti ~ sprógti.

If another consonant occurs between soft t and k, g at the end of a word, or if k, g belongs to another syllable, they are hard in this case, e.g.: suplūkšti ~ suplūkšti, ištrūkšti ~ ištrūkšti, užtrókšti ~ užtrókšti, naktis ~ naktis, saktis ~ sagtis.

§ 104. All other consonants occurring before a front vowel or a fronted vowel are soft, even when there are several of them; the softest is the one immediately preceding the front vowel or fronted vowel, while the others preceding it are less soft, e.g.: blyžoti ~ blyžoti (to lie as if paralyzed), pasterblė ~ pasterblė (lower part of a roof, eaves), žvirbliukas ~ žvirbliukas, bliauna ~ bliauna, apžlibo ~ apžlibo (went blind), Bliūdžiai ~ Bliūdžiai (village), įblėndžiame ~ įblėndžiame (we mix in), brįnkti ~ brińkti, bristi ~ bristi, brydė ~ brydė (a path made by wading through a crop), silpnyn ~ silpnyn, pliūkas ~ pliūkas (blow), priėdė ~ priėdė, skelbkit ~ skalbkite, lieptėlis ~ lieptėlis, prikąsė ~ prikąsė, priešpriešiais ~ priešpriešiais, priglitęs ~ priglités (dirty), žiūpsnis ~ žiūpsnis, prisakymas ~ prisakymas, sudrėbtinis ~ sudrėbtinis (one who lives unmarried), drėžlas ~ drėžlas (lizard), dvikartė ~ dvikartė (cover for a blanket or bedding), dvišaks ~ dvišakas, bendrininks ~ bendrininkas, trinti ~ trinti, trinýtis ~ trinýtis, šienatvė ~ šienatvė (haymaking), senatvė ~ senatvė, triobà ~ trioba (house), triuša ~ triuša, triukšmas ~ triukšmas, treškėti ~ treškėti, šatrinis ~ šatrinis (thorn), Mantviliai ~ Mantviliai (village), padugnės ~ padugnės, garnys ~ garnys, iškirtą ~ iškirto, papūrtė ~ papūrtė, užsprįngo ~ užsprįngo, skiedrynas ~ skiedrynas, apdrėbė ~ apdrėbė, apdrįžo ~ apdrįžo (became bleary-eyed), apsnigo ~ apsnigo, apdrisko ~ apdrisko, apdribo ~ apdribo, apžlibo ~ apžlibo (went blind), apdegė ~ apdegė, apdėjo ~ apdėjo, apdėvėjo ~ apdėvėjo, apsistojo ~ apsistojo, atpiovė ~ atpiovė, triobvieta ~ triobvieta (house foundations, building site), liepžiedis ~ liepžiedis, rudmė-

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sẽ ~ rudmėsė, Vīdģīris ~ Vidgiris (forest), Dēgūdģīris ~ Degūtgiris (forest); šaugždētis ~ šaukšdėtis, kupētvieta ~ kupėtvieta.

§ 105. Consonants are also soft (though to a lesser degree) when they occur before g, k, followed by a front vowel or by other soft or softened consonants, e.g.: slėnkstis ~ slenkstis, līnkšmybė ~ linksmybė, girgždėt ~ girgždėti, tvinkčot ~ tvinkčioti (to throb), bīlkštis ~ bilkštis (noise, clatter), vērkšlēna ~ verkšlėna, girgšēt ~ girgseti (to cackle), dirgīt ~ dirginti, bitkrēslis ~ bitkrėslis (plant), anglis ~ anglis, žīrklēs ~ žirklės.

§ 106. The softness of consonants is very slight if they occur before g, k and another soft or softened consonant belonging to the next syllable, e.g.: abgriežau ~ apgriežiau, apškverbė ~ aפּškverbė, abgrōšt ~ apgriožti (to turn over, overturn), abgnaušti ~ apgniaužti, abgrėšti ~ apgrėžti, apkņišti ~ apknisti, apkreipī ~ apkreipti, apkresti ~ apkrėsti, apklīmpt ~ apklimpti, adgriept ~ atgriebti, atkrīsti ~ atkristi, atkrōkt ~ atkriokti.

b) Consonant assimilation.

§ 107. In the dialect, adjacent consonants, as well as consonants in neighboring syllables that are not adjacent, assimilate one another. In words formed by Lithuanian word-formation patterns, consonants most often assimilate regressively, whereas in words of foreign origin progressive assimilation also occurs. The consonants l, m, n, r neither affect other consonants nor are themselves affected, although in the dialect devoiced or voiced consonants sometimes occur in their environment, e.g.: vartinglys (cobweb), vartingliauot (to catch cobwebs), šproklė (sproglė, a place where something has burst). Other consonants both assimilate other consonants and are assimilated by them.

§ 108. Voiced consonants preceding voiceless consonants become voiceless, while voiceless consonants preceding voiced ones become voiced, as does k; e.g.: (voiced consonants devoiced) sudrėpt ~ sudrėbti, grėpt ~ grėbti, gērpt ~ gēr bti, gnīpt ~ gnībti, šlūpt ~ šlūbti, šlūps ~ šlūbas, ankstīps ~ ankstýbas, kīpkis ~ kibkis, saltkārčei ~ saldkarčiai (sweet-bitter), smaiks ~ smaigas, varks ~ vargas, vānaks ~ vānagas, varškas ~ vargšas, vandenīnks ~ vandenингas, užpūole ~ užpūolė, duot peili ~ duoda peilį, brēt pūrva ~ brėda pūrvą; (voiceless consonants voiced) lībdams ~ līpdamas, pūzgalve ~ pūsgalve, pūzbadžiu ~ pūsbadžiu, lībda ~ līpdo, liēbžiedis ~ liepžiedis, pigdagis ~ piktdagis, trūgžolės ~ trūkžolės (weed of trūkis), Labgirinė (forest), abdaīina ~ apdailino, abdgina ~ apdegino, abdaūže ~ apdaužė, abdaīnāvo ~ apdainavo, lēkz bitīs (lēks bitės), pjaūž bērža ~ pjaus beržą, tōz duobēs ~ tos duobės, vīz girēs ~ vis giriasi.

§ 109. The dialect has numerous instances where two neighboring voiced consonants or two different voiceless consonants assimilate and become alike with respect to place of articulation, e.g.: The consonant s, when it occurs before č, always changes into š in the dialect, e.g.: mėščiau ~ mėščiau, veščiau ~ vėščiau, lėsčiau ~ lėščiau, kriščiau ~ kriščiau, smauščiau ~

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šnausčiau, šeščiaus ~ šeščiausi, kniupščes ~ kniupščias, gulščes ~ gulščias Giščius ~ Guščius (surname), Krščius ~ Krisčius (surname), riščė ~ risčia, kaš čė ~ kas čia, ankščiau ~ anksčiau.

The consonant ž, when standing before dž, always changes in the dialect to ž, e.g.: oškaparždžė ~ oškaparždžiai (horsetails), laž džiukė ~ lazdžiukė, liždžiuks ~ lizdžiukas, skruždžių ~ skruzdžių.

The nasal consonant n, when standing before velars, is always realized in the dialect as a back-of-the-tongue sound, marked in phonetic transcription with a loop curled inward, e.g.: laŋkà ~ lanka, lẽŋgvas ~ lengvas, sutĩŋka ~ sutinka, raŋgýtis ~ rangytis, ẽŋgė ~ ẽngė, raŋkà ~ ranka, raŋkiot ~ rankioti, raŋgos ~ raŋgosi, laŋguoc ~ langūotas.

The consonant n changes to m before labials in the dialect, e.g.: pempirkščei (< penk-pirščiai) ~ pempirkščiai (blue lupins), nukamputiit (< nukantupinti) ~ nukamputinti (to drain off, to torment), samplato (< samplatoje) ~ samplatoję (in a heap), kampūžit (to confuse), kompiskūot (to confiscate), Grimberkis ~ Grinberkis (surname), Fémberks (Fainberg, surname).

§ 110. In the dialect, there are cases in which consonants in adjacent syllables that do not stand next to one another assimilate with respect to place of articulation. Most often, the consonant s changes to š if the adjacent syllable begins with š, e.g.: šušūka ~ sušūko, šušala ~ sušalo, šušla ~ sušulo, šušāudė ~ sušāudė, šąšlavas ~ sąšlavas, šąšlavynė ~ sąšlavynas, mūšškės ~ mūšiškis, jüšškės ~ jüšiškis.

Distant assimilation is also observed in words of foreign origin, e.g.: pelicilinc (penicillin), leguliatorius (regulator), levolzleris (revolver).

§ 111. In the dialect, there are cases in which two sounds that come to stand next to one another merge through assimilation into a single affricate; see §§ 98, 99, 100, 101.

For cases in which, through assimilation of n, s, š changes to c, č, see §§ 98, 99.

c) Loss of consonants through assimilation. § 112. Loss of consonants through assimilation is observed in the dialect in the following cases:

1. When two identical consonants come together, the first disappears because geminate pronunciation is awkward, e.g.: (k+k) Rōkalnis ~ Rokkalnis (a hill in Pamituvys village), šākotis ~ šākkotis; (l+l) špūlanktis ~ špūllanktis; (m+m) žiemitė ~ žiemmitė; (s+s) bū sārgu ~ būs sārgu, bū sulōs ~ būs sulōs, kelislyk ~ kelissyk, pūsaldīs ~ pūssaldis, pūsaušis ~ pūssaušis, pūskystis ~ pūsskystis; (š+š) išōka ~ iššōko išōvē ~ iššōvē, išērė ~ iššērė, išāla ~ iššālo, išsauke ~ iššauke, i šīeno ~ iš šīeno, i šaliēs ~ iš šaliēs, i šūne ~ iš šūnio; (t+t) an tāka ~ ant tāko, an tilta ~ ant tilto, an tulžiēs ~ ant tulžiēs; (ž+ž) užžėlė ~ užžėlė, užžyrāva ~ užžyrāvo, užžvengė ~ užžvengė, užžvygė (užžviegė), u žōdi ~ už žōdį, u žēmē ~ už žēmē.

2. When two consonants differing in voicing come together, e.g.: (d+t) bañtakis ~ bañdtakis (a path along which a herd is driven); (g+k) dalkotis ~ dalgkotis; (k+g) būgalis ~ būkgalis (the blunt end of a club), žvāgalis ~ žvākgali s; (s+z) pasidarý žūkuls ~ pasidarýs žūkulas (a dish cooked by boiling clumps together); (s+ž) bū žolēs ~ būs žolēs, mū žardý ~ mūs žardýje (in our yard), pūžiemis ~ pūšiemis, pūžalis ~ pušzalis, pūžlibis ~ pūšlibis (half-blind); (š+ž) išžergė ~ išžergė, išžeŋkt ~ išžengti, i žolēs ~ iš žolēs, i žievēs ~ iš žievēs,

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into geese ~ from geese; (š + ž) išimbe ~ išzimbė (išzvimbė), išžylioje ~ išžyliojo, išzirzė ~ išzirzė, išzurgė ~ išzurgė (begged, lured away); (ž + s) usprink ~ užsprįngti, užsūka ~ užsūko, užsėk ~ užsėk, uskurdę ~ užskurdę, u sāva ~ už sāvo, u saūsa ~ už saūsa; (ž + s) ušōka ~ užšōko, ūšauke ~ užšaukė, ūšvilpe ~ užšvilpė, ušiaūse ~ užšiaūse, u šiaudų ~ už šiaudų, u šieno ~ už šieno.

In this case, the second consonant assimilates the first, and the two consonants become similar and identical; therefore, as in the case of geminates, the first disappears.

3. When two voiced or two voiceless consonants come together, the first becomes like the second and disappears, e.g.: (ž + z) užzimbė (užzvimbė), užzirzė ~ užzirzė; (s + š) pūšaltis ~ pūšaltis, pūšiltis ~ pūšiltis, pušėsta ~ puššėsto, pušimtis ~ puššimtis, saūšake ~ saūššakė, gėr šautuvus ~ geras šautuvas; (š + s) išpirga ~ iššpirgo, išprōga ~ iššprōgo, išprūda ~ iššprūdo, isigąs ~ išsigąs, išūks ~ iššūks, isaūšit ~ iššaūsinti, išpāust ~ iššpāusti, i saūsa ~ iš saūso, i sāve (from oneself), i skepetōs ~ iš skepetōs, i skiedrōs ~ iš skiedrōs.

4. When two voiced or two voiceless consonants occur next to each other (most often in compound words), followed by another consonant that differs in voicing (a voiceless one after voiced consonants, a voiced one after voiceless consonants), the second consonant always disappears, e.g.: kìrpente (< kirvpen­tė), kìrkotis (< kirvkoktis), rankōgalis (<rankovgalis), diėmedis (< dievmedis), šalpusne (<šaltpusnė), Pìlkelis (<Piltkelis), vīžgaidis (<vištgaidis), pìkvotė (<piktvotė), pìgdagis (<piktdagis), skìmtelėje (<skimbtelėjo), apklimt (<apklimpti), višžiausis (<višt­žiausis).

2. D i s s i m i l a t i o n

§ 113. The dialect exhibits rare cases of progressive and regressive dissimilation, e.g.: lėndre (nendrė), lendrinis (nendrinis), párkelis (parkeris), órdelis (orderis), plūgeris (flygelis), registruoc (registruotas), kalikatūra (karikatūra), seliūnc (seniūnas), trėjingai (treningai).

3. A s p i r a t i o n o f C o n s o n a n t s

§ 114. At the end of a word, plosive consonants are pronounced with clear aspiration. The consonants most often aspirated are k, g, t, e.g.: àteinant, bėgat, bėk, lipk, aug ~ auga, dęg ~ dėga, sęg ~ sėga.

Consonants preceding an aspirated consonant are pronounced hard. In word groups, aspirated sounds are pronounced without aspiration, e.g.: einant elksnynų, bėk namō.

4. M e t a t h e s i s

§ 115. Local metathesis. The following consonants most commonly alternate in the dialect: 1. šk changes to kš, e.g.: reišk ~ reiškia, reikšt; teškiu, tėkšt; blaškai (scattered straw), blōškem ~ blōškeme, blōkšt; tryška ~ tryško, trykšt; taišk ~ tauškia, taukšt ~ taukšti; trešk ~ treškia, trėkšt ~ trėkšti; čiaušk ~ čiauškia, čiaūkšt ~ čiaūkšti; pliūška ~ pliūško (bliūško), pliūkšt ~ pliūkšti (bliūkšti); tešk ~ tėškia, tykšti, tiškas (a splash); pyšk ~ pyška, pyūkšt ~ pyūkšt; pōšk ~ pōška, pōkšt ~ pōkšt.

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2. sk alternates with ks, e.g.: dreskiù, drėkst.

3. zg alternates with gz, e.g.: mėzg ~ mėzga, mėkst ~ mėgzti; režginỹs, režst ~ režgti; sumizga ~ sumizgo, mīkst ~ migzti.

Sometimes, when elements change places, a consonant and a vowel may also alternate, e.g.: pirmas ~ pirmas and primdėlė (a cow with her first calf), primgalỹs (the forepart).

§ 116. Distant metathesis. Distant metathesis is most often observed in words of foreign origin. Most commonly, consonants in adjacent syllables switch places, e.g.: altilėrije (artillery), cvìliks (cviklis), dōrelis (doleris), mocōtiklas (motorcycle), klingeris (kringelis, pretzel), klingeriuot (to move in loops, turn, curl, wind), levoriucije (revolution), rėpcec (prescription), nukampū̃ti ~ nukampūtinti (to trip, torment, exhaust), aukštinielks ~ aukštinielkas (supine).

There are instances when a consonant from one syllable shifts from its position into an adjacent syllable, e.g.: pempir̃kščei (< penkpirkščiai) ~ penpirkščiai (blue lupines), vorātlìnkis (< spiderweb).

5. Loss of consonants due to the shortening of word endings

§ 117. In the dialect, regular shortening of word endings is observed. Unstressed word endings are particularly affected by this shortening, e.g.: šakas ~ šakos, but: šakõs, galvōs, mergas ~ mergos, but: mergõs, katrõs (cf. §§ 61, 63, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 74, 79). Because word endings shorten after old long vowels and diphthongs, j disappears in the dialect; see § 93.

§ 118. Other consonants also disappear in the dialect due to the shortening of endings. In the second-person singular imperative, k is most often dropped if one consonant remains at the end of the stem, e.g.: gér ~ gérk, pil ~ pilk, sém ~ sémk, sùp ~ sùpk. Sometimes k irregularly disappears from the second-person imperative ending after old long vowels and diphthongs, e.g.: bė ~ bėk, palā ~ palāuk.

It appears that k must have disappeared recently, since its palatalized consonant remains soft when it occurs at the end of a word.

Adverbs with the suffix yn (<ymiui) have regularly dropped n as they shortened in the dialect, e.g.: gerỹ ~ gerỹn, kvailỹ ~ kvailỹn, knapỹ ~ knapỹn (on one's back), žemỹ ~ žemỹn, tolỹ ~ tolỹn, tamsỹ ~ tamsỹn, tankỹ ~ tankỹn.

Adverbs, conjunctions, and various other short words most often drop their final consonant, e.g.: kodė ~ kodėl, todė ~ todėl, mā ~ man, dá ~ dar, dabā ~ dabar, à ~ ar, ì ~ ir, kā ~ kad, kai ~ kaip, tei (taip), štéi (šitaip), anai ~ anaip, kitai ~ kitaip, bele kai (bile kaip).

The final consonant is retained if it occurs before a word beginning with a vowel, e.g.: ar àš, ir àš, kaip àš.

6. Other cases of consonant loss

n. § 119. For cases of loss of the old n, which formed the second element of tautosyllabic diphthongs, see § 96.

v. § 120. Regular loss of v is observed in the dialect’s compound feminine (and, where the forms coincide, also masculine) forms of numerals and pronouns

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in the second element, e.g.: abidì (both), anuódi (those two), katruódi (each of the two), júodi (those two black ones), šituodi (those two), mùdi (both), jùdi (both), abiediejų (of both), abiedem (to both), vienudi (one of the two), vienudiejų (of one of the two), but: dvi, dviejų, dviem.

Irregular cases of v-deletion also occur, e.g.: lyse (a flowerbed), lysūte (a little flowerbed), žimbė (it buzzes), pražimbė (it buzzed), žimbims (buzzing), žim-zims (buzzing), apynėi (< apyniai) ~ apyniai.

d. § 121. Regular loss of d is observed in dialect words with the suffix -zda, e.g.: lazà ~ lazdà, lìzas ~ lizdas, lazúot ~ lazdúoti (to strike with a stick), lažėlė ~ lazdėlė, ližėlìs ~ lizdėlis, baržà ~ barzdà, baržúot ~ barzdúoti (to rub something with one’s beard), baržylà ~ barzdylà, baržùks ~ barzdiukas, blauždà ~ blauzda, blauždžiùkė ~ blauzdiūkė, bràžas ~ bràzdas, bražúot ~ brazduoti (to shave a carrot or another vegetable into small shavings), gramžas ~ gramždas (a white, firm mushroom suitable for salting), grūžas ~ grūzdas (the same), vėžas ~ vėzdas (a stick, a club), bėžas ~ bėzdas (a bush resembling a guelder rose, with red berries), skužbežais ~ skužbeždis (a mushroom from which smoke rises).

Younger speakers of the dialect pronounce these words with d in the suffix.

§ 122. Consonant loss at the beginning of a word is rare and accidental, e.g.: okiėčėt (Germans), olungė (oriole), Ólungiškė (Volungiškė, a village name), ovėris (squirrel), rolàž (brother!), roliùk (little brother), rolyti (little brother), ėrem (we drank), ėrsim (we will drink), ūpūžė (toad), inóutumei (you would know).

In the dialect, the forms of these words that are common in Standard Lithuanian are more frequent and usual.

7. Addition and Insertion of Consonants

§ 123. At the beginning of a word, the dialect always adds j before ie and sometimes v before uo, e.g.: jėškau (I seek), jieva (willow), jietis (spear), jėšmas (awl), vūoga (berry), vūogaut (to pick berries), vaūkštis ~ aukšlis (a small container made of birch bark for gathering berries).

§ 124. Between two vowels belonging not to the same syllable, and sometimes not to the same word, j is sometimes inserted. This most often occurs when one vowel is front and the other back, e.g.: Pajikojėi ~ Paikojai (a village name), į jūpą ~ į ūpą, įjaūdžiau ~ įjaudžiau, įjejau ~ įėjau, įjeit ~ įeiti.

§ 125. Irregularly, consonant addition sometimes occurs at the beginning of a word, e.g.: taūkštas (high), džiogjys (grasshopper), silsėtis (to rest).

§ 126. k is sometimes inserted in the middle of a word, e.g.: plūkštas (fiber), raikštis (tie), pėkščes (on foot).

It is thought that the intrusive k in similar cases arose by analogy with other words⁶³. Most likely by analogy with other words, k is also found in the word sklidus (slippery, cf. sklidinas ‘brimming’).

⁶³ Жг. И. Эндзелинъ. О вставочныхъ k и g въ балтійскихъ языкахъ, 9 — 11, С.-Петербургъ, 1913.

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8. Various Articulatory Changes

§ 127. At the beginning of a word, p is sometimes pronounced instead of Standard Lithuanian b before l, e.g.: suplūška (crumbled), plūnk (fades).

At the beginning of some words of foreign origin, p changes to b, e.g.: bliomba (seal), bliombuot (to seal).

PHONETICS OF THE MITUVA RIVER BASIN DIALECT

Э. И. ГРИНАВЯЦКЕНЕ

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe and scientifically investigate the phonetic system of the dialect of the northwestern Aukštaitians, in which the stress position characteristic of the standard language is preserved.

The paper determines the sound inventory, describes stress, and examines the intonation, vocalism, and consonantism of the dialect.

The phonetic phenomena of the dialect are explained historically; they are compared with facts from the Lithuanian standard language and neighboring dialects. The paper also establishes the laws governing the emergence, spread, and use of the dialect’s phonetic phenomena. Thus, the dialect’s phonetics is presented in the paper as a system in its development.

The introductory section specifies the boundaries and territory of the dialect. The dialect under consideration occupies a quadrilateral formed by the Jurbarkas and Raseiniai districts, at whose edges are the following settlements: Smalininkai, Vadžgirys, Šimkaičiai, Stakiai, and Skirsnemunė. Because of the shortening of ancient unstressed long final -a, -as, -e, -es (in the Lithuanian standard language -o, -os, -ė, -ės; for example: šāka “speaks (they speak),” šākas “branches,” šāke “said (they said),” šākes “pitchforks”), the dialect belongs to the northwestern Aukštaitian subdialect. The boundary of conditional stress retraction (along the line Juodaičiai—Juodkenai—Paišlynys) separates the dialect from those of other northwestern Aukštaitians. The preservation of hard l before back vowels distinguishes the dialect under study from the northwestern Aukštaitian dialect that formerly belonged to the Klaipėda Region (west of Smalininkai, under the influence of German, pliauks “hair” is pronounced instead of pláuks, and so on). To the east, the dialect borders the Veliuona dialect. This boundary was first established by A. Salys in 1933 (see Archivum Philologicum, IV). In this paper, the dialect’s boundaries are refined. At present, the territory east of the line Skirsnemunė—Barzdžiai—Stakiai—Ariogala still belongs to the Veliuona dialect. It should be noted that east of the boundary established in this paper, unstressed -ė, -o have changed to -i, -u only at the open word ending (sāki “said (they said),” sāku “speaks (they speak)”), whereas at the closed word ending these sounds do not differ from those of the Lithuanian standard language. The complete transformation of final unstressed -o, -ė into -u, -i is observed only farther east (around Veliuona and Ariogala). To the south, the dialect reaches

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the northern bank of the Nemunas River and meets the Veliuona dialect of Zanemune. To the northwest, large forests separate the dialect from the Žemaitian Dūnininkai. Situated between the Žemaitian Dūnininkai dialect and the Veliuona dialect, the dialect under consideration shares some features with Žemaitian on its western edge, and with the Veliuona dialect in its eastern corner.

Linguistic material was collected by interviewing speakers of the dialect under study and neighboring dialects. In 1948–1955, about 450 interviews were conducted in various places throughout the territory under study.

The concluding part of the introduction presents information about the history of the region and surveys the literature (some features of this dialect are discussed in the linguistic works of I. Juška, K. Jaunius, A. Baranauskas, A. Pogodin, A. Salys, and others).

Sound inventory. The dialect has the following vowels: a, ą, e, ė, ę, i, y, į, o, u, ų, ū. The pronunciation of most vowels coincides with that of vowels in the Lithuanian standard language; only e before a hard consonant is always pronounced with an a-like coloring. This is how e is pronounced in words such as bẽržas “birch,” nẽš “will carry (they will carry).” In words of foreign origin and in diphthongal combinations, o is weakly labialized and pronounced with a slight a-like coloring. This is how o is pronounced in words such as kaliõšai “galoshes,” raudõnc “red,” and others. The dialect has 19 consonants: b, d, g, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, š, t, v, z, ž, f, ch, h. The consonants f, ch, h occur less often in the dialect than the others, since older speakers pronounce p, k, g sounds in their place. Consonants are pronounced as in the Lithuanian standard language. They are all either hard or soft; only j is always soft. Nasal n before the velars k, g is always velar. This is how n is pronounced in words such as lankà “meadow,” lẽngvas “light,” and others. The dialect has four affricates: c, č, dz, dž. The rarest affricate is dz. Affricates may be hard or soft; they are pronounced as in the Lithuanian standard language. The dialect has the same ancient diphthongs and diphthongal combinations as those found in the Lithuanian standard language. In addition, the dialect has secondary diphthongs and diphthongal and triphthongal combinations. Secondary diphthongs arise in the dialect through contraction and vowel elision (praït “to pass,” preït “to approach”). Secondary diphthongal and triphthongal combinations arise from a vowel (a, e, ė, i, y, o, u, ū) or diphthong (most often ie, uo) and a consonant l, m, n, r, j, v when the word ending is shortened or in word formation (sprãgils “threshing machine,” Nẽmunc “Nemunas,” tetẽnc “aunt’s husband,” akỹls “keen-sighted,” atõls “aftermath,” kūnc “body,” gỹvs “alive,” šãutuvs “rifle,” alui “in beer,” pienc “milk,” tẽvs “father,” žiemkenčei “winter crops”). Triphthongal combinations ai, au, ei + l, m, n, r are sometimes found (kiaũlvedris “pig’s bucket”), but they often become diphthongs (pagalst < pagailsta “becomes pitiful”).

Stress. The position of primary stress in the dialect under study does not differ at all from the position of stress in the Lithuanian standard language. Each word usually has one stressed syllable (karvẽlis “pigeon”), but words with the unstressed suffix -av-

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Some compound words also sometimes have secondary stress. It occurs on the penultimate syllable of words such as báltáva “was turning white,” akétvirbàlis “harrow tooth,” and others. Numerous cases of proclisis and enclisis occur in the dialect. Sometimes stress placement is a phonetic criterion for distinguishing word meanings (šalty < šaltyje “in the frost,” šaltỹ < šaltỹn “colder”).

Intonation. In the dialect under study, there are 4 types of intonation in stressed syllables: short (trumpinė), falling (tvirtapradė), rising (tvirtagalė), and mid (vidurinė).

A vowel sound characterized by short intonation is pronounced briefly but forcefully. All stressed short vowels are pronounced with this intonation, regardless of their origin (kàst “to dig,” šakà “branch,” laukė “in the field,” gerì “good,” sukù “I turn,” sŏks “juice”).

When a stressed vowel is pronounced with falling intonation, vocal force is concentrated at the beginning of the sound (bėkt “to run”), while in diphthongs and diphthongal and triphthongal combinations it is concentrated on the first component (báime “fear”). A vowel sound characterized by falling intonation is usually long, but the first component i, u, o + l, m, n, r, v is always short (vežìms “wagon,” órs “air”). In the suffix -aitis, -aitė, falling intonation in its pronunciation approaches the abrupt, strongly initial intonation of Samogitian dialects.

In its vocalic movement, rising intonation approaches the evenly rising intonation of the Lithuanian language described by K. Jaunius¹. It is considerably shorter than the prolonged intonation characteristic of Samogitian dialects. In pronouncing a stressed vowel with rising intonation, vocal force is concentrated at the end of the sound (lėke “flew”), while in diphthongs and diphthongal combinations it is concentrated at the end of the first component and the beginning of the second. Both components of such a diphthong or diphthongal combination are most often half-long (baidė “frightened”), but the first component of strong-final diphthongal combinations ė, y, ū + l, m, n, r, v is always long (žvūrs “right”). In triphthongal combinations, vocal force is concentrated on the first two components (kiėmžolės “lawn”).

In terms of vocalic movement and the location of vocal-force concentration, mid intonation is a shortened rising intonation that does not reach completion. The first component of diphthongal combinations with mid intonation is usually half-long, and the second short (ant “on,” medium “with honey”). This intonation is used in: 1. secondary diphthongal combinations with retracted stress (geram “in the good”); 2. secondary diphthongal combinations arising from strong-final y, o + l, m, n, r, v (vols “shaft,” kolektyvs “collective farm”).

¹ Ср. Кс. К. Явнисъ, Памятная книжка Ковенской губернии, Ковна, 135, 1900.

12. Kalbotyros klausimai

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Intonations are also distinguished in unstressed long syllables. Long pre-stress syllables are pronounced with rising intonation (grėbėję “female rake”), while post-stress syllables are pronounced with falling intonation (bótkótis “whip handle”). The dialect has numerous cases of falling intonation turning into rising (kóje “leg” and arželtkójis “shaggy-legged”), of rising and short intonation turning into falling (gyvén < gyvėna “lives (-live),” aríms < arìmas “arable land”), and of mid intonation arising from rising intonation (par < per “through”). Sometimes intonation is a phonetic criterion for determining word meaning (šakó “branches (-branch)” and šakō “on the branches”).

Vocalism.

This section of the work examines the vocalism of the word stem and ending, and combinatory phenomena involving vowels.

Ancient short i, u, as well as i and o (in words of foreign origin), are always short in the word stem (sùkt “to turn”). Vowels a, e are short in unstressed position (katė “cat”), but under stress they are usually lengthened and pronounced long (lāps “leaf”); a, e in stressed position are not lengthened in the same cases as in Lithuanian (mana “my”, geràsis “good”). In addition, a with secondary stress is most often pronounced long (šūkava “called out”). All the other vowels, as well as diphthongs, diphthongal and triphthongal combinations, are always long in the dialect, both in stressed and unstressed positions.

Related words in the dialect are formed through quantitative and qualitative alternation of root vowels.

Changes in vocalism at the end of a word are more recent than those in its stem. The law of reduction of the unstressed word ending is quite strongly manifested in the dialect. Short a at the end of a word most often disappears (nàks “fingernail”, nẽš “carries”), but is retained at a closed word ending after s, š, z, ž, c, č, or after several fricative consonants (sausas “dry”, daržas “garden”). At an open word ending after v and a long syllable, it is also retained (griūva “collapses”). Short e, i, u at the end of a word usually disappear (smẽgenc < *smegenes “brain”, alum < alumi “with beer”, vaikáms < vaikamus “to children”); only in the ending of the vocative singular does short e remain (vỹre “man”, vãrge “grief”), while in the endings of words with a u-stem, short u is also retained (áiškus “clear”). Ancient long a, ē (Lithuanian o, e) were shortened in unstressed word endings (nāma, genitive singular “of the house”, rañkas “hands”), and in stressed endings became o, ē (pelės “mice”). These vowels were shortened in unstressed word endings before they became o, ē, since short a, e could not have arisen from o, ē. Ancient u, ū remain long in all cases in the third-person future tense of verbs (lỹs “it will rain”, džiūs “it will dry”). In this case, u, ū were not shortened because the falling intonation changed into a rising one. Strong-beginning diphthongs and all ancient diphthongal combinations at the end of a word became short sounds in the dialect (vežù < *vežúo “I carry”,

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lāpa < *lapan “leaf”, kāte “the cat”). There are also instances of long word-final, so-called nasal vowels: 1. in the genitive plural, u < un is always long (except in personal pronouns): nóṣu “of noses”, vārnu “of crows”, but: mūsu “of us”; 2. a < an is always long in the nominative singular and plural of all participles: bēgas “running”, bēga “running”; 3. ą < an and i < in are always long in the endings of both components of all pronominal forms (gēraji “of the good one”, gērāje “with the good one”, gērāsęs “of the good ones”); 4. ą < an is always long in the instrumental singular and accusative plural endings of some pronouns: tá “with that one”, tās “those”; 5. i < in is always long in the accusative singular ending of some pronouns: anóki “such”, kitóki “another”. The dialect has instances in which ancient diphthongs have been retained at the end of a word, for example, in the instrumental singular, nominative plural and accusative plural endings of all adjectives, numerals, and some pronouns: didesniúoju “with the older one”, pirmúoju “with the first one”, baisiáusie “the most frightening”, anókìe “such”, gerúosiuos “of the good ones”. In the speech of the older generation, diphthongs are sometimes retained in the infinitive ending and in the second-person singular imperative ending (nèštie “to carry”, bėkie “run”). The ancient strong-beginning diphthongal combination en, having become ẹ in the dialect, most often disappears in the locative ending (pìevo “in the meadow”, laukuõs “in the fields”, širdỹ “in the heart”, alu³ “in the beer”), but: stóge “on the roof”, akìse “in the eyes”).

The following combinatory phenomena involving vowels are most often encountered in the dialect: widening of the vowel e, fronting of back vowels, contraction, and elision.

Consonantism.

This section examines the origin and pronunciation of the dialect’s consonants and their combinatory phenomena.

j disappears at the end of a word when it occurs between a diphthong and a short vowel, or between a long and a short vowel (a, e < en): ló “barks”, ráu “tears”, rañko “in the hand”, vandený “in the water”, vėráuples < vėjarauples “chickenpox”. In consonant + j combinations before back vowels, j usually disappears (bróle < *broljà “brother”), but the combinations tj, dj in the dialect, as in Lithuanian, have become the affricates č, dž (gaidžei “roosters”, svečei “guests”); the combinations bj, pj have been retained in the word stem (bjaũrus “disgusting”, spj́aut “to spit”). Unlike in Lithuanian, consonant n in the dialect’s verbs disappears before s and t as well (skį́t “to tear”, skį́siu “I will tear”, šęt “to grow old”, pašęsį “you will grow old”, pašęs “he/she/it will grow old (they will grow old)”). Affricates are more common in the dialect than in Lithuanian. They also arise through assimilation of two consonants that come into contact (t, d + s, š, z, ž; n and s, š, z): kìes < kietas “hard”, pìkšāsei < pìktšāsei “scab”, àdzirze < àtzirzė “flew in buzzing”, adžėle < atžėlė “grew back”, šòc < šòdas “garden”, juõčkus < juod + škus “dark-complexioned person”, viénc < víenas “one”, bendzínc < benzìnas “gasoline”.

Consonants may be short, but l, m, n, r, when they are the second components of strong-final diphthongal combinations, are half-long; however, compared with half-long i, u in the same position, they are considerably shorter.

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Before front vowels and vowels advanced to the front, consonants are soft (tētis “dad”), whereas before back vowels they are hard (lóva “bed”). The consonants k, g are soft only when they stand immediately before front vowels or a vowel advanced to the front, or when they occur at the end of a word before a soft consonant belonging to the same syllable (kiẽms “yard,” Kaišinis “egg,” bėkt “to run”). If several consonants precede a front vowel or a vowel advanced to the front, they are all soft (pašterblė “place under the roof”), but their degree of softness decreases regressively. The consonants of the dialect are also soft when they stand before a hard k, g followed by a soft consonant or a front vowel (liñkšmỹbe “merriment,” dĩrgit “to bother”). All plosive consonants at the end of a word are pronounced with aspiration. Aspiration is most common with k, g, t. At word boundaries these sounds lose their aspiration. Before voiceless consonants, all voiced consonants are pronounced voiceless (bėkt “to run”), while before voiced consonants all voiceless ones are pronounced voiced (lìbdams “going out”). Contact assimilation occurs at the junction of the consonants s and č, and z and dž. In this case, s becomes š (mèščiau “I would throw”), and z becomes ž (liždžiuks “nest”). The consonant n sometimes becomes m before p (pempirkščė < penkpirkščiai “lupine”). Cases of distant assimilation are known in the dialect (šušuka < sušūko “shouted”). Cases of dissimilation in the dialect are rare (lėndre < nėndre “reed”). Cases of the loss of certain consonants are known in the dialect: šākotis < šākkotis “fork handle,” érsim < gėrsime “we will drink,” mūdi < mūdvi “we both,” mą < mán “to me,” gerỹ < gerỹn “for the better”). Contact and distant metathesis occur in the dialect (drėkst “to tear” and dreskiu “I tear,” primdėlė < pirmdėlė “first-calf heifer”; vorãtlinkis < voratinklis “spiderweb,” viėlninks < viėnlinkas “single”).