Kirčiuotų trumpųjų balsių ilginimo polinkiai 1960–2011 m. informacinėse laidose

178 Languages and Culture | 85 Institute of Lithuanian Language INTERLATED SHORT VOWELS Long term policy 1960–2011 INFORMATIVE LAUNDERS KEY WORDS: informative broadcasts, general language, vowel elongation. 1. INTRODUCTION The claim that the language used by the media directly influences our language as television viewers and radio listeners may be just one of many myths about language (Chambers 1998), but the language used by the media can influence our language attitudes, and changing attitudes can lead to changes in language behaviour, language code selection, and individual or systemic changes in language itself (cf. Kerswill 2003 et al. ). Recently, researchers in many European countries have been looking for connections between the role of information dissemination and the processes of destandardization of common language (cs) or the formation of new centres of cs in society (Kristiansen, Coupland 2011). It is assumed that in some countries the new centres of bk norms formation are large cities, and therefore media language norms have been tried to be linked to urban language norms for some time (thoegersen, Kristiansen, Östman 2012; also cf. Coupland 2012). It is believed that such changes in the media language may be evident along with changes in society, as the boundaries between private and public language begin to fade, with informal communication increasingly enabled in all areas of public life. whether these processes are taking place in our country, Lithuanian researchers are only now beginning to investigate more intensively (see tamaševičius 2012). For some time now, language normers have been drawing attention to a phenomenon that is being observed in the sentential media and which is offending the Lithuanian common pronunciation system – the quantitative opposition of short and long vowels is decreasing in both unpronounced and pronounced syllables, in other words, there is a tendency to shorten long vowels and lengthen short ones (Pupkis 1999, r. ČIČIrKaItĖ. statements that the shortening of long vowels is a sign of the spreading new dialect of Vilnius (Pupkis 1999), and the elongation of short vowels (especially in the ending) is a feature of Vilnius dialect (for more on this see Čičirkaitė, Vaicekauskienė 2012), allow us to assume that the concept of bk is changing in our media as well, and at the same time its content. The article examines retrospectively the prevalence of elongation of pronounced short vowels in broadcast news programs over the last five decades (1960–2011) and how it changes. 2. tIrIaMoJI MATERIaGa The subject of this article is the language of radio and television news broadcasts broadcast between 1960 and 2011, because it is precisely this language that, due to its monologue nature, high level of preparation and high degree of formality, can approach bk norms more than dialogic (polylogical) spontaneous broadcasts and reveal how much specially prepared speakers, concentrating their attention on the language, are able to realize bk pronunciation, and how it changes. The programmes were selected from a 62-hour representative textbook of spoken media1, conditionally divided into three different stages of media development – the Soviet period (1960–1987), the transitional period (1988–1992) and the current period (1993–2011)2. The article examines 80% of randomly selected news programs from the textbook, i.e. Lithuanian radio reports, ltV evening news, ltV program „Good morning“, „Panorama“ and their fragments, Baltic television, lNK and tV3 news. A total of 37 information programmes, with a total duration of about 10 hours, are examined only in the language of the programme presenters – speakers, news presenters, correspondents and other professional speakers, a total of 122 speakers (of which 76 are men and 46 are women). The journalists of several programmes are the same persons, but they are counted as individual speakers for programmes in different periods (in programmes in the same period a journalist is counted as a single speaker) (see Table 1). 1 textbook was compiled and the research presented in the article was carried out in the framework of the project „Lithuanian language: ideals, ideologies and identity breaks, 2010–2013“. The project is carried out by the Lithuanian Language Institute (director loreta Vaicekauskienė), supported by the Lithuanian No. Vatt14/2010. 2 For more information on the selection of programmes and the textbook principles, see 2012 No. 1. 180 Languages and Culture | 85 1 lEntEl. Distribution of information programmes and their participants in dos raidos etapais different mediaMedia Information Programmes Development stage of information programmes duration of programmes number of participants Soviet period (1960–1987) 334 min. 47 (36 men and 11 women) Transitional period (1988–1992) 138 min. 25 (15 men and 10 women) Current period (1993-2011) 158 min. 50 (25 men and 25 women) The study does not take into account the age and dialect or origin of the speaker, as in many cases (especially for radio journalists) the personal data are not known and cannot be determined. Furthermore, it is assumed that the language of professional journalists should in principle not be affected by these factors, they should comply with bk norms. When examining the prevalence of elongation of pronounced short vowels at different stages of media development, the relative frequency of elongation of each speaker is calculated. This indicator is used to calculate the total relative frequency of male and female long vowels, or of long vowels of separate periods. the sample consists of 5994 words from, as mentioned, 37 news broadcasts and their fragments. The sample included: 1) diphthongs (a) and polyphthongs (b) Lithuanian words, whose syllable base consists of a pronounced short vowel a, e, i or u, e.g. : (a) bùtais, didod, džugià, mèsti, metù, ràsti; b) àtneša, devynias, krssūd da vo, netrùkus, pabaigojè, pranèšime, šilumėnę, ùžvirė; 2) non-Lithuanian words, in which the Lithuanian ending – suffix or ending – is pronounced, e.g.: centrėnio, eksponatùs, fonè, programà, respublikėnis, rezultatù, specialybè3. Unchanged non-Lithuanian words (e.g., interviu, taksi, žiuri, etc.) were not included in the sample, because the lengthening of the short vowels pronounced in them may be determined by other factors than in Lithuanian words, first of all – the foreign origin of the word itself. in addition, only explicitly from3 The authentic pronunciation of words is maintained in the examples. r. CHIČIRKaItĖ. Elongation tendencies of pronounced short vowels in 1960–2011 news broadcasts 181 words used in news broadcasts and fragments thereof without a pronounced dialogue and spontaneity. The use of pronounced short vowels in dialogued and/or spontaneous speech passages was not studied, because such passages and the pre-prepared monologue usual for news broadcasts are different linguistic situations that can lead to different linguistic behavior. an auditory or hearing-based method shall be used to determine whether the short vowel used in the accented position is kept short or extended (to a semilong or long sound). The most important characteristic for distinguishing short and long vowels is the quantity (length) of the vowel, an additional one is its quality (tension). Since it is essentially irrelevant for this study whether the pronounced short vowel is extended to a semilong or long sound4, two groups of vowels are distinguished for analysis – retained short and extended vowels. The ratio between them (relative frequency of elongated vowels, expressed as a percentage) is calculated in this study in order to determine changes in the elongation phenomenon at different stages of media development. 3. tYrIMo rEZultatai The research found that in all three stages of media development (both in the Soviet period, the transitional period and the present period) in the pronunciated position of the short vowel in the information programs may be used different quantities of its variants: short (a) or elongated (half-long (b) or long (c)) vowel. As far as auditory determination is possible, short, semilong and long vowels (a1, b1, c1) are used in the word stem. In the study material, there were no cases where the long vowel was used instead of the short one at the end of the pronounced word in the information programmes: in this position, unlike in the root of the word, there were only short and semi-short (a2, b2) vowels (in the example all variants of the short vowel are presented in italics), cf.: a1. b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8, b9, b10, b11, b12, b13, b14, b15, b16, b17, b18, b19, b20, b21, b22, b23, b24, b25, b26, b27, b28, b29, b30, b31, b32, b33, b34, b35, b36, b37, b38, b39, b40, b41, b42, b43, b44, b45, b46, b47, b48, b49, b50, b51, b52, b53, b55, b56, b57, b58, b59. n.davė, p.neša, ė.žsienis, vė.skas, c1. dirbt·vė, gerẽ·snis, įteik·mas, sã·vo, a2. day, card, nest, first, b2. elektrin., nėr., nuoširdad.s, visas.. 4 only the fact of the vowel lengthening is important, so additional length measurements, allowing to distinguish the semi-long vowel from the long one, were not carried out. 182 Languages and Culture | 85 Speakers who use the elongated rather than the short vowel in accentuated positions have been present at all stages of media development, but the tendency to elongate the short vowels has been more commonly observed in Soviet-era information programmes. Moreover, since 2000, there have been more journalists whose speech does not show any signs of lengthening. Thus, the number of cases of prolongation of pronounced short vowels in information programmes gradually decreases: in the Soviet era, every third short vowel in a pronounced syllable is prolonged, in the transitional period – every fifth, and in the present – every seventh (see figure 1). As can be seen, elongated vowels used in accentuated position are found twice as rarely in the present period as in the Soviet period. In addition, as far as auditory analysis of short vowels used in accentuated positions allows to determine, in the Soviet period the long vowel (a) was more often used instead of the short vowel, and in the present period – the semi-vowel (b), e.g.: a. dvasininkė·jos, lietė·viais, pranešė·mų (correspondent of the radio report „Plenary of the Committee for Cultural Relations“, 1966) elektrėnų·škių, ė·šrenkamas, partė·nio, pranešė·mo, respų·blikos (correspondent of the radio report „Events to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin“, 1970) alė·s, nedad·delės, respū·blikos, sâ·vo, tė·ri (correspondent of the litV program „Panorama“, 1977) 1 PaV. Relative frequency of elongated vowels (percentage) in different media dos raidos etapais r. CHIČIRKaItĖ. Tendencies of elongation of pronounced short vowels in news programmes from 1960 to 2011 183 p. įt.kinamo, pridėt.nės, ų.žsienio (Baltijos televizijos naujienų laidos vedėjas, 1994) bau.vo, dvūd.dešimt, istoriškų.mo, nė.tarė, pagrindų.niai, visuomenė.nė (ltV laidos „labas rytas“ korespondentė, 1999) pritarų.mo, tarptautinių.nio (lNK naujienų korespondentė, 2011) Similarly, both men and women use elongated vowels in pronounced position: in pronounced position elongated vowels were most often pronounced instead of short vowels in the Soviet period, and less often in the present period (see Figure 2). It is quite difficult to answer unequivocally the question why the number of elongated voices in news broadcasts is decreasing. It is possible that such a change in pronunciation is the result of long-standing efforts of language normers: in our norming tradition, the tendency to prolong pronounced short vowels has been negatively assessed since the very first radio broadcasts (cf. talmantas 1933: 6), and later from the first television broadcasts (cf. Vaitkevičiūtė 1965: 59). Moreover, for several decades this phenomenon of lengthening has been socially stigmatized (see Čičirkaitė, Vaicekauskienė 2012). Interestingly, classical sociolinguistic interviews conducted with second and third generation Lithuanians living in Vilnius revealed similar tendencies of prolongation of pronounced short vowels (Čičirkaitė, Vaicekauskienė 2012): Vilnius residents, who focused their attention mainly on the language, i.e., reading minimal pairs differing in one feature, as well as speakers, correspondents or news presenters in pre-prepared, read, sometimes even pronounced texts of information programmes, prolong every seventh pronounced syllable. indicators of relative frequency of elongated vowels in news broadcasts and the number of Vilnius residents2 PaV. Relative frequency of elongated vowels (percentages) in different stages of media development in male and female speech 184 Language Culture | 85 volumes in minimal pairs show the media dialect approaching bk, or perhaps a new center of media norms forming on the basis of Vilnius dialect, it is too early to answer: we still do not have comprehensive comparative studies of Vilnius and media language in Lithuanian linguistics. In all three investigated stages of media development, the lengthened vowels are arranged in the same decreasing frequency sequence: i, u, a, e. This means that in both the Soviet period and the transitional period, as well as in the present period, the most frequently lengthened vowel in information programmes is i (e.g.: kė.tas5, visą., dvūd.ė dešimties, likų.mas, vė.siškai, ąžuolų.nis, asmenų.nis, hitlerė.nis), somewhat less often – u (institų.tas, grūd.pė, lietė.viai, tė.rite, svarbų., respūd.blika, sutriė.škino, bė.deliai), even less often – a (sė.vo, pė.neša, manė.sis, pirmė.sis, ė.tvežė) and most rarely – e (didūd.snė, tebė.kvepiančioje, suvė.stumėt). In other words, the accent causes the upper-rising vowels i and u to be elongated more frequently, while the lower-rising vowels a and e are elongated much less frequently6. If we compare how the distribution of each vowel elongated by the accent has changed in different stages of the development of the media, we would see that the cases of elongation of the short low-pitched vowels a and e used in the accented position in the sentence are the same5. In the examples presented here and below, the half-length mark is used conditionally: it does not denote the equilibrium, but the vowel elongated to a half-length or long vowel by the accent. 6 The tendency to elongate the upper-rising vowels i, u more often than the lower-rising vowels a, e is also noticeable in the second and third generation of Vilnius language (Čičirkaitė, Vaicekauskienė 2012). 3 PaV. Relative frequency (percentage) of elongated vowels i, u, a, e in different stages of the development of the communication r. The tendency to lengthen pronounced short vowels in news broadcasts from 1960 to 2011 185 in the media is decreasing: in the current period the vowel a is lengthened three times because of accent, the vowel e – five to six times less often than in the Soviet years. However, the relative frequency of the elongated variants of the vowel i, which is usually elongated by the accent, varies slightly – both in the Soviet period, in the transitional period and in the present period, the elongated variant, rather than the short one, accounts for about three-fifths of all cases of the vowel i used in the accented position. The vowel u in the pronounced position is kept short less and less frequently: the relative frequency of the long vowel u gradually increases in all three periods: in the Soviet period the long variant amounts to 27%, in the current period – almost 37%7 (see figure 3). The distribution of pronounced elongated vowels i, u, a, e in male and female speech reveals both similarities and differences (see table 2). 2 lEntEl. Relative frequency (percentage) of elongated vowels i, u, a, e in different stages of media development in male and female speech vowels Vyrai Moterys 1960– 1987 m. 1988– 1992 m. 1993– 2011 m. 1960– 1987 m. 1988– 1992 m. 1993– 2011 m. [i.] 60.5 61 51.2 50 62.5 64.1 [u.] 26.5 31.2 44.4 37.5 31.8 32.1 [a.] 10.5 6.9 3.8 6.25 5.7 3.4 [e.] 2.5 0.9 0.6 6.25 0 0.4 Due to the accent elongation of the short lower case vowels a, e in the speech of male and female news reporters decreases. However, the relative frequency of the elongated uppercase vowels i, u used in the accentuated position in male and female speech is at first glance in different directions. In male speech, the phenomenon of elongation of the vowel i decreases, but in more frequently accented positions the elongated variant of the short vowel u is used instead. In the current period, compared to the Soviet years, the number of cases of elongation of the i vowel in female speech has increased by 14%, but it is fewer by a few percent.7 Of course, it is interesting to investigate how widespread elongation of the pronounced short vowels a, e, i, u is in the word stem and in the ending, but, except for these two positions, the vowels used in them are too few in the speech of each speaker to allow general conclusions to be drawn by comparison. 186 Language Culture | 85 tojama variants of the long u vowel. A study of Vilnius residents showed that gender may be a significant factor in the frequency of elongated speech variants: men in Vilnius tend to elongate pronounced short vowels more than twice as often as women, both in the word stem and in the word ending (Čičirkaitė, Vaicekauskienė 2012). However, the fluctuations in journalists’ pronunciation observed in this study are too small to suggest that gender also determines the variability of public speakers’ speech. On the contrary, they confirm the assumption of greater homogeneity of the public language, less social division. In the information programmes broadcast at different stages of media development, the pronunciation of the short vowels in the root and at the end of the word is also unevenly distributed: in the Soviet years, every fifth short vowel in the root syllable is pronounced, and every seventeenth short vowel at the end. In the present period, the use of accentuated elongated vowels is less frequent: every eighth short vowel is elongated in the stem, and only every fiftieth in the ending. Thus, the lengthening of short vowels pronounced at the end has always been significantly less than in the trunk8, but in the current period the number is even lower (see figure 4). In Lithuanian linguistics, it is generally stated that the elongation of short vowels in the stem of the word is of dialectal origin, and the elongation of these vowels in the ending is considered as urban slang, street language facts, arising due to the influence of other languages or influenced by their example (Grumadienė 1983: 87; Pupkis 2006, 2007; 8 The second and third generation Vilnius residents studied also tend to elongate short vowels pronounced in the stem in the ending of the word much less often (five times) than in the stem (Čičirkaitė, Vaicekauskienė 2012). 4 PaV. Relative frequency of elongated root and end vowels (percentages) at different stages of media development