LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI XXXVI (1996)

LIETUVIŲ KALBA: TYRĖJAI IR TYRIMAI

Kazimieras GARŠVA

THE SPEECH OF THE LITHUANINKS IN THE CISKODAS AREA

I. Historical notes

Formally (not in terms of structure), the speech of the Lithuanians in the Ciskodas area¹ has similarities to the Zietela speech, located at the other edge of the Lithuanian-speaking area. Both are the most distant isolated islands of the Lithuanian language: Ciskodas lies more than 100 kilometers north of the Republic of Lithuania’s border in a straight line, while Zietela is the same distance to the south. Both are most likely not settlements of long-established Lithuanians, but colonies that have survived from ancient times. Both dialects have almost disappeared, but were documented for scholarship (the Ciskodas dialect to a lesser extent). Unlike the Zietela dialect, the Ciskodas dialect fits into the nearest dialect of the main Lithuanian-speaking area (the Vilnius dialect), and thus could also be its continuation (to the north, the boundary of the Vilnius dialect no longer runs in the same direction, but in Latvia, near Medumi and Grendža, it turns sharply westward).

On October 22–24, 1911 (for three days), K. Būga studied the Ciskodas dialect; in June 1977 (also for several days), the author of this article tried to record as many texts as possible on magnetic tape from four informants. Several times more texts were recorded this time, but not enough. Coherent texts in the traditional dialect (less influenced by Latvian, Russian, Polish, and Belarusian) are lacking. K. Būga could not record such texts without a tape recorder, and 66 years later (in fact, already after 50) the Lithuanian dialect had ceased to be used.

K. Būga’s pencil notes—“The Lithuanian speech of Ciskodas parish”—are held in the Manuscripts Department of Vilnius University Library (D 490; on 24 notebook pages—equivalent to 12 typescript pages—mostly individual words are recorded). Our transcribed texts comprise 24 typescript pages. Unfortunately, P. Būtenas’s 1925 article about this dialect, submitted to the newspaper “Lietuva,” which the editors neither published nor returned, has not been found in the archives to this day.

There is no clearer historical information about when Lithuanians settled in the Ciskodas area. There is only rather vague information that the Livonian Order settled Lithuanian captives in southern Latgale in the 15th–16th centuries (cf. Брейдак 1987, 19–29), and that, when Latgale became part of the Lithuanian and Polish state in 1561–1772, Lithuanians were moved here (to the new state borderland). There are also the article author’s notes—

1 The representatives of two peripheral Lithuanian dialects called themselves lietuv(i)ininkai: in the southwest, the Lithuanians of Lithuania Minor lietuvi(n)inkai, and in the northeast, the Lithuanians of Ciskodas lietuvi(n)inkai, who at the end of the dialect’s existence pronounced the form lietuvi(n)inkai.

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…the testimony of J. Novikas, an old resident of Girnakaliai village, about the resettlement of the “farmers” of the Ciskodas Lithuanian villages during serfdom, 300 years ago (this was what Professor from Vilnius, who had historical documents, told the priest Urbelis who worked there—it would most likely have been P. Būtenas).

According to information from 1851 (Manteuffel 1879), Lithuanians had already been living in 7–9 villages since time immemorial, so their history unquestionably reaches at least as far back as the 17th century. This is also confirmed by the names of villages inhabited by Lithuanians and founded no later than that century: Girnakaliai^(34b) (in tsarist times, the official form was Гирнокали; now translated into Latvian as Džērkali), Būodžiai (1), Kukučiai (2), Kurtinai (3), Pilveliai (2) (later, Jaskūnai). Other localities where Old Believer Russians and Latgalians now live also have Lithuanian names: Deneliški (Dieneliškes, Ciskodas area), Švedėliai (2) (Vilāni area); compare also the vanished Možowajki (Mažavaiškiai (2), etc.). This is also indicated by surnames in 18th-century inventories of the Rēzekne eldership: Gražul (Gražulis), Matulunas (Matulūnas), Žwirblis (Žvirblis); compare also the surname Guds (Gūdas), still common in the Ciskodas area, etc. The oikonym Švedėliai may have originated after 1601 or 1625, when the Swedes occupied Rēzekne (Latgalians would have named the village *Zveidreni).

Ciskodas parish is mentioned in written sources from 1590 (pogost Čiskaden). In K. Būga’s view (1961, 570–573), Lithuanians must already have been living in the Ciskodas area in 1478–1519, when the Latgalians of the Rēzekne and Daugavpils areas rendered the long vowel u· as the diphthong ou (and i· as ei). This is indicated by words borrowed by Lithuanian-speakers from Latgalian: Re.zi't'a. / Ra.zi't'a. ~ Režytė ‘Rēzekne’, cýruļis ‘skylark’, and li.kstã. ~ lykstē ‘snipe’, from a time when Latgalians still pronounced today’s words R'eizekne, c'ēiruļs', l'ēikst'e as Rēži'te, cīruļis, likste (with the same stress placement and intonation). In 1753 the long i· was written ei: it was probably rendered this way before 1519, since the vowel u· was rendered ou alongside i· >ei. This would also be confirmed by the loanword we have identified, sturys ‘corner’, now pronounced by Latgalians as styur's' (having found a more precise date for the change of u· to >ou, K. Būga did not have a Lithuanian-speaker loanword with this sound). This view would also be supported by old hydronyms of Lithuanian origin in Latgale: Subinaite (Rēzekne district), Gintuve.

K. Būga was most likely right that Lithuanian-speakers lived as early as the 12th century not only in the Naujinys (Daugavpils) area, but also in the Rēzytė (Rēzekne) area: the name Kėsy (nom. sg. Kēs ys, Latvian Cēsis), borrowed by them before 1200, remained unchanged in 1254 and later (in 1285 the Germans called the Rēzytė castle Rossiten). Only K. Būga’s hypothesis (1961, 573–574) is highly questionable: that in the 12th–13th centuries the Lithuanians of the Novgorod and Pskov lands also attacked from the castles of Naujinys and Rēzytė, rather than from Kernavė–Trakai–Vilnius, since there is no information about their larger forces.

We have no further information about the Ciskodas-area dialect from the 13th–19th centuries. It is doubtful that it would have remained isolated for six centuries. It most likely was connected with other Lithuanian language islands between Subačius and Indrica, whose center was Daugavpils.

Comparing K. Būga’s texts with ours, minor phonetic differences most likely—

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—arose because K. Būga paid less attention to phonetics: after 66 years, stressed ė and o appear (alongside e· and a·), while unstressed ė disappears (often marked non-dialectally in the ending); the shortness of the old short stressed a and e is retained; under the influence of Latvian, stress is retracted further; and more loanwords are adopted (see below).

II. Phonetics

1. Vowel quality

The dialect’s vowel system is as follows (phoneme variants are given in parentheses):

i· (ы·) u· i (ы) u (ie uo e·ę·o·) (e ɛ ɔ) e· (a·) a· e (ă) a

Examples: septì·n'd·s “seven”, palaĩžì· kit “rinse”, lietuv'l'·; miė-žė “barley”, aštuoni “eight”, tėva tėva tėvs “great-grandfather”, kalbė·ja “spoke”, kó·šas “porridge”, išėja “went out”, kalbā·t “to speak”, žmā·nas “people”, visi “everyone”, čužī·la ~ čižyle, Kūkučiuos “in Kukučiai”, tę pat “in the same place”, galvė· “head”, škū·lu “school”, žemī “earth”, gyvànam “we lived”, kàs, galia ~ gãlia “can”.

The vowel variants b·: u ɛ· ɛ occur after hardened consonants, while ɛ, ɔ occur chiefly in loanwords, corresponding to a·; a is a broadened vowel e, occurring before hard consonants (a· sometimes also before palatalized consonants). The usual variant of vowel e is broadened and is pronounced even in absolute word-final position, e.g., švìnt'ėa (the vowel broadens toward the end — švìnt'ėa) “feast”.

In retaining the old long vowels e· and a· under stress (and without stress), the dialect belongs to the žadininkai: one hears the beautiful forms tė·vas “father,” brā·lis “brother.” But in a stressed syllable, vowel e· may also be pronounced ie or e· (ę·), e· (after hard consonants—usually a·), while stressed vowel a· may also be pronounced o (ɔ·) or uo: girdėjau, ma(uo)kiet, vain'ul(ę)kūeli, važi(b)nieja.², pažiūrėkit, tė·vas / tėnas; galā·ja “could,” kalbā·t', p'alāda; pīlē ~ pylą (sl.). “saw” (and ža·lē “grass,” pelā — Būga 1911); gaspādā·ris ~ gaspadoris (-ius), mā·ka., mā·teris, maskā·lis, pā·nas, pā·ter'us, pjā·vam, parā·disu, sijā·ja, šmā·tu, žmā·gus, žmā·ne.s, varstā·tas; bac'ānas / bacōnas, brā·lis / brō·lis, dārba. / dōrba, kā·jam / kō·jam “on foot,” nežinā·ja / nežinō·ja, sā·pa / sō·pa, sā·kt / šō·kt, g'adūoja “sang.”

In the examples at hand, vowel e· (a·) occurs after consonants b, l, c, j; the sound ie after d, k, n, r, t; vowel a· after d, k, l, m, r, p, š, t, v; and vowel o after d, k, n, r, p, s, š (after d, also uo). Vowel o < a and, even more so, uo < o < a: these appeared optionally not through natural development, but under the influence of the Latgalian dialect (cf. its dōrba “work,” spuōrni “wings”). Hence there are also “hypercorrect forms”; cf. pó·saku “stories” (influence from Standard Lithuanian is not possible).

The vowel o is entirely new in the dialect, having appeared only in the latest generation of dialect speakers. K. Būga (1961, 571) did not record the vowel o in a single word and even failed to—

²Parentheses indicate a newer pronunciation variant; cf. makiét / maokiét, etc.

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directly denied its presence: “the vowel o of the written language is always represented by ā: lābas ‘good’, Latvian leja, tvārā ‘fence’, pirtīēs krāsnis ‘stove’.”

K. Būga left the sound ie (iė) < e in many places in his notes: gierās, girdėjų, kalīēdas, likstīē ‘swing’, makiētū, nėr, niēsam, rūdiē, tiēvū. In some examples, K. Būga restored the dialect’s e to the standard language form (mėziā, lyžėles, mindrės, rāgūtes, dēvė, skrāgždė, etc.).

In a pair of words, Ciskodo speakers had e in the root where standard Lithuanian has a: dē.ve. ‘gave’, delge. ~ dalgė ‘scythe’ (Būga 1911). Following the example of Latgalian dialects (cf. Dzierkaļi ‘Dzerkali’, viešture ‘vėsture’), we have also already heard diēlgā., didēli ‘large’.

At the absolute beginning of a word, both e and a were pronounced (< e): ēlkšnis, ēpušė, but ažaruās (Būga 1911). Here, perhaps, progressive vowel assimilation also played some role (see also the hardening of consonants).

The unstressed pretonic že in the dialect was often (but not always) monophthongized: d'enī'kas ‘day laborer’ (t vārtas), n'ekā'c'a ‘nothing (a trough)’, rešutī'nas ‘hazel grove’ (Būga 1961, 571), pre.menīs ~ priemenis, l'atū.ve. ‘Lithuanian woman’, l'atū.viškėi(-u) ‘in Lithuanian’, but kieminē'ties, lietū.vis. The word ū'žalas ‘oak’ could also attest to the possible eastern monophthongization of unstressed uo in exceptional cases.

The dialect regularly exhibited “puntininkavimas”: tināi ~ tēnai, gi.vīn.su ‘I will live’, li.nkiški ‘Polish (priests)’, mindrė. ‘reed’, pinki ‘five’, ži.n-tas ‘son-in-law’, pagalā st ‘to sharpen’, trū.ša.s ‘manure’, sū.matas ‘estimates’, kā.nigu. ‘priest’, dangaūs ‘of the sky’, dunīm, krunkli.s, kunkl'āi, neskum-bē.tu, rūnda, unksti, ū.ntis, žū.ndas (Būga 1911), etc.

2. Vowel quantity

a. Ilgieji balsiai. K. Būga (1961, 571) savo Čiskodo šnektos tyrinėjimą išdėstė aiškiai ir atvirai, neslėpdamas, nelygindamas neištudijuotų dalykų: ”ilgieji, neturėdami kirčio, rodosi, tapo pusilgiai. Bet mano ausis nėra visuomet ir visur nugirdusi balsių pusilgumo. Režytės [...] varde balsio e pusilgumo mano ausis dėl trumpo viešėjimo nėra nugirdusi. Taipaja mano ausis, dėl laiko trumpumo nespėjusi dar apsiprasti su ciskodiškių šnektos fonetika, anuomet dar negalėjo atskirti, ar nekirčiuotieji šių žodžių balsiai yra trumpi ar pusilgiai: ūžalas ”ąžuolas”, rešutynas ”riešutynas”, stajākai ”stojokai”, tūla (randu parašyta ir: tūla, tūlē = Ciskodo latvių t'ūle ”tuolė”) kārve ”be ragų”, denykas ”dienininkas (tvartas)”, n'ekācia ”niekočia (gelda)”.

Thus, already in K. Būga’s time, the unstressed long vowels of Ciskodo speakers had shortened to short vowels or (as it seemed to him upon special observation) at best to half-long vowels. The length versus shortness of unstressed vowels (and even more so their half-length, which had to stand in for length) was no longer a distinctive (differential) feature of vowel phonemes; therefore, phonetically and without a difference in meaning, either pronunciation was possible.

The unstressed long vowels of Ciskodo speakers are usually short, but occasionally (optionally) they may be half-long or long, e.g.: dārba ‘work’, di.dzeli

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“large,” kū·lam “we were piling up,” virala “of the viralo,” žā·lu ~ žoḷa “grass,” diel'g·a ~ delgē “sickle,” tievu “father,” numi·ra.s / i.žmira·, kalb'aja / kalbieā·ja, lietù.vniṙku / lietù.vniṙku. / lietù.vniṙku·. The “freedom” of unstressed vowel duration can also be demonstrated with sentences from the same speaker: “Gù.da duktiė at'veda s'ānu vi·ru / i prisā·k'a tāip [priest Urbelis, circa 1920]: kā vāika. žanijas, ka l'atù.vi· žānitus / su l'atù.vi, žmā·nu l'atù.vi imtu, a n'a latvieti”.

Secondary stress also helps pre-stress vowels remain long (see below). The same speakers pronounce post-stress vowels as long when speaking Latgalian: Ciskadu·s, dzerevne·s'.

b. S h o r t v o w e l s.

Stressed short vowels in the dialect are short or half-long (it is difficult to determine the boundary between them). In the final stressed syllable of a word, vowels are somewhat shorter, while in a non-final one they are longer, sometimes even longer than typical half-long vowels, e.g.: pū·nis “barn,” linù.s / linùs, šna·tù, visi / visi·, akiec'ā, juodā, mi·na, ži·na, bū·va, di·d'ali, gi·mene, kadṙbili, l'atù.vni·kas. K. Būga (1911), probably without delving into these subtle nuances, marked a short vowel here: paukštis, grīkiai, kelminiai (grybai), kiškis, šilas, vinkšna; alùs, šermūkšnis, pūšagrybiai; guobà, girà, meškà, skarà.

In the dialect, stressed short vowels a, e are often (though not always) not lengthened: àkis “eye,” àparam “we plough,” dàra “does,” giv'ànam “we lived,” màla “painted,” m'ātu “years,” skrāgžd'a / skrāgžd'a “swallow,” stàlas “table,” stràzdas “starling,” šā·k'a·m “with branches,” žėmi “earth,” žāmies “earth,” vānas “crow,” etc. These vowels can also be short in diphthongs, cf.: kàrve.s / kàrvas “cows,” tvàrtan “into the barn,” vàrda / vėrda “of the name,” vèrla “frog,” vèrna “crow,” but šārka, etc. The shortening of vowels a, e (cf. galā·jau / galājau “I could”) is encouraged by the more frequent use of spoken Latgalian (cf. its prāsa·t “you ask,” etc.). In these cases, K. Būga (1911) marked long vowels: kātinas, nēkalba, prāšam.

While preserving shortness in a stressed syllable, the vowel a at the absolute end of a word after the consonants d b g k t l v is pronounced with an i-like quality or just like ė: grindė a ~ grindā “ceiling, floor,” galvė “head,” lintē “board,” pīlē ~ pylā (dial.) “saw,” šakē / šakā, etc., but lintās, Lietuvās, etc. As with many easterners, in a diphthong ai with circumflex stress, the first component was narrowed to ei, and later the stress (intonation) was retracted onto it as well, cf.: labēi, pavalkēi, naragēi “pitchforks,” but g'arāi.

3. Consonants

a. P a l a t a l i z a t i o n.

In the dialect, the standard Lithuanian consonants č dž before fronted a i u are almost always matched by c dz, whereas t d before i are generally preserved, e.g.: akiec'ā, c'ānāi, Kukūc'ai, Ku·c'ā, kviec'āi, nieka·c'ā, svec'āi, trù.puc'a, tic'u. darž·lis “garden of the tits,” tū·kstunc'u., dz'avēna, but dunkstis “roof,” marti, kārtis (for fastening a cart), kātinas, Kuṙtin'uos, pati, pirtis, septi·n'asdešimt, slinkstì·s, svetimi, tī·ltas, (s)tū·kstuntis, unksti. So far, Ciskodas has entered the history of Lithuanian linguistics mainly because of this incidental feature (Būga

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1961, 571; Zinkevičius 1966, 139; Zinkevičius 1978, 81; Grinaveckienė 1980, 226, 238). There are, however, exceptions, even if insignificant. K. Būga (1911, 10) also corrected the word žilvìcis to žilvìtis in his notes (was it a mistake, or had he heard it unclearly?). The author of this article recorded trù.puci and trù.puti from J. Kovalevskis onto magnetic tape. Although this exception may have been somewhat sporadic and recent (by analogy with trùpuc'ā., under the influence of Slavic languages), such forms probably also occurred in the Ciskodas area, as in the Daugavpils and other dialects.

There are more and unequivocal examples concerning č, dž: c'а / č'а (J. Novikas), unkšč'ãu, Búodžai (Būga 1911), Búodžuos (in the oikonym, this dž is intermediate between dž and dz).

b. Hardening of consonants. In the dialect, the consonant l was almost always hardened; ž, r, s, š often; and č, m, n, p, t, v rarely. According to position, i.e. the vowels before which consonants are hardened in the available examples, they can be represented as follows:

ž i· i ė·(e·) e ū à r i ė·(e·) e ū à č i e ū à s i e ū š i ė e l i ė e m i ė e n ė e à t ė e p e v e

Examples: čbžb·la, palaižb·kit, važūnìet, žù.rkla·s, me·žá·ja, daržà·lis, ažari, ažaruos, pažamù, žàmies, žànijas, pažùriekit, važūoju, važūosu (-im), važāva, but nežinòja, žibintìejus, žìedas, žèmi, grùncà, narāja, numi·ra·s, raṅka, gierālis, skrà·gžda, nèturu, geraũ, grāudz·a, graũsmas, but drignis, keturi, māteris, nenāri, susirìṅka, trī·lika, trī·s, žāgrè, regì / raġì, reġet; Čèpul'ai, vinčùties, grùncà, but bažnì·č'ai; vì·rsu, sagtà, sasì·te, sā·sari·s, sasuo, aisu, paràdisu, važūosu, but jùok'asi, namùosi, visì, septì·ni, negi·vì·ns'u (Būga 1911) / negi·vi·nsu; s'ašbi, kóśas, dèšara, šaivà, sél'mas, but k'áušinis, pušis, raš'i·t, šilkinè, širdijas, širdingas; dìd'alb., galājau, p'alāda, pì·lė; kum'āla, ža.lē, p'alā (Būga 1911), gelazìnie, nelāiskit, but nakt'āli (1.d.), pal'ākas (Slavic); nù·mbura, prigì·ma, maitelis; giminà, ménasi·, septì·nas; té·us, pātar'us; pādas “soles”, kapaikù, la.patà, paìlis; nevārta, privvaikè, svaikas.

One example each was also recorded with hardened d and c: dāglas (cf. the oikonym Daglėnai even in Pasvalys District, so the root dagl- is widely known among easterners), bac'ānas / bacānas (Slavic).

Compared with the beginning of the century, consonants were hardened somewhat more often in 1977. According to the available examples, š was hardened less than ž, r, and s. The latter two (r, s) were also usually not hardened before i. Before syllables with back vowels (cf. drignis — grùncà), hardening was also somewhat more

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dažniau. Žodyje pilk (Būga 1911) l neminkštintas. Dar plg. šāk / š'āk / šāki.

c. Other consonant features. Some informants (J. Novikas from Girnakaliai) fairly often softened final consonants after front vowels (like the Panevėžys-area speakers): mazgātis', pirti.s', žilvītis / žulvī.tis', net puššs'.

At the beginning of a word, before uo, the consonant v may either be added or omitted (even in the same word—as in other eastern dialects): vuošūs, -ė / uošūs, vuodai / uodė, cf. also vōgl'us “spruce.” In a pair of words also known in other dialects, an s is added (skrāgždė, tī-kstuntis / stū-kstuntis (Būga 1911); in t, it is dissimilated: auštrinė, apūnastris.

As in the Uodegėnai dialect, under the influence of the Latgalian dialect, in some words s is pronounced instead of š, and š instead of s: sašī “six”, šāukstas “spoon”, vesta “carried,” gi.vi.nšu, mu.sa “fly,” šakī.t, cf. also pļauna (p'ļauna) “mows.”

Tik viename žodyje vietoj ž tariama z: zu.sis (Būga 1911)/ žuosis ”žąsis”.

4. Stress and intonation

Some dialect forms differ from the standard language in that they are stressed on the ending (lietuvi's, paukštis, slinkstī.s, šaudi.klė, atmen'ù ”atmenu”, dirbāu, nu.tākši); others are stressed at the beginning of the word — blākutė, lātakas, pėteliskė, rāgutės. Occasionally, stress is not retracted (n'akàlba “does not speak”) or is retracted only partially onto the prefix (nesūprūnta / nėšūprūnt “does not understand”). Compare also dvidešimt “twenty,” širdijas.

A feature of the northeastern dialects is the occasional pronunciation of secondary stress on the root (when the ending is short and the root is long), which helps preserve and emphasizes vowel length: pū'lė (dial.) “saw,” pū'nīs “barn,” stālai.

Under the influence of the Latgalian dialect, through the leveling of the stress system and the shifting of secondary stress to primary stress, stress in some words is retracted to the first syllable: Čėpulis / Čėpulīs, Kukūč'ai / Kūkūči, Pāvel'lùos / Pīl'vel'ùos (the first form of the place names is older, recorded by K. Būga), jaūna pati, septi'ni, pi.nki, nėturū, suprunti.

It is well known that in eastern Lithuanian dialects, intonation contours in monophthongs are not clearly distinguished. In the vicinity of Ciskodas and Uodegėnai, a stressed circumflex vowel á- is often greatly prolonged and pronounced with a rising circumflex contour (apparently under the influence of the Latgalian dialect). K. Būga (1911), apparently, corrected the circumflex intonation he had actually heard in his notes to acute intonation, in accordance with linguistic scholarship, in the words blāgu.s, māllu, žlū.ge, but left it uncorrected in the word nevārta.

We retain the circumflex intonation of the open vowel a· where it is heard that way. Phonologically, it could also be marked as acute, since at least in Uodegėnai the circumflex á in the pair kā·šle — kā·šle “porridge — porridge” is nevertheless longer by 7–10 ms, while the entire word lasts 23–71 ms.

Latvian linguist A. Breidakas, who accompanied the author of the article to investigate the Ciskodas dialect, provided information about the Lithuanian Latgalian dialect. When speaking Latgalian, Ciskodas residents do not perceive the broken intonation, and in long syllables

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they pronounce only one intonation contour, intermediate between the falling contour of Latgalians and the rising contour of central dialect speakers. When speaking Lithuanian, perhaps they likewise pronounce one and the same intonation contour. The intonation of the stressed vowel a· could at least indicate this.

III. Grammatical notes

In the dialect, as in the neighboring eastern dialects, the illative was used: párkelk árkli, k-i-tañ daiktan; lában nuo kalna, važiuoja; aik tvàrtan padabát; šun'la. neláiskit pirkėn (confused also with — aĩsu Lietuvõj pažurė·t); pateki.luosna (-un) aismā”j apgėlus eisme” (Būga 1911). The supine was also recorded (aĩnu nàma g ú. l t u), as was the longer ending -ies of the reflexive infinitive (radnà sāja kieminėtis, raĩk'a kéltiės, vinčùties), the athematic form palieksta, the shortening dàu < dav “gave,” and the fuller imperative: š á k i š á-k i miergàit'a.

Less common noun and adjective stems, as well as verb conjugations, have shifted to more widespread forms, as in the neighboring Vilnius-area dialects: sú·na “son”; gùla “lies down,” negàl'a “cannot,” žì dź'a “blooms”; compare also blágu.s “bad,” geltànu.s “yellow,” mãžu.s “small.” The dative plural of the definite adjective had the ending -jiem: nedùoda biednėjiem “does not give to the poor.” As among all eastern dialect speakers, forms such as brūngas'ai, jáunasai, mãžasai, miẽlasai, šẽnsai. were used.

The purpose adverbial was used not with the infinitive, but with the third-person present tense: žagarũ mẽr kùr g á u n a. Instead of the usual genitive, the nominative was used: nẽturu d v i·l i k a tú·kstanč'u.

The eastern prepositions ažù “behind,” in “into,” nuog “from,” par “across” were used with the singular accusative and plural instrumental (with the dative — all with both cases), as well as a construction formed on the model of Slavic languages with ant: bà·va ažù pastìka; atė́ja i n mù·m(s); atsìtràuki n u g manì; par pirkélàis mẽtais; par mẽnasi.; dienái (“during the day”) raĩka makėt / n u (= “on” “onto”) dienàs makėt.

IV. Vocabulary

Ciskoda speakers have left the dialect words as a legacy for history: apin astris “harness,” apžindelis “a weaned child,” atsãsaja “traces,” atšlaimas (ačlàimas); auštrinė “morning star,” dang(s)týs / dañgtis “roof,” dešimtis (dešìms) “ten,” dienìkas “day barn,” dilgùmės “nettles,” drignis “rainbow,” gėras (giė-ras, gierãlis) “lamb,” griaūzmas (griaūzmas) “thunder,” grinčia (grunčia) “house,” eastern “gryčia,” guõbas “gate,” kėltuva “sheep,” krikštakampė “baptism,” kukulýs “loaf,” lòbas “hollow,” lùmetas “weaver’s reed,” mėndrė “reed,” meškeris “fishing rod,” mėšlas “rubbish,” niekóčia “trough,” paklotuvė “sheet,” pavėnis “shade,” pirkia “farmhouse,” pušatrūbiai, račutės “cart,” sarmatuotis “to mourn,” senagalýs, sijà “beam,” skalai “kindling,” stãklės “supports,” stabdã “a kind of comb,” stojōkai “walking poles for children,” sujùkė “got mixed up,” širdingas “sincere,” tùlė “hornless (cow),” uodėgiai (vuodėg'ai) “umbrellas,” vėlenas “curved tool,” viršutinės grindys “ceiling,” žagė “ploughshare,”

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žemė “floor,” žýbinis “thunder,” žibintiejus “a lighting tool used before the kerosene lamp (when splinters [pine kindling] were burned)”

The dialect, of course, contains traditional and more recent Slavic and Latvian borrowings: čėsas “time,” lopetà “shovel,” pakarānos “funeral,” radnià “relative,” sedlōti “to saddle,” zoslānas “bench,” etc.; cýruļis “lark,” gulbinai “potatoes,” lykštė “skate”; magúona.s “poppies,” prāst “to understand,” stāstyti “to tell,” vākara. žvaigžnė. “evening star.” Throughout the northern Lithuanian-Latvian border region, šaūkti (cf. Russian звать) also means “to call/name.”

The forms paskuitinis “last” and paskuigėlis “end of the loom” were mentioned; the suffix -uiti is also used in the neighboring Uodegėnai, Breslauja, and Daugpils dialects: pi˙lū.it “to cut,” pilū.ja “cuts,” nunaimū.it.

V. Relationship with neighboring dialects

K. Būga (1961, 571) yra parašęs sakinį, kad ”Ciskodo lietūvininkų šnekta beveik niekuo nesiskiria nuo Gryvōs, Kálkuonės (Kalkuhnen) ir Laukesos apylinkės šnektos”, kuriose jis, matyt, dar trumpiau tegalėjo būti. Tą žinią nekritiškai plėtojo E. Grinaveckienė (1980, 234).

The dialects of the same Vilnius dialect undoubtedly have similarities. In the Ciskodas and Daugpilis dialects, unstressed ie and uo are sometimes similarly reduced; the consonants t, d before i (i˙, ie) are almost always no longer palatalized; the clusters tj, dj are occasionally pronounced t', d'; secondary stress may occur; the suffix -áite (e.g. mergáite) is stressed with a falling accent; the suffixes -ūiti, -énti occur; in the nominative plural, adjectives have -ūs instead of the ending -i; the illative has been used since ancient times; there are athematic verbs and much shared vocabulary (lietūvininkas and lietūvininkas, dangstys “roof” and dañotis, grinčia, skrėgždė, etc.), as well as the preposition par “at” and so on.

But many of these features are also found in the Uodegėnai dialect (except -áite), in the Breslaujos-Apso dialect (the vocabulary does not entirely coincide), and in other northeastern Vilnius dialects. The basis for classifying the dialects is phonetics. And according to the pronunciation of the standard language’s stressed vowels ė, o, Ciskodas speakers belong to the “žadininkai” group (tėvas “father,” žā.dis “word,” ža.lē “grass”), while Daugpilis speakers belong to the “žalininkai” group (tėvas, žōdis, ža.lē). This is an essential phonetic feature that does not allow one to claim that the aforementioned dialects “differ in almost nothing.” In addition, in the Ciskodas area the infinitive ending -tje is never reduced to -t'a.; consonants are softened less, and so on.

In terms of the pronunciation of stressed vowels ė, o, the dialect of the Ciskodas area is most similar to the Uodegėnai and Adutiškis dialects. K. Būga also noted similarities in phonetics and especially vocabulary with the Adutiškis dialect in his 1911 notes. In consonant hardening, dzūkavimas, word endings, and so on, the Ciskodas dialect is somewhat more similar to Uodegėnai than to Adutiškis. In these dialects, consonants are similarly hardened (more so in Uodegėnai); they have not only the prefixes atā-, ažū- (also used in the Daugpilis and Breslaujos dialects), but also in- “to”; the words grindà “floor, ceiling,” penėti “to feed,” and so on; and the supine.

No dialect was found in the Vilnius dialect with which Ciskodas speakers would completely coincide, or from which they might have originated. Apparently, in recent centuries, isolated development has separated them most from the Lithuanian language area.

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LITERATŪRA

Būga K. 1911: Ciskodo parapijos lietovių šnekta. (VU MB D 490).

Būga K. 1961: Rinktiniai raštai 3, Vilnius.

Garšva K. 1984: Lietuvių kalbos tarmės ir jų kontaktai Latvijoje (1). — Lietuvos Mokslų akademijos darbai. A ser. 3, 83—91.

Garšva K. 1985: Lietuvių kalbos tarmės ir jų kontaktai Latvijoje (2). — Lietuvos Mokslų akademijos darbai. A ser. 1, 118—126.

Grinaveckienė E. 1980: Daugpilio apylinkių lietuvių šnektos fonetika. — Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai 20, 223—239.

Manteuffel G. 1879: Inflanty Polskie. — Poznań.

Zinkevičius Z. 1966: Lietuvių dialektologija, Vilnius.

Zinkevičius Z. 1978: Lietuvių kalbos dialektologija, Vilnius.

Брейдак А. Б. 1987: Фонетика латгальских говоров латышского языка: диахрония и синхрония (машинопись). — Даугавпилс.

DIE MUNDART DER UMGEBUNG VON CISKODAS

Zusammenfassung

Ciskodas (lettisch Tiskādi) war die entferntste, alte litauische Insel in Latgale und überhaupt in Lettland. Er ist über 100 km von der Grenze Republik Litauen nach Norden und über 75 km von Daugavpils.

In 7—9 Dörfern der Umgebung von Ciskodas wohnten die Litauer wenigstens seit dem 17. Jahrhundert. Nach der Meinung von K. Būga sollte man hier litauisch auch in den Jahren 1478—1519 sprechen, als die Latgalen den Laut u· in ou verwandelten.

Die Mundart hat die wichtigsten Besonderheiten des angrenzenden Gebietes von Wilna (”Žādininkai”) erhalten. In der betonten Silbe kann der Vokal e wie ie ausgesprochen sein, sogar wie ę, ė; a·, der Vokal a· — auch ɔ·, uo, vgl. tė́vas ”Vater”, ša·ki ”springe” und so weiter. Die unbetonten langen Vokale verkürzten sich bis kurz oder halblang. So sind auch die betonten kurzen Vokale. Am Ende des absoluten Wortes wird der Vokal a nach den Konsonanten d, b, g, k, t, l, v mit der Schattierung des Lautes ɛ oder fast wie ę ausgesprochen.

Die Konsonanten č, dž vor den Vordervokalen i, u entsprechen in der Mundart fast immer c, dz, aber t, d vor i bleiben gewöhnlich erhalten, z. B.: akiec’à ”Egge”, aber dunksti·s ”Dach”. Fast immer wird der Konsonant l hart, oft sind hart ž, r, s, š, selten č, m, n, p, t, v, z. B.: grunčà, čužu·la, ažarì usw.

Wenn die Endung des Wortes kurz ist, die Wurzel aber lang, wird in den nordostlichen Mundarten von Wilna in der vorletzten Silbe die Nebenbetonung ausgesprochen, z. B. pū·niś ”Scheune”.

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