The name for the living quarters of an elderly person, pryšinė, is used by the southern Samogitians: My son brought home a daughter-in-law—we live in the pryšinėl[e] Grd (LKŽ X 696). The word priešininkas is used with the same meaning in the works of the non-Samogitian writer Vaižgantas: He will take a good allowance from his son and live in comfort in his own priešininkas LKŽ X 698. A. Juška also includes this word in his dictionary: “The other end of the house is called priešininkas, where the household lives.” Here it has a different meaning: “servants’ room, household quarters.” The northern and western Samogitians also know the word pryšininkis, meaning “vestibule, porch.”

We will mention separately a couple more names used in the Aukštaitian dialect: priešinė, priešinė. One of the meanings given for the word priešinė in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language is “house, dwelling” (X 695). In “Tauta ir žodis” (“Nation and Word”), K. Būga published a list of Samogitian-Lithuanian words by an unknown dialectologist, found in A. Kosarzevskis’s manuscripts. One line reads: “Priešinė – gryčia.” If this is a Samogitian word, it should be pryšinė, not priešinė. On the basis of this list, K. Būga states in “Kalba ir senovė” (“Language and Antiquity”): “The Samogitian priešinė is the same as the Aukštaitian gryčia and pirkia” (II 48). This is how the previously mentioned meaning of priešinė came to appear in the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language.” K. Būga did not mean this at all. He raised the question of whether priešinė could mean a parlour, which one critic, treating the word as a foreignism, had replaced with priešinė in Vaižgantas’s writings. In Valkininkai, the expression priešiniai dantės “shows that priešinė is more likely ‘front room’ [vestibule] than parlour,” writes K. Būga (II 49).

In no dialect is this word used to name a house or dwelling. There is no doubt that priešinė names a room. The juxtaposition “priešinė – gryčia” does not mean that two names for a dwelling house are being compared. In Lithuanian dialects, the words gryčia, troba, pirkia denote not only peasants’ dwellings, but also their principal rooms. Here is another statement by K. Būga: “The following are parts of a šlajus [dwelling house]: 1) gryčia = Samogitian troba, 2) seklyčia = Samogitian pryšininkė [K. Būga questions this association in the same ‘Kalba ir senovė’], 3) pringis = Samogitian preimenė” (K. Būga. Rinktiniai raštai. V., 1959. Vol. 2. pp. 316–317).

What does the Aukštaitian priešinė mean? As mentioned, among the southern Aukštaitians it is the name for the good end of the pirkia, the sitting room. In addition, for some southern Aukštaitians and western Kaunas Aukštaitians, this word (and for the Kaunas Aukštaitians priešinė) means “vestibule and room for storing things, pantry,” for example: The door to the priešinė is open, and the wind is blowing through Krok. Why are you standing in the priešinė? Go into the pirkia! Ig. Take the cabbages out to the priešinė; they have already fermented Al. The potatoes are small this year—we didn’t even fill half the priešinė Vv (LKŽ X 696).

And two more related words: priešnė, meaning “vestibule,” is sometimes used in Alvitas alongside the name gõnkos; and the word priešinys, meaning “vestibule,” is known in Kairiai (LKA 39, 40).

Gražina Smalinskienė

THE FORM TEI

The form tei, meaning “that” (a demonstrative pronoun that can also connect sentence constituents or clauses), has been recorded in Samogitian speech varieties (Tryškiai, Eigirdžiai, Raudėnai, Papilė, Akmenė, Kelmė, Užventis, Pavandenė, Šaukėnai, Padubysys, Pašilė, Vaiguva). For example: t’ei

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pas'ut'l'n väkä- “those are crazy children” (Raudėnai); daba- t'ei. m'ė.ršt “now they are dying” (Užventis, DunŽ); a t'ei täp, a t'ei tüoksä- ėsl'i “or is it like that, or are you such a person” (Paplė); g'ėr'i vaikä- / t'ei. g'ėrä- / uo je kuökl'i. rūpüržes / t'ei. g'ėrlau visä- n'ėr'ėi.k “good children, well then, but if they are some kind of toads, then better not at all” (Kuršėnai, DunŽ), t'ėi tu n'ė'sl'i (Pašilė), t'ėi bõ.va l'iŋks'm'ė läikä- / t'ėi šuõkuom (Tryškiai), t'ėi. büs d'id'ėli d'ī-va- / ka n'eb'g'ė.rs s'v'iec (Kurtuvėnai) and so on.

These are facts from certain Samogitian dialects. According to A. Valeckienė, such pronouns and conjunctions are found in old written sources, especially Chilinskis’s Bible, and supposedly also in Western Aukštaitian dialects throughout the Nemunas region (Valeckienė, 1977, 62, 69; Valeckienė, 1984, 216)—though this claim is insufficiently substantiated; perhaps they are found only in the Varniškiai dialect in Vaišnoras’s “Margaritos teologiškos.” The tei in Chilinskis’s Bible translation has been extracted from its entire phonetic system; compare the forms pateysimo “correction” Ch¹347, pateykuney “sycophants” Ch¹ 334, waykei “children” Ch¹302, 361, tej “those” Ch¹ 237, 349, ilgey “for a long time” Ch¹360, 370, dienej “for the day” Ch¹193; compare also grežus “beautiful” Ch¹355, and so on. This is related to reduction of the first component of the diphthong ai in Southern Aukštaitian (Western Dzūkian), which is still observed in these or nearby dialects: maišai “bags,” rai.kšt'ė. “raikštė” Druskininkai, vaikai “children” Veisiejai, and so on. The replacement of ai by the diphthong ei also occurs there: be'likc “to finish,” d'eiri'cas “to look around,” etc.

In Western Aukštaitian, and even in Eižvilkas and Gaurė, tei is a variant of teip, with the consonant p having been lost: t'ei. n'egal'u / t'ei. n'es'veika / ka võs kõjes pav'elku VI, tai t'ei iž'dl'k'ė / tai t'ei pas'ut'ė / ka t'ig diõk tõ'klus ir vä.l'g'it n'ėduok Jd; tä- väika ji t'ėi i tarač'k'ima v'lsur su säv'im Jrb (recorded by E. Grinaveckienė); kas t'ėi s'ėks t'ei to'l'i VdŽg; t'ei. sä'k'i / aš tik pä.rsakau VI; š'it'ėi š'it'ėi / vaik'ai / t'ėi. ir ž'inut / kai ž'v'ir'b'l'ėi Jd, and so on. K. Jurkšaitis has provided such examples in his folklore records from Prussian Lithuania: Kasydamas galvą dūmojo šiai ir tei’, “Scratching his head, he pondered this way and that,” Jrk 70.

Where did this Samogitian tei come from? (The Aukštaitian particle derives from teip, with p lost, as do v'īsäi “in every way” Jrb, VI, Jd, etc., šiai “this way” Jd, and š'it'ei “like this” Jd, VdŽg.) A. Valeckienė maintains that tei derives from teip (Valeckienė, 1984, 219). It can only be said that in many dialects where this pronominal form tei is used, the form täp alone is said: Akm, Rdn, Pp, Krš, Krtv, Užv. The internal system of the dialects does not allow us to make such an assertion.

This matter should be explained quite differently, in terms of the phonetic system of those dialects. In all these dialects there are quite a few words that lack strong links to related words or roots, in which ai has been replaced by the diphthong ei (sometimes the word is new to the dialect, having come from the standard language). For example: d'ein'ū “sings” Krš (d'ein'ū· Pvn), d'ein'ųškä Krš “little song” (d'ein'ųškä Eig, Ub, Rdn), g'ei.žūs “gaizus” Krš (g'ei.žõs Vds, Rdn), ž'ė.ips “lightning” Krš, ž'ėibüt'l'i “to flash with lightning” Krš (ž'ėibū't'ę Vkšn, Pvn), pävei.žūs Vrp (although väi.žūs), p'ė.it'v'iet'l's “to take offense” Vds (elsewhere pä.it'v'iet'l's || pä.it'v'iet'l's), perhaps rei.bul'ū Krš (r'ėibol'ū· Pvn, etc.), gr'ėib'i't'ę “to rake” Rdn, Trš (gr'ėib'i't'l Krš, Šauk), t'r'ėin'ijė “part of a wheel” Krš (alongside the more common train'ijė Krš), compare also ž'ėiš't'l nj. “to play” Krš, Krtv, Šauk (ž'ėis't'ė Rdn, Trš: väkä. ž'ėid graž'ė “the children play nicely” Pp), eikš't'ė nj. “square” Krš; ž'ėi.zdä nj. “wound” Krš, etc. Attention should be paid to the alternation of ai || ei in variants of certain words: kaip't'i || k'ėip't'i, išvaizda || išveizda || išv'ėiza, knaibä's'i't'ė || kn'ėibäsi't'ė, lai (rare) || l'ėi (frequent) “let,” pädrai-kūs || pädr'ėikūs “one who scatters,” pakrä.imų || pakr'ė.imų “scattered,” švä.ipa ||

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š'v'ė.ipa (Luōke), etc. Compare also tarnā.ut'i (tarnā.ut'e) || t'ernā.ute (t'ernā.ut'e), tā.rnc (but genitive plural t'ernū'n “of servants”).

Such ai || ei variation in certain words will have caused the pronoun (conjunction) form t'ei to arise as well. This may also be a somewhat older phenomenon (compare some facts in MT).

In the dialects, the form tai was clearly not associated with tas (especially among the Samogitians, where the so-called neuter gender and its forms had fallen into disuse); therefore, the diphthong ai was replaced by ei, and it was not even monophthongized according to the dialects’ sound laws. The dialect system and lexical usage facts do not permit linking it with teip. This is further confirmed by the form tai, sometimes used alongside it, DūnŽ 544, and by the particles š'įta || š'ėta- “this, here,” tātā “that,” ūštatā || ūštatā “therefore,” tiktā || tēktā “only.” Therefore, the emergence of words and particles must be explained by the internal laws and nuances of the dialects, not by the accidental similarity of words used in different dialects.

LITERATŪRA

Valeckienė A. Forma tai ir jos variantai lietuvių kalbos tarmėse // Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai. V., 1977. T. 17. P. 55–74.

Valeckienė A. Lietuvių kalbos gramatinė sistema. V., 1984.

Santrumpos kaip LKŽ.

Vytautas Vitkauskas