LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, II LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA

MORE CHARACTERISTIC FORMS OF GENDER, NUMBER, AND CASE IN THE MITUVA RIVER-BASIN DIALECT¹

EL. GRINAVECKIENĖ

I. Gender

1. Gender of nouns. a) Besides masculine and feminine nouns, common-gender nouns are also used quite widely in the dialect (of course, their number is considerably smaller than that of masculine and feminine nouns). All common-gender nouns have a pejorative meaning. These nouns may have one or two roots, e.g.: hvežė (a scatterbrain), góbdašėra (a miser). Most often, they have a verbal root. Most common-gender nouns in the dialect are o- stems, although a-, ia-, ē-stem derivatives also occur, e.g.: (o-stem) akiplėša, badvasa (someone who is emaciated, who suffers hunger), čupā (someone who takes a long time getting ready, fiddles about), dărnba (a slovenly person, someone with an unattractive appearance), geibā (a dried-up person), glāumã (a crusty person), gróva (someone who collapses easily), gu˙ra (someone who is soaked and does not mind getting even more soaked), gu˙stã~gušta (someone who takes a long time getting ready), gvēra (a scatterbrain, a fool), kebėžā (someone who is clumsy), kerėpla (someone who sprawls out), klipirã (someone who is crooked), kvarnã (a fool), liežūvnešā (someone who carries gossip), nakūbalda, pičkūrna, plū̄rpa (someone who gets heated), plūmpa (someone sprawled out, someone standing akimbo; very heavily stuffed), popā (someone who is spoiled and cannot bear pain), ruknã (a frowny person), snarglā (an immature person), susnā (someone who is worn out and impoverished), skretna (someone who is crusty), terlā (someone who dawdles), užžomirša, žūgara (a brazen person); (a-stem) bā.r.šrāls~barškalas (someone who speaks noisily), mākals~mākalas (someone who does things carelessly, making a mess of everything), ta.r.šrāls~tarškalas (someone who speaks noisily); (ia-stem) glōbis (a miser), gōželis (a fool, a scatterbrain), vēpelis (a fool); (ē-stem) kuislē (someone who takes a long time getting ready), loj˙nē~lojyne (a chatterbox), memē (a scatterbrain, someone slow to catch on).

Common-gender nouns most often occur in the sentence as the nominal part of the predicate, e.g.: i_bū˙k tu_mā tōka glāumã, kō_tu tōks grōva; mū˙su tieus tōks plū˙rpa; ji tōka gu˙stã

¹The article published here is the morphology section of Part II of “The Dialects of the Mituva River Basin.” The first part of this work, “The Phonetics of the Dialects of the Mituva River Basin,” was published in Volume I of “Questions of Lithuanian Linguistics” (Vilnius, 1957, pp. 119—180). Dialect examples in this article are written on the basis of the phonetic transcription in the “Programme for Collecting Materials for the Atlas of the Lithuanian Language” (Vilnius, 1956), and are transposed into standard Lithuanian only where they are unclear or could be understood in two ways.

12. Kalbotyros klausimai II.

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b) Nouns arklys, avis, karvė, kiaulė, meška, pamatinė, rupūžė, šuo, varna, velnias, višta and others are often used figuratively in the dialect as swearwords or to characterize people. In that case, they acquire certain features of common-gender nouns, and the pronouns used with them (jis, tas, toks, koks, šitas) and adjectives (tikras, didelis, baisus) may fail to agree grammatically in gender, e.g.: he is a big bony one; she is such a horse; he is a real toad; such a bear sat there, puffed up; this kind of pamatinė sticks its eyes out; that old woman of his is a real devil

c) Nouns borrowed from standard Lithuanian that denote a person's occupation or profession, or have traits characteristic of people in that profession, are also used as common-gender nouns in the dialect, e.g.: she'd make a good lawyer (she would be a good lawyer); but your wife is such an interrogator (your wife is like an interrogator).

d) As in standard Lithuanian, dialect nouns denoting actors or persons are masculine or feminine. Feminine derivatives are most often formed from masculine derivatives by adding the ending -ė, e.g.: augi’tinis~augtinis and augi’tine~augintinė, kveisli’s, kveisle, raibūks~raibūkas (a speckled rooster), raibūke~raibūke (a speckled hen). The dialect has a particularly large number of these nouns (including all derivatives with the suffixes -škis, -škė, -(s)kus, -(s)kė, -(s)lys, -(s)lė, -(s)nys, -(s)nė, etc.) that have a pejorative meaning, e.g.: čerksli’s, čerkš-lė, dičkis (<did + škis), dičke~dičke, drū’čkis, drū’čke~drūčke, rū’gli’s (a crybaby), rū’glė, ręksni’s (a crybaby), ręksnė, snaudā’lus, snaudā’le~snaudālė, šaukli’s, šauklė, zi’žli’s, zi’žlė, zurzli’s, zurzlė, žopli’s, žoplė | Feminine derivatives formed from disyllabic masculine derivatives with the suffixes -(s)kus and -lius (from (i)u-stems) are used side by side in the dialect with two suffixes: -ė and -uvienė, e.g.: āklus and āklė, ākluvienė, džū’skus, džū’ske, džū’skuvienė, dri̇̄pkus, dri̇̄pke, dri̇̄pkuvienė, gē.l.čkus, gē.l.čke, gē.l.čkuvienė, li̇̄pkus, li̇̄pke, li̇̄pkuvienė, plū.r.phkus, plū.r.phe, plū.r.phkuvienė, smi̇.r.skus, smi̇.r.ske, smi̇.r.skuvienė, sė.i.lus, sė.i.le, sė.i.luvienė, škāplus (a person with gaps between their teeth), škāple, škāpluvienė | In this case, derivatives with the suffix -uvienė denote any woman (whether unmarried or married) who has, or is attributed with, pejoratively regarded traits.

e) In the dialect, there are nouns whose gender differs from that of the same nouns in standard Lithuanian. Most of these nouns are new to the dialect, having come into it from elsewhere, e.g.: ā.n.cpauda (stamp), fílma (film), kāima (village), kombāina (combine harvester), mȯ.rkes (carrot), paštā (post office), pi’pkis (pipe), pōpiera (paper), sli’rus (plum), smakrà (chin), kantōrs (office), etc. The formation of some of these words may be due to contamination: a Lithuanian root may have begun to be used in place of a foreign word, while the foreign word's gender was retained (cf. ā.n.cpauda and pečėlis, kāima and ūlyčia).

f) Irregularly, several i-stem nouns are used in the dialect in parallel as both masculine and feminine. Their stem-final forms vary accordingly, e.g.: juoc debesys~juodas debesis, júoda debesė~júodo debesio and júoda debesīs, júodos debesės, stōrs kietis, stōra kiečė~stōro

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kiečio ir storà žiẽtė, storõs kiẽtės, juodì suõdžei (suodžiai), juõdas suõdi~juó-dos súodys, bã.i.sus žvẽris, baisã.u.s žvẽre (žvėrio) ir baìsi žvẽris, baìsõs žvẽries

g) Lowland Lithuanian nouns uncle, dad, being masculine, are more often used in the dialect with ia-stem endings, e.g.: uncle, dad, uncle~of an uncle, dad~of a dad, to an uncle, to a dad, uncle~an uncle, dad~a dad, uncles, dads, uncle || uncle, dad, uncles~uncles, dads~dads, for uncles, for dads, uncles, dads, uncles~with uncles, dads~with dads.

h) All o-, io-, and ė-stem surnames denoting male persons have entirely shifted in the plural to the a-, ia-stem characteristic of the masculine gender, e.g.: Byla~Byla and Byla~Bylai, Pempė~Pėmpė and Pempė~Pempiai, Sadeika~Sadeika and Sadeikai~Sadeikai, Petravičė~Petravičia and Petravičiai~Petravičiai.

2. Gender of adjectives. a) In addition to masculine and feminine gender, the dialect also uses the neuter gender of adjectives. It has become adverbial and is indeclinable, as in Standard Lithuanian, e.g.: white, beautiful, lovely, boring, cold | The neuter gender of adjectives is less common than the masculine and feminine. Plural ia- and ė-stem adjectives do not have it at all. The neuter gender denotes a general property of an object and is most often found in impersonal sentences, e.g.: it is not beautiful for me, the calves are thirsty, the child is cold, the legs are warm (warm for the legs), very beautiful (very beautiful), very bright (very bright).

b) Sometimes, in impersonal sentences, the feminine is used in the dialect instead of the neuter, e.g.: moonlight, it was bright outside; it was clear yesterday, perhaps they won't go; it was very clear in the evening; it was bright tonight; it was pleasant outside; it was beautiful to travel. This is a dialect feature shared with the Samogitians.

3. Gender of participles. Like adjectives, participles (mostly passive) also have a neuter gender in the dialect. The neuter form of past-tense passive participles is just as common as the masculine and feminine forms, while its present-tense form is used less frequently. The neuter form of both tenses is identical in form to the feminine singular nominative, but is stressed like the masculine singular nominative (for neuter participles with an acute-root accent, the stress always coincides with the stress position of the masculine and feminine singular nominative participles alike), e.g.: your hair is high: it was combed (hair); it would have been dyed black, it would have turned out a good one (if it had been dyed with black dye, the sweater would have turned out good); I have not fed it yet, I have not watered it yet; it would have been better, if the milk had not been left unskimmed, it would have been taken away earlier and carried back; the trees have been planted in rows (planted in rows with trees); the snow has piled up higher than the window; and it has been crowded with old people|

The neuter gender is also found in some active participles formed from impersonal verbs or from verbs that sometimes have an impersonal meaning. The neuter forms of such participles match the masculine plural nominative form in form, stress position, and accent. The neuter gender of active participles most often denotes a supposed,

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unverified, doubtful, or reported action. The present-tense neuter form of active participles is most often encountered in the dialect, but other tenses also occur, e.g.: he is supposedly cold; if she feels sorry for him; his stomach hurts; bread is still enough; if it had been hard; nothing had been left; everything has already gone bad; he had needed to wait; if it were hard; if she had not had enough patience; one still needs to drink (one still needs to drink).

4) Gender of numerals. All adjectival² numerals in the dialect, as in Standard Lithuanian, are masculine or feminine, e.g.: one (feminine)~one (masculine), one (feminine), fifth (feminine)~fifth (masculine), fifth (feminine), three (feminine), three (masculine)~three (feminine).

Compound cardinal numerals whose second element is the numeral two (masculine), two (feminine) also have gender, e.g.: both (masculine), both (feminine) || both, one pair (masculine), one pair (feminine) || one pair.

All substantival³ numerals in the dialect, as in Standard Lithuanian, have no gender.

5. Gender of pronouns. The pronouns I, you, he, she, this (masculine), this (feminine), that (masculine), that (feminine), which (masculine), which (feminine), that (masculine), that (feminine) have gender-inflected dual forms in the dialect, e.g.: we two (masculine), we two (feminine) || we two, you two (masculine), you two (feminine) || you two, they two (masculine), they two (feminine) || they two, those two (masculine), those two (feminine) || those two, which two (masculine), which two (feminine) || which two, these two (masculine), these two (feminine) || these two, those two (masculine), those two (feminine) || those two|

6. Gender of semi-participles. As in Standard Lithuanian, dialect semi-participles inflect for gender, e.g.: walking (masculine), walking (feminine), hopping about (plural), hopping about (masculine). Prefixless reflexive semi-participles have a generalized neuter form for both genders (and also both numbers) and are indeclinable, e.g.: he, she, they (masculine), they (feminine), those two (masculine), those two (feminine) speak while making faces, walk while scolding|

Reflexive semi-participles in the masculine plural nominative are also rarely found in the dialect: they went (away) speaking, having left while frowning|

II. Number

1. General observations. In addition to the singular and plural, dual forms are also found in the dialect, although the dual is less common here, and its forms most often no longer have a dual meaning. Among the dual forms, the case forms of all numerals du, dvi are used, as are the dative of all nouns and pronouns and their feminine instrumental, e.g.: štiem penkiem dra’siem vaikām; visiem keturiem geriem arkliem; patiem pirmiem piemenim; aniem trim iškirmijusiem dantim; štiem dviem didelėm šunim; šitom penkom didelom vištom; su anō.m dviem šēnem ža’sim|

The examples show that the dual forms of these cases are used to express the plural, and that by themselves they no longer indicate the dual without a numeral du, dvi, just as plural forms accompanied by the numerals du, dvi are also used (and are more frequent) alongside dual forms to express the dual, e.g.: štiems dviem dideliems beržams, anōms dviem bangōms avims, su tām dviēm storām skepetām || storūns skepetūns|

² See J. Žiugžda, Lietuvių kalbos gramatika, 1, 116, Kaunas, 1957.

³ See ibid., 117.

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2. Number of nouns and adjectives. a) All a-, ia-, u-, and iu-stem nouns and adjectives, as well as all masculine i-stem nouns, have preserved the dual accusative forms in the dialect, e.g.: surašk du senų šluotražių; įdėk du didelu morkų; sutalpina.u. i du gerų vežimų; padarīk du naujų ąviių; išgėrau du alų (du bocalus); baigā.u. liaudies (pradžios mokyklos) du skir’iu; įsidėjau du naujų dančių

b) Among the singularia tantum nouns found in the dialect, the following may be mentioned: ãtkuaps (a breath), atlajūs (the draining off of water from a larger river), ārajus (regurgitation, cud), džovà (drying), gri’nčalà (unrelenting cold), gi’vuonis (livestock), mutini’s (food made from bread, sugar, and water), pìpsas (rupture), rāks~rākas (the time when birds due to hatch must emerge), rìntis (a time recurring every day at the same hour), sótis, šutiene (dry-boiled potatoes).

Among the pluralia tantum nouns, the following may be mentioned: apmatā.i. (warp threads), atauda.i. (weft threads), dėtis (the bird organ where eggs mature), išėdas~išėdos, mintuva.i., mestuvai, išdėvas~išdėvos, išnaras~išnaros, naščei~naščiai, pagrīres~pagrīrios, pašukas~pašukos, pažāndes~pažāndės, skiemenc (syllables), smaugā.i. (diphtheria), spāstai, šū.r.les~šiūrlės (inferior grain), šū’ti’s (a multitude, heaps), vi’tuvai, žāptai~žābtai, žibkštei (angina), žōmenc (the crop).

3. Number of numerals. The numerals du, dvi, abūdu, abīdvi, vienudu, vienudvi have complete paradigms of all dual cases in the dialect, e.g.: dviejų, dviem, dū, dvi, abiedviejų || abiediejų, abiedviem || abiedem, abūdu, abīdvi, vienudujevų, vienudviem || vienudem, vienudu, vienudvi || vienudi.

4. Number of pronouns. The pronouns aš, tu, jis, ji, anas, ana, tas, ta, šitas, šita, katrōs, katrā have two types of dual forms in the dialect. One type of these forms consists of plural forms without final s, e.g.: mūm, mūm, jūm, jūm, jiem, jiem, jōm, jō.m, aniem, aniem, anōm, anō.m, tiem, tiem, tóm, tō.m, š tiem, šitom, katriem, katriem, katrōm, katrō.m. These dual forms are less common in the dialect and are used much less frequently to express the dual. They most often express the plural. The other dual forms of these pronouns are compound. Their second element is du, dvi, e.g.: mūdu, mūdvi || mūdi, jūdu, jūdvi || jūdi, jūodu, jūodvi || jūodi, anūodu, anūodvi || anūodi, tūodu, tūodvi || tūodi, šītuodu, šītuodvi || šītuodi, katrūodu, katrūodvi. These dual forms have all the dual cases and are declined just like the compound numeral vienudu, vienudvi, e.g.: katrūodu, katrūodvi || katrūodi, katrūodujevų || katrūodiejų, katrūodem || katrūodviem. The first element of these (compound) pronouns is generalized across all cases, for both masculine and feminine gender, from the masculine dual nominative or accusative. It is also interesting to note that in the dialect the second element of compound numerals in the feminine (and also in the masculine where the case forms coincide) may occur in two forms: with the sound v retained or with it lost phonologically, although the numeral dvi never drops v in the dialect.

5. Number of verbs. The verbal dual is very much alive in the dialect. Its forms are no less common than the forms of the other two numbers—

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mas. The dual is found in the dialect in all moods and tenses, e.g.: mūdu ẽ.i.nava, nėšavos, ẽjova, e.i.davova, e.i.siva, e.i.tumėva, e.i.kiva, prã.u.skiros; judu e.i.na-ta, nėšatos, ẽjota, e.i.davota, e.i.sita, e.i.tumėta, e.i.kita, prã.u.skitos

III. Case

1. G e n e r a l r e m a r k s. In the dialect, as in standard Lithuanian, seven cases are used: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. Apart from the locative and vocative, all the other cases do not differ from those of standard Lithuanian.

2. L o c a t i v e c a s e. In the dialect, the locative is absent from those nouns and pronouns that denote persons and living beings, together with their modifiers, e.g.: tėvas, merga, katė, šuo and similar words. However, these words, when used figuratively, may also occur in the locative case, e.g.: buvɑ.u. tēvũos (I was at my parents’; I was in my parents’ home); vienc jōs va.i.ks mergosē (one of her children is adopted).

Of the locatives, only the inessive locative remains in active use in the dialect, while all the other old locatives have disappeared. Only a few adverbialized nouns bearing remnants of old locative endings have survived in the dialect, e.g.: e.i.k lā.u.ka (<laukan); bėk lā.uk; aškāc lā.uk; e.i.k šali.n.; viskas e.i.n vel-nõ.p | The endings of individual stems in the inessive locative, like those of other cases, are affected by the dialect’s phonetic word-final patterns, e.g.: didelã.m tvãrtē~in a large farmyard, gilã.m šulini~in a deep well, aukštã.m kūpeti~in a tall haystack, marškiniuos~in a shirt, šlašō pièvo~in a wet meadow, didelōs vi.r.kščōs (in large coils), gerō žēmē~in good soil, šitose li.sēse, sveikō aki~in a healthy eye, ausisē (in the ears), gerã.m meduj~in good honey, visã.m spiēcju~in all the spelt, šiltam raumenī~in this muscle, smegeni-sē (in the brain).

In place of the illative locative, the dialect uses the accusative with the preposition į ‘to’, e.g.: einū į miestą, į gire, į lā.u.ka~to town, to the forest, to the field. In the dialect, there are cases where the inessive locative is used instead of the illative, e.g.: aš žōles lovī supī'lau~I piled the grass in the trough.

3. V o c a t i v e c a s e. a) The vocative case occurs less frequently in the dialect than the other cases. It may be used by: 1) all nouns denoting living beings, e.g.: vaikē, šunīe, šunūk; 2) nouns denoting certain abstractions, e.g.: va.rge, dievē; 3) in folklore, other nouns sometimes also have a vocative form, e.g.: api'nēli ka' du'mōji (1. d.); tu_eglūte, tu_žalōje~you little fir tree, you green one; 4) adjectives have a vocative form less often, e.g.: ō_tu mana mažīti; sveikā brangōje mamīte; 5) pronouns, e.g.: jūs padūkai (you rascals); 6) numerals very rarely, e.g.: tu antrōje kva.i.le; 7) participles in rare cases, e.g.: o_tu išlēpi'c pikčiūrna~oh, you spoiled little brat.

b) The singular vocative of nouns, except those of the a-stem, always differs in form from the nominative.

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a-stem nouns have a twofold singular vocative: with the ending -e and with the particle -ai. The singular vocative with -e is more frequent and more widely used, e.g.: vìre, pā.r.še, žẽnte, và.rge, kàtine, āvine, vežtìke, pìrmininke. The stress pattern of the singular vocative differs in no way from that of the nominative; however, disyllabic words of the fourth accent paradigm may be stressed in either of two ways, on the stem or on the ending, without any difference in meaning, e.g.: dieve, dievè, và.rge, vargè, và.zike, vaikè, šẽške, šeškè, vì.l-ke, vilkè.

Proper names and a-stem words used in their place have the particle -ai in the singular vocative, e.g.: jõnai, antānai, rōkai, tēvai pã-trai, tētūkai. The particle is usually unstressed. In the singular vocative, polysyllabic words may also lack the particle, e.g.: juozap, kazimier, tētūk, brolūk

All ia-stem words with stem stress have the unstressed stem-final vowel -i in the singular vocative, e.g.: juōdi, sã.r.ti, kãlvi, tēti, gi˙vuoli, vaikēli, katinēli Words with ending stress always have a stressed -i ending in the singular vocative, e.g.: arklì, ešerì, gaidì, garnì, ožì, vi˙turì.

The noun brólis has a twofold vocative: with the ending -i and with the stem-final vowel -au of u-stem nouns, e.g.: bróli and brolã.u.

o-, io-, and ē-stem nouns have a pure stem-final vowel in the singular vocative ending, which is usually unstressed, e.g.: tēta, mā.r.čė~marčia, óška, vīšta, li˙dėka, rā˙gana, kàte, kumēle

i- and consonant-stem nouns have the ending -ie in the singular vocative. Words with ending stress stress this ending, while stem-stressed words retain the stress on the stem, e.g.: avìe, āntie, vagìe, grobuonìe, šūnie, obelìe | Feminine i-stem nouns may also have here, alongside their own stem ending, the ē-stem noun ending -ē, which is rarer in the dialect, e.g.: ānte, žāse, āve | It is possible that this is due to Žemaitian influence, since some feminine i-stem nouns in neighboring Žemaitian dialects⁴ have entirely shifted to the ē-stem declension. Some masculine consonant-stem nouns here sometimes also have the ia-stem ending -i, e.g.: piemenì | Examples of a bare consonant-stem singular vocative occur in fossilized expressions, e.g.: vōver, vōver netingēk

All u- and iu-stem nouns have the pure stem-final vowel -au in the singular vocative ending; in stem-stressed words it is unstressed, while in words with ending stress it is stressed, e.g.: kẽ.r.džau~kerždžiau, alā.u., sunā.u.

c) The plural vocative, except for vaìkai, has the same form and stress position as the plural nominative, e.g.: bóbas ~ bóbos, mā.r.gas ~ mèr.gos.

d) The vocative of other parts of speech, being rare in the dialect, generally coincides in form with the nominative in both the singular and plural, e.g.: gerāsis vaikēli; pasìlktōje sesūte ~ pasilgētōja sesūte; o jūs kvà.i.las bóbas ~ o jūs kvailos bóbos; māna mì˙lemi vaikēlei (my beloved children).

⁴ See P. Jonikas, Pagramančio tarmė, § 90, Kaunas, 1939.

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Adjectives with multisyllabic ia- and ē-stems may have two possible endings in the singular vocative: the vocative and nominative endings, e.g.: o tu mė́tini || mė́tinis me.i.tėli; o tu sta.i.nini || sta.i.ninis drigą.nte; o tu mažė.tėli || mažė.tėlis vaikėli

e) When addressing someone with surprise, announcing something important, or making a request, the stress of nouns in the vocative may in some rare cases shift from its usual position to the stem, e.g.: dū·krel; sū·nel; o tu mana vā.r.kseli maželi| Vocatives stressed in this way are also abundant in eastern Lithuania, especially in the Dzūkian dialects, e.g.: (Druskininkai) jiuozuli, vai.keli, jūzele; (Perloja, Nedingė) bōbute, ōnute| In the dialect under discussion, vocatives stressed this way are rare and are disappearing. They are considered to be old.⁵

Sometimes, when addressing someone pathetically, the stress of the singular vocative may shift from its usual position to the end of the word, e.g.: elenutė~Elenutė, genutė~Genutė, onutė~Onutė, jeninutė~Janutė, dėdė, jonā.i, ma·mà, tėtukā.i| Such vocative stress is less common in the dialect than the usual stress shown in example 1.

Since stress is shifted to the end of the word only rarely, the old stress position, being unstressed in this case, retains its original length (possibly by analogy with vocatives that are usually stressed), e.g.: ma·mà (cf. māmā), te·tā (cf. tētā), ele·nā (cf. elēnā).

MORE CHARACTERISTIC FORMS OF GENDER, NUMBER, AND CASE IN THE DIALECT OF THE MITUVA RIVER BASIN

Э. И. ГРИНАВЕЦКЕНЕ

Резюме

1. a) The article notes that, alongside masculine and feminine genders, the dialect also has a common gender of nouns. All common-gender nouns in the dialect have a pejorative meaning. They may be single-rooted (kēbsa “a scatterbrain”) or double-rooted (gōbdēsra “a greedy person”). Most common-gender nouns have an o-stem (kliputā “a shambling person”, sūsnā “a mangy person”), but there are also a-stems (tarškālas “a talkative person”), ia-stems (glōbis “a greedy person”), and ē-stems (kuislē “someone who takes a long time over things”).

b) The neuter gender of adjectives in the dialect has become adverbialized, as in the standard language. Instead of neuter adjectives in impersonal sentences, the dialect often uses the feminine, following the example of neighboring Samogitian dialects, e.g.: tai gražī važiuot “how lovely it is to travel,” tai gražī laukē “how lovely it is outside.”

c) Participles, especially passive participles, also have a neuter form, e.g.: tāvo aukštyn šukuojama “your hair is being combed upward.”

⁵ Plg. K. Būga, Kalbos dalykai, § 27. Perspausta iš „Draugijos“, Kaunas, 1909 ir Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, 1, § 36, Kaunas, 1924.

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2. a) In addition to the singular and plural, the dialect rarely also has a dual number. The dative, accusative, and instrumental cases of the dual are characteristic of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, e.g.: išgėriau du alù “I drank two glasses of beer”; šìtiem dviem mažiem vaikam daviau daugiau “I gave more to these two little children”; ėjau namõ su anõm dviem senõm tetõm “I went home with those two old aunts”.

b) The numerals dù “two” and dvì “two” have forms only in the dual in all cases.

c) All dual forms of pronouns such as às “I,” tù “you,” jìs “he,” jì “she,” katrãs “who,” katrà “who,” tàs “this,” tà “this,” anàs “that,” anà “that,” šìtas “this,” šìta “this,” and the numerals abìdu, abìdvi “both” and viẽnudu, viẽnudvi “one each” are widely used in the dialect, e.g.: mìdu “we two,” mìdvi “we two [feminine],” jùdu “you two,” jùodu “those two,” tùodu “these two,” tùodvi “these two [feminine],” anùodu “those two” anùodvi “those two [feminine].”

3. a) The dialect has seven cases, as does the standard language: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative.

b) Nouns denoting living beings do not have a locative case; however, in rare instances they also take a locative case in a figurative sense, e.g.: rugiùs piõvėm savẽjė “the rye was harvested by the people themselves”; buvau tėvuõs “I was at my parents’ place.”

c) Other ancient local cases have disappeared from the dialect. The illative is replaced by the accusative with the preposition į “into” (einù į girìą “I am going into the forest”), although there are instances where the inessive replaces the illative, e.g.: aš supýliau lovõj “I poured it into the trough.” In rare instances, other local cases that have already become adverbialized occur in the dialect, e.g.: eik lašùk “go away from here,” eik šalin “go away, move aside,” eik velniõp “go to the devil.”

d) The vocative case of nouns differs from the nominative by its endings only in the singular (except for stems ending in a), while in the plural it coincides with the nominative. The vocative of other parts of speech occurs less often in the dialect than that of nouns, and its forms coincide with the nominative forms in both the singular and plural.