LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI,I

LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA

THE CONSONANT PHONEME INVENTORY OF THE LITHUANIAN STANDARD LANGUAGE

V. VAITKEVIČIŪTĖ

1. The Concept of the Phoneme

In discussing the consonant phonemes of the Lithuanian standard language, we must define the concept of the phoneme, indicate the number of phonemes in Lithuanian, and characterize each of them individually. Soviet linguistics on the phoneme builds on the achievements of L. Shcherba and his students in this field. For this study, the discussion of phonemes is drawn from L. Zinder’s “General Phonetics”¹.

In contemporary linguistic literature, a phoneme is considered the smallest sound unit that distinguishes the meanings of words or morphemes. Every language has very few phonemes, usually only a few dozen, which together form all the words and morphemes of that language. This shows that a phoneme is not associated with any one particular word or morpheme, but occurs in many words and morphemes and is abstracted from them. If a phoneme were tied to some one particular word or morpheme, the disappearance of individual words from a language would necessarily be reflected in the number of speech sounds as well. The history of every language shows the extraordinary stability of the number of speech sounds, perhaps even greater than that of grammar. It should be said that the stability of the grammatical structure of all languages depends in part on the stability of their sounds.

Although a phoneme is abstracted from concrete words and morphemes, it nevertheless participates in the sound form of the words and morphemes of which it is a part. Thus, on the one hand, a phoneme is abstracted from a particular word or morpheme, while on the other, it exists only in a word or morpheme. Without a word or morpheme there is and can be no phoneme; there is only a simple sound that has lost its phonemic character.

Phonemes sometimes distinguish word meanings, for example, in the words [žl’°ʊg°:o]² žlugo ‘he/she/it fell’ and [žl’°ʊg°:o] žlugo ‘he/she/it fell’, [sėn°:o] seno ‘of an old person’ and [sėn’°:o] senio ‘of an old man’, [žm°:o:n°ų] žmonų ‘of wives’ and [žm°:o:n’°ų] žmonių ‘of people’, and so on.

¹ Л. Р. Зиндер, Общая фонетика, докт. дисс., 1, 2, Библиотека ЛГУ, 1954.

The article follows L. Shcherba’s transcription, set out in his tables “Basic Types of Consonants and Some Symbols for Their Representation” and “Basic Types of Vowels and Some Symbols for Their Representation,” as well as the additional symbols he devised.²

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Sometimes it distinguishes word forms, for example: [rašãu] ‘I write’ and [ras’ãu] ‘I wrote’, [sakãu] ‘I say’ and [sak’ãu] ‘I said’, etc.

We indicated earlier that a phoneme exists only in words and morphemes and, in addition, in various phonetic realizations depending on the phonetic position occupied by the sound. All these differences between sounds, which do not change the essence of that phoneme, are called its allophones. An allophone is a form in which any phoneme exists. “Thus—as L. Shcherba said—we see that in living speech a much greater number of different sounds are pronounced than we usually suppose; in each language they are combined into a comparatively small number of sound types capable of differentiating words and their forms, that is, of serving the purposes of human communication. These sound types are what is meant when we speak of the individual sounds of a language. We shall call them phonemes. The various sounds actually pronounced, which constitute the part in which the general unit (the phoneme) is realized, we shall call phoneme allophones”³.

Allophones that are necessarily characteristic of a phoneme are called obligatory allophones. In this study we shall focus only on these allophones.

There are three kinds of obligatory allophones.

1. Positional allophones of phonemes. They depend on stress and pitch accent. These allophones are most characteristic of vowels. Since this study examines consonants, we shall mention these allophones only when discussing the sonorants [l, m, n, r], which in Lithuanian, when they are the second component of a mixed diphthong, may bear a pitch accent and, depending on it, vary in length. However, a change in the length of sonorants does not change their basic quality. For example, in the words [k’ũrk’t’] ‘to croak’, [p’ilnas] ‘full’, [p’ílvas] ‘belly’, [ãːntis] ‘duck’, [añtis] ‘duck’, [k’l’ũmpe] ‘clog’, [k’l’ũmpa] ‘clogs’, [r] and [ṝ], [l] and [l̄], [m] and [m̃], [n] and [ñ] constitute one and the same phoneme.

2. Combinatory allophones. Speech contains no isolated sounds: one sound is always linked to another. The recursion of one sound merges with the excursion of another, and therefore the allophones of one phoneme depend on its relation to other phonemes. Such allophones, which depend on neighboring phonemes, are called combinatory allophones; for example, in Lithuanian [n] before [k] and [g] differs from [n] before other plosives, etc.

3. Allophones dependent on manner of pronunciation. The same word is pronounced differently in colloquial and full styles. This is also reflected in the allophones of individual phonemes. In this study, the phoneme characteristics on the kymograms were recorded in the full pronunciation style. Thus, essentially, attention will be paid only to the full style of pronunciation, in which all the phonemes of a word are clearly manifested.

A phoneme may have several allophones. The allophone in which the general acoustic and physiological characteristics of that particular phoneme are most clearly reflected is called the basic or typical allophone. Shcherba calls typical allophones those “which depend least on the conditions surrounding them”⁴, and such allophones

³ Л. В. Щерба, Фонетика французского языка, 19, Москва, 1953.

⁴ Л. В. Щерба, Русские гласные в качественном и количественном отношении, 12, С.-Петербург, 1912.

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These are most often sounds that can be pronounced in isolation, without adjacent sounds. However, only syllable-forming sounds can be pronounced in this way, and it is therefore usually much more difficult to determine the principal shade of a non-syllabic sound. In this study, devoted precisely to such sounds, we will describe several equally significant shades of each phoneme.

If two sounds do not distinguish meanings, they are shades of one phoneme; but if these sounds distinguish words and their forms or morphemes, they constitute separate phonemes. For example, in the following Lithuanian words, [saũsˈoː:] sauso and [saũsˈoː:] sauso, [s] and [sˈ] are separate phonemes because they distinguish word meanings; whereas in the words [saũsˈoː:] sauso and [sausˈoː] sausų, there is one and the same phoneme [s], just as in the words [saũsˈoː:] sausio and [sausˈoː] sausiu there is the same phoneme [sˈ].

However, one cannot claim that the phoneme is the sole distinguisher of word meanings. In Lithuanian, meanings are often distinguished by stress and especially by accent, for example, in the words [kʲieˈtʲis] kietis and [kʲeˈtʲis] kietis, [sˈūːrʲis] sūris and [sˈũːrʲis] sūris. In addition, Lithuanian has many instances of metatony, for example, in the words [kʲùrpʲe] kurpė and [kʲùrpʲˈus] kurpius, [vaːlgˈoː:] valgo and [vaːlg̃ˈoː:] valgio, etc., where the meanings of the morphemes [kʲùr] and [kʲùr], [vaːl] and [vaːl̃] differ only in stress placement and accent; [r] and [r̃], [l] and [l̃] here constitute different shades of one phoneme.

However, this does not mean that sounds which do not distinguish word meanings cannot constitute independent phonemes. For example, [k] and [g], [č] and [dž] in words such as [kʲlʲeˈbʲiːs] klėbys, [gʲlʲeˈbʲiːs] glėbys, [čʲiːrʲˈuoːtʲi] čiuruoti, [džʲiːrʲˈuoːtʲi] džyruoti, etc., are independent phonemes that alternate with one another optionally.

Thus, it is clear that when determining the number of phonemes in any language, we cannot limit ourselves to finding corresponding pairs of words, since such pairs are a matter of chance in a language, and phonemes used very rarely may have no such pairs at all. In such cases, it is necessary to investigate whether the difference between the sounds depends on the mechanism of articulation or on the position occupied by the sound. A rarely used sound constitutes a separate phoneme when it is an indispensable element of the few words in which it occurs. For example, in Lithuanian, [č] and [dž], [dž] and [dzˈ] are independent phonemes, even though they have no minimal pairs.

When discussing phonemes and their shades, it is necessary to indicate the grounds on which particular shades are assigned to a given phoneme. Here attention is paid to two points⁵: 1) that these shades do not distinguish and cannot distinguish meanings, and 2) that all the shades of one phoneme are opposed to all the other phonemes, each of which exists in its own shades. L. Shcherba says on this subject: “... each phoneme is defined above all by what distinguishes it from the other phonemes of the same language”⁶.

⁵ See Л. Р. Зиндер, min. veik., 1, 94.

⁶ Л. В. Щерба, Фонетика французского языка, 21.

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2. Determining the Number of Consonant Phonemes in Standard Lithuanian

Consonant phonemes in Standard Lithuanian cannot be examined in isolation from vowels and diphthongs, with which the question of consonant palatalization is closely connected and which plays a very important role in identifying the consonant phonemes of Standard Lithuanian and their variants.

However, neither the sound system of Standard Lithuanian nor the question of consonant palatalization had yet been examined from the phonemic point of view. A few purely phonetic observations on these questions can be found. For example, J. Jablonskis stated only the following in “Lithuanian Grammar”: “The consonants of our language may be hard or soft:

a) Before e, ę, ė, i, į, y, consonants are pronounced softly: geras, keras, retas, gręžti, skęsti, tękšti, sėti, visas, kitas, kibiras, grįžti, lišti, grynas, šykštus, vyras, žymus.

b) Before a, ą, o, u, ų, ū, consonants are sometimes pronounced hard and sometimes soft. In the words garsas, laimė, laikas, vaikas, kąsti, ropė, šonas, suktas, tų grūdų rūkiti, pušti, the consonants d, g, k, l, n, p, r, s, š, t, v before a, ą, o, u, ų, ū are pronounced hard.

If consonants before a, ą, o, u, ų, ū are pronounced softly, then i is also written after them, immediately before the vowel: kiautas, šiaudas, šią, šio, šių, siūti, siuvo, siųsti, peiliai, žodžiai...⁷

P. Jonikas, in “The Pagramantis Dialect,” based on experiments, notes a slight difference between soft and softened consonants: “§ 51. Consonants are softened (though comparatively weakly) less before front vowels, and somewhat more before fronted vowels... However, contenting myself with this general observation, I do not distinguish between these two degrees of softness”⁸.

In his dialectological work “Studies of Lithuanian Dialects,” J. Gerulis points out that [s] before [e] and [s] before [u] have different degrees of softness in words such as [sʲẽnʲẽlis] senelis and [sʲ⁰ũvimas] siuvimas, etc.⁹ As J. Gerulis says, in many dialects (some of which are close to Standard Lithuanian) they differ from one another: the second is softer than the first.

J. Endzelīns, in “The Sounds and Forms of the Baltic Languages,” follows J. Gerulis’s opinion¹⁰.

P. Skardžius stated his view on this question clearly in his review of B. Sereiskis’s book “A Systematic Guide for Students of the Lithuanian Language”: “The author also speaks incorrectly about the softening vowel i: when i stands between a consonant and the vowels a, ą, o, u, ų, ū, it does not soften the preceding consonant, but indicates that a soft consonant stands before those vowels. Thus, in the word sąjūvinis, si is equivalent to s’ [soft s]. The syllables -vi-, -nis in that word are another matter: here the consonants v and n before i really are softened; here we cannot say that vi, ni are equivalent to v’, n’ [that is, soft v, n]; rather

⁷ R y g i š k i ų J o n o, Lietuvių kalbos gramatika, 8, Kaunas — Vilnius, 1922.

⁸ P. J o n i k a s, Pagramančio tarmė, 22—23, Kaunas, 1939.

⁹ Žr. J. G e r u l l i s, Litauische Dialektstudien, 31, 40, 60, 70, Leipzig, 1930.

¹⁰ Žr. J. E n d z e l ī n s, Baltu valodu skaņas un formas, 44—45, Rīgā, 1948.

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We can say this even less about the i in the word sniegas: here ie is a diphthong derived from ei; therefore, this i is inextricably fused with e, and it is thus untrue that this i could here be an independent, merely palatalizing sound” ¹¹.

These purely phonetic observations show that Lithuanian consonants are divided into three types: one of these types may be called hard consonants, the second—soft consonants, and the third—palatalized consonants, as in the words: [sᵒuo, šᵒuo, šį].

The question arises whether the difference between the individual types of consonants depends on the nature of the consonants themselves (in this case, hard, soft, and palatalized consonants should be regarded as independent phonemes, and vowels as merely variants of a single phoneme), or on the vowels and diphthongs that follow the consonants (in this case, all consonant differences should be regarded as variants of a single phoneme, while the vowels and diphthongs following them should be considered independent phonemes).

It should be noted here that hard consonants occur before back vowels [a, aː; ɔ, oː; u, uː], before diphthongs [au, ai, uo, ui], and in absolute word-final position. Soft consonants occur before [a, aː; ɔ, oː; u, uː] and before the diphthongs [au, uo]. Palatalized consonants occur before front vowels and diphthongs [i, iː; e, ɛ, e, ɪe, ei, æi]¹².

First, we shall examine whether the hard and soft consonants in words such as [sᵒuo] and [šᵒuo], [sakaũ] and [sakᵒaũ], etc., are variants of a single phoneme or independent phonemes.

“In Russian, in such sequences as pa, p’a, we have two different consonant phonemes, but one and the same vowel phoneme (with two different variants), because hard and soft consonants also occur in an independent phonetic position, whereas the various vowel variants always depend on the preceding consonant. The palatalized consonants of Russian constitute separate phonemes because they occur, just like non-palatalized consonants, in an independent phonetic position—at the end of a word”¹³.

As noted, soft consonants do not occur at the end of a word in standard Lithuanian. Their historical origin explains why: soft consonants developed from hard consonants + j, followed by a back vowel or diphthong. Therefore, hard and soft Lithuanian consonants cannot be contrasted at the end of a word. In all other positions, however—before back vowels and diphthongs—they distinguish words and morphemes, for example: [saũsᵒo:] and [saũsᵒo:], [kᵒũmpᵒo:] and [kᵒũmpᵒo:].

The question arises whether these consonants can be regarded as independent phonemes.

The vowel [o:] retains its basic quality after both a hard and a soft consonant, although after a soft consonant it becomes considerably more fronted, forming another variant of the vowel [o:]. The difference in the pronunciation of hard and soft consonants depends on the consonants themselves, not on the vowels or diphthongs following them. Sepa-

¹¹ P. Skardžius, Kalba, 1 sąs., 46 (1930).

¹² Spelling and pronunciation must not be confused: for example, the final diphthong in the words lakiai and lakei is pronounced [ɛi], although in spelling it is represented by ai in the first case and ei in the second.

¹³ Jl. P. Зиндер, Советское востоковедение, 3, 94, Москва (1956).

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The articulator—an apparatus that makes it possible to listen to the sounds of any word separately, in isolation—also confirms that the difference between the sequences [m°o:] and [m°o:], [r°o:] and [r°o:], [k°o:] and [k’o:], [gau] and [g’au] depends solely on the consonants.

These circumstances provide grounds for treating hard and soft consonants as independent phonemes.

Since the opposition between hard and soft phonemes (including, of course, borrowed sounds) can be traced throughout the entire consonant system, except for [j], which cannot have a corresponding hard counterpart, this opposition is a distinctive phonemic feature. Therefore, in the words [k°ump’o:] and [k°ump’o:], [p’ô:b’o:] and [lô:b’o:], [k°jŕ°o:] and [k°’ŕ°o:], [sag°ū:] and [sag°ū:], [meit°’s] and [meit’°s], [maūk’t1] and [m’āūk’t1], [pašā:l’in°o:] and [pašālin°o:], [gēr°] and [gēr°], [saūs°o:] and [saūs’o:], [š°uo] and [š°uo], [gra:ž°ō:s] and [grā:ž°os], [zaunā] and [zirz’āu], [jav°ū:] and [av°ū:], the consonants [p and p’, b and b’, k and k’, g and g’, l and l’, m and m’, n and n’, r and r’, s and s’, š and š’, ž and ž’, z and z’, v and v’] are independent phonemes that distinguish the words and morphemes just listed.

However, some consonants are used very rarely. These include [c, c’, č, č’, dz, dz’ and dž, dž’]. Their independence is not as evident as that of those mentioned above. For example, the sporadic use of the consonants [c] and [c’] in Standard Lithuanian provides only one phonetic position before a back vowel, in the words [c°’ukr°us] and [c’°’uč’e] (the word for ‘dog’ in children’s speech), where [c] and [c’] do not depend on the position they occupy.

The hard [č] is used in Standard Lithuanian in very few words: [čaiž°ūs, gīnčas, B°’čas], etc. However, there are several morphemes, such as [gīnč°] and [anč°ū], [sn°’uč’o:] and [jaun°uč°o:], where [č] and [č’] occur before the vowels [u] and [o:], which cannot bring about the essential distinction—hardness in one case and softness in the other—that differentiates [č] from [č’].

In words such as [dz°ū:kas] and [dz°’kin’t1], [dz] and [dz’] occur before the back vowels [u:] and [u], whose pronunciation does not produce the difference we observe between [dz] and [dz’].

[dz] and [dz’] must also be regarded as independent phonemes because they constitute essential elements of the few words in which they occur.

The hard phoneme [dž] occurs only in international words, that is, loanwords, for example [džáu:l1s], etc.; it can be contrasted with the Lithuanian word [dž’áukšmas] to demonstrate that the phonemes [dž] and [dž’] are independent.

What has been said above shows that [c] and [c’], [č] and [č’], [dz] and [dz’], [dž] and [dž’] are also independent phonemes, although they are used very rarely.

The phonemes [f, x, γ] were not previously used in Lithuanian, and their use was therefore long disputed, since they occur only in international words and loanwords. In dialects, [f] is still often replaced by the sound [p], [x] by [k], and [γ] by [g]. Even loanwords—most often proper names—that entered Standard Lithuanian indirectly, after having been used for a long time in everyday Lithuanian speech, such as [Pranc°ū:žija] Prancūzija, [Pranc’iš°k°us] Pranciškus, [parā:piја] parapija, [ist°’°r’ija] istorija, [Prā:nas] Pranas, [Pr’ić°k°us] Pričkus, [arm°’ōnika] armonika, [Č°’ekija] Čekija, etc., yielded to the general tendency in the language, and the sounds [f, x, γ] in them were replaced by the sounds mentioned above or not pronounced at all.

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This is acceptable for words that the Lithuanian people adopted long ago, but they could not be altered in new borrowings that entered the Lithuanian literary language not from Lithuanian dialects, but directly from foreign languages.

J. Jablonskis had the decisive say on this question: as early as 1893, he began insisting that [f, x, γ]¹⁴ be used in international words in written works of the Lithuanian literary language.

In his 1920 article “A Few Spelling Matters,” he says that literary language cannot do without the sounds [f, x, γ], given the large number of borrowings and international words: “…fonas, phonograph, phonetics, telephone operator, to telephone, gramophone, graphics, to graph, telegraph operator, to telegraph; fauna, flora, physics, physiology, ham, farce, to force, reform, chalta, chloroform, profession, professor, philologist, philosophy, sphere, differential, profane; figure, pharmacy, firm, filter, flirt, to flirt, furor, Charbin (name of a city), Faust, the philosopher Fichte.…¹⁵

To replace them with native sounds would mean pointlessly imitating our grandparents. In this article, he emphasizes that Lithuanians already pronounce [f, x, γ] in international words.

Jablonskis rebukes those who do not follow this pronunciation and replace [f, x, γ] in international words with their own sounds [p, k, g]: “…b) by writing those words without ch, f, h, we do not make it any easier for the people of Lithuania to understand the meaning of those words; c) when pronouncing their own words, our people now begin to pronounce ch, f themselves (cha-cha-cha! fe! falšius, falšyvas, festungė, firankos, feleris, futeris…),; d) when people themselves take foreign words into their language, especially the younger and more educated generation, they now pronounce them somewhat differently (including with f, ch…)”¹⁶

J. Jablonskis returns to this question several more times in various articles and reviews. For example, in 1922 he wrote: “It is remarkable that a few people write these words so inconsistently, although a little earlier they pronounced them most beautifully with ch, f, h. Since I do not understand this, I advise writers to be more consistent—to write them as they were written before: c h a l v a (certain kinds of delicacies…), c h l o r o f o r m, p s y c h o l o g y, h a m (with ch, f, h)… We take these words into our writing and speech not from their original source, but from our cultured neighbors, so let us write them as we are accustomed to pronouncing them, following those neighbors”¹⁷.

Although these sounds may have been disputed earlier, they are now used without question in all international words and borrowings in the Lithuanian literary language. We therefore include them in the inventory of phonemes of the Lithuanian literary language, because, given the great number of international words containing [f, x, γ], it is impossible to do without them.

The independence of the phonemes [f′, x′, γ′] and their non-dependence on the phonemes [f, x, γ], as well as that of [t′, d′] on [t, d], is illustrated by several examples—international words in which they occupy identical phonetic positions but are pronounced differently-

¹⁴ J a b l o n s k i o r a š t a i, 3, 7—8, Kaunas, 1934.

¹⁵ Ibid., 104—105.

¹⁶ Ibid., 105.

¹⁷ J a b l o n s k i o r a š t a i, 4, 278, Kaunas, 1935.

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clusters, for example: [t°] tu and [t’°ʊ̯is] tiulis, [d°] du and [d’°ubarā] Diubari, [x°urmā] churma and [brax’°ūra] brachiura, [f’°ūrija] furija and [k°urf’°urstas] kurfiurstas, [γ°uɡen’°tai] hugenotai and [γr’°uɡ°] Hiugo.

Thus, Lithuanian literary language has a total of 45 consonant phonemes, forming hard and soft pairs: [p, p’, b, b’, t, t’, d, d’, k, k’, g, g’, c, c’, č, č’, dz, dz’, dž, dž’, m, m’, n, n’, s, s’, š, š’, ž, ž’, z, z’, l, l’, r, r’, v, v’, j, f, f’, x, x’, γ, γ’].

The following can be said about the third category of consonants, that is, softened consonants occurring before front vowels and diphthongs.

In degree and character of softness, Lithuanian consonants before front vowels and diphthongs differ essentially from Russian consonants.

L. Shcherba wrote in his article “A Theory of Russian Orthography”: “Since in normal Russian only soft consonants occur before the vowels ‘и, э’ (that is, ‘и, е’), it may seem that soft consonants before these vowels are phonetically conditioned, especially since there is indeed articulatory and acoustic proximity between them: in pronouncing both, the middle part of the tongue rises toward the hard palate. However, this is undoubtedly inaccurate with respect to the softness of consonants before the vowel ‘э’ (that is, ‘е’): the point is that, when pronouncing Russian soft consonants, the tongue rises toward the palate just as much as when pronouncing ‘и’, specifically much more than when pronouncing ‘э’ (that is, ‘е’); it follows that the softness of consonants before this vowel is not at all the result of live assimilation”¹⁸.

In Lithuanian, by contrast, the softening of consonants before front vowels and diphthongs is assimilatory in nature, since the degree of consonant softening depends on the degree of tongue raising characteristic of the front vowel or diphthong following the consonant. If, in pronouncing a front vowel or diphthong, the tongue rises higher toward the palate, then the consonant preceding it will also be softer, and vice versa. One can even discern several degrees of softening among consonants occurring before front vowels and diphthongs.

It is possible that, historically as well, consonants before front vowels differ from soft consonants before back vowels. P. Skardžius points out that “the word-forming suffix -ē may have various origins. First of all, its derivatives may have lost j before -ē, just as, for example, in East Lithuanian mede from *medje, etc.; this seems also to be confirmed by the Finnish word borrowed from Baltic purje = ‘sail’, South Lithuanian (dial.) žemju =, Latvian zemju, Old Latvian faciēs ‘face’, and so on. But, on the other hand, as Old Latvian faciēs ‘candle, lamp’, etc., shows, in ancient times an old ē-stem could also have existed alongside -jē-. Today we cannot distinguish this from the Baltic languages”¹⁹.

Having studied the palatograms of all consonants occurring before front and back vowels and diphthongs, we will observe that consonants before [i, e, ę, ė, æ] are always less soft than the corresponding soft consonants—

¹⁸ L. V. Shcherba, Selected Works on the Russian Language, 170, Moscow, 1957.

¹⁹ P. Skardžius, Word Formation in the Lithuanian Language, 70, Vilnius, 1941.

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consonants before back vowels. The only exceptions are the affricates and the consonants [ʃ, x, γ], which differ only in being hard or soft. Here, apparently, a role is played by the fact that apical affricates themselves are characterized by a very high raising of the tongue. Therefore, when pronouncing hard affricates, the tongue touches the palate almost as much as when pronouncing [ɪ, ɛ, æ] (see Figs. 1, 2). The borrowed consonants [ʃ, x, γ] apparently do not conform to the general phonetic law of Lithuanian.

Fig. 1. 1 — e [štᶜ], 2 — dž° [dž°ū:kas]

Fig. 2. 1 — e [m̃æs], 2 — c [čaktʲ]

Fig. 3. 1 — k° [k°o:], 2 — ǩ [ǩitas], 3 — ǩ [ǩi:la], 4 — k° [k°ū:ra]

Fig. 4. 1 — p [pʲiktas], 2 — p° [pāup°o]

In addition, before the vowel [i:] the other consonants, too, generally differ little or not at all from the corresponding soft consonants. If there is a difference, it is more likely qualitative than quantitative: the palatalization of consonants before [i:] is sometimes more advanced than before back vowels. The reason for the absence of a clear distinction between a softened and a soft consonant should be considered not to be the nature of the softened consonant, whose softness depends solely on the position it occupies, but the vowel [i:], which in Lithuanian is characterized by the highest tongue raising. Apparently, [i:] therefore draws consonants closer to the soft ones. However, some soft consonants, for example [k’, g’, n’], are so soft that they approach the palatal consonants, whereas before [i:] they are not so soft (see palatograms in Figs. 3–6 et al.). Thus, even

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before [i:], as before the other front vowels, the softened [b', g', n'] are undoubtedly variants of the hard consonants.

Comparative palatograms of hard, soft, and softened consonants are presented here. Palatograms in Figs. 3–4 show the soft and softened plosives [k] and [p], while palatograms in Figs. 5–6 show the fricatives.

Fig. 5. 1—š [šaka], 2—š [ši], 3—š [ši:ta], 4—š° [š°o:]

Fig. 6. 1—ž [žā:’as], 2—ž [žēŋ̃gē], 3—ž [ž’i:d’l], 4—ž° [ž°dun°o:s]

The palatograms given here show that consonants before [i:] occupy an intermediate position between softened consonants occurring before the remaining front vowels and diphthongs, on the one hand, and soft consonants before back vowels and diphthongs, on the other. The softness of all consonants before the remaining front vowels and diphthongs (except for the exceptions noted above) results from assimilation, whereas the softness of soft consonants is inherent in them. For this reason, consonants before front vowels and diphthongs must be assigned to the hard phonemes and regarded as variants of the latter.

Consonants occurring before front vowels cannot be assigned to the soft phonemes and regarded as softened variants of the soft phonemes, because in this case the softened variants would have to be more palatalized than the soft phonemes. But in fact, this is not so. We will be able to explain why, when pronouncing consonants before back vowels, the tongue rises higher than when pronouncing them before front vowels, and what force causes the tongue to rise higher before back vowels than before front vowels, only if we recognize that soft consonants before back vowels are phonetically independent, that is, independent phonemes.

3. Classification of the Consonant Phonemes of Standard Lithuanian

Some consonant phonemes of Standard Lithuanian share certain features and can therefore be classified (see Table 1). For example, consonants pronounced with voicing are assigned to the voiced group, while those pronounced voicelessly are assigned to the voiceless group. Voiced and voiceless consonants form opposing pairs: [p—b, p'—b', t—d, t'—d', k—g, k'—g', c—dz, c'—dz', č—dž, č'—dž'] and so on.

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Some consonants do not have corresponding voiceless counterparts. These include [m, m’, n, n’, r, r’, l, l’].

[l, l’, m, m’, n, n’, r, r’] differ from all other consonants also in that, when they are pronounced, the noise is not as clearly audible as when other consonants are pronounced. They are therefore called sonorants. They remain sonorants even before voiceless consonants, although [r] at the end of a word is sometimes devoiced (see the kymogram in Fig. 211).

[j] and [v, v’] should not be classified as sonorants in Lithuanian, since [j] and [v, v’] occur at the beginning of a word and, moreover, [j] also at the end, while [v] does not exhibit sonority in the middle of a word after a consonant (see the kymograms in Figs. 179 and 188). They are highly sonorous only in intervocalic position. In addition, Lithuanian sonorants [l, l’, m, m’, n, n’, r, r’] vary in length across positions depending on stress and accent, whereas [j] and [v, v’] do not have this property. Thus, [j] and [v, v’] are consonants tending toward sonority, rather than sonorants.

By manner of articulation, Lithuanian consonants are divided into the following groups:

1. stops, 2. fricatives, and 3. trills.

1. The following Lithuanian consonants are classified as stops: [p, p’, b, b’, t, t’, d, d’, k, k’, g, g’, c, c’, dz, dz’, č, č’, dž, dž’, m, m’, n, n’].

The characteristic feature shared by all stops, which unites them as a single group, is the formation of a closure by pressing the tip of the tongue against the alveoli or upper teeth, or by pressing the upper lip against the lower lip.

Stops with substantial noise are called noisy stops, while those in which tone predominates are called nasal sonorants. The former include [p, p’, b, b’, t, t’, d, d’, k, k’, g, g’, č, č’, dž, dž’, c, c’, dz, dz’], and the latter include [m, m’, n, n’].

According to their articulatory characteristics, noisy stops are divided into plain stops [p, p’, b, b’, t, t’, d, d’, k, k’, g, g’] and affricates [c, c’, dz, dz’, č, č’, dž, dž’].

Thus, all stops are divided into three groups: a) plain stops, b) affricates, and c) nasal sonorants.

a) Plain stops. In characterizing them, we will focus on three features: voicing and voicelessness, closure and release, and aspiration.

The voiced plain stops include [b, b’, d, d’, g, g’], and the voiceless ones include [p, p’, t, t’, k, k’].

All voiceless plain stops are articulated more forcefully and energetically, while all voiced ones are articulated more weakly.

The voiced consonants [b, b’, d, d’, g, g’] are voiced: the vocal folds are active even before the onset of the release. The onset of voiced consonants [b, b’, d, d’, g, g’] at the beginning of a word can be identified on the kymogram from the laryngeal trace. By contrast, in the middle of a word, after vowels and voiced consonants, the onset of a voiced stop can be identified only from the oral trace.

The pure voiceless plosive consonants are completely voiceless. Their closures at the beginning of a word are not visible on the oral airflow line, and the vocal cords do not vibrate; therefore, the onset of all pure voiceless plosives at the beginning of a word cannot be determined, whereas in the middle and at the end of a word it can be determined with the help of preceding sounds.

15

Not all plosive consonants have an equally abrupt release. The same plosive consonants differ in the abruptness of their release in different phonetic positions. It will be better to indicate differences in the character of the release that depend on the phonetic position of individual phonemes when describing their allophones. Here we will only say that voiced [b, d, g] generally have a less abrupt release, while voiceless [p, t, k] have a more abrupt one, although in individual cases this difference varies.

In Lithuanian, only pure plosive hard voiceless consonants, and only at the end of a word, are aspirated.

b) Affricates. As is known, the affricates in Lithuanian include [c, c’, dz, dz’, č, č’, dž, dž’].

They stand out from the group of plosives because of their distinctive articulation: all affricates begin with a plosive and end with a fricative. However, the transition from the plosive element to the fricative is not abrupt; on the contrary, it occurs so smoothly that it is even impossible to determine the boundary between these two elements. An important role in this transition is played by the fact that, in affricates, both constituent parts are usually “pronounced with one and the same active speech organ, that is, if, for example, the closure (the beginning of the affricate) is made with the front of the tongue, then the opening (the end of the affricate) is also articulated with the front part of the tongue”²⁰.

In characterizing affricates, attention should be paid to their voicing or voicelessness and to the relationship between the plosive and fricative elements.

The onset of voiced affricates can be determined on a kymogram only from the laryngeal line, since their closures are not visible on the oral line; the onset of voiceless affricates at the beginning of a word is unknown—the vocal cords are inactive.

Lithuanian voiced affricates are not highly sonorous, and their plosive and fricative elements are unequal in duration: the plosive is always longer, and the fricative shorter. It is true that the onset of voiceless affricates at the beginning of a word cannot be determined with the aid of a kymogram, so the duration of the plosive element at the beginning of a word is unknown, while the fricative element here, as in the middle of a word, is quite short. In the middle of a word, the duration of the plosive element of voiceless affricates can readily be determined with the help of the sound preceding and following it.

Voiceless affricates are more fricative than voiced ones.

c) Nasal sonorants. The third group of plosive consonants consists of the nasal sonorants [m, m’, n, n’]; when they are pronounced, the soft palate lowers, air passes into the nose, and nasal resonance is produced.

All other consonants, by contrast, are pronounced with the soft palate raised and without nasal resonance. [m, n] form corresponding pairs with the non-nasals [b] and [d].

In characterizing nasal sonorants, attention should be paid to the following main features: sonority, plosion, articulatory force, and the duration of the sonorant.

²⁰ М. И. Матусевич, Введение в общую фонетику, 35, Ленинград, 1941.

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Nasals, as already stated, are always voiced and have no voiceless counterparts.

In the kymograph records, the beginning and end of the sounds [m] and [n] are clearly visible in all cases, except when they occur before a voiced stop, where the vocal cords vibrate continuously, while the mouth line, both when pronouncing [m, n] and during the closure of the voiced stop, is at zero.

Lithuanian nasal sonorants belong to the stop consonants, which are characterized by closure and an exceptionally weak burst. Apparently, a considerable portion of the air passes into the nasal cavity, and the remainder of the airstream is unable to produce a stronger burst.

The articulation of Lithuanian nasal sonorants is quite strong: in the kymogram, there are usually no vibrations on the mouth line, indicating that the lips are tightly pressed together and do not let the sound wave through (see kymograms in Figs. 43, 67, 107).

We will analyze the length of sonorants, which depends on intonation and the phonetic position they occupy, when characterizing nasal consonant phonemes and their allophones.

2. The Lithuanian fricative consonants are: [s, s’, š, š’, z, z’, ž, ž’, t, t’, v, v’, f, f’, x, x’, γ, γ’, j]. A characteristic feature of all fricatives is the formation of a constriction between the tongue and the hard palate, or between the upper teeth and the lower lip.

Fricative consonants in which noise predominates are called noise fricatives, while those in which tone predominates are called sonorant fricatives. The former include [s, s’, z, z’, š, š’, ž, ž’, j, f, f’, x, x’, γ, γ’], and the latter [l, l’].

a) Noise fricatives. When characterizing noise fricatives, we focus on two features: voicing and voicelessness, and frication.

The voiceless Lithuanian noise fricatives are [s, s’, š, š’, f, f’, x, x’], and the voiced ones are [z, z’, ž, ž’, j, v, v’, γ, γ’].

In kymograms, it is easy to distinguish voiceless fricatives from voiced ones or from adjacent voiceless sounds. Voiced fricatives in intervocalic position are more difficult to identify. The vibrations of voiced fricatives on the mouth line in the kymogram sometimes fall below the vowel vibrations, sometimes remain at the same level as them, differing only in their pattern, and sometimes merge completely with the vowels.

b) Sonorant fricatives [l, l’]. Within the fricative group, they stand out as consonants in which tone, rather than noise, predominates. They are always voiced. In the kymogram, they are very difficult to distinguish from adjacent vowels or voiced fricative consonants.

3. Only [r] and [r’] are classified as Lithuanian trills. A characteristic feature of their production is vibration of the tip of the tongue, caused by a weak airstream from the lungs. When analyzing the phoneme [r], attention must be paid to three features: voicing, the length of [r], and the number of taps.

Since the length of the phoneme [r] and the number of taps are related to phonetic position, stress, and intonation, these will be examined under the separate allophones of the phonemes [r] and [r’].

2. Kalbotyros klausimai

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According to the activity of the speech organs, consonants in Lithuanian, as in other languages, are divided into the following groups: 1. labials, 2. front linguals, 3. central linguals, and 4. back linguals.

1. Labials: a) bilabials [p, p′, b, b′, m, m′], which are produced by pressing the upper lip against the lower one, and b) labiodentals: [v, v′] and [f, f′], which are produced by pressing the lower lip against the upper teeth.

2. Front linguals [t, t′, d, d′, c, c′, dz, dz′, č, č′, dž, dž′, s, s′, š, š′, z, z′, ž, ž′, l, l′, n, n′, r, r′], which are produced by pressing or bringing the front part of the tongue close to the upper front teeth, alveoli, or gums. For example, when pronouncing [t, t′, d, d′, n, n′, c, c′, dz, dz′, č, č′, dž, dž′], the tip of the tongue is pressed against the gums, and closure is formed at this point.

When pronouncing the fricatives [s, s′, š, š′, z, z′, ž, ž′], the tip of the tongue approaches the alveoli, and a passage forms there along the midline. When pronouncing [l, l′], the tip of the tongue is pressed firmly against the gums or alveoli, while air passes through the openings formed at the sides.

3. Central lingual consonants. The Lithuanian consonant of this type is [j].

4. Back lingual consonants. These are [k, k′, g, g′] and the borrowed [x, x′, γ, γ′]. [k, g] are pronounced by pressing the back part of the tongue against the edge of the hard palate.

1. Plosive consonants

a) Pure plosives. Hard pure plosives are very common sounds in Lithuanian. They occur in all positions: at the beginning and in the middle of a word, and voiceless ones also at the end. It may also be noted that at the beginning of a word they occur in Lithuanian before vowels of both the front and back series and before all diphthongs, but are used less often before consonants. [p] and [b] occur at the beginning of a word only before [l, r]; [t, d] before [r, v]; and [k, g] before [r, l, n, v].

In the middle of a word they occur before vowels of both the front and back series; in addition, they form certain clusters with other consonants: [p] often occurs in the middle of a word before [r, l, s, š, t, č], while [b] occurs before [r, l, ž, d]. The phoneme [t] occurs in Lithuanian in the middle of a word after the consonants [p, k, s, š, l, m, n, r], and [d] after [b, g, z, ž, l, n, r].

The plosive [g] occurs in the middle of a word before [d, z, ž, l], while [k] occurs before [t, č, s, š, r, l, n, v].

Only hard voiceless consonants [p, t, k] occur at the end of a word.

The use of soft plosive phonemes is determined by their origin: they are all used only before back-series vowels [a, aː; oː, u, uː] and before [au, ui, uo].

As an exception, [p′] and [b′] occur at the beginning of a word in Lithuanian only before [j], which is followed by a back-series vowel, while in the middle of a word they occur before all the vowels and diphthongs listed above.

At the beginning of international loanwords, [p′] and [b′] are used directly before a back-series vowel, most often before [u], for example, in the words [p′uˈrė] piurė, [b′uˈras] biuras, etc.

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Consonant phonemes of the Lithuanian language

1 lentelė

According to the activity of the speech organs; According to manner of articulation; Labials: bilabials, labiodentals; Lingual—front; Lingual—central; Lingual—back; hard, soft; Plosives: pure plosives—voiceless, voiced; affricates—voiceless homorganic, heterorganic; voiced homorganic, heterorganic; nasal sonorants; Fricatives: sibilant fricatives—voiceless, voiced; hushing fricatives—voiceless, voiced; fricative sonorants; trill sonorants; p, p’, b, b’, m, m’; f, f’, v, v’; t, t’, d, d’, c, c’, č, č’, dz, dz’, dž, dž’, n, n’, s, s’, š, š’, z, z’, ž, ž’, l, l’, r, r’; j; k, k’, g, g’.

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[k’] occurs at the beginning of a word before [o:, u, u:, au], while [g’] occurs before [au, o:, ɔ], etc. In the middle of a word, [k’] and [g’] occur before all the vowels and diphthongs listed above.

At the beginning and in the middle of a word, [k] and [g], when they stand before other consonants, never become palatalized and are never soft, even if a front vowel or diphthong follows them.

Phoneme [p]. A bilabial, pure, voiceless plosive phoneme, pronounced by bringing both lips together. The closure formed by the lips is abruptly released, and the trapped air escapes with noise. When it is pronounced, the vocal cords are not tense and do not vibrate; therefore, phoneme [p] is voiceless. Phoneme [p] has the following combinatory variants.

Fig. 7

1. [p] before vowels [a, a:], before diphthongs [ai, au], etc. This variant of phoneme [p] is characterized by a sharp burst, at 100 to 105° (see the kymogram in Fig. 7). It is unpalatalized and unlabialized (see the lip photograph in Fig. 8).

2. [p] before the vowels [o:, ɔ, ʊ, u:] and the diphthongs [uɪ, uo] has the same burst angle as before [a, a:], etc. (see Fig. 7). In addition, it is labialized (see the lip photograph in Fig. 9 and compare with Fig. 8).

Fig. 8 p [pås]

Fig. 9 p° [p°:]

Fig. 10 p [pʲiktas]

Fig. 11 p̂ [pʲi:łe]

3. The softened [p] before front vowels [ɪ, i:, ɛ, œ, e] and before the diphthongs [ɪə, ɛɪ, æɪ].

Before [ɪ, ɛ, œ], etc., [p] is softened slightly, whereas before the vowel [i:] it is palatalized to a very great extent (see the palatograms in Figs. 10, 11). When pronouncing [p] before a voiceless—

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For back-vowel vowels and diphthongs, the tongue does not touch the palate at all. The release angle varies from 105 to 110° (see Fig. 12).

4. The hard aspirated [pᶜ] at the end of a word. The release angle here is approximately the same as before back vowels (100—105°). The release is accompanied by clear aspiration (see Fig. 13).

Fig. 12

Fig. 13

Phoneme [p’]. The phoneme [p’] is pronounced like [p], but with additional raising of the middle part of the tongue dorsum toward the hard palate, which is why [p’] is soft. (Its softness is clearly visible in palatograms 14 and 15.)

[p’] The release angle in all the phonetic positions listed above varies between 100 and 105° (see the kymogram in Fig. 16).

Fig. 14. p° [p̄aupʰo:]

Fig. 15. p’ [p’jau t’i]

Fig. 16

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The phoneme [p’] has two combinatory variants:

1. An unrounded [p’] before [j] at the beginning of a word and before [a, a:, au] in the middle of a word (see the photograph of the lips, Fig. 17).

Fig. 17. p’ [p’ aŭp’a]

Fig. 18. p° [păup°o]

2. A rounded [p’] before [ō:, ɔ, u, u:, uo, u]. When this variant is pronounced, both lips are compressed (see the photograph of the lips, Fig. 18). Its angle of release and degree of palatalization are the same as those of the variant described above.

It should be noted here that F. Fortunatov was mistaken in asserting that “before [j] the labial consonant itself is not fully palatalized”²¹. Figures 14 and 15 show that [p’] before back vowels and [p’] before [j] have the same degree of palatalization.

Phoneme [b]. This is a bilabial, pure, plosive, voiced phoneme. Its manner of articulation is the same as that of [p] (see the radiograph, Fig. 19), except that when pronouncing [b], the vocal cords draw together and tense.

Fig. 19. b [bã:ltas]

The following combinatory variants of the phoneme [b] are distinguished.

1. [b] before the vowels [a, a:], before the diphthongs [ai, au], and before certain other consonants.

This variant is characterized by a steep angle of release, ranging between 100—110° (see Fig. 20), firmness, and an unrounded articulation (see the photograph of the lips, Fig. 21).

Fig. 20.

²¹ Ф. Ф. Фортунатов, Об ударении и долготе в балтийских языках, 4, Варшава, 1895.

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Fig. 21 b [bál:tas]

Fig. 22 b° [b°o:ba]

Fig. 23 b [bæʔʃtʲ]

2. [b] before the vowels [ɔ, oː, u, uː] and the diphthongs [uɪ, uo]. This variant is characterized by the same abruptness of release as the preceding one, as well as by labialization (see the lip photograph in Fig. 22 and compare it with Fig. 21).

3. Palatalized

[b] before front vowels [ɪ, iː, ɛ, æ, e] and before the diphthongs [ɪe, ei, æi]. [b] before [ɪ, ɛ, æ, e] is slightly palatalized (see Figs. 23, 24),

Fig. 24 b [bæˈʃtʲ]

Fig. 25 b [bi:ra]

but before [i:] palatalization is quite marked (see the palatogram in Fig. 25 and compare it with Fig. 23, and the radiograph in Fig. 26 and compare it with Fig. 19). Fig. 26 shows the raising of the tongue toward the hard palate, whereas Fig. 19 does not. The release angle of [b] is usually not abrupt (from 110 to 115°, see Fig. 27).

Fig. 26 b [bi:ra]

Phoneme [b’]. It is pronounced like the phoneme [b], except that the middle part of the dorsum of the tongue is additionally raised toward the hard palate. When pronouncing [b] before back vowels and diphthongs, the tongue-

Fig. 27

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The tongue does not touch the palate at all, whereas when articulating [b’], the tongue’s contact with the palate is clearly visible in Figs. 28 and 29.

The burst angle of [b’] is the same as that of [b] before back vowels (from 100 to 110°, see Fig. 30).

Fig. 28. b’ [b’jatur°us]

Fig. 29. bʷ [baubʷ°u]

Fig. 30.

Two combinatory allophones of the phoneme [b’] differ:

1. Unrounded [b’] before [j] at the beginning of a word, and before [a, ɑ; ai, au] in the middle of a word (see the lip photograph in Fig. 31).

Fig. 31. b’ [baib’a]

Fig. 32. bʷ [baubʷ°u]

2. The rounded allophone of the phoneme [b’] before [ɔ, o; ʊ, u] and [ui, uo] (see Fig. 32 and compare with Fig. 31).

Both allophones are equally palatalized (cf. Figs. 28 and 29).

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Phoneme [t]. It is a pure plosive voiceless apical anterior-tongue phoneme (see Fig. 33). It is characterized by greater energy and tension than Russian [t]. In pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue forms a closure against the alveoli and upper teeth, while the dorsum lies flat, as in the pronunciation of other apical sounds.

Fig. 33. t [tãs]

Fig. 34. t [tã]

The sudden rush of the air stream abruptly opens the closure and produces considerable noise.

The phoneme [t] has the following combinatory variants.

Fig. 35. t [tã]

Fig. 36. t [tãs]

1. [t] before [a, aː; ai, au] and other consonants followed by a back vowel. This [t] is the hardest of all variants (Figs. 34, 35) and is unrounded (see the lip photograph in Fig. 36). The angle of release ranges from 95° to 110° (see Fig. 37).

2. Rounded [t] before the vowels [ɔ, oː; u, uː] and the diphthongs [uɪ, uo] (see Fig. 40 and compare with Fig. 36). Both variants are equally soft (see Figs. 34, 35, and 38) and have the same angle of release (see Fig. 39).

Fig. 38. t° [t°ö:]

Fig. 37.

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3. Palatalized [t̆] before front vowels [ɪ, iː, ɛ, æ, e], diphthongs [ie, ei, æi], and before other consonants followed by a front vowel or diphthong, [t] in this position is slightly softened (cf. Figs. 41, 42 and Figs. 34, 35).

[t̆] The release angle before front vowels ranges from 100° to 120° (see Figs. 43, 44).

4. Aspirated [tʰ] in word-final position. It has all the characteristics of the hard, non-palatalized [t] and is, in addition, aspirated (Fig. 117).

Fig. 39.

Fig. 40. t° [t°:ɔ:]

Fig. 41. t̆ [t̆ikʲ]

Fig. 42. t̆ [t̆i:la]

Fig. 43.

Fig. 44.

26

Phoneme [t’]. The phoneme [t’] is pronounced in the same way as [t], but with an additional raising of the middle part of the back of the tongue toward the hard palate.

It is used rarely (only in international words), and therefore we can distinguish only one labialized shade of [t’], which, as Fig. 45 shows, is softer than [t] before front vowels (see Fig. 45 and compare it with Fig. 42). The release angle of [t] is approximately the same as that of [t] before back vowels—between 95° and 110° (see Fig. 46).

Fig. 45. [t°] [t’°] [tʲs]

Phoneme [d]. The fricative plosive apical alveolar phoneme (Fig. 47) is more energetic than Russian [d]. It differs from [t] in voicing.

The phoneme [d] has three combinatory shades.

1. [d] before [a, aː, a₁, au] and before consonants followed by a back vowel, as in the words [dár] ‘yet’, [draik°o:] ‘to scratch’, etc.

This shade is unlabialized and hard (see Figs. 48, 49, and 50). The release angle ranges between 100° and 110° (see Fig. 51).

Fig. 46.

Fig. 47. d [dár]

Fig. 48. d [dãːr°o:]

Fig. 49. d [dãːr°o:]

Fig. 50. d [dár]

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2. Labialized [d] before [ɔ, o̜, u, u̜] and the diphthongs [uɪ, uo]. The angle of release and degree of palatalization are the same as for the shade just described, but marked labialization is added (figs. 52, 53, 54; compare the last with fig. 50).

Fig. 51

Fig. 52

3. Palatalized [d] before [i, ż; e, æ, ɛ, e, iɛ, ɛl, æl] and before other consonants followed by a front vowel or diphthong. [d] in this position is slightly palatalized (see fig. 55 and compare it with fig. 53); before [i:] the palatalization is stronger (see fig. 56). The angle of release is not as sharp as for the shades of [d] described above: from 110 to 115° (see fig. 57).

Fig. 53. d° [d°:ra]

Fig. 54. d° [d°uo t₁]

Fig. 55. d̄ [d̄i d̄e i₁]

Fig. 56. d̄ [d̄i:la]

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Phoneme [d’]. This is a soft phoneme used only in international words. It is pronounced like [d], but with an additional raising of the middle of the back of the tongue toward the hard palate.

Fig. 57

The phoneme [d’] has only one combinatory variant, before the vowel [u]. It is characterized by strong labialization and softness. As Fig. 58 shows, [d’] is softer than [d] before front vowels, even softer than [d] before [i:]. The angle of the burst varies between 110 and 135°.

Fig. 58. d° [d°ubaˉr’i]

Fig. 59. k [kãs]

Phoneme [k]. A pure plosive, velar, voiceless phoneme characterized by frication (see Fig. 59). The closure is formed between the rear part of the back of the tongue and the posterior edge of the soft palate. The closure is released abruptly, and air exits through the resulting opening with frication. The vocal folds do not vibrate. [k] has the following variants.

1. [k] before [a, aː; aɪ, au] and before consonants, regardless of which vowel follows them—front or back. In all these positions, [k] is hard.

Fig. 60. k [kėː]

Fig. 61. k [kãː]

29

(Fig. 60) and non-labialized (see Fig. 61). The explosion angle of this [k] ranges between 100 and 115° (see Fig. 62).

2. Labialized [k] before [ɔ, oː, ʊ, uː, uɪ, uo]. This variant is characterized by labialization (see Fig. 63 and compare it with 61) and a non-steep explosion angle (125—140° and more). [k] is released non-steeply because [k] and the vowels and diphthongs just mentioned are articulated in the same place, and the tongue hardly changes position (see Fig. 72).

Fig. 62.

3. Palatalized [k], occurring immediately before front vowels [i, iː, ɛ, æ, e] and before the diphthongs [ie, ɛɪ, æɪ]. This variant of [k] is slightly softened (see Fig. 64) and is characterized by a steeper explosion angle than the hard, non-labialized, and labialized variants of [k]. The explosion angle ranges from 95 to 110° (see Fig. 65).

Fig. 63. k° [kʔoː]

Fig. 64. k̂ [kʔæːtʔɪ]

[k] before [iː] is softened considerably; however, before none of the front vowels does [k] attain the degree of softness of [kʲ] (Fig. 66; compare with Fig. 69).

Fig. 65.

30

4. Aspirated [kᶜ] at the end of a word. Its release is gradual, and the curve of the mouth descends slowly; this is confirmed by the kymogram (Fig. 67). Its hardness is the same as that of the shades indicated earlier.

The phoneme [k’]. The pronunciation of the phoneme [k’] differs from that of [k] only in the additional raising of the middle part of the back of the tongue toward the hard palate and the marked forward movement of the entire tongue. This is clearly visible

Fig. 68 (compare it with Fig. 59) and Fig. 69.

Two combinatorial allophones of the phoneme [k’] are distinguished:

1. Unrounded [k’] before [a, aː; au] (Fig. 70).

2. Rounded [k’] before the vowels [ɔ, oː; u, uː] and the diphthongs [uɪ, uo] (see Fig. 71).

Fig. 66 k̄ [k̄ːi:a]

Fig. 67

Fig. 68 k° [k°uːra]

Fig. 69 k° [k°uːra]

Fig. 70 k’ [k’aũTė]

Fig. 71 k° [k’ɔːk’ɔː]

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The angle of release for both variants ranges from 100 to 120° (see Fig. 72).²²

Phoneme [g]. It is a pure, plosive, hard, voiced velar phoneme (see Fig. 73). It is pronounced in the same way as the voiceless phoneme [k]; the only difference is that the vocal folds vibrate when [g] is pronounced. [g] is characterized by a gradual release angle.

Fig. 72

Fig. 73 g [garai]

Fig. 74 g [garai]

Fig. 75 g [garai]

[g] occurs in various positions. The following combinatorial variants of [g] are distinguished. 1. [g] before the vowels [a, aː, aɪ, au] and before other consonants. This [g] is the hardest (see the palatogram in Fig. 74) and unlabialized (see Fig. 75). The release angle varies considerably but is not abrupt (Fig. 76).

²²The steeper release angle of [k’] depends on the position of [k’] in the stressed syllable.

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2. Labialized [g] before the vowels [ɔ, oː, u, uː] and diphthongs [ui, uo]. It is characterized by strong labialization (Fig. 77) and a gradual release (see Fig. 78), because the place of articulation of these vowels and [g] almost coincides. The tongue touches the palate to the same extent as when pronouncing [g] before [a, aː], etc. (see Fig. 79).

Fig. 76

Fig. 77. g° [g°: d°u̯s]

Fig. 78

Fig. 79. g° [g°: d°u̯s]

3. Palatalized [g], used in Lithuanian immediately before front vowels and diphthongs. This [g] differs from the other variants by its palatalization; [g] softens particularly noticeably before [i̯], but [g′] is softer than [g] before [iː]. (Cf. Fig. 80 with Fig. 81 and Fig. 84.)

3. Kalbotyros klausimai

33

The burst angle is gradual—110–130° (see Fig. 82).

The phoneme [g’]. The soft phoneme [g’] forms a pair with the hard [g]. When pronouncing [g’], the middle part of the back of the tongue rises toward the hard palate. This additional

Fig. 80. ˜ [g̑irdž°]

Fig. 81. g [g̑: ȓe]

Fig. 82

Fig. 83. g° [vãlg°o:]

Fig. 84. g° [vãlg°o:]

Fig. 85. g° [vãlg°o:]

This raising is clearly evident when comparing X-ray images of the sounds [g] and [g’] (Figs. 73 and 83). When pronouncing [g’], the tongue makes considerable contact with the palate (Figs. 84 and 85); therefore, in Lithuanian [g’] approaches the alveolopalatal consonants.

34

The phoneme [g’] has two variants: 1. Unrounded [g’] in the middle of a word before [a, aː, au] (see Fig. 86). 2. Rounded [g’] before [ɔ, oː, u, uː, ul, uo] (see Fig. 87 and compare it with Fig. 86). Both variants are characterized by the same degree of softness and a gradual burst angle, varying between 110 and 140° (see Fig. 88).

b) Affricates. Affricates, especially the hard ones, are used very rarely in Lithuanian: [c] at the beginning of a word—only before [a, aː, ɔ, oː, u] and before the consonant [v], followed by [a]. [č] occurs before [ai] and [v] followed by [a], while [dž] occurs only in international words, most often before [au, ɔ]. In the middle of a word, apart from international words, [c] occurs in only a few words, such as [kʲn’oːtʲi] kicnoti, etc. Of the other affricates, [č] also occurs in the middle of a word before [a, aː, ɔ, oː, u, uː, al, uo, ul]. Only the affricates [c] and [č] occur at the end of a word, for example: [šñac] šnac and [č°uč] čiūč. Soft affricates are more commonly used: [c’] at the beginning of a word before [i, iː, u, uː, ɪ] and in the middle of a word before [e, æ, ɛ]. The use of [dž’] in Lithuanian is very limited: at the beginning of a word it occurs only before [e, æ, i]. Of all the affricates, [č’] and [dž’] are used most often, both at the beginning and in the middle of a word. At the beginning of a word, [č’] occurs before [i, iː, e, æ, ɛ, a, aː, oː, u, uː, au, uo]; [dž’] occurs before [i, iː, e, æ, oː, u, uː, au]. In the middle of a word, [č’] and [dž’] occur before [a, aː, oː, u, uː, au, uo, ul], while [č’] also occurs before [e]. In consonant clusters in the middle of a word, the only affricates that occur are [č’] and [dž’], which occupy the final position in the cluster. The remaining soft affricates do not form clusters with other consonants in the middle of a word.

Fig. 86. g’ [váɪg’au]

Fig. 87. g’° [vaɪg’°oː]

Fig. 88.

The phoneme [c]. This is a front-of-the-tongue, plosive, apical affricate with a rounded aperture. In its articulation, the tip of the tongue touches the alveoli, while the dorsum is flat (see the radiograph in Fig. 89). The edges of the tongue touch the edges of the palate (Fig. 90).

35

The tip of the tongue, pressed against the teeth, forms a closure that transitions into an opening formed by the same organs in the same place. The transition from closure to opening is very smooth.

The phoneme [c] has the following variants in Lithuanian.

Fig. 89. c [caktc]

1. [c] before [a, a:] and [v, n], followed by a back vowel. This variant is the hardest and entirely unrounded (Fig. 91).

The fricative element in it, as in the other variants, is very short (see Fig. 92).

Fig. 90. c [čā:ras]

Fig. 91. c [cåbʲe]

2. Rounded [c] before the vowels [ɔ, o:, u]: Its fricative element is approximately the same as that of the preceding variant. The two are also equally hard (cf. Figs. 93 and 90). This variant is rounded (see Fig. 94).

Fig. 92.

The phoneme [c’]. The soft [c’] is articulated like the hard [c], but with an additional raising of the middle part of the dorsum of the tongue toward the hard palate. This additional raising is clearly visible when comparing Figs. 89 and 95.

36

The phoneme [cʹ] has two variants: 1. an unrounded one before front vowels [i, iː; ɛ, æ, e]; 2. a rounded [cʹ] before back vowels [ɒ, u:] (see Fig. 96).

Both variants have the same degree of palatalization (see Figs. 97, 98) and a fricative element of the same duration (see Fig. 99).

Fig. 93. c° [c°:lis]

Fig. 94. c° [c°ukr°us]

Fig. 95. cʹ [cʹibe]

Fig. 96. c° [c°ʊc°e]

Fig. 97. cʹ [cʹiktʹ]

Fig. 98. c° [c°u: – c°ū:]

Fig. 99.

37

Phoneme [č]. The voiceless plosive anterior apical lingual affricate with a rounded opening and a secondary posterior focus (see Fig. 100). The closure for [č] is formed between the tip of the tongue and the alveoli. The closure smoothly transitions into an opening. The fricative element is formed at the same place as the closure, which facilitates the transition from closure to opening.

Fig. 100. č [čãiž:č̇1]

Two allophones of phoneme [č] are distinguished: 1. the hard allophone before [a, aː; a̟] and [ə] (see Fig. 101). It is non-labialized; 2. the hard, labialized [č] before the vowels [ɔ, oː; u, uː] and the diphthongs [uɪ, uo]. The principal features of this allophone are hardness and labialization (see Fig. 102).

Both allophones are characterized by a short fricative element (see Fig. 103).

Fig. 101. č [čãiž:č̇1]

Fig. 102. č° [g m̥č°o:]

Fig. 103.

Phoneme [č’]. Its pronunciation is similar to that of [č]. The difference lies in the additional raising of the middle part of the dorsum of the tongue toward the hard palate (Fig. 104). When [č’] is pronounced, the tongue makes greater contact with the palate than when [č] is pronounced (see Figs. 105, 106). The fricative element of [č’] is approximately the same as that of [č] (see Fig. 107).

38

We have two combinatory allophones of the phoneme [č’]: 1. the nonlabialized [č’] before [a, aː, i, į, e, æ, e, ei] (see Fig. 108); 2. the labialized [č’] before [ɔ, oː, u, uː, uo, u] (see Fig. 109).

Fig. 104. č’ [č’á]

Fig. 105. č’ [č’ iːˈuo t i]

Fig. 106. č’° [č’°ūːžīs]

Fig. 107.

Fig. 108. č’ [č’á]

Fig. 109. č’° [č’°ūːžīs]

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Phoneme [dz]. A voiced apical pre-alveolar affricate. In its articulation, the tip of the tongue touches the alveoli. The closure transitions smoothly into a constriction. The stop and fricative elements are produced at the same place (see Fig. 110).

Fig. 110. dz° [dz°ũ:kas]

The following allophones of the phoneme [dz] occur:

1. The hard [dz] before the consonant [v], which is followed by [a]. This allophone is characterized by hardness and is nonlabialized.

2. The labialized [dz] before [u: u], characterized by hardness (see Fig. 111) and labialization.

The fricative elements of both [dz] allophones are very short, even shorter than those of the corresponding voiceless consonants. Their degree of frication is also considerably lower than that of the corresponding voiceless consonants.

Phoneme [dz’]. The phoneme [dz’] is pronounced like [dz], but with an additional raising of the middle part of the tongue dorsum toward the hard palate (see Figs. 112, 113, 114).

Fig. 111. dz° [dz°ũ:kas]

Fig. 112. dz’ [dz’iːr’uoTi]

Fig. 113. dz° [dz°upšėtī]

Fig. 114. dz’ [dz’iːr’uoTi]

40

Two allophones of the phoneme [dž] are distinguished: 1. unrounded [dz’] before the vowels [i, iː, e, æ] (see Fig. 115); 2. rounded—before [u, uo] (see Fig. 116). Both allophones are characterized by a short fricative and a long plosive element (see Fig. 117).

Fig. 115. dz’ [dzːinkʲ]

Fig. 116. dz’o [dz’oʊpʃɛtʲ]

Fig. 117.

Phoneme [dž]. This is an anterior apical voiced affricate of the tongue with a second posterior place of articulation. The tip of the tongue forms a closure against the alveoli. The closure smoothly transitions to an opening.

In Lithuanian, [dž] occurs only in international words and usually has two allophones: 1) one tending to become rounded before [a, au], etc. (see Fig. 118); 2) rounded before [ɔ, oː, ʊ, uː], etc.

Fig. 118. dž [džauːlis]

Fig. 119. dž [džauːlis]

Both allophones are characterized by hardness (see Fig. 119), weak frication, and a short fricative element (see Fig. 120).

Phoneme [dž’]. The phoneme [dž’] is pronounced in the same way as [dž], but with an additional raising of the middle part of the tongue dorsum toward the hard palate (see the radiograph in Fig. 121 and the palatograms in Figs. 122, 123, and 124).

41

The duration of the fricative and plosive elements is the same as in [dž] (see Fig. 173).

There are two combinatorial variants of the phoneme [dž′]: 1) one tending to become labialized before the vowels [i, į; e, ė, a, ą] and before the diphthongs [ei, au] (see Figs. 124, 125); 2) a labialized variant of [dž′] before the vowels [ɔ, o; u, ū] and before the diphthongs [uo, ui] (see Fig. 126).

Fig. 120

Fig. 121. dž′ [dž′ aužmas]

Fig. 122. dž′ [dž′ iːrʲoːu̯]

Fig. 123. dž′° [dž′°oːvǎ]

Fig. 124. dž′ [dž′ iːrʲmʲi]

Fig. 125. dž′ [dž′ auːri]

Fig. 126. dž′° [dž′°oːvǎ]

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c) Nasal sonorants. The Lithuanian nasal sonorants and [r, l], when stressed and bearing an accent, are of varying length and therefore occupy a special place among speech sounds.

The Lithuanian [m] and [n] are very frequently used phonemes and have many positional allophones. They occur word-initially before the vowels [a, aː; ɔ, oː; ʊ, uː; ɛ, æ, e, ɪ, iː], before the diphthong [ui], and [n] also before [uo]. [m] and [n] never occur word-initially before consonants. They sometimes occur word-initially after the consonants [k, s, š], and [n] also after [g].

Within a word, [m] and [n] occur before the vowels [a, aː; ɔ, oː; ʊ, uː; ɛ, æ, e, ɪ, iː] and before the diphthongs [ai, au, ui, uo, ɛi, æi, ɪe]. In addition, [n] occurs before the consonants [k, g, t, d], etc., and [m] before [p, b, t, d].

[m] and [n] occur very frequently in absolute word-final position. [m′] and [n′], like other soft phonemes, occur less frequently. By their nature, they occur only immediately before back vowels, and no consonant ever follows [m′, n′]; they therefore never form mixed diphthongs.

Word-initial [m′] occurs only in a few sound-symbolic words, e.g.: [m′aukʒ′oːtɪ] ‘to mew’, [m′aukʧɪ] ‘to meow’, etc.

Word-initial [n′] occurs before the vowels [ɔ, oː; ʊ, uː], before the diphthong [au], and at the end of consonant clusters, for example in the words [žn′aukʧɪ] ‘to grumble’, [šn′aukšʧɪ] ‘to snuffle’, [gn′aušʧɪ] ‘to pinch’, [kn′aukʧɪ] ‘to meow’.

Within a word, [m′] and [n′] occur only before [ɔ, oː; ʊ, uː] and before the diphthongs [au, uo, ui]. In addition, [n′] also occurs before [a, aː].

The soft phonemes [m′] and [n′] also occur at the end of consonant clusters, for example: [pr′iēvɛiksm′oː] ‘of the adverb’, [n′uožm′au] ‘more fiercely’, [v′ɛrkšn′oː] ‘of the sob’, [v′ɛikšn′oː] ‘of the factor’, [dažn′au] ‘more often’, [g′urkšn′oː] ‘of the gulp’, etc.

Phoneme [m]. A bilabial, nasal, plosive, voiced phoneme. It is pronounced in the same way as [b]. The pronunciation differs only in the action of the soft palate: when [b] is pronounced, the soft palate is raised and blocks the passage of the airstream into the nasal cavity, whereas when [m] is pronounced, it is lowered: air passes freely into the nasal cavity and gives the sonorant [m] its nasal resonance.

The phoneme [m] has the following combinatory allophones.

1. [m] word-initially and medially before the vowels [a, aː] and diphthongs [ai, au]; [m] in absolute word-final position; [m] in all mixed diphthongs followed by a hard consonant; and also [m] before the hard consonants [p, b, t, d], and sometimes before palatalized ones.

This [m] is characterized by hardness and is unlabialized. When it is pronounced, the tongue does not touch the palate.

2. The labialized allophone of [m] occurs before the vowels [ɔ, oː; ʊ, uː] and the diphthong [u] word-initially and finally, and also before [uo] only within a word.

Both allophones are equally hard, but the second differs from the first in labialization.

3. A palatalized allophone of [m] occurs word-initially and medially before the front vowels [ɛ, æ, ɪ, iː] and the diphthongs [ɪe, ɛi, æi]. This allophone is markedly

43

palatalized (see Fig. 127), and before the vowel [i:] palatalization is even stronger, so [m] differs very little from [m’] (see Fig. 128 and compare with Fig. 129).

In addition to the combinatory variants just indicated, the Lithuanian phoneme [m] has several positional variants associated with stress placement and pitch accent.

Fig. 127. ṁ [mīn]

1. [m] in pure diphthongs in a stressed syllable at the beginning, middle, and end of a word. The duration of this [m] is 11.03 σ on average.

2. [m] in pure diphthongs at the beginning, middle, and end of a word in an unstressed syllable. Compared with the first, this positional variant of [m] is shorter: 9 σ on average.

Fig. 128. ṁ [miːl]

3. [m] in mixed diphthongs [aːm, eːm, im, um], where the falling or short pitch accent falls on the first part of the mixed diphthong. Here [m] is shorter than with the rising pitch accent. The average duration of this variant is 10 σ in [aːm], 11 σ in [eːm], 14 σ in [im], and 12.65 σ in [um].

4. The longest [m] occurs in mixed diphthongs where the rising pitch accent falls on [m]. The average duration of this [m] is 16.92 σ in [aːm], 18.2 σ in [eːm], 14.62 σ in [um], and 19.65 σ in [im].

5. [m] in unstressed mixed diphthongs, where stress falls on the syllable following [m]. On average, this [m] is slightly longer than [m] in a mixed diphthong with falling pitch accent on its first part. The duration of this variant is 12.8 σ in [am], 13.56 σ in [em], 14.03 σ in [im], and 14.44 σ in [um].

Fig. 129. m’ [m’aik’al]

6. [m] in diphthongal combinations located in the third or a later syllable from the stressed syllable. This [m] is characterized by reduction and is very short. In [am] it is only 7.78 σ.

Phoneme [m’]. The soft phoneme corresponding to the hard [m]. It is pronounced like [m], but with an additional raising of the middle of the back of the tongue toward the hard palate (see Fig. 129).

The following combinatory variants of phoneme [m’] are distinguished: 1) non-labialized [m’] before the diphthong [au] at the beginning and in the middle of a word; 2) the labialized variant of [m’] before the vowels [ɔ, oː, u, uː] and before [uo, ui] in the middle of a word.

In addition, phoneme [m’] has two positional variants: 1) [m’] in a stressed syllable. Its duration is 14 σ; 2) [m’] in an unstressed syllable. The average duration of this [m’] is 11.42 σ.

Phoneme [n]. This is a coronal, voiced, nasal, apical, continuant phoneme, pronounced like the coronal plosive [d]; the only difference is

44

The point is that, when [n] is articulated, the soft palate is lowered and a passage into the nasal cavity is created for the airflow, producing nasal resonance (see Fig. 130).

The phoneme [n] has the following combinatory variants.

1. [n] before the vowel [a] and the diphthongs [ai, au] at the beginning and in the middle of a word; [n] in absolute word-final position; [n] before the hard consonants [t, d]; and [n] in mixed diphthongs followed by a hard consonant. This variant is characterized by its hardness (see Fig. 131) and is entirely unlabialized.

Fig. 130. n [nā:mas]

Fig. 131. n [namō:ž]

2. Labialized [n] before the vowels [ɔ, o:, u, u:] and the diphthong [uo] at the beginning and in the middle of a word, and before [u] only in the middle of a word. This variant has the same degree of hardness as the preceding one (see Fig. 132).

3. Palatalized [n] at the beginning and in the middle of a word before [l, i:, e, æ, ɪ̯, ɛ̯, æl] and before the softened consonants [t, d]. This variant is characterized by a slight degree of palatalization (see Fig. 133).

Fig. 132. n° [n°]

Fig. 133. n [ňɛ]

Fig. 134. n [aŋka]

4. The hard back-of-the-tongue [n] before hard [k] and [g]. Its manner and force of articulation are the same as for [k] and [g] (see Figs. 134, 135).

5. The plosive back-of-the-tongue [n] before soft and softened [k] and [g]. As can be seen in Figs. 136 and 137, it is more fronted than the variant described earlier.

The phoneme [n] has the following positional variants.

1. [n] in non-mixed diphthongs at the beginning, middle, and end of a word in a stressed syllable. The duration of such [n] averages 13 σ.

45

2. [n] in non-mixed diphthongs at the beginning, middle, and end of a word in an unstressed syllable. The average duration of this [n] is 9.83 σ.

3. [n] in mixed diphthongs whose first component has a falling or short accent. This [n] is shorter than [n] with a rising accent. This [n] in the sequence [á:n] averages 8.19 σ, [ãn]—13.8 σ, [in]—12.98 σ.

Fig. 135 n [angã]

Fig. 136 ñ [a ñ k̃ i]

Fig. 137 ñ [p̃riengʹo:]

4. [n] in mixed diphthongs with a rising accent. This variant of [n] differs from the others in being the longest. Its duration in the sequence [aãn] averages 14.03 σ, [ẽn]—14.78 σ, [in]—19.49 σ, and [un]—16.11 σ.

5. [n] in unstressed mixed diphthongs. It is longer than the first positional variant. Its duration in the sequence [an] averages 10.55 σ, [en]—12.47 σ, [in]—12.28 σ, [un]—13.5 σ.

6. [n] in unstressed mixed diphthongs located in the third or a more distant syllable from the end. It is characterized by reduction and is very short. Its average duration is 10.19 σ.

Fig. 138 nʹ [nʹaukʹaʒi]

Fig. 139 nʹ [nʹaukʹaʒi]

Phoneme [nʹ]. This is a palatalized phoneme with a very pronounced additional raising of the middle part of the back of the tongue toward the hard palate. For this reason, [nʹ] approaches the central lingual consonants (see Fig. 138 and the palatogram in Fig. 139).

There are several combinatory variants of the phoneme [nʹ]: 1) non-labialized [nʹ]—in the middle of a word before the vowels [a, ɑ:], before the diphthong [au], and before [au] at the end of a word

46

at the beginning; 2) labialized [n′] at the beginning of a word before labial vowels [ɔ, oː; ų, uː] and diphthongs, and in the middle of a word before [ɔ, oː; ų, uː; uo, ui].

The phoneme [n′] has two positional variants.

1. [n′] in a stressed syllable. This variant is longer than [n′] in an unstressed syllable. The duration of the first variant is approximately 11.5 σ.

2. [n′] in an unstressed syllable. It is shorter than the first—only 8.65 σ.

2. Fricative consonants.

a) Sibilant fricatives. These include [s, s′, š, š′, z, z′, ž, ž′, v, v′, j, f, f′, x, x′, γ, γ′].

The most frequently used of these is [s].

[s] and [š] occur before all front and back vowels and before all diphthongs except [ui], before which [s] and [š] occur only in international words and, most often, proper names. In addition, word-initial [s] occurs before the consonants [k, l, m, n, p, r, t, v]; [š] occurs before [l, m, n, v], and before [k, t, r] only in a small number of words, such as [škac] škac, [štai] štai, [šrā:tas] šratas.

[š] occurs before [p] only in loanwords.

In the middle of a word, [s] and [š] can occur before all front and back vowels, before all diphthongs, and before the consonants [t, k, l, m, n, r, v]. In addition, [s] occurs word-medially before [č], and in verb prefixes also before the consonants [p, j], etc.

In Lithuanian, [s] and [š] occur very frequently in various grammatical forms at the end of a word.

Word-initial [ž] occurs before front and back vowels and before the diphthongs [ai, uo, ei, ie]; [ž] occurs before [i, iː, e, ɔ, o, uː, a, aː] and before the diphthongs [au, ui]. Word-initially, both [ž] and [z] are used before the consonants [l, m, v]; in addition, [z] also occurs before [n].

In the middle of a word, [ž] and [z] occur before all front and back vowels, before the diphthongs [au, ai, ei, ie, ui, uo], and before the consonants [d, n, l]; [z] occurs before [ai, d, g, l].

Voiced consonants do not occur at the end of a word.

In Lithuanian, the phoneme [v] occurs at the beginning of a word before [a, aː, ɔ, oː; ų, uː; e, æ, ɛ, i, iː] and before [u] in international words, as well as before [ai, au, ie, ei, æi].

In the middle of a word, [v] occurs before [a, aː, ɔ, oː; ų, uː; e, æ, ɛ, i, iː; ai, uo, ui, ie, ei, æi, au]. It combines with other consonants in compound words at the point of compounding, for example, in the words [v̌ištvanaːgis] vištvanagis; it also occurs at the end of the clusters [dv-, čv-, zv-], etc.

At the end of a word, [v] is not used.

In Lithuanian, [j] occurs in all positions. [j] does not form clusters with other consonants at the beginning of a word, except with the labials [p, b], after which it is used.

At the beginning and in the middle of a word, [j] is used before the vowels [a, aː, ɔ, oː; ų, uː, i, iː, e, ɛ] and before the diphthongs [au, uo, ie, ai]; in addition, at the beginning of a word it occurs before [æi], and in the middle of a word before [ui].

47

At the end of a word, [j] occurs in the clipped forms of certain words, for example: [jō:j] joj, [v͜i̯sō:j] visoj, etc.

The phonemes [f, x, γ] are used in Lithuanian only in loanwords. At the end of a word, [f, x] occur in Lithuanian only in interjections: [ʃf] uf, [aχ] ach. Appropriate Lithuanian endings are added to loanwords and surnames ending in [f, x], e.g.: [bʹubikʹɔpfas] bubikopfas, [Mʹɛtɛrnʹixas] Meternichas, etc.

Soft fricative phonemes are used in Lithuanian much less frequently than hard ones. They are not used at all in absolute word-final position.

At the beginning of a word, [sʹ] occurs before the vowels [u, u:] and before the diphthong [au]. [šʹ] occurs before [a, a:, u, u:] and before the diphthongs [ai, au, uo, ui].

In the middle of a word, [sʹ] and [šʹ] are used before the vowels [a, a:, o:, u, u:] and before the diphthongs [au, uo, ui].

At the beginning of a word, [žʹ] occurs before the back vowels [o:, u, u:] and before the diphthong [au].

At the beginning of a word, [zʹ] does not occur at all, except in the word [zʹōj] — ziu-ziu. In the middle of a word, [žʹ] is used before all back vowels and before the diphthongs [au, uo, ui].

In clusters with other consonants, the phoneme [žʹ] always occurs only at the end of the cluster, most often after [r], for example, [vʹi̯rʹžʹo:] viržio.

In the middle of a word, [zʹ] occurs only before [a, a:, u, au] and after [r].

At the beginning of a word, [vʹ] is used only before the diphthong [au] and in sound-symbolic words such as [vʹaukʹtʹɛlʹɛtʹi] viauktelėti, [vʹaukʹɔ:tʹi] viaukčioti, etc.

In the middle of a word, it occurs before the vowels [a, o:, u, u:] and before the diphthongs [au, uo, ui].

Phoneme [s]. This is a voiceless fricative, apical, hard, front lingual phoneme. When it is articulated, the tip of the tongue rests against the alveoli, while the back of the tongue

lies almost flat, its edges resting against the lateral teeth and the edges of the hard palate, so that a narrow, round opening is formed between the front part of the tongue and the hard palate (Fig. 140). The passage of the airstream through this opening produces friction. When [s] is articulated, as when articulating all other fricative consonants, the soft palate closes off the passage to the nasal cavity, and the fricative [s] has no nasal resonance.

The phoneme [s] has the following combinatory variants. 1. [s] at the beginning and in the middle of a word before the vowels [a, a:] and the diphthongs [ai, au], in absolute word-final position, and before all the hard consonants mentioned above, and sometimes also before softened ones. This [s] is hard and unrounded; see Fig. 141. It is characterized by relatively strong frication (see Figs. 20, 30, 37, 39, 67, etc.).

Fig. 140. s [salė]

48

2. Rounded [s] at the beginning and in the middle of a word immediately before [ɔ, oː; u, uː].

The softness of the rounded variant does not differ in any way from that of the unrounded variant (see Fig. 142 and compare with Fig. 141). Its frication is the same as that of the variant indicated above.

3. Palatalized [s] before front vowels [i, iː; ɛ, æ, e], before the diphthongs [ie, ei, ai], and before some of the soft and softened consonants just mentioned. In Figs. 143 and 144, comparison with the preceding figures shows that [s] is slightly softened.

Fig. 141. s [sävɔː]

Fig. 142. sː [sːoːpa]

Fig. 143. š [šɛkːtʲ]

Fig. 144. š [šɛtʲ]

Fig. 145. š [šiːkis]

Fig. 146.

Before [iː], the consonant [s] is palatalized to a great degree, almost as much as [sʲ] (see Fig. 145). Its frication is the same as in the variants indicated above (see Fig. 146).

The phoneme [sʲ]. The soft phoneme [sʲ] is pronounced like [s], but with an additional raising of the middle of the dorsum of the tongue toward the hard palate (see Fig. 147). The tongue imprints on the palate can be clearly seen in Fig. 148. [sʲ] is more sibilant than [s].

4. Kalbotyros klausimai

49

The phoneme [sʲ] has the following combinatory allophones: 1) labialized [sʲ] before [u, uː] at the beginning of a word and before [uɔ, uɪ] in the middle of a word; 2) unlabialized [sʲ] at the beginning of a word before the diphthong [au], and in the middle of a word before [aɪ, au]. Both allophones have the same degree of frication as the hard [s] (see Fig. 149).

Fig. 147. s′ [s′aũštʲi]

Fig. 148. s⁰ [s⁰uːlʲe]

Fig. 149.

Phoneme [š]. This is a voiceless fricative phoneme with two points of constriction. [š] differs from [s] in that when [š] is articulated, not one but two openings (foci) are formed. In articulating the phoneme [š], the tip of the tongue approaches the alveoli, where the first opening is formed, while the second is formed near the anterior edge of the soft palate, which the back part of the tongue dorsum rises toward (see Fig. 150). The airflow passes through these openings and gives the sound [š] its characteristic rustling quality. The soft palate is raised and closes off the nasal cavity. The frication of [š] is stronger than that of [s] (see Fig. 151).

Fig. 150. š [šakà]

The phoneme [š] has the following combinatory allophones: 1) [š], tending toward labialization, before the vowels [a, aː] and diphthongs [aɪ, au], before hard consonants, and in absolute final position (see Fig. 152). This allophone is characterized by hardness (see palatogram 153). Its degree of frication is the same as that of the allophones mentioned above (see Fig. 151); 2) strongly labialized [š] at the beginning and

50

in the middle of a word, immediately before the vowels [ɔ, oː; u, uː] (see Fig. 154). In articulating this allophone, the tongue makes the same amount of contact with the palate as when articulating the allophone mentioned above. Its degree of frication does not differ from that of the one mentioned above; 3) palatalized [ś] before front vowels and diphthongs, and before soft and palatalized con-

sonants

S.V.

š

aũ

k′

g

Fig. 151.

sonants. This allophone, like the first, tends toward labialization; before the vowels [ɪ, ɪ̯, æ, e], the diphthongs [ie, æɪ, ɛɪ], and other consonants, it is slightly palatalized (see Fig. 155). [ś] is much more palatalized before [ʒː] (see Fig. 156 and compare it with Fig. 155).

Its degree of frication is the same as that of the allophones mentioned above.

Phoneme [ś]. In terms of voicelessness, [ś] coincides with [š]. [ś] differs from [š] in the marked raising of the middle part of the tongue dorsum toward the hard palate, thereby producing a second, central rather than posterior, point of constriction (focus) for [ś]. (See the X-ray image in Fig. 157; compare it with Fig. 150.) The palatalization of [ś] is also clearly visible in the palatogram in Fig. 158.

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The phoneme [š’] is characterized by the following combinatory variants: 1) [š’], which tends to become labialized at the beginning and in the middle of a word before the vowels [a, aː] and the diphthong [au] (see Fig. 159); 2) [š’], which is strongly labialized depending on its phonetic position before the vowels [oː, u, uː] and the diphthongs [uo, ui] at the beginning and in the middle of a word (see Fig. 160).

Fig. 157. š’ [š’ aː]

Fig. 158. š’ᵒ [š’ᵒ ǫː]

Fig. 159. š’ [š’ aː]

Fig. 160. š’ᵒ [š’ᵒ ǫː]

The frication of both variants is strong and in no way differs from that of [š] (see Fig. 161).

Phoneme [z]. This is a sibilant fricative, apical, alveolar, hard, voiced phoneme, corresponding to the voiceless [s] (see Fig. 162). It is characterized by weak frication.

The following variants of the phoneme [z] are distinguished.

1. The hard, non-labialized [z] at the beginning of a word before the vowels [a, aː], the diphthong [au], and some hard, soft, and palatalized consonants, as well as in the middle of a word before [a, aɪ] and some consonants.

Fig. 161.

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Before sonorants, its frication is stronger than usual (see Figs. 163 and 164).

2. Labialized [ʒ] occurs at the beginning of a word directly before the vowels [o, ɔ, u:] and the diphthong [uɪ], and in the middle of a word before [ɔ, oː; ɔ, u:].

This variant is characterized by the same degree of hardness as the one indicated earlier, and by very weak frication (see Fig. 165).

Fig. 162. ʒ [ʒauni:t:i]

Fig. 163. ʒ° [ʒ°ʒna]

Fig. 164.

Fig. 165.

3. Palatalized [ʒ] occurs at the beginning of a word before [l, s], in the middle of a word before [l, i:, e, e], and at the beginning and in the middle of a word before certain consonants that are followed by a front vowel. Compared with the two variants indicated above, this one is characterized by a slight degree of palatalization (see Fig. 166). Before the vowel [i:], it becomes considerably softer (see Fig. 167). Frication is very weak (see Fig. 168).

Phoneme [ʒ′]. This is a soft front phoneme corresponding to the hard [ʒ]. It is pronounced with an additional raising of the middle of the dorsum of the tongue toward the hard palate, and is therefore soft (Fig. 169).

53

Fig. 166 ž [ž’ɪžɪ]

Fig. 167 ž [ž’:ɪ̯e]

Fig. 168

Fig. 169 ž’ [ž’ɪrʒ’o]

Fig. 170 ž [žarnà]

We have two variants of the phoneme [ž’]: 1) the non-labialized [ž’] in the middle of a word before the vowels [a, o:] and the diphthong [au], 2) the labialized [ž’] in the middle of a word before [u].

The frication of both variants is very weak, and both are equally soft.

Phoneme [ž]. A sibilant, fricative, apical, voiced, hard, anterior lingual phoneme with a secondary posterior place of articulation (see Fig. 170). [ž] is pronounced like the corresponding voiceless [š] (see p. 51).

Three variants of the phoneme [ž] are distinguished.

1. The hard [ž], tending to become labialized, occurs at the beginning of a word before the vowels [a, a:], the diphthong [ai], and the hard consonants [l, m, v]; in the middle of a word before [a, a:, au, ai] and the hard consonants [d, n, l]. Frication is strong only before sonorants (see Fig. 171).

54

2. Strongly labialized [ž] at the beginning of a word before [ɔ, oː, u, uː] and in the middle of a word before [uo, u, ɔ, oː, u, uː]. This allophone is also hard (see Fig. 172). Frication is weak (see Fig. 173).

171 pav.

172 pav. ž° [ž°oːžė]

173 pav.

174 pav. ž [žæ me]

175 pav. ž [žʲ:al]

3. Palatalized [ž] at the beginning and in the middle of a word before [i, iː, æ, e, ɪe, ɛɪ, æɪ], at the beginning of a word before [n, l, v], and in the middle of a word before [n, l, d], etc. The palatogram in Fig. 174 shows that [ž] is only slightly softened before [i, e, æ], etc., and considerably more so before [iː] (see Fig. 175). Frication is strong only before sonorants.

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Phoneme [ž’]. The corresponding soft phoneme. It differs from [ž] in that, when articulated, the middle part of the dorsum of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate (see Fig. 176), forming a second, medial point of articulation.

[ž’] is more sibilant than [ž].

The phoneme [ž’] has two combinatory allophones: 1) [ž’] at the beginning of a word before the diphthong [au] and in the middle of a word before [a, a:, au]; 2) labialized [ž’] before [ɔ, o:, u, u:, uo, ui].

176 pav. ž’ [ž’o:vaun t1]

177 pav. ž’o [ž’o ü:rı]

178 pav.

Both allophones are characterized by softness (Fig. 177) and weak frication (Fig. 178).

Phoneme [v]. This is a voiced, hard, labiodental fricative consonant. When it is articulated, the lower lip approaches the upper teeth, forming a constriction through which the airflow passes, producing friction and the hissing noise characteristic of [v].

The following allophones of the phoneme [v] are distinguished.

1. Hard, unrounded [v] at the beginning and in the middle of a word before the vowels [a, a:] and diphthongs [ai, au]. This variant is inherently entirely unpalatalized, and when it is pronounced, the tongue leaves no traces on the palate.

The frication of this [v] is very weak (Fig. 179); it is stronger only after consonants.

Fig. 179

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2. Rounded [ʋ] at the beginning of a word before the rounded vowels [oː, u, ɔ] and in the middle of a word before [oː, u, uː, uo, ui]. This variant is characterized by the same hardness and weak frication as the first, as well as by rounding.

Between two rounded vowels it is pronounced with both lips, as in the words: [b°ʋ°oː] buvo ‘was’, [dź°iːʋ°oː] džiūvo ‘dried’ and so on.

3. Palatalized [ʋ] occurs at the beginning and in the middle of a word before the vowels [i, iː, e, æ, ɛ, ɪə, ɛɪ, æɪ]. This variant is slightly palatalized (Fig. 180), but before [iː] palatalization is very strong (see Fig. 181).

The frication of [ʋ] is very weak (see Fig. 182).

Fig. 180 ʋ [ʋæɪ̯tʲ]

Fig. 181 ʋ [ʋʲfras]

Fig. 182

Phoneme [ʋ′]. It is pronounced like the hard [ʋ], but with an additional raising of the middle of the tongue dorsum toward the hard palate (see Fig. 183).

The phoneme [ʋ′] has two variants: 1) unrounded [ʋ] in the middle of a word before the vowels [a, aː] and the diphthong [au], and at the beginning of a word before [au]; 2) rounded [ʋ′] in the middle of a word before [oː, u, uː] and [uo, ui]. Between two rounded vowels, this variant is pronounced as a bilabial.

The frication of [ʋ′] is weak.

Phoneme [f]. This is a labiodental voiceless phoneme, paired with the voiced [ʋ].

In Lithuanian, [f] has the following variants. 1. The hard, unrounded variant before the vowels [a, aː] and diphthongs [ai, au]. When pronouncing hard [f], the tongue does not touch the palate at all. 2. The hard, rounded variant before the vowels [oː, ɔ, u, uː] and diphthongs [ui, uo]. Between two rounded vowels it is bilabial. Both variants are characterized by frication (Fig. 184).

Fig. 183 ʋ′ [ʋ′áu]

57

Phoneme [f’]. This is a palatalized phoneme corresponding to the hard phoneme [f]. It is pronounced like the latter, differing only in that, when [f’] is pronounced, the central part of the back of the tongue rises toward the hard palate, as can be seen very clearly in Figs. 185 and 186. It occurs only in international words, most often before [ʊ, ɪ]. It has two variants: 1) a labialized one before [ʊ] and the like, and 2) an unlabialized one before [ɪ] and the like, i.e. front vowels.

tabula V.V.

Fig. 184

Fig. 185. f° [f’irma’re]

Fig. 186. f’ [f’ir­ma]

Both variants have the same degree of palatalization and fairly strong frication.

Phoneme [j]. This is a voiced fricative medial consonant. The tip of the tongue rests against the lower teeth, and its sides against the side teeth; the central part of the back of the tongue rises toward the hard palate, leaving a narrow gap along the midline (see Fig. 187). As air passes through this gap, it produces a faint hiss. The soft palate is raised, and the vocal cords vibrate. The phoneme [j] has two variants. 1. Before the vowels [a, a:, ɛ, e, ɪ, i:] and before [au, ɪe, æɪ] at the beginning and in the middle of a word, and also at the end of a word after any vowel or diphthong. It is unlabialized.

Fig. 187. j [javai]

2. A labialized [j] at the beginning and in the middle of a word before the vowels [ɔ, o:, ʊ, u:] and before [uo], and in the middle of a word before [u]. Between vowels, both variants are characterized by weak frication and high sonority, whereas at the beginning and end of a word they are less sonorous (see Fig. 188).

58

Both variants are characterized by the same degree of palatalization (see Figs. 189, 190).

Phoneme [x]. This is a voiceless, hard, posterior lingual fricative phoneme, pronounced by bringing the back part of the tongue dorsum close to the rear edge of the hard palate. The vocal cords do not vibrate. The soft palate is raised and closes the passage to the nasal cavity.

Fig. 188

Fig. 189 j [j̥]

Fig. 190 j° [j°õ]

The following combinatory variants are characteristic of phoneme [x].

1. Hard, non-labialized [x] occurs at the beginning and in the middle of international words before [a, a:, ai, au], and after any vowel in absolute word-final position. When [x] is pronounced, the tongue does not touch the palate at all, or touches it only very slightly.

2. Hard, labialized [x] occurs at the beginning and in the middle of a word before [ɔ, o:, u, u:] and [uo, ui].

This variant has the same degree of palatalization as the one indicated above (Fig. 191).

Phoneme [x’]. This is a palatalized phoneme corresponding to the hard [x]. It is pronounced like the latter, but with a strong additional raising of the middle of the tongue dorsum toward the hard palate (Figs. 192, 193).

Fig. 191 x° [x°ras]

Fig. 192 x’ [x’ərs°mēsas]

Fig. 193 x° [brax°ūra]

59

The phoneme [x’] occurs only in international words, most often before [ʊ] and before front vowels.

There are two variants of the phoneme [x’]: 1) non-labialized before [ɪ, ɛ] and other front vowels; 2) labialized before the vowel [ʊ]. Both variants are characterized by strong frication (fig. 194).

chaos S.V.

Fig. 194.

Phoneme [ɣ]. In Lithuanian, the phoneme [ɣ] is articulated similarly to [x], except that [x] is pronounced voiceless, whereas when [ɣ] is pronounced, the vocal cords vibrate.

Two variants of the phoneme [ɣ] must be distinguished: 1) a hard, non-labialized [ɣ] before the vowels [a, aː] and the diphthongs [ai, au]; 2) a hard, labialized variant before the vowels [ɔ, oː, u, uː] and the diphthong [ui]. Both variants are equally hard (fig. 195).

Fig. 195. γ° [γ°umai izmas]

Fig. 196. γ° [γ°uɡ°ɔ]

Fig. 197. γ’ [γ’idra]

Phoneme [ɣ’]. It is pronounced in the same way as [ɣ], but differs from the latter in the marked raising of the middle part of the dorsum of the tongue toward the hard palate (see figs. 196, 197).

It occurs before front vowels and before [ʊ]. There are two variants of the phoneme [ɣ]: 1) non-labialized before front vowels; 2) labialized before [ʊ]. Both variants are very soft. Frication is fairly strong (see fig. 198).

Hugo’s V.V.

Fig. 198.

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b) Fricative sonorants. In Lithuanian, the fricative sonorants are [l] and [l’]. As stated above, when stressed and bearing an accent, [l] and [l’] sometimes differ in duration.

In Lithuanian, [l] occurs at the beginning of a word before [a, aː; ɔ, oː; u, uː; ɪ, iː; ɛ, æ, e] and before [ai, au, ui, uo, ie, ei, ɛi], as well as after the consonants [k, g, p, b, s, š, z, ž], etc.

In the middle of a word, [l] occurs before all front and back vowels, before all diphthongs, and before the consonants [k, g, t, d, n, v, š, ž], etc.

At the end of a word, [l] occurs in only a few words, for example: [t°õ:l] tol and [k°õ:l] kol, [pak°õ:l] pakol, etc.

Fig. 199. l [lä:pas]

[l’] is used less frequently—at the beginning and in the middle of a word before the vowels [a, aː; ɔ, oː; u, uː] and before the diphthongs [au, uo, ui]. At the beginning and in the middle of a word, it occurs only after certain consonants, for example, after [k, g, š, ž, p, b], etc.

The soft [l’] does not occur at the end of a word in the literary language.

Phoneme [l]. This is a coronal apical lateral fricative velarized sonorant. It is articulated by pressing the tip of the tongue against the upper front teeth and the alveoli. The back of the tongue rises slightly; the sides of the tongue are not pressed against the side teeth, leaving a free passage for the air stream. The air stream escaping along the sides of the tongue produces a very weak friction noise. [l] and [l’] are called lateral sonorants. When [l] is articulated, the middle part of the tongue dorsum does not touch the hard palate (Fig. 199).

Fig. 200. l [lä:b°o:]

Fig. 201. l° [l’ū:pa]

The following combinatory allophones of the phoneme [l] occur:

1. The hard, dental, velarized, non-labialized [l] occurs in Lithuanian at the beginning and in the middle of a word before the vowels [a, aː] and the diphthongs [ai, au], as well as word-finally and in mixed diphthongs when followed by a hard consonant. This allophone is characterized by hardness—the tongue almost does not touch the hard palate (see Fig. 200).

2. Labialized [l] occurs before the vowels [ɔ, oː; u, uː] and before [ui, uo]. This allophone is characterized by the same hardness as the one mentioned above, as well as by velarization (Fig. 201).

61

3. Palatalized [ɪ̯] before front vowels and diphthongs. This [ɪ̯] is considerably softened (Figs. 202, 203).

The phoneme [ɪ] also has the following positional variants.

1. [ɪ] in mixed diphthongs in stressed and unstressed syllables. The duration of this [ɪ] is 9.32 σ on average.

2. [ɪ] in mixed diphthongs bearing the falling accent. The average duration of such [ɪ] is 10.08 σ.

3. [ɪ] in mixed diphthongs in which the rising accent falls on the second component. This variant of [ɪ] is the longest. Its duration is 15.9 σ on average.

4. [ɪ] in an unstressed mixed diphthong. The farther it is from the stressed syllable, the shorter it is. Its average duration is 9.68 σ.

Phoneme [ɪ̯]. This is a soft phoneme corresponding to the hard [ɪ]. Its pronunciation differs from that of [ɪ] in the raising of the middle part of the back of the tongue toward the hard palate (Fig. 204), which makes [ɪ̯] soft (Figs. 205, 206). [ɪ̯] is more fricative than [ɪ].

Fig. 202. ɪ [ɪ̯pa]

Fig. 203. ɪ [ɪ̯ɪːdɪ]

There are two combinatorial variants of the phoneme [ɪ̯]: 1) unrounded before the vowels [a, aː] and the diphthong [au], 2) rounded before [ɔ, oː, u, uː, uo, ui]. Both variants have the same degree of softness.

Since [ɪ̯] has approximately the same duration in stressed and unstressed syllables, its positional variants need not be distinguished; it is only necessary to note that the average duration of such [ɪ̯] is 10.72 σ.

3. Trilled sonorants.

[r] with the short vowels [a, ɛ, ɪ, ʊ] before a consonant or in absolute word-final position forms

Fig. 204. ɪ̯ [ɪ̯áu̯tɪs]

Fig. 205. ɪː [ɪːóːvɛsɪ]

Fig. 206. ɪː [ɪːūːrɪs]

62

a mixed diphthong, in which the length of [r] varies depending on stress and intonation. However, the length of [r] changes not through a change in the number of taps, but in the length of the false vowel. [r] with the circumflex intonation is longer, and shorter in other cases.

Since the false vowel cannot be very long, because its length is determined by its nature, the difference between the individual positional shades of the phoneme [r], as we shall see later, is small.

Lithuanian [r] and [r′] are identical at the beginning and in the middle of a word, except for [r] at the end of a word, where it has two taps.

The Lithuanian phoneme [r] is used quite frequently. At the beginning and in the middle of a word, it can occur before all front- and back-row vowels and before all diphthongs. In addition, at the beginning of a word it occurs after the consonants [k, g, t, d, p, b, s], etc., and in the middle of a word at the beginning of clusters such as, for example, in the words: [ɡarpsˈtʲiːtʲi] garbstyti, [bʲeržas] beržas, [pʲirkˈtʲi] pirkti, [pʲikˈčʲūrna] pikčiurna, [k°urkˈtʲi] kurkti, [vʲirkšˈčʲoːs] virkščios, [vʲiršˈtʲi] virsti, [k°urmis] kurmis, etc.

Fig. 207. r [rāːtas]

Word-final [r] is used only in adverbs [vʲis°ur] visur, [kʲit°ur] kitur, [dabar] dabar, in interrogative particles: [k°ur] kur, [ai] ar, and in conjunctions, for example, [ir] ir.

At the beginning of a word, [r] occurs before the vowels [oː, u, ū] and before the diphthong [au], as well as after the consonants [k, g, t, d, s], etc. In the middle of a word, it occurs before all back-row vowels and before [aɪ, au, uɪ, uo].

Word-final [r′] never occurs.

Phoneme [r]. A trilled, apical, voiced sonorant. In pronouncing it, the outgoing stream of air from the lungs makes the tense, upward-curled tip of the tongue vibrate. The body of the tongue lies flat (Fig. 207).

Fig. 208. r [ram°u]

The number of taps is limited: usually one, and two at the end of a word. [r] in Lithuanian is not a multiple-tap sound.

The phoneme [r] has the following combinatory variants.

1. [r] before the vowels [a, aː], the diphthongs [aɪ, au], and [r] at the beginning and in the middle of a word in mixed diphthongs, before the consonants indicated above.

The main features of this variant are hardness (Fig. 208) and a single trill; moreover, it is unrounded.

A rounded variant of the phoneme [r] occurs before the vowels [ɔ, oː, u, ū] and before [uɪ, uo]. This variant has the same degree of hardness as the one indicated above and a single trill. It differs from the other variants in its rounding.

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3. Palatalized [r], whose palatalization depends on the front vowel or diphthong following it [i, iː; e, æ, e, ɪe, ɛl, æɪ]. This variant differs from those indicated above in being softened and unrounded.

Fig. 209. ṙ [ṙita]

Fig. 210. ṙ [ṙiːas]

[r] is only slightly softened before [ɪ, ɛ, æ, e] (see Fig. 209), and more strongly before [iː] (Fig. 210). 4. [r] at the end of a word and in mixed diphthongs. This variant is characterized by hardness, is unrounded, and usually has more than one trill. The end of such an [r] often, but not always, becomes voiceless (see Fig. 211).

The phoneme [r] has the following positional variants. 1. [r] in non-mixed diphthongs in a stressed syllable or adjacent to one. The average duration of this [r] is 8.89 σ. 2. [r] in non-mixed diphthongs in the third or a more distant syllable from the stressed one. The average duration of such an [r] is 6 σ. 3. [r] in non-mixed diphthongs whose first element has a short or falling accent. The duration of [r] in the sequence [ir] is 7.68 σ, [ar]—7.65 σ, [er]—6.94 σ, [ur]—7.74 σ. 4. [r] in mixed diphthongs with a circumflex accent. This positional variant of the phoneme [r] is characterized by a longer non-syllabic vowel than in other cases. The average duration of such an [r] is 10.7 σ in the sequence [ar]; [ir]—10.36 σ, [er]—8.00 σ, [ur]—8.98 σ. 5. [r] in an unstressed mixed diphthong. Its duration in the sequence [ir] is 8.15 σ.

Fig. 211.

Phoneme [r’]. This is a soft phoneme, forming a pair with the hard [r]. It is pronounced like the first, but with an additional raising of the middle part of the back of the tongue toward the hard palate. This produces softness, which is clearly visible in Figs. 212 and 213.

Fig. 212. r’° [r’°õːks°oː]

Fig. 213. r’ [r’áuʃes]

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There are two combinatory variants of the phoneme [r′]: 1) unrounded [r′] before the vowels [a, aː] and the diphthong [au], 2) rounded [r′] before the vowels [oː, u, uː] and before [uɪ, uo]. Both variants are characterized by the same degree of palatalization (see Figs. 212, 213).

The phoneme [r′] has the following positional variants: 1) [r′] in a stressed syllable or in a syllable adjacent to a stressed syllable. The average duration of this [r′] is 9.53 σ; 2) [r′] in the third and subsequent syllables from the stressed syllable. The duration of this [r′] is approximately 5.95 σ.

THE COMPOSITION OF THE CONSONANT PHONEMES OF THE LITHUANIAN LITERARY LANGUAGE

В. А. ВАЙТКЯВИЧЮТЕ

Abstract

The article briefly outlines the main principles of general phonetics closely connected with questions concerning the phoneme. Drawing on these principles, it establishes that the Lithuanian literary language has 45 consonant phonemes: 24 stops, 19 fricatives, and 2 trills. Six fricative phonemes [f, f′, x, x′, γ, γ′] and two stop phonemes [t′, d′] in the Lithuanian literary language are borrowed from foreign languages and occur only in foreign words.

The article presents a classification of consonant phonemes according to the active articulator and manner of articulation.

All consonants, except [j], are divided into two large groups—hard and soft phonemes.

Experiments show that consonants before front vowels [i, e, æ, ε] and diphthongs [ie, ei, æi] are always less palatalized than their corresponding soft consonants before back vowels, which indicates the assimilative nature of the palatalization of the former. The only exceptions are affricates and the consonants [f, x, γ], among which only hard and soft consonants are clearly distinguished.

However, the other consonants before the vowel [iː] usually differ little or not at all from the corresponding soft consonant. In this case, the absence of such a clear difference between a palatalized and a soft consonant should be attributed not to the nature of the palatalized consonant, whose softness depends only on its position, but to the vowel [iː], which in Lithuanian has the highest tongue height. Apparently, [iː] therefore draws consonants closer to the soft ones. Some soft consonants, however, such as [k′, g′, n′], are so soft that they approach palatal consonants, whereas before [iː] their palatalization is comparatively weaker. Consequently, even before [iː], as before the other front vowels, the palatalized [k, g] and [n] are undoubtedly variants of hard consonant phonemes.

5. Kalbotyros klausimai

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Consonants before front vowels cannot be classified as soft phonemes or considered softened variants of soft phonemes, since in that case the softened variants would have to be more palatalized than the soft phonemes. In fact, this is not so. It is possible to explain why consonants before back vowels have a higher tongue position than before front vowels, and what force causes the tongue to rise higher before back vowels than before front vowels, only if we recognize that soft consonants before back vowels are phonetically independent—autonomous phonemes.

Further on, the article describes all the consonant phonemes and indicates their variants.

The descriptions show that a distinctive feature of the Lithuanian language is the exclusively apical pronunciation of consonant phonemes and the complete absence of dorsal and cacuminal pronunciation.