STEFANO M. LANZA

Vytautas Magnus University

MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF ITALIANISMS IN LITHUANIAN

KEYWORDS: loanword adaptation, morphological marking, Italianisms.

INTRODUCTION

The word Italianism is not a common term in Lithuanian linguistics. Major dictionaries of international words give the following definition: a word or expression borrowed from Italian¹. The author has already discussed various problematic aspects of this definition (Lanza 2010a: 24 ff.), and in this article Italianisms are understood in the broad sense as all words whose source is Italian, regardless of whether they entered Lithuanian directly or through intermediary languages. It goes without saying that the longer a word’s journey, the more difficult it is to explain its relationship to the source: the relationship between the original and borrowed forms of a word is the result of all the intervening interactions. Older loanwords, already established in the Lithuanian lexicon, have undergone significant changes in their phonetic and morphological structure. Comparative analysis of the morphological systems of the different languages involved in the borrowing process often makes it possible to determine whether these changes are regular and also helps establish which languages have influenced a given loanword. This is very important from the perspective of language history and etymology. On the other hand, when adapting new loanwords, which generally enter Lithuanian directly, comparison of the morphological systems of Italian and Lithuanian can have considerable practical significance, especially for language planners.

Gana išsamiai skolinių morfologinį adaptavimą yra aprašiusi Adelė Valeckienė (1967). Kalbininkė taikliai pastebėjo, kad „kitų kalbų kilmės žodžiai paprastai pritaikomi prie lietuvių kalbos morfologinės sistemos: daiktavardžių sutampančios galūnės paliekamos, lietuvių kalbai nebūdingos galūnės atmetamos, ir vietoj jų pridedamos labiausiai jas atitinkančios lietuviškos. [...] Lietuvių kalboje kitų kalbų kilmės daiktavardžiai gauna „stipriųjų“ linksniavimų galūnes, dažniausiai vyr. g. –as, –is (kilm. –io), mot. g. –a, –ė“ (1967: 128).

¹ This is how, word for word, both TŽŽ 2008 and VV TŽŽ explain the Italianism.

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Italian words are characterized by vowel endings, which are generally unchanged². The most common singular endings of nouns are –a and –o, which developed from the first and second Latin declensions and respectively indicate feminine and masculine gender (e.g., Latin rosa(m) ‘rose’ > Italian rosa; Latin lupu(m) ‘wolf’ > Italian lupo³). The ending –e, which occurs twice as often, is characteristic of words of both genders (e.g., madre ‘mother’; padre ‘father’). The endings –i and –u are very rare; they indicate neither gender nor number and are more often characteristic of loanwords. The principal plural endings are –e (from singular –a) and –i (from singular –o, –e, and sometimes also –a).

The borrowed lexicon from Italian is discussed below according to Italian endings, with the aim of revealing the stages through which loanwords entered Lithuanian, highlighting regular morphological changes, and identifying and considering several problematic cases. Certain cases in which forms differ in gender or number are described separately. Although nouns make up the largest share of Italianisms, other inflected parts of speech have also been borrowed. Their morphological adaptation is likewise discussed separately. The data are taken from the Dictionary of Italianisms in the Lithuanian Language (hereafter LKIS), which contains 936 Italianisms (for more on its composition, specific features, and compilation methods, see Lanza 2010a: 105 ff.).

ADAPTATION OF ITALIAN NOUNS ENDING IN -A

When an Italian word loses its ending –a in the intermediary language and ends in a hard consonant⁴, it usually receives the ending –as when adapted into Lithuanian (cf. Valeckienė 1967: 112), e.g.: bancarotta > bankrotas (German Bankrott), porcellana > porcelianas (German Porzellan), spaccata > špagatas (German Spagat), cupola > kupolas (Russian купол), fontana > fontanas (Russian фонтан), tarantola > tarantulas (Russian тарантул), torta > tortas (Russian торт), banca > bankas (Russian

² Exceptions mainly comprise function words (e.g., articles il, un, prepositions con, per, etc.), loanwords (e.g., sport ‘sport’, film ‘film’), and a few other individual lexical items with unusual word formation.

³ Most often, the form of an Italian word is based on the accusative of the corresponding Latin word.

⁴ The terms “hard consonant” and “soft consonant” are appropriate when speaking of Lithuanian, Polish, and Russian. This articulatory feature is not characteristic of languages such as Italian (and, in part, French, English, and German) (incidentally, A. Valeckienė does not mention this at all). Italian consonants are not palatalized: when articulating them, the tongue does not rise toward the palate at all. A slight raising of the tongue is characteristic only of the phonemes /l/, /ʎ/, and /ɲ/, so only in their realization could one speak—and even then only in a qualified sense—of soft consonants in Italian.

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bank, German Bank, Polish bank), polizza > polisas (French police), risalita > rizalitas (German Risalit, Polish ryzalit), spinetta > spinetas (German Spinett, Polish szpinet).

When an Italian word loses the ending –a in an intermediary language and a soft consonant is pronounced at the end, in Lithuanian it takes either the masculine ending –is (cf. Valeckienė 1967: 115), e.g., medaglia > medalis (French médaille, Polish medal), or the feminine ending -ė, e.g.: caravella > karavelė (French caravelle), carmagnola > karmanjolė (French carmagnole).

Indeed, in many cases the ending -a of Italian words could have become -ė under the influence of German (cf. Valeckienė 1967: 121), e.g.: arietta > arijetė (German Ariette), barcarola > barkarolė (German Barkarole), fughetta > fugetė (German Fugette), bagattella > bagatelė (German Bagatelle), berretta > beretė (German Berette), fumarola > fumarolė⁵ (German Fumarole), novella > novelė (German Novelle), operetta > operetė (German Operette), sardina > sardinė (German Sardine), cittadella > citadelė (German Zitadelle). And staffetta > estafetė was borrowed through the French estafette.

Polish usually retains the ending -a, so it is difficult to determine whether a word was borrowed through Polish or directly. There are many such words, e.g.: acquatinta > akvatinta (Polish akw tinta), bravura > bravūra (Polish brawura), campagna > kampanija (Polish kampania), firma > firma (Polish firma), guardia > gvardija (Polish gwardija), loggia > lodžija (Polish lodzia), malaria > maliarija (Polish malaria), sottana > sutana (Polish sutanna), tara > tara (Polish tara), and so on.⁶ The word kaliarope, borrowed through Polish (Polish kalarepa, from Italian cavolo rapa), is a rare example of choosing an ending entirely independently of other languages. The word was adapted by analogy: the unclear element kala- was retained (cf. kalafioras, Italian cavolfiore from cavolo fiore), while the element r(z)epa (that is, ropė, Italian rapa) was simply translated using its Lithuanian equivalent (see Fraenkel 1962 sub voce).

When a word is borrowed directly (most often through the written language), as is particularly common with recent loanwords, the ending –a is retained, e.g.: grappa (Italian grappa), mafija (Italian mafia), mocarela (Italian mozzarella), pica (Italian pizza).

When a word denotes a female person, the ending –a usually remains (cf.: ballerina > balerina, diva > diva, madonna > madona, primadonna > primadona, signora > sinjora, signorina > sinjorina); –ė occurs less frequently (cf.: dogaresa > dogaressė, favorita > favoritė, cortigiana > kurtizanė⁷; see also below).

⁵ TŽŽ 1936 and TŽŽ 1951 give fumarolas.

⁶ Polish mediation may be indicated by a shift of stress to the penultimate syllable, e.g., Italian góndola > Polish gondola > Lithuanian genitive singular gondòlos.

⁷ The form favoritė is explained by its opposition to the masculine favoritas (from Italian favorito); kurtizanė reflects the influence of other languages (cf. French courtisane, German Kurtisane).

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Italian words with the international -ista ending, which denotes both genders (from Latin -ista(m), itself from Greek -ιστης), invariably take the ending -istas in Lithuanian (feminine -istė), e.g.: fascista > fašistas, -ė, novellista > novelistas, -ė, solista > solistas, -ė⁸, or just -istė when the word denotes only a female person, e.g.: camerista > kameristė.

ADAPTATION OF ITALIAN NOUNS ENDING IN -E, -O

The observations set out above concerning the ending -a may also help explain the features of adapting the endings -e (and, in part, -o) of Italian words. When dropping an Italian word’s ending leaves a hard consonant at the end, the loanword takes the ending -as in Lithuanian, e.g.: (from Italian -e) allarme > aliarmas (Polish alarm), arsenale > arsenalas (Polish arsenał, Russian арсенал), balcone > balkonas (Polish balkon, Russian балкон), cornice > karnizas (Russian карниз), finale > finalas (Russian финал), maggiore > mažoras (French majeur, Russian мажор), marzapane > marcipanas (German Marzipan), pallone, dialectal ballone > balionas (French ballon, Polish balon), tenore > tenoras (Polish tenor); (from Italian -o) accordo > akordas (German Akkord, Polish akord), barocco > barokas (German Barock), cardano > kardanas (Polish kardan), duetto > duetas (Polish duet, Russian дуэт), colorito > koloritas (Polish koloryt), libretto > libretas (Russian либретто), quartetto > kvartetas (German Quartett, Polish kwartet), sonetto > sonetas (German Sonett, Polish sonet, Russian сонет), soprano > sopranas (German Sopran, Polish sopran, Russian сопрано)⁹.

When dropping the ending leaves a soft consonant pronounced at the end of the Italian word stem, the loanword takes either the masculine ending -is in Lithuanian, e.g.: (from Italian -e) bemolle > bemolis (French bémol); (from Italian -o) modello > modelis (Polish model), profilo > profilis (French profil), zoccolo > cokolis (Russian цоколь), or the feminine ending -ė, e.g.: acquarello > akvarelė (French acquarelle, German Aquarell, Russian акварель), pastello > pastelė (French pastel, Russian пастель), trillo > trelė (Russian трель), violoncello > violončelė (Russian виолончель).

⁸ Alongside these (not in LKIS) one should mention baristas -ė (‘coffee-preparation specialist’, although in Italian it simply means bartender), which was very recently included in the List of Equivalents for Foreign Words, approved by a resolution recorded in the minutes of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (hereafter VLKK), 2011-04-07, No. PN-4.

⁹ Some of these Italianisms, especially musical terms, could also be direct borrowings (cf. Valeckienė 1967: 114).

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Words with endings of Latin origin –ario, –iere (both from Late Latin –arius) and –tore (from the Latin suffix accusative –tore(m)) never retain the endings –o and –e themselves. Such words traditionally take, respectively, the endings –ijus and –ius (–ė), e.g.: impresario > impresarijus, scenario > scenarijus, cavaliere > kavalierius, accompagnatore > akompaniatorius, improvvisatore > improvizatorius, investitore > investitorius, registratore > registratorius, stiratore > stiratorius. The Lithuanian kurjeris, which differs from the source form (Italian corriere), can be explained by mediation through French or—more likely—Polish (cf. French courrier, Polish kurier). Occasionally, irregularly, –iere becomes –jeras, e.g.: bersagliere > bersaljeras, gondoliere > gondolieras¹⁰.

In isolated cases, the Italian masculine ending –o is replaced by Lithuanian –a, e.g.: contrabbando > kontrabanda, mandolino > mandolina, mosaico > mozaika (undoubtedly, some Slavic language must have had an influence here; cf. Polish kontrabanda, mandolina, mozaika, Russian контрабанда, мандолина), more rarely Lithuanian –ė, e.g. grupė (the sequence of phonetic changes here is rather complex: Italian gruppo > French groupe [gru:p] > German Gruppe [gruppe] > Lithuanian grupė, cf. Stammerjohann 2008 sub voce).

Somewhat less often, the Italian ending –e is rendered as Lithuanian –ė. On the basis of the patterns described and LKIS data, it can be argued that this is characteristic mainly of recently acquired loanwords, which may have entered Lithuanian directly, especially through the written language. With the exception of dučė (Italian duce), čičeronė (Italian cicerone), and saltomortalė (Italian salto mortale), the other Italianisms in which the ending –ė is adapted from –e began to be used or were recorded in dictionaries¹¹ only very recently, e.g.: bienalė < Italian biennale, kvadrienalė < Italian quadriennale, trienalė < Italian triennale, latė < Italian latte, maskarponė < Italian mascarpone, provolonė < Italian provolone.

The nominative ending –o is uncharacteristic of Lithuanian. Since it does not fit the declension system, loanwords with the original –o must be made declinable by adding the Lithuanian ending –as (cf. KP G: 64). Some accepted (codified) exceptions are precisely loanwords from Italian (cf. Pakerys 1991), such as ažio (Italian aggio), belkanto (Italian bel canto), bruto (Italian brutto), fiasko (Italian fiasco), franko (Italian franco), inkaso (Italian incasso), kapričo (Italian capriccio), maestro (Italian maestro), moto (Italian motto), neto (Italian netto), saldo (Italian saldo), salto (Italian salto), solfedžio (Italian solfeggio), storno (Italian storno). No arguments could be found in the theoretical literature as to why these words should not enter the declinable—

¹⁰ But gonfaloniere > gonfalonieras (TŽŽ 2008).

¹¹ Some of them are extremely rarely used. For example, kampanilė (Italian campanile) was recorded only once in the Corpus of the Lithuanian Language, whereas kasonė (Italian cassone) and kolašonė (Italian colascione) were not recorded at all.

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class of borrowed words. And indeed kapričas, maestras and saldas occur in usage; lacas and impresarijus, which were still indeclinable in TŽŽ 1951 (lāco, impresārio), are now morphologically integrated. They remain indeclinable in some cases, apparently because they are rare (ažio, franko, inkaso, storno), in others because of long-standing usage tradition (bruto, fiasko, moto, neto, salto), or for semantic reasons (kapričo, solfedžio remain indeclinable12, like most musical terms).

ADAPTATION OF ITALIAN NOUNS WITH OTHER ENDINGS

In Italian, the ending -i is generally the plural ending for both genders, with singular -o, -e. A word’s plural form may be borrowed when its referent is a group of people or things that are rarely found individually. The former include social groups, political and other groupings (čompiai, gibelinaI, gvelfai, ladzarionai, popolaniai) and monastic orders (celestinai, kamalduliai, oratorionai, pasionistai); among things, several pasta names are noteworthy (ravioliai, spagečiai), a few types of documents (kredencialai, portolanai), and one or two other words (grafitai13, pocolanai). As the examples show, no pattern emerges in the selection of a Lithuanian ending with regard to the quality of the stem-final consonant (Italian lazzaroni takes a palatalized n; Italian popolani takes a non-palatalized n; Italian ravioli takes a palatalized l; Italian credenziali takes a non-palatalized l). The Italian ending -i is retained intact—that is, it does not form a diphthong in Lithuanian—only in the word konfeti (cf. confetti)14.

Sometimes adaptation is based on the original plural form, but that form is interpreted as singular, e.g.: broccoli (Italian singular broccolo) – brokolis, salami (Italian singular salame) – saliamis and, apparently, paparazzi (Italian singular paparazzo) – paparacis15. The choice of the ending –is is regular here, naturally replacing the final unstressed -i (cf. Valeckienė 1967: 115).

There are few Italian words with the singular ending -i. Borrowings are mostly recent, and, with one or two exceptions (kiantis < chianti, papatačis < pappataci), all denote products whose Italian names acquire the final -i from ga-

12 Indeed, the form solfedis sometimes occurs in usage, formed by analogy with words of the -ia stem class, by interpreting solfedžio as a singular genitive (solfedžio < solfedis, like medžio < medis).

13 The recommended List of Equivalents for Foreign Words, approved by VLKK protocol resolution No. PN–4 on 2011–04–07, proposes the plural form grafičiai. Editor’s note.

14 DLKG₄ (p. 82) gives spageti as the standard form, although some linguists correct it elsewhere.

15 Formų paparacis ir paparacas konkurencingumą yra nagrinėjusi L.Vaicekauskienė (2007: 178–179).

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…inventor’s surname, cf.: bugatis < Bugatti, feraris < Ferrari, kamparis < Campari, lamborginis < Lamborghini, martinis < Martini¹⁶.

The Italian singular buttafuori ‘stagehand, theatre usher’ entered Lithuanian (butaforija) via Russian бутафория. In Italian, it is not used with the meaning ‘stage props’.

The ending -u (usually -ù) is very rare in both Italian and Lithuanian. The only recorded Italianism ending in -u is the untranslated name of a dessert, tiramisù¹⁷.

The sole word ending in a consonant is fiat, derived from the acronym FIAT (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino ‘Turin Italian Automobile Factory’). The Italian feminine noun fiat first became a brand name and then, metonymically, came to denote any car of that make¹⁸. There are various ways to explain why Lithuanian fiatas acquired the ending -as. In the absence of a clear original feminine ending, -as functions both as an unmarked ending and as the most characteristic Lithuanian masculine ending (cf. Valeckienė 1967: 128). In addition, phonetically -as is the more natural ending after a hard consonant. Finally, fiatas is associated with the hypernym automobilis, which is also masculine (for more on the perception of the gender of loanwords, cf. Vaicekauskienė 2007: 170 ff.).

CASES OF MISMATCH BETWEEN THE GENDER AND NUMBER OF THE ORIGINAL AND THE BORROWED FORMS

As noted, when a word is borrowed, the grammatical meaning of its ending may change for various reasons. A given ending may not exist in the borrowing language, may be rare, or may have a different grammatical meaning. For example, in Polish, German, and Russian, consonant endings are characteristic of masculine and neuter nouns, so an Italian vowel ending is often dropped as non-systematic. On the other hand, when a loanword’s gender is motivated, in the borrowing language...

¹⁶ Italian surnames ending in -i are common; this is simply the plural form. For example, Ferrari derives from the Italian dialectal ferraro ‘blacksmith’.

¹⁷ Such a name should be understood figuratively as ‘lift my spirits’, ‘help me recover’, and so on. See also Lanza 2010b. The recommendatory List of Equivalents for Foreign Words, approved by VLKK resolution No. PN-4 of 2011-04-07, proposes the equivalents tiramis 2, tiramisù. Editor's note.

¹⁸ A neologism, brandonym, could be proposed to designate this category of proper names used metonymically. It would refer to a registered trademark, brand name, inventor’s surname, or similar word that has become a common noun. This typology of borrowings was first described by the Italian linguist B. Migliorini (1927).

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in the language, a suffix can acquire a less common grammatical meaning; for example, Lithuanian Brigela, dučė, kazanova, podesta and Pulčinela, all denoting male persons, are undoubtedly masculine. When an Italianism is not adapted, the principles for assigning gender in Lithuanian are fairly clear. The ending -a is understood as feminine, -o, -i, -u as masculine¹⁹.

When a loanword is borrowed indirectly, it is morphologically adapted in Lithuanian regardless of the original’s authentic form. Cases of gender-category mismatch can therefore be explained by intermediary forms; cf. Italian feminine torta > Russian masculine mопт > Lithuanian masculine tortas; Italian masculine violoncello > Russian feminine виолончель > Lithuanian feminine violončėlė; Italian masculine mosaico > Polish feminine mozaika > Lithuanian feminine mozaika; Italian feminine palafitta > Polish masculine palafit > Lithuanian masculine palafitas; Italian masculine brigantino > Provençal feminine brigantine > Lithuanian feminine brigantina; Italian feminine porcellana > German neuter Porzellan > Lithuanian masculine porcelianas.

When a loanword was most likely borrowed directly, usually through written language, the Italian basic masculine and feminine endings -a and -o are equated with the corresponding Lithuanian endings -a and -as; cf. mafia > mafija, mozzarella > mocarela, cappuccino > kapučinas, espresso > espresas, and so on²⁰. Only when the Italian ending -e, shared by both genders, is rendered by Lithuanian -ė, ordinarily feminine, do gender mismatches arise. Thus the already codified name of the cheese maskarponė is clearly based on Italian spelling (cf. mascarpone), although the Italian word is masculine, and the hard stem-final sound (here [n]) would correspond better to the ending -as. Moreover, the form maskarponas (as well as provolonas, from Italian provolone, and the rare kolašonas, kesonas) is much better, also from the perspective of the system, because of the ending -one, and fits with the existing balkonas (< Italian balcone), frontonas (< Italian frontone), kartonas (< Italian cartone), trombonas (< Italian trombone), and vazonas (< Italian vasone)²¹. Even more doubt is raised by the Italian…

¹⁹ For loans from other languages, in which vocalic endings are less common, the principles for assigning gender are more complex (cf. Vaicekauskienė 2007: 170 ff.).

²⁰ This also applies to symbolic names; cf. R. Vaskelaitė’s observation: “one can note a tendency to use feminine adjectives with those symbolic names whose ending resembles the ending of feminine nouns. [...] These examples certainly show a certain syntactic expression of gender in symbolic nouns: [...] The mafia boss T.B. died, the first to turn his back on the infamous Sicilian ‘Cosa nostra’ and to tell law-enforcement authorities its secret R 2000 12 29” (Vaskelaitė 2003: 47).

²¹ Maskarponas is more systematic also when the principles of word formation are taken into account. The ending -one is indeed an augmentative suffix in Italian. Just as Italian cartone (from car-ta ‘paper’ + -one) means ‘large, thick paper’, Italian trombone (from tromba ‘trumpet’ + -one) means ‘large trumpet’, and Italian vasone (from vaso ‘vase’ + -one) means ‘large vase’, the word mascarpone (older form: mascherpone, from mascherpa ‘lean curd cheese’ + -one) means ‘large, fatty mascherpa cheese’.

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masculine latte ‘milk’ adapted as latė. But the question here is not whether the ending was chosen correctly, but whether Lithuanian needs such a loanword at all²². Cases of number-category mismatch are rare. Apart from the aforementioned loanwords such as brokolis, where the Italian plural provides the basis for the Lithuanian singular form (to these one can also add Lithuanian pomidoras > from the old Italian plural pomi d’oro ‘golden apples’), the only evidence of number mismatch is the fairly rare word maremai (from Italian singular feminine maremma ‘marshy region on the Tyrrhenian coast’)²³.

MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH

Since most loanwords arise from the need to name a new reality, a physical object, and so on, Italianisms belonging to other parts of speech are uncommon. According to LKIS data, nouns make up 84.4 percent of all Italianisms in Lithuanian, while other inflected words account for only about 2 percent²⁴. Of the latter, the most important are two numerals—nulis (from Italian nulla ‘zero quantity’, via German Null) and milijonas (from Italian milione ‘a large thousand’, probably via German Million). As can be seen, they were adapted regularly: the ending –is was added to the soft stem-final l, and the ending –as to the hard n (cf. what was said earlier about nouns).

Borrowed adjectives are also rare. Only grandiozinis or grandioziškas (cf. Italian grandioso), makaroniškas (cf. Italian maccheronesco, maccheronico), merkan-tilinis (cf. Italian mercantile), pastozinis or pastoziskas (cf. Italian pastoso). The adjective-forming suffixes –inis and –iškas are highly productive in Lithuanian (cf. DLKG₄ 207–210), so this morphological formation is regular. It cannot be ruled out that the suffix –iškas itself is related to Italian –esco and –ico (cf. Skardžius 1943: §96).

Twelve verbs are included in LKIS²⁵. Both autonomous Lithuanian derivatives formed from loanwords (e.g., inkaso > inkasuoti, koncertas > koncertuo-ti, tara > taruoti) and genuine loanwords take the suffix –uoti²⁶. Indeed, the only…

²² In Italian, this milk-and-coffee drink is called caffellatte (also caffellatte or caffè e latte), not latte. It is simply coffee with milk, or milk with coffee (the latter may be more accurate, since it contains more milk than coffee). Presumably Lithuanian latė (initially used—and still encountered in some places—in the morphologically unformed, phonetically unusual form latè) was merely an abbreviation of caffè e latte, since the single word latte means milk, not a milk-and-coffee drink.

²³Maremai was first recorded in TŽŽ 1969, translated from Russian. The more accurate form marema was given in TŽŽ 1936.

²⁴ The remaining approximately 14 percent consists of adverbs (120 found) and interjections (6 found). The large number of adverbs is due to the abundance of loanwords in musical terminology denoting performance instructions.

²⁵ Apie keblumus kilndinant ir klasifikuojant veiksmažodžius žr. Lanza 2010a: 84.

²⁶ It appears that –uoti is the most common suffix for verbs formed from loanwords (cf. Vaicekauskienė 2007: 196).

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The word ending in balotiruotis has no Lithuanian base word, so there can be no doubt that it is a borrowing. Borrowed by the French from Italian, it reached Lithuanian via Russian (cf. It. ballottare > Fr. ballotter > Russ. баллотироваться). The current established reflexive form (instead of balotiruoti, given in TŽŽ 1936 and TŽŽ 1951) was either formed by analogy of meaning with kandidatuotis, or, more likely, adopted by copying Russian.

The isolated slang verb form kapiš (sometimes kapisch, capisc) was probably taken from the threatening expression capeesh [ka’piːʃ] in American English, which derives from the Italian present-tense second-person form capisci [ka’piʃi] (infinitive capire ‘to understand’). In any case, it would be better to treat this form as an interjection, since it is not morphologically formed²⁷.

SUMMARY

Throughout history, as the Lithuanian lands were surrounded by more powerful neighbors or at least by neighbors with larger populations, there could be no long-standing contacts between Lithuanians and the geographically distant Italian language, except sporadic, indirect ones. Linguistic data also attest to this. Italian loanwords entered Lithuanian through intermediary languages: until the nineteenth century, through Polish and German, and later through Russian. The morphological integration of Italianisms followed fairly consistent patterns, according to clear phonetic criteria (taking account chiefly of the word ending or phonetic features at the end of the stem) and usually without relying on the form in the source language. Influenced by other languages, Italianisms acquired new linguistic features, which now often make it possible to identify the route by which the loanwords entered Lithuanian²⁸.

A comparison of the systems of Italian and Lithuanian is important not for standardizing loanwords that have been established for some time and are already widely used, but newer ones that have not yet appeared in normative dictionaries. Modern technology is greatly accelerating interaction between languages, and words can quickly pass directly from one language to another in their original form. It should therefore be expected that the role of intermediary languages will diminish, making the question of adapting loanwords particularly pertinent.

²⁷ This is supported by analogy with another Italianism, basta, which, having lost its connection with the verb, essentially functions in the language as an interjection. Even in Italian, the ending -a is hardly perceived anymore as the ending of the third-person present-tense form of the verb bastare ‘to be enough’ (basta! means enough!).

²⁸ It is also possible to determine which language a loanword did not come through. For example, since it has been established that the Lithuanian ending -is is added after a soft stem-final -l, cokolis must have entered Lithuanian via Russian (цоколь), and not via Polish (cf. cokół).

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Although established guidelines for adapting loanwords into Lithuanian and the relative compatibility of Italian and Lithuanian ending systems facilitate morphological adaptation, mechanically applicable rules cannot be formulated. If, after examining a loanword’s meaning and usage, it becomes clear that Lithuanian cannot do without it, the process of selecting an ending must be closely tied to adapting the word’s phonetic structure (and therefore its spelling) to Lithuanian. Unfortunately, there is not always enough time, resources, and expertise, and as a result even the VLKK’s recommendatory lists include the occasional foreign word that has been adapted very poorly²⁹.

The only way to address the adaptation of foreign words effectively is to strengthen cooperation between language standardizers and specialists in foreign languages and Lithuanian.

LITERATŪRA

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²⁹ Į tokių skolinių, kaip tiramisas, čiabata, karpačas, latė, fokacija, adaptavimą šio straipsnio autor(i)us yra mėginęs atkreipti dėmesį tiek viešai (plg. Lanza 2010b), tiek susirašinėdamas su kalbos norminimo institucijos specialistais.

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Gauta 2011 11 15

MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF ITALIAN LOAN WORDS IN LITHUANIAN

Summary

The paper overviews Italian loan words adopted in Lithuanian from the point of view of morphological adaptation. The lexis borrowed from Italian is discussed considering Italian inflections and illustrating the periods when the loan words were adopted, highlighting regular morphological changes, discussing several problematic issues. Most of loan words are nouns; they are introduced alongside the features of morphological adaptation of other parts of speech as well. Previous research into the lexicon and a large number of examples demonstrate that the adaptation of Italian loan words has been rather smooth and regular, following certain established phonetic criteria (mostly phonetic peculiarities of inflections and stem-final elements); usually without reference to the original form. In the course of time, under the influence of intermediate languages, mainly Slavic, Italian loan words have acquired linguistic features, which now often help identify their way to the Lithuanian language. However, modern technological developments have eased the interaction between languages, which is why the role of intermediate languages tends to decrease. Hence the question of adapting loan words becomes topical. The paper argues that attempting to cope with the issues of adapting new loan words, more research is needed into the phonetic and morphological features of the word in the language of origin. For that purpose, specialists of Lithuanian and other languages should work together.

KEY WORDS: adaptation of loan words, morphological adaptation, Italian loan words.

STEFANO M. LANZA

Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas

K. Donelaičio g. 52–206, LT-44244 Kaunas

[email protected]

S. M. LANZA. Morfologinė italizmų adaptacija lietuvių kalboje

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