Shifts in Declension
There are few words which are sometimes declined mistakenly in other declensions. But some of the shifts are not rare: a word pats besides sg. gen. paties is often said pačio and these two forms of sg. gen. are equal. Some words have parallel forms from other declensions with a little change in a meaning: dukra, dukros; sesė, sesės; palikuonis, -io, palikuonė, -ės. The forms sesė and dukra are more like unformal, than duktė, -ers and sesuo, -ers. For the word moteris the form motera were existent in dialects, but it is, differently from dukra, sesė cases, only a formal shift of declension without a meaning variation and such word would be perceived as a vernacularism and obsolete.
The forms from the two more declensions sometimes occur in a speech for the masculine words of the fifth declension: of the third and of the first declensions. Similar case is with the masculine words of the third declension – they are sometimes declined in the first declension (because singular nominative is the same). Such a shift is a mistake of declension. For example a word akmuo, akmens can have the forms (third d.) (sg. nom., sg. gen.) akmenis, akmenies – more like older dialectal not used widely and a little likely to be heard in a speech – and (first d.) akmenis, akmenio; akmenys, akmenio; akmenas, akmeno – sometimes said by the speakers, who don't know the fifth declension well, for example, children. But these variants are possibly also present as dialectal forms. The other examples which are sometimes used by some, but not fit are: rudenio (rudens), šunio (šuns, šunies) etc. Examples of migrants from the third declension (-is, -ies) are, for example, dantis, dančio instead of dantis, danties. Such use like akmenas, akmeno; dančio; šunio; rudenio; is a clear mistake and is not accepted. A case of petys, pečio instead of petys, peties is also a mistake, but petys is the only one -ys (instead of -is) form declined in the third declension and consequentely tends to be declined like all other -ys words (of the first declension).
For the word mėnuo / mėnesis the proper form is sg. gen. mėnesio etc. (sg. gen. mėnesies is known in dialects). The genitive of the word pats is paties, but it is also frequently said pačio. Some of the cases of the word pats are of the third adjectival declension, some – sg. nom. -s (< -is), sg. gen. -ies (also -io, like in respective adjectives) and pl. nom. -ys – of the third noun declension.
Some of the nouns occur in another declensional type only in one case. All these cases are more like dialectal and older. For example seseris can be said seseria in dialects, but the genitive remains sesers; (older) motė, moters, but also a migrant form: (older) motė, motės. The dialectal and older form sesuva (a type of sesuo), for example, can remain in the original paradigm with sg. gen. sesers or shift to the -a declension: sesuva, sesuvos.
Read more about this topic: Lithuanian Declension, Irregular Declension
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