Samogitian Dialect - Linguistic Differences Between Samogitian and Standard Lithuanian

Linguistic Differences Between Samogitian and Standard Lithuanian

Samogitian differs from Standard Lithuanian in phonetics, lexicon, syntax and morphology.

Phonetic differences from standard Lithuanian are varied, each Samogitian subdialect (West, North and South) has different reflections.

Standard Lithuanian → Samogitian

• i → short ė, sometimes e;
• u → short o (in some cases u);
• ė → ie;
• o → uo;
• ie → long ė, ėi, ī (y) (West, North and South);
• uo → ō, ou, ū (West, North and South);
• ai → ā ;
• ei, iai → ē;
• ui → oi;
• oi (oj) → uo;
• an → on (an in south-east);
• un → on (un in south-east);
• ą → an in south-eastern, on in the central region and ō or ou in the north;
• ę → en in south-eastern, ėn in the central region and õ, ō or ėi in the north;
• ū → ū (in some cases un, um);
• ų in stressed endings → un and um;
• unstressed ų → o;
• y → ī (y), sometimes in;
• i from ancient ī → ī;
• u from ancient ō (Lithuanian uo) → ō, ou, ū(West, North and South)
• i from ancient ei (Lithuanian ie) → long ė, ėi, ī (West, North and South)
• č → t (also č under Lithuanian influence);
• dž → d (also dž under Lithuanian influence);
• ia → ė (somewhere between i and e);
• io → ė (somewhere between i and e);
• unstressed ią → ė (somewhere between i and e);

The main difference between Samogitian and standard Lithuanian is verb conjugation. The past iterative tense is formed differently from Lithuanian (e.g., in Lithuanian the past iterative tense, meaning that action which was done in the past repeatedly, is made by removing the ending -ti and adding -davo (mirti – mirdavo, pūti – pūdavo), while in Samogitian, the word liuob is added instead before the word). The second verb conjugation is extinct in Samogitian, it merged with the first one. The plural reflexive ending is -muos instead of expected -mies which is in standard Lithuanian (-mės) and other dialects. Samogitian preserved a lot of relics of athematic conjugation which did not survive in standard Lithuanian. The intonation in the future tense third person is the same as in the infinitive, in standard Lithuanian it shifts. The subjunctive conjugation is different from standard Lithuanian. Dual is preserved perfectly while in standard Lithuanian it has been completely lost.

The differences between nominals are considerable too. The fifth noun declension has almost become extinct, it merged with the third one. The plural and some singular cases of the fourth declension have endings of the first one (e.g.: singular nominative sūnos, plural nom. sūnā, in standard Lithuanian: sg. nom. sūnus, pl. nom. sūnūs). The neuter of adjectives is extinct (it was pushed out by adverbs, except šėlt 'warm', šalt 'cold', karšt 'hot') while in standard Lithuanian it is still alive. Neuter pronouns were replaced by masculine. The second declension of adjectives is almost extinct (having merged with the first declension)—only singular nominative case endings survived. The formation of pronominals is also different from standard Lithuanian.