Lithuanian Language - Phonology - Pitch Accent

Pitch Accent

The Lithuanian prosodic system is characterized by free accent and distinctive quantity. Its accentuation is sometimes described as a simple tone system, often called pitch accent. In lexical words, one syllable will be tonically prominent. A heavy syllable—that is, a syllable containing a long vowel, diphthong, or a sonorant coda—may have one of two tones, falling tone (or acute tone) or rising tone (or circumflex tone). Light syllables (syllables with short vowels and optionally also obstruent codas), do not have the two-way contrast of heavy syllables.

Common Lithuanian lexicographical practice uses three diacritic marks to indicate word accent, i.e. the tone and quantity of the accented syllable. They are used in the following way:

• The first (or the only) segment of a heavy syllable with a falling tone is indicated with an acute accent mark (e.g. á, ár), unless the first element is i or u followed by a tautosyllabic resonant, in which case it is marked with a grave accent mark (e.g. ìr, ùr).
• The second (or the only) segment of a heavy syllable with a rising tone are indicate with a circumflex accent (e.g. ã, ar̃)
• Short accented syllables are indicated with a grave accent mark (e.g. ì, ù).

As said, Lithuanian has a free accent which means that its position and type is not phonologically predictable and has to be learned by heart. This is the state of affairs inherited from Proto-Balto-Slavic and, to a lesser extent, from Proto-Indo-European; Lithuanian circumflex and acute syllables directly reflect Proto-Balto-Slavic acute and circumflex tone opposition.

In a word-final position the tonal distinction in heavy syllables is almost neutralized, with a few minimal pairs remaining such as šáuk "shoot!" vs. šaũk "shout!". In other syllables the two-way contrast can be illustrated with pairs such as: kóšė "porridge" vs. kõšė "it soured"; áušti "to cool" vs. aũšti "to dawn"; drímba "lout" vs. drim̃ba "it falls"; káltas "chisel" vs. kal̃tas "guilty", týrė "(he/she) explored" vs. tỹrė "mush".

kóšė is perceived as having a falling pitch (/kôːʃe:/ or /kóòʃe:/), and indeed acoustic measurement strongly supports this. However, while kõšė is perceived as having a rising pitch ( or ), this is not supported acoustically; measurements do not find a consistent tone associated with such syllables that distinguish them from unaccented heavy syllables. The distinguishing feature appears to be a negative one, that they do not have a falling tone.

If diphthongs (and truly long vowels) are treated as sequences of vowels, then a single stress mark is sufficient for transcription: áušta /ˈauʃta/ = "it cools" vs. aũšta /aˈuʃta/ = "it dawns"; kóšė /ˈkooʃe/ = "porridge" vs. kõšė /koˈoʃe/ = "it soured".

The Lithuanian accentual system inherited another very important aspect from Proto-Balto-Slavic period, and that is the accentual mobility. Accents can alternate throughout the inflection of word by both the syllable position and type. Parallels can be drawn with some modern Slavic languages, namely Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene. Accentual mobility is prominent in nominal stems, while verbal stems mostly demonstrate phonologically predictable patterns.

Lithuanian nominal stems are commonly divided into four accentual classes, usually referred to by their numbers:

• Accent paradigm 1: Fixed (columnar) accent on a non-desinential syllable. If the accent is on a pre-desinential syllable, it carries the acute tone.
• Accent paradigm 2: Alternation of accent on a short or circumflex pre-desinential syllable with desinential accentuation.
• Accent paradigm 3: Alternation of accent on a non-desinential syllable with desinential accentuation. If the accent is on a pre-desinential syllable, it caries the acute tone.
• Accent paradigm 4: Alternation of accent on short or circumflex pre-desinential syllable with desinential accentuation.

The previously described accentual system primarily applies to the Western Aukštaitian dialect on which the standard Lithuanian literary language is based. The speakers of other group of Lithuanian dialects – Žemaitian – have a very different accentual system, and they do not adopt standard accentuation when speaking the standard idiom. Speakers of the major cities such as Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda with mixed populations generally do not have intonational oppositions in spoken language, even when they speak the standard idiom.