Morfonologinis kirčio ir priegaidžių vaidmuo vardažodiniuose galūnių darybos daiktavardžiuose
The Morphonological Role of the Lithuanian Stress and Syllable Intonations in Nominal Nouns of fhe Inflectional Formation

Summary/Abstract: Like all morphemes, the inflections can be strong, i.e. stressed, (and due to the stress can occupy the strong position in the word) and weak or unstressed. In this morphonological analysis distinction is drawn between strong (stressed) and weak (unstressed) allomorphs of the inflections. Although the realized cases of the formative stem reflect the spread of the circumflex metatony only relatively, nevertheless it is obvious that the circumflex alternation as a morphophonological feature is more peculiar to the weak dominant strengthening inflections. Such a conclusion, albeit indirectly, is endorsed by the nominal nouns of a disyllabic formative stem, which have undergone a shift of the stress. Like in the case of the circumflextoneme alternation, the weak, i.e. dominant strengthening, endings -ė, -is (-ė) and -(i)us (-ė) stand out. The strong, i.e. dominant weakening, inflections, as a rule, are not found among nominal derivatives of the disyllabic stem, and correspondingly cannot be related to the shift of the stress. Therefore, accepting Stang’s interpretation of the emergence of the circumflex-toneme alternation, one could maintain that it would be most sensible to look for the phonetic historical roots of the circumflex metatony in the nominal derivatives of the weak, i.e. dominant strengthening, inflections.

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