Dvigarsių V + n netipiškos vartosenos ir balsių nazalizacijos liekanos lietuvių kalbos tarmėse
Relics of Atypical U sage ofthe V + n Type Diphthongs and Vowel Nasalisation in Lithuanian Dialects

Summary/Abstract: The present article analyses cases when V + n structure diphthongs (an, en, in and un) remain un-changed before non-plosive consonants and in word-final positions, although they should be monophthongised in such cases according to princi-ples of historical phonetics. Such instances are the most common in certain morphological forms. The dialects of Kupiškėnai and Southern Žemaičiai have the aforementioned diphthongs remaining in verbs with infixes, e.g. gensa 'is fading out', šanša 'is get-ting scabby', vinsa 'is breeding', dunža 'is breaking to pieces' (cf. Standard Lithuanian verbs gęsta, šąšta, vysta, dūžta, eta). In Standard Lithuanian, as well as in the majority of dialects, the diphthongs en and in have remained in the Future Tense (e.g. gyvens 'will live', skubins 'will hurry', sens 'will grow old', tins 'will swell') and in the Present Tense of sta-stem verbs (e.g. sensta 'is growingold', tinsta 'is swelling'). There exist diverse reasons for such retention, like efforts to avoid digression from structural models of verbs, to preserve the stem ofthe word-formation basis (e.g. gyventi 'to live' - gyvens 'will live'), and to preserve identical roots of verb forms (e.g. senti 'to grow old' - sensta 'is growing old' - seno 'grew old'). Word-formation-related causes are also significant in the said process, like efforts to equalise the prefixes sa-and san-, or į- and in-. The local dialect of Pelesa possesses clear nasalisation of word-final vowels į and ų, e.g. šakwn 'of tree-branches', aki.n 'an eye, acc. sing.'. The above phenomena could result from isolation and a certain conservatism of the said local dialect.

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