NAUJASIS DIALEKTAS: GALIMAS TARMINIO KALBĖJIMO VERTINIMO SCENARIJUS
NEW DIALECT: THE POSSIBLE SCENARIO OF DIALECTAL DISCOURSE ESTIMATION

Summary/Abstract: When discussing Lithuanian dialect research, it should be stressed that, on the one hand, although there exists a certain variety in terminology (e.g. accent vs dialect) or a certain convention in the usage of terminology, Lithuanian terminology that expresses territorial language varieties has been clearly established. On the other hand, when having in mind perpetually alterating view of lan¬guage continuum, the metalanguage of Lithuanian dialect research might and should be specified. The paper aims at the discussion of a new social concept, i.e. that of new dialect and its usage in Lithuanian dialectal discourse. In the paper, the employment of the category new dialect is based on the data of the research carried out within the Lyduokiai community, East Highland Anykštėnai dialectal branch. It shows that in order to qualify the language expression of the eldest and youngest generations more exactly at least three more or less marked codes might be distinguished: dialectal discourse, (i.e. when the distinctive East Highland characteristics are ob¬vious as well as distinctive Anykštėnai and other characteristics); semi-dialectal discourse (i.e. when the distinctive East Highland and distinctive Anykštėnai characteristics are expressed although inconsistently as well as other characteristics, but the varieties of the Standard language are also re¬alized) and new dialect (i.e. when the distinctive East Highland characteristics are absent as well as Anykštėnai or other characteristics). The essential feature of a new dialect is its dislocation, since the user of a new dialect cannot be related with a certain territory or region. Having in mind a continuous language altera¬tion, the author offers several possible scenarios of the new dialect alteration: 1) new dialect → semi-dialectal discourse: the user gradually adopts the distinctive characteristics of traditional dialect, thus the possibility appears to specify the identity of the speaker and localize him/her in a certain region; 2) new dialect → Standard language: the user may gradually “sweep out” the dialectal ele¬ments from the spoken variant; 3) new dialect = new dialect: the speaker’s language may not es¬sentially undergo alterations, thus the following insight might be extended – there will always be the representatives of a new dialect, i.e. unlocal¬ized variant of language. KEY WORDS: new dialect, dialectal dis¬course, semi-dialectal discourse, the eldest gen¬eration, the youngest generation.

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