Lietuvos etninių sričių gyventojų charakterio bruožai kalbos pasaulėvaizdyje
Character traits of Lithuanian ethnic groups in linguistic reality

Summary/Abstract: The article presents a study of Lithuanian character traits attributed to people who represent different ethnic and cultural subgroups, i. e. aukštaičiai, žemaičiai, dzūkai and suvalkiečiai. The material was collected from mass media, fiction, spoken language, dictionaries and the electronic corpus of contemporary Lithuanian (Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos tekstynas). The findings of the linguistic analysis have been supplemented with experimental data from an association test.The results suggest that aukštaičiai (Highlanders) are poetic and emotional, their character is a combination of sadness and gaiety. The most prominent feature of žemaičiai (Samogitians) is stubbornness which is inseparable from persistence, straightforwardness, dignity and self-esteem. Dzūkai are most often referred to as sincere, open, sensitive people with a special code of honour. People coming from Dzūkija do not attach much importance to material things yet material wealth, as established by this study, is utterly important to suvalkiečiai. This subgroup is described as miserly, thrifty, orderly and smart. Certain traits of character may be attributed to more than one ethnic subgroup but not a single trait has been established as a common feature of all subgroups.

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