Morfologinė italizmų adaptacija lietuvių kalboje
Morphological adaptation of Italian loan words in Lithuanian

Summary/Abstract: The paper overviews Italian loan words adopted in Lithuanian from the point of view of morphological adaptation. The lexis borrowed from Italian is discussed considering Italian inflections and illustrating the periods when the loan words were adopted, highlighting regular morphological changes, discussing several problematic issues. Most of loan words are nouns; they are introduced alongside the features of morphological adaptation of other parts of speech as well. Previous research into the lexicon and a large number of examples demonstrate that the adaptation of Italian loan words has been rather smooth and regular, following certain established phonetic criteria (mostly phonetic peculiarities of inflections and stem-final elements); usually without reference to the original form. In the course of time, under the influence of intermediate languages, mainly Slavic, Italian loan words have acquired linguistic features, which now often help identify their way to the Lithuanian language. However, modern technological developments have eased the interaction between languages, which is why the role of intermediate languages tends to decrease. Hence the question of adapting loanwords becomes topical. The paper argues that attempting to cope with the issues of adapting new loan words, more research is needed into the phonetic and morphological features of the word in the language of origin. For that purpose, specialists of Lithuanian and other languages should work together.

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