Pirmasis Simono Daukanto rašybos lūžis (1827–1828): raidė <y>, garsas [ẹ], diakritikai ir geminatos
The first turning point in Simonas Daukantas's orthography (1827-1828): Letter <y>, sound [ẹ], diacritics and geminates

Summary/Abstract: It is most probable that the earliest surviving Lithuanian lines in Simonas Daukantas’s (1793–1864) hand were inscribed in 1827 in Rīga (Latvia) in his manuscript Excerpts from Books (Išrašai iš knįgų [IK]; Library of the Institute for the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore [LLTIB ], Vilnius: f. 1 – SD 31). Another almost contemporary manuscript titled Lithuanian Songs (Canticula Lithuanica [DaCL]; National Lithuanian Martynas Mažvydas’s Library, Vilnius: f. 110 – 21) originated in about 1827–1828. These two manuscripts contain quite similar orthography that Daukantas was exploiting in Vilnius (until the end of 1825) and later in Rīga (1826–1827). Its salient features were: (1) the letter <y> to denote close vowel [ẹ] of Northwestern Lithuanian Lowland dialect; the digraph <yi> to denote [ẹi]; (2) the grapheme <e‑> in word-initial position both in conjuncture ir ‘and’ and in preposition iš ‘from’ (as well as in the prefix iš‑); (3) the diacritical non-palatal <ł> [l]; (4) the absence of geminates; (5) the avoidance of all diacritics (except for the traditional “Polish” letters <ł>, and <ż>).

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