West Auckstein dialect

The following groups of dialects ^{[3] [4] [6]} are included in the composition of the West Auckstein dialect:

• Northern (Šiauliai) dialects (lit. šiauliškiai ) - distributed in the central and partially in the northern regions of Lithuania;
• southern (Kaunas, Suvalkiai) dialects (lit. kauniškiai ) - are common in the southwestern regions of Lithuania (in the north-eastern part of the territory of the former East Prussia ), are the basis of the modern Lithuanian literary language ^[7] .

In the west of Lithuania, in the southeastern part of the former Memel (Klaipeda) Territory , which was part of East Prussia until 1923, sometimes Klaipeda-Aukštai dialects are especially distinguished. In addition, in the northern and northeastern regions of the former East Prussia, in the so-called Malaya, or Prussian, Lithuania , Prussian-Lithuanian or Malolithic dialects were spread until 1945, preserving the most archaic model of the Lithuanian language. In the Malolithic area, northern dialects were noted, in which a reduction in unstressed vowels was noted, and southern dialects, in which unstressed endings were preserved. The self-name of the speakers of the northern dialects was striùkiai “streuky”, the southern ones - baltsermėgiai “white serum” ^{[4] [10]} . The common self-name of the Prussian Lithuanians was the perpetrators. This ethnonym was known in the Old Lithuanian period and in other regions of Lithuania, but remained as a self-name only among the Lithuanians of Prussia ^[11] .

According to the point of view of Z. Zinkevičius , the West-Aukštaitic dialect and the жemait dialect dialects have a common origin, their basis was the Western version of the ancient Lithuanian language, which preserved ą , ę and combinations of the type an . Relatively early from the ancient West Lithuanian range, жemaiti dialects emerged, which later fell under the influence of the Curonian language , and the West Aukstaiti dialect formed in the remaining part of the range. According to the point of view of V.V. Sedov and O.S. Shirokov , Zhemaiti dialects were formed on the basis of the pradilect of ancient Zemait , in the eastern part of the range of which the Aukstaitian-type dialect spread and West-Aukstayt dialects eventually formed ^[12] .

In the preliterate era, the West Auckstein dialect was much wider than now. It occupied territories located northeast of its modern range, which are currently inhabited by the bearers of the East Aukstaiti dialect - the eastern Aukstaite-Panevezys (the so-called Pantininki and Pontininki). Another part of the range in which the dialects of the West Auckstein dialect were once widespread is Malaya, or Prussia, Lithuania. The Malolithic dialects, or the so-called Prussian variety of the West Auckstein dialect, developed on the basis of dialects of immigrants from Eastern Zemaitiya and Central Lithuania. They settled the wastelands of East Prussia in the 15th – 16th centuries, assimilating the small Prussian population that remained here (tribes of the альalques and nadrov ). In 1945, the carriers of Malo-Lithuanian dialects were deported to Germany and partially to Lithuania ^{[4] [10]} .

On the basis of the dialects of the West Auckstein dialect in the center of the Dzhemait Principality , in the middle lowland of modern Lithuania (to the west of the Niavezys River ), the Zhemait language was formed (in another terminology - “Zemait interdialect”) ^[8] . In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it gave rise to the “middle form” of the old written Lithuanian language, which developed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the region with its center in Kedainiai . M. Dauksha and M. Petkevičius wrote on this form. Another version of the old written Lithuanian language with a West Auschtite basis developed in East Prussia. The grammar of D. Klein (Grammatica Lituanica, 1653-1654) played a significant role in normalizing this writing form ^[9] .

From the 18th century, the southwestern dialects of the West Aukstayt dialect began to prevail over other dialects and dialects in the system of the developing Lithuanian literary language. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the linguistic features of the Kaunas West Auschtai dialects completely supplant all other options and are fixed in the literary norm of the Lithuanian language ^[13] .

The range of the West Aukstayt dialect covers the historical and ethnographic region of Suvalkia , the south-western part of the historical and ethnographic region of Aukstaitija and the eastern part of Little Lithuania ^{[1] [14] [15] [16]} .

According to the modern administrative-territorial division of Lithuania , the range of the West Aukstaiti dialect occupies the territory of Kaunas and Marijampolė counties , as well as the northern and central parts of the Šiauliai county and the southern part of the Tauragsky district . The far western part of the distribution area of ​​the West Aukstayt dialect is located in the northeastern regions of the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation ^{[1] [4] [10]} .

The range of the West Aukstait dialect in the north borders on the area of ​​the Latvian language , in the northeast and east - on the area of ​​the Panevezys dialects, in the east - the Shirvint dialects of the East Aukstait dialect. In the south and southeast, dialects of the South-Auktaitian (Dzukiy) dialect are adjacent to the dialects of the West Auschtaite dialect. From the south-west, the ranges of the Polish and Russian languages adjoin the area of ​​the West Auschtait dialect, and from the west and north-west are mainly the area of ​​the Raseiniai dialects of the South Zemayta dialect. In insignificant areas, the West-Auktaitian dialect range borders on the range of the West Dzemayt dialect (in the west), as well as the range of the Varnai dialects of the South Dzemayt dialect and the range of Telsiai dialects of the North Dzemayt dialect (in the north-west) ^[1] .

The main feature by which dialects of the Aukstayt dialect are classified is the difference in the development of the primordial combinations * an and * en . In the West Auckstein dialect before explosive consonants, these combinations remained unchanged - [an], [ɛn], in the position of the formation of the * an and * en nasal vowels in place (not before the explosive, at the end of the word) developed, lost the nasal overtones, long vowels [ a ·], [e ·]: * rankã > [rankà] ( lit. lit. rankà ) "hand"; * žansis > [ža · s'ìs] (lit. lit. žąsìs ) "goose". In the South Auktaitic dialect, while preserving the combinations [an], [взрывn] before the explosive consonants, in case of loss of the nasal sonic consonant , the nasal vowel formed tends to go into long [u ·], [i ·]: [rankà]; [žu · s'ìs]. In the East-Auktait dialect, the development of the combinations * an and * en is similar to their development in the dialects of the South-Auktait dialect, but unlike the latter, the vowels [a ·], [e ·] in the East-Auktait dialects approach the vowels [u ·], [i ·] and if consonant consonants are retained: [runkà]; [žu̾ · s'ìs] ^[6] .

Different dialectal features are noted in different parts of the West Aukstayt range. So, for example, north of the Neman in the territory that was previously part of the Dzhemaitsky principality, the range of the West Aukstayt dialect is crossed from north to south by a solid isophonic l in position in front of the front vowels ^[10] .