Western dialect

The formation of the dialect area is associated with the resettlement of the Samgeits from the east to the coast of the Baltic Sea in the lands of East Prussia and the subsequent assimilation of the local Baltic tribe of skalvs ^[4] .

A part of Western Samogitians on the territory of Prussia joined the ethnographic group of Memelians , the Lithuanian-speaking Protestants of Klaipeda region . According to Z. Zinkyavichus , the bearers of the Western-Samite dialect are called Sammaits only from the point of view of dialectological features; they never called themselves Sammaits, because they never lived in the Zemite principality ^[7] . After the Second World War, a significant part of the speakers of the Western-Samite dialect was relocated to Germany . Currently, both in Lithuania and in Germany, the dialect is practically not used ^[4] .

The area of ​​distribution of the West-Maya dialect covers the western regions of the historical-ethnographic region of Samogitia . Until 1923, the northern and central part of the West Meta territory comprised the western region of the former Memelsky (Klaipeda) Territory, which was part of East Prussia: Klaipeda , Silute , Prekule and other settlements (modern Lithuania); Before 1945, the southern part was part of the northern region of East Prussia: the districts of Mysovka , Golovkin, and other settlements (the modern Kaliningrad region of Russia ) ^{[1] [8]} .

According to the administrative-territorial division of Lithuania , adopted at the present time, the area of ​​the West-Mayait dialect occupied the western, central and south-western part of the territory of Klaipeda County . The southern part of the West Meta range was located in the north of the modern Kaliningrad region on the coast of the Curonian Lagoon to the south of the Neman estuary ^{[1] [4]} .

In the north and east, the area of ​​the West-Maite dialect bordered on the ranges of other Samgei dialects: from the northeast, on the Kretinga dialects of the North - Samite dialect, and on the East, on the Varneyian dialects of the South - Samite dialect. From the southeast, to the area of ​​the Western-Samay dialect, there is a part of the range of the Kaunas dialects of the Western Aukstite dialect, sometimes singled out as a special Klaipeda-Aukshtayt area ^[1] .

The main feature by which the dialects of the Samgetian dialect are differentiated is the difference in the historical change of diphthongoids / u͜o /, / i͜e /. In the West Mait dialect, / u͜o / evolved into a vowel [o], / i͜e / evolved into a vowel [ẹ]: [dô · na] (lit. dúona [dú͜ona]) “bread”, [pệ · ns] (lit. letters píenas [p'í͜enas]) "milk". In the South Maite dialect, there were changes in / u͜o /> [i ·], / i͜e /> [u ·], the transition to / North͜ayte dialect is characterized by the transition / u͜o /> [ọu], / i͜e /> [ẹi] ^[5] .

For the Klaipeda region dialects, as well as for the Kretinga and Telšiai dialects, such an archaic feature as the preservation of a dual number in the system of declension and conjugation is characteristic: dọ geroụjo vírọ “two good men”, skaĩtova “we read together” ^[6] .