Samogitian language
Encyclopedia
Samogitian is a dialect of the Lithuanian language
spoken mostly in Samogitia
(in the western part of Lithuania
). Attempts have been made to standardize it. The Samogitian dialect should not be confused with the middle dialect of the Lithuanian language as spoken between the 16th and 18th centuries, which was sometimes referred to as the Samogitian language.
The Samogitian dialect, heavily influenced by Curonian
, originated from the East Baltic
proto-Samogitian dialect which was close to Aukstaitian dialects
.
During the 5th century Proto-Samogitians migrated from the lowlands of central Lithuania, near Kaunas
, into the Dubysa
and Jūra
basins, as well as into the Samogitian highlands. They displaced or assimilated the local, Curonian-speaking Baltic populations. Further north, they displaced or assimilated the indigenous, Semigallian
speaking peoples. Asimilation of Curonians and Semigallians gave birth for the 3 Samogitian subdialects: "Dounininkų", "Donininkų" and "Dūnininkų".
In the 13th century Samogitia became a part of the Baltic confederation called Lietuva
(Lithuania), which was formed by Mindaugas
. Lithuania conquered the coast of the Baltic sea
from the Livonian order
. The coast was populated by Curonians
, but became a part of Samogitia
. From the 13th century onwards, Samogitians settled within the former Curonian lands, and intermarried with that population over the next three hundred years. The Curonians had a huge cultural influence upon Samogitian and Lithuanian culture, but they were ultimately assimilated by the 16th century.
The earliest writings in Samogitian dialect appeared in 19th century.
Samogitian and its subdialects preserved many features of the Curonian language, for example:
as well as various other features not listed here.
, in which the relationships between parts of speech and their roles in a sentence are expressed by numerous flexions.
There are two grammatical genders in Samogitian – feminine and masculine. Relics of historical neuter are almost fully extinct while in standard Lithuanian some isolated forms remain. Those forms are replaced by masculine ones in Samogitian. Samogitian stress
is mobile but often retracted at the end of words, and is also characterised by pitch accent
. Samogitian has a broken tone like the Latvian
and Danish
languages. The circumflex, which is in standard Lithuanian, is replaced by an acute tone in Samogitian.
It has five noun
and three adjective
declensions. Noun declensions are different from standard Lithuanian (see the next section). There are only two verb
conjugations. All verbs have present
, past
, past iterative and future
tenses
of the indicative mood, subjunctive (or conditional
) and imperative mood
s (both without distinction of tenses) and infinitive
. The formation of past iterative is different from standard Lithuanian. There are three numbers in Samogitian: singular
, plural
and dual
. Dual is almost extinct in standard Lithuanian. The third person of all three numbers is common.
Samogitian as the standard Lithuanian has a very rich system of participles, which are derived from all tenses with distinct active and passive forms, and several gerund forms. Nouns and other declinable words are declined in seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental
, locative, and vocative.
There are no written grammar books in Samogitian because it is considered to be a dialect of Lithuanian
, but there were some attempts to standardise its written form. Among those who have tried are S. Anglickis, P. Genys, S. Čiurlionienė-Kymantaitė, B. Jurgutis, J. A. Pabrėža.
Today, Samogitian has a standardised writing system but it still remains a spoken language and everyone writes in their native speech.
, lexicon
, syntax
and morphology
.
Phonetic differences from standard Lithuanian are varied, each Samogitian subdialect (West, North and South) has different reflections.
Standard Lithuanian → Samogitian
The main difference between Samogitian and standard Lithuanian is verb conjugation
.
The past iterative tense is formed differently from Lithuanian (e.g., in Lithuanian the past iterative tense, meaning that action which was done in the past repeatedly, is made by removing the ending -ti and adding -davo (mirti – mirdavo, pūti – pūdavo), while in Samogitian, the word liuob is added instead before the word). The second verb conjugation is extinct in Samogitian, it merged with the first one. The plural reflexive ending is -muos instead of expected -mies which is in standard Lithuanian (-mės) and other dialects. Samogitian preserved a lot of relics of athematic conjugation which did not survive in standard Lithuanian. The intonation in the future tense third person is the same as in the infinitive, in standard Lithuanian it shifts. The subjunctive conjugation is different from standard Lithuanian. Dual is preserved perfectly while in standard Lithuanian it has been completely lost.
The differences between nominals
are considerable too.
The fifth noun declension has almost become extinct, it merged with the third one. The plural and some singular cases of the fourth declension have endings of the first one (eg.: singular nominative , plural nom. , in standard Lithuanian: sg. nom. , pl. nom. ). The neuter of adjectives is extinct (it was pushed out by adverbs, except 'warm', 'cold', 'hot') while in standard Lithuanian it is still alive. Neuter pronouns were replaced by masculine. The second declension of adjectives is almost extinct (having merged with the first declension)—only singular nominative case endings survived. The formation of pronominals is also different from standard Lithuanian.
and Kretinga
regions), Western Samogitian (was spoken in the region around Klaipėda
, now nearly extinct, – after 1945, many people were expelled and new ones came to this region) and Southern Samogitian (spoken in Varniai
, Kelmė
, Tauragė
and Raseiniai
regions). Historically, these are classified by their pronunciation of the Lithuanian
word Duona, "bread." They are referred to as Dounininkai (from Douna), Donininkai (from Dona) and Dūnininkai (from Dūna).
and Telšiai
). Local newspapers and broadcast stations use standard Lithuanian
instead. There is no new literature in Samogitian either, as authors prefer standard Lithuanian for its accessibility to a larger audience. Out of those people who speak Samogitian, only a few can understand its written form well.
Migration of Samogitian speakers to other parts of the country and migration into Samogitia have reduced contact between Samogitian speakers, and therefore the level of fluency of those speakers.
There are attempts by the Samogitian Cultural Society to stem the loss of the dialect. The council of Telšiai
city put marks with Samogitian names for the city at the roads leading to the city. A new system for writing Samogitian was created.
, however it was neglected during the Soviet period, so only elderly people knew how to write in Samogitian at the time Lithuania regained independence. The Samogitian Cultural Society renewed the system to make it more usable.
The writing system uses similar letters to standard Lithuanian, but with the following differences:
As previously it was difficult to add these new characters to typesets, some older Samogitian texts use double letters instead of macrons to indicate long vowels, for example aa for ā and ee for ē; now the Samogitian Cultural Society discourages these conventions and recommends using the letters with macrons above instead. The use of double letters is accepted in cases where computer font
s do not have Samogitian letters; in such cases y is used instead of Samogitian ī, the same as in standard Lithuanian, while other long letters are written as double letters. The apostrophe
might be used to denote palatalization
in some cases; in others i is used for this, as in standard Lithuanian.
A Samogitian computer keyboard layout has been created.
Samogitian alphabet:
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
spoken mostly in Samogitia
Samogitia
Samogitia is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its largest city is Šiauliai/Šiaulē. The region has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian dialect...
(in the western part of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
). Attempts have been made to standardize it. The Samogitian dialect should not be confused with the middle dialect of the Lithuanian language as spoken between the 16th and 18th centuries, which was sometimes referred to as the Samogitian language.
History
Curonian language
The Curonian language or Old Curonian is an extinct language spoken by the Curonian tribe, who lived mainly on the Courland peninsula and along the nearby Baltic shores....
, originated from the East Baltic
East Baltic race
The East Baltic race is one of the subcategories of the Europid race into which it was divided by anthropologists in the early 20th century....
proto-Samogitian dialect which was close to Aukstaitian dialects
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
.
During the 5th century Proto-Samogitians migrated from the lowlands of central Lithuania, near Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
, into the Dubysa
Dubysa
Dubysa, at 131 km, is the 15th longest river in Lithuania. It originates just a few kilometers from Lake Rėkyva near Šiauliai city. At first it flows south, but at Lyduvėnai turns southeast and near Ariogala - southwest. Dubysa is a Samogitian river...
and Jūra
Jura
-Mountains:*Jura mountains, on the French-Swiss-German border, the namesake of the Jurassic period of geology*Franconian Jura, a mountain range in southeastern Germany*Bernese Jura, a region in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland...
basins, as well as into the Samogitian highlands. They displaced or assimilated the local, Curonian-speaking Baltic populations. Further north, they displaced or assimilated the indigenous, Semigallian
Semigallian language
Semigallian is an extinct language of the Baltic language sub-family of the Indo-European languages.It was spoken in the northern part of Lithuania and southern regions of Latvia. It is thought that it was extinct by the 16th century with the assimilation by the Latvians. Semigallian is known only...
speaking peoples. Asimilation of Curonians and Semigallians gave birth for the 3 Samogitian subdialects: "Dounininkų", "Donininkų" and "Dūnininkų".
In the 13th century Samogitia became a part of the Baltic confederation called Lietuva
Duchy of Lithuania
Duchy of Lithuania was a state-territorial formation of ethnic Lithuanians, that existed from the 12th century until 1413. Most of the time it was a constituent part and a nucleus of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania...
(Lithuania), which was formed by Mindaugas
Mindaugas
Mindaugas was the first known Grand Duke of Lithuania and the only King of Lithuania. Little is known of his origins, early life, or rise to power; he is mentioned in a 1219 treaty as an elder duke, and in 1236 as the leader of all the Lithuanians...
. Lithuania conquered the coast of the Baltic sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
from the Livonian order
Livonian Order
The Livonian Order was an autonomous Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order and a member of the Livonian Confederation from 1435–1561. After being defeated by Samogitians in the 1236 Battle of Schaulen , the remnants of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were incorporated into the Teutonic Knights...
. The coast was populated by Curonians
Curonians
The Curonians or Kurs were a Baltic tribe living on the shores of the Baltic sea in what are now the western parts of Latvia and Lithuania from the 5th to the 16th centuries, when they merged with other Baltic tribes. They gave their name to the region of Courland , and they spoke the Old...
, but became a part of Samogitia
Eldership of Samogitia
The Duchy of Samogitia had been the administrative unit of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1422 . Between 1422 to 1441 it was known as the Eldership of Samogitia...
. From the 13th century onwards, Samogitians settled within the former Curonian lands, and intermarried with that population over the next three hundred years. The Curonians had a huge cultural influence upon Samogitian and Lithuanian culture, but they were ultimately assimilated by the 16th century.
The earliest writings in Samogitian dialect appeared in 19th century.
Samogitian and its subdialects preserved many features of the Curonian language, for example:
- widening of proto Baltic short i (i → ė sometimes e)
- widening of proto Baltic short u (u → o)
- preservation of West Baltic diphthong ei (standard Lithuanian ie → Samogitian ėi)
- no t' d' palatalization to č dž (Latvian š, ž)
- specific lexis, like cīrulis (lark), pīle (duck), leitis (Lithuanian) etc.
- retraction of stress
- shortening of ending -as to -s like in LatvianLatvian languageLatvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
and Old Prussian (Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-Indo-European languageThe Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
o-stem)
as well as various other features not listed here.
Grammar
The Samogitian dialect is highly inflected like standard LithuanianLithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
, in which the relationships between parts of speech and their roles in a sentence are expressed by numerous flexions.
There are two grammatical genders in Samogitian – feminine and masculine. Relics of historical neuter are almost fully extinct while in standard Lithuanian some isolated forms remain. Those forms are replaced by masculine ones in Samogitian. Samogitian stress
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
is mobile but often retracted at the end of words, and is also characterised by pitch accent
Pitch accent
Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...
. Samogitian has a broken tone like the Latvian
Latvian language
Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
and Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
languages. The circumflex, which is in standard Lithuanian, is replaced by an acute tone in Samogitian.
It has five noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
and three adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
declensions. Noun declensions are different from standard Lithuanian (see the next section). There are only two verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
conjugations. All verbs have present
Present tense
The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
, past
Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
, past iterative and future
Future tense
In grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
tenses
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
of the indicative mood, subjunctive (or conditional
Conditional mood
In linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
) and imperative mood
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
s (both without distinction of tenses) and infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
. The formation of past iterative is different from standard Lithuanian. There are three numbers in Samogitian: singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
and dual
Dual (grammatical number)
Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun...
. Dual is almost extinct in standard Lithuanian. The third person of all three numbers is common.
Samogitian as the standard Lithuanian has a very rich system of participles, which are derived from all tenses with distinct active and passive forms, and several gerund forms. Nouns and other declinable words are declined in seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental
Instrumental case
The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action...
, locative, and vocative.
Literature
The earliest writings in Samogitian dialect appear in the 19th century. Famous authors writing in Samogitian:- Silvestras Valiūnas and his heroic poem “Biruta”, first printed in 1829. “Biruta” became a hymn of Lithuanian student emigrants in 19th century.
- Simonas StanevičiusSimonas StaneviciusSimonas Stanevičius was a Lithuanian writer and an activist of the "Samogitian Revival", an early stage of the Lithuanian National Revival.-Biography:...
(Sėmuons Stanevičios) with his famous book “” (Six fables) printed in 1829. - Simonas DaukantasSimonas DaukantasSimonas Daukantas or Szymon Dowkont was a Lithuanian writer, ethnographer and historian. One of the pioneers of the Lithuanian national revival, he is credited as an author of the first book on the history of Lithuania written in the Lithuanian language...
(Sėmuons Daukonts in Samogitian), he was the first Lithuanian historian writing in Lithuanian (actually in its dialect). His famous book – “” (Customs of ancient Lithuanian highlanders and Samogitians) was printed in 1854. - Motiejus ValančiusMotiejus ValanciusMotiejus Valančius was a Catholic bishop of Samogitia, historian and one of the best known Lithuanian writers of the 19th century.-Biography:...
(Muotiejos Valončios or Valontė) and one of his books “” (Joseph of Palanga), printed in 1869. is considered to be the first geography manual in Lithuanian.
There are no written grammar books in Samogitian because it is considered to be a dialect of Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
, but there were some attempts to standardise its written form. Among those who have tried are S. Anglickis, P. Genys, S. Čiurlionienė-Kymantaitė, B. Jurgutis, J. A. Pabrėža.
Today, Samogitian has a standardised writing system but it still remains a spoken language and everyone writes in their native speech.
Linguistic differences between Samogitian and Standard Lithuanian
Samogitian differs from Standard Lithuanian in phoneticsPhonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
, lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
, syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
and morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
.
Phonetic differences from standard Lithuanian are varied, each Samogitian subdialect (West, North and South) has different reflections.
Standard Lithuanian → Samogitian
- i → short ė, sometimes e;
- u → short o (in some cases u);
- ė → ie;
- o → uo;
- ie → long ė, ėi, ī (y) (West, North and South);
- uo → ō, ou, ū (West, North and South);
- ai → ā ;
- ei, iai → ē;
- ui → oi;
- oi (oj) → uo;
- an → on (an in south-east);
- un → on (un in south-east);
- ą → an in south-eastern, on in the central region and ō or ou in the north;
- ę → en in south-eastern, ėn in the central region and õ, ō or ėi in the north;
- ū → ū (in some cases un, um);
- ų in stressed endings → un and um;
- unstressed ų → o;
- y → ī (y), sometimes in;
- i from ancient ī → ī;
- u from ancient ō (Lithuanian uo) → ō, ou, ū(West, North and South)
- i from ancient ei (Lithuanian ie) → long ė, ėi, ī (West, North and South)
- č → t (also č under Lithuanian influence);
- dž → d (also dž under Lithuanian influence);
- ia → ė (somewhere between i and e);
- io → ė (somewhere between i and e);
- unstressed ią → ė (somewhere between i and e);
The main difference between Samogitian and standard Lithuanian is verb conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
.
The past iterative tense is formed differently from Lithuanian (e.g., in Lithuanian the past iterative tense, meaning that action which was done in the past repeatedly, is made by removing the ending -ti and adding -davo (mirti – mirdavo, pūti – pūdavo), while in Samogitian, the word liuob is added instead before the word). The second verb conjugation is extinct in Samogitian, it merged with the first one. The plural reflexive ending is -muos instead of expected -mies which is in standard Lithuanian (-mės) and other dialects. Samogitian preserved a lot of relics of athematic conjugation which did not survive in standard Lithuanian. The intonation in the future tense third person is the same as in the infinitive, in standard Lithuanian it shifts. The subjunctive conjugation is different from standard Lithuanian. Dual is preserved perfectly while in standard Lithuanian it has been completely lost.
The differences between nominals
Nominal (linguistics)
In linguistics, a nominal is a part of speech in some languages that shares features with nouns and adjectives.- Examples :Nominals are a common feature of Indigenous Australian languages, many of which do not categorically differentiate nouns from adjectives.Some features of nominals in some...
are considerable too.
The fifth noun declension has almost become extinct, it merged with the third one. The plural and some singular cases of the fourth declension have endings of the first one (eg.: singular nominative , plural nom. , in standard Lithuanian: sg. nom. , pl. nom. ). The neuter of adjectives is extinct (it was pushed out by adverbs, except 'warm', 'cold', 'hot') while in standard Lithuanian it is still alive. Neuter pronouns were replaced by masculine. The second declension of adjectives is almost extinct (having merged with the first declension)—only singular nominative case endings survived. The formation of pronominals is also different from standard Lithuanian.
Other morphological differences
Samogitian also has many words and figures of speech that are altogether different from typically Lithuanian ones, e.g., – basket (Lith. , Latvian ""), – thin (Lith. , Latvian ""), – ribs (Lith. , Latvian – ""), – "can't be!" (Lith. ) and many more.Sub-dialects
Samogitian is also divided into three major sub-dialects: Northern Samogitian (spoken in TelšiaiTelšiai
Telšiai , is a city in Lithuania with about 35,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on Lake Mastis.-Names:...
and Kretinga
Kretinga
Kretinga is a city in the Klaipėda County, Lithuania. It is the capital of the Kretinga district municipality. It is located east of the popular Baltic Sea resort town of Palanga, and about north of Lithuania's 3rd largest city and principal seaport, Klaipėda.The population was listed as 21,423...
regions), Western Samogitian (was spoken in the region around Klaipėda
Klaipėda Region
The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 when it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors...
, now nearly extinct, – after 1945, many people were expelled and new ones came to this region) and Southern Samogitian (spoken in Varniai
Varniai
Varniai , is a city in the Telšiai County, western Lithuania. In the Middle Ages the city was known as Medininkai. It was established in the 14th century, on the bank of the Varnelė River, near an important Samogitian castle. It was the center of Samogitian Catholic church: after the baptism of...
, Kelmė
Kelme
Kelmė is a city in central Lithuania. It has a population of around 11,000 and is the administrative center of the Kelmė district municipality.-History:Prior to World War II, Kelmė was home to a famous Rabbinical College, the Kelm Talmud Torah....
, Tauragė
Taurage
Tauragė is an industrial city in Lithuania, and the capital of Tauragė County. In 2011, its population was 26,444. Tauragė is situated on the Jūra River, close to the border with the Kaliningrad Oblast, and not far from the Baltic Sea coast....
and Raseiniai
Raseiniai
Raseiniai is a city in Lithuania. It is located on the south eastern foothills of the Samogitians highland, some north from the Kaunas–Klaipėda highway.- Grand Duchy of Lithuania :...
regions). Historically, these are classified by their pronunciation of the Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
word Duona, "bread." They are referred to as Dounininkai (from Douna), Donininkai (from Dona) and Dūnininkai (from Dūna).
Political situation
The Samogitian dialect is rapidly declining: it is not used in the local school system and there is only one quarterly magazine and no television broadcasts in Samogitian. There are some radio broadcasts in Samogitian (in KlaipėdaKlaipeda
Klaipėda is a city in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Nemunas River where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County....
and Telšiai
Telšiai
Telšiai , is a city in Lithuania with about 35,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on Lake Mastis.-Names:...
). Local newspapers and broadcast stations use standard Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
instead. There is no new literature in Samogitian either, as authors prefer standard Lithuanian for its accessibility to a larger audience. Out of those people who speak Samogitian, only a few can understand its written form well.
Migration of Samogitian speakers to other parts of the country and migration into Samogitia have reduced contact between Samogitian speakers, and therefore the level of fluency of those speakers.
There are attempts by the Samogitian Cultural Society to stem the loss of the dialect. The council of Telšiai
Telšiai
Telšiai , is a city in Lithuania with about 35,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on Lake Mastis.-Names:...
city put marks with Samogitian names for the city at the roads leading to the city. A new system for writing Samogitian was created.
Writing system
The first use of a unique writing system for Samogitian was in the interwar periodInterwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, however it was neglected during the Soviet period, so only elderly people knew how to write in Samogitian at the time Lithuania regained independence. The Samogitian Cultural Society renewed the system to make it more usable.
The writing system uses similar letters to standard Lithuanian, but with the following differences:
- There are no nasal vowelNasal vowelA nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...
s (letters with ogonekOgonekThe ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages.-Use:...
s: ą, ę, į, ų). - There are three additional long vowelsVowel lengthIn linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
, written with macronMacronA macron, from the Greek , meaning "long", is a diacritic placed above a vowel . It was originally used to mark a long or heavy syllable in Greco-Roman metrics, but now marks a long vowel...
s above (as in LatvianLatvian languageLatvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
): ā, ē, ō. - Long i in Samogitian is written with a macron above: ī (unlike standard Lithuanian where it is y).
- The long vowel ė is written as o with tildeTildeThe tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
above (õ). In fact it is written like ė with macron: Ė̄ and ė̄. http://bat-smg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:E_smg.jpg - There are two additional diphthongs in Samogitian that are written as digraphDigraph (orthography)A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
s: ou and ėi. (The component letters are part of the standard Lithuanian alphabet.)
As previously it was difficult to add these new characters to typesets, some older Samogitian texts use double letters instead of macrons to indicate long vowels, for example aa for ā and ee for ē; now the Samogitian Cultural Society discourages these conventions and recommends using the letters with macrons above instead. The use of double letters is accepted in cases where computer font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
s do not have Samogitian letters; in such cases y is used instead of Samogitian ī, the same as in standard Lithuanian, while other long letters are written as double letters. The apostrophe
Apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
might be used to denote palatalization
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
in some cases; in others i is used for this, as in standard Lithuanian.
A Samogitian computer keyboard layout has been created.
Samogitian alphabet:
| Letter Name |
A a [ā] |
Ā ā [ėlguojė ā] |
B b [bė] |
C c [cė] |
Č č [čė] |
D d [dė] |
E e [ē] |
Ē ē [ėlguojė ē] |
| Letter Name |
Ė ė [ė̄] |
Ė̄ ė̄ [ėlguojė ė̄] |
F f [ėf] |
G g [gė, gie] |
H h [hā] |
I i [ī] |
Ī ī [ėlguojė ī] |
J j [jot] |
| Letter Name |
K k [kā] |
L l [ėl] |
M m [ėm] |
N n [ėn] |
O o [ō] |
Ō ō [ėlguojė ō] |
P p [pė] |
R r [ėr] |
| Letter Name |
S s [ės] |
Š š [ėš] |
T t [tė] |
U u [ū] |
Ū ū [ėlguojė ū] |
V v [vė] |
Z z [zė, zet] |
Ž ž [žė, žet]. |
Samples
| English | Samogitian | Lithuanian | Latvian | Latgalian |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samogitian | žemaitiu ruoda | žemaičių tarmė | žemaišu valoda | žemaišu volūda |
| English | onglu kalba | anglų kalba | angļu valoda | ongļu volūda |
| Yes | Noje, tep | Taip | Jā | Nuj |
| No | Ne | Ne | Nē | Nā |
| Hello! | Svēks | Sveikas | Sveiks | Vasals |
| How are you? | Kāp gīveni? | Kaip gyveni / laikaisi / einasi? | Kā tev iet? | Kai īt? |
| Good evening! | Lab vakar! | Labas vakaras! | Labvakar! | Lobs vokors! |
| Welcome [to...] | Svēkė atvīkė̄i! | Sveiki atvykę | Laipni lūdzam | Vasali atguojuši |
| Good night! | Labanakt | Labos nakties / Labanakt! | Ar labu nakti | Lobys nakts! |
| Goodbye! | Sudieu, vėsa gera | Viso gero / Sudie(vu) / Viso labo! | Visu labu | Palicyt vasali |
| Have a nice day! | Geruos dėinuos! | Geros dienos / Labos dienos! | Jauku dienu! | Breineigu dīnu |
| Good luck! | Siekmies! | Sėkmės! | Veiksmi! | Lai lūbsīs! |
| Please | Prašau | Prašau | Lūdzu | Lyudzams |
| Thank you | Diekou | Ačiū / Dėkui / Dėkoju | Paldies | Paļdis |
| You're welcome | Prašuom | Prašom | Laipni lūdzam | Laipni lyudzam |
| I'm sorry | Atsėprašau | Atsiprašau / Atleiskite | Atvaino (Piedod) | Atlaid |
| Who? | Kas? | Kas? | Kas? (Kurš?) | Kas? |
| When? | Kumet? | Kada / Kuomet? | Kad? | Kod? |
| Where? | Kor? | Kur? | Kur? | Kur? |
| Why? | Diukuo? | Kodėl / Dėl ko? | Kādēļ? (Kāpēc?) | Dieļ kuo? |
| What's your name? | Kuoks tava vards? | Koks tavo vardas? / Kuo tu vardu? | Kāds ir tavs vārds? (Kā tevi sauc?) | Kai tevi sauc? |
| Because | Dieltuo | Todėl / Dėl to | Tādēļ (Tāpēc) | Dieļ tuo |
| How? | Kāp? | Kaip? | Kā? | Kai? |
| How much? | Kėik? | Kiek? | Cik daudz? | Cik daudzi? |
| I do not understand. | Nesopronto | Nesuprantu | Nesaprotu | Nasaprūtu |
| Yes, I understand. | Sopronto | Suprantu | Saprotu | Saprūtu |
| Help me! | Padieket! | Padėkite / Gelbėkite! | Palīgā! | Paleigā! |
| Where is the bathroom? | Kor īr tuliets? | Kur yra tualetas? | Kur ir tualete? | Kur irā tualets? |
| Do you speak English? | Rokounaties onglėškā? | (Ar) kalbate angliškai? | Vai runājat angliski? | Runuojit ongliski? |
| I don't speak Samogitian. | Nerokounous žemaitėškā. | Žemaitiškai nekalbu | Es nerunāju žemaitiski | As narunuoju žemaitiski |
| The check, please. (In restaurant) | Saskaita prašīčiuo | Prašyčiau sąskaitą / Sąskaitą, prašyčiau / Sąskaitą, prašau, pateikite | Rēķinu, lūdzu! | Lyudzu, saskaitu |