Aukštaitian ( lt, Aukštaičių tarmė) is one of the

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

s of the

Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 mill ...

, spoken in the ethnographic regions of

Aukštaitija Aukštaitija (; literally in Lithuanian: ''Upper lands'') is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The name comes from lands being in upper basin of Nemunas River or being relative to Lowlands up to Šiauliai. Geography Auk ...

Dzūkija Dzūkija or Dainava is one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. Dzūkija is a cultural region defined by traditional lifestyles and dialects of the local Lithuanian population (mostly rural farmers) and has never been defined as a poli ...

and Suvalkija. It became the basis for the standard Lithuanian language.

Classification

Revised classification of the dialects, proposed in 1965 by linguists Zigmas Zinkevičius and Aleksas Girdenis, divides the Aukštaitian dialect into three sub-dialects based on pronunciation of the mixed

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

s ''an'', ''am'', ''en'', ''em'' and the ogonek vowels ''ą'' and ''ę'': Western Aukštaitianmost similar to standard Lithuanianpreserves both the diphthongs and the vowels. It is further subdivided into two sub-dialects: * The Kaunas sub-dialect is spoken mostly in Suvalkija. This sub-dialect separates long and short vowels pretty well and properly stresses word endings. * The Šiauliai sub-dialect is spoken in a strip between Samogitia and Aukštaitija. This sub-dialect almost always shortens unaccented long vowels (''dumẽlis'' instead of ''dūmelis'' – little smoke, ''vãgis'' instead of ''vagys'' – thieves, ''lãpu'' instead of ''lapų'' – leaves) and moves accent mark from the end of the word (''ràsa'' instead of ''rasà'' – dew, ''tỹliu'' instead of ''tyliù'' – I am silent, ''žmònos'' instead of ''žmonõs'' – wives'). Southern Aukštaitian preserves the diphthong, but replaces ''ą'' and ''ę'' with ''ų'' and ''į'' (''žųsis'' instead of ''žąsis'' – goose, ''skįsta'' instead of ''skęsta'' – drowns). It is spoken mostly in

and therefore is known as the Dzūkian dialect. Eastern Aukštaitian replaces the diphthongs with either ''un'', ''um'', ''in'', ''im'' or ''on'', ''om'', ''ėn'', ''ėm'' (''pasumda'' instead of ''pasamdo'' – hiring, ''romstis'' instead of ''ramstis'' – support). The ogonek vowels are replaced with either ''ų'', ''į'' or ''o'', ''ę''/''ė'' (''grųštas'' or ''groštas'' instead of ''grąžtas'' – drill, ''grįšt'' instead of ''gręžti'' – to drill). It is spoken mostly in

. It is further subdivided into six sub-dialects.

References

Sources

* Lithuanian dialects {{Ie-lang-stub