Baltistica is an international journal of Baltic linguistics which was founded in large part due to the efforts of Vilnius University Professor Jonas Kazlauskas in 1965. The journal is compiled by the Department of Baltic Studies of Vilnius University, and published by Vilnius University Press.
Vilniaus universiteto leidykla / Vilnius University Press
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„Netiesioginė nuosaka“ kaip teksto reiškinys ir jos vartojimas lietuvių tautosakoje
Copyright (c) 2026 Guido Michelini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 Zigmas Zinkevičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Redaktorių žodis / From the Editors / Von den Herausgebern
Copyright (c) 2026 – – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Pratarmė / Priekšvārds / Foreword / Vorwort / Préface / Предисловие
Stereotypes in perception of the Moon in Lithuanian poetry
The aim of the present article is to analyse and to discuss the linguistic expression and the semantic paradigm of the images of the Moon that have formed in Lithuanian poetry. The fragments of 124 poets’ 389 poems have been analysed. The Moon is perceived as an object that shines at night and changes its shape. These two features motivate the absolute majority of its names. The examples show that the main work of the Moon is to reflect the sunlight to the Earth (“to shine”). The expressive lunar phases most often used in poetry are a full moon and waning crescents. Natural surroundings of the Moon are not emphasized: place above the ground, time of manifestation, separation. The Moon and its light are metaphorically related to living beings, blooming plants, raw materials and handicraft ware, liquids, fire. A living being is firstly a human being, but it is not difficult to discern the signs of deity. Less frequent are zoomorphic, ornithomorphic and ichthyomorphic shapes. Stereotypes of the Moon are conditioned by the similarities of the compared object in brightness, light and/or form, less often in the position above and solitude. The surroundings of the Moon are shown as a closed space above the ground well known to humans. The basis of only few stereotypes is not nature but civilization.
Copyright (c) 2026 Rūta Kazlauskaitė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Zum Gedenken an Akademiemitglied Prof. Dr. Vytautas Mažiulis
Copyright (c) 2026 Rainer Eckert https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Christiane Schiller; Birutė Kabašinskaitė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
58th annual meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea
Copyright (c) 2025 Lina Inčiuraitė-Noreikienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The 60th International Academic Conference in Riga
Martynas Mažvydas’ Forma Chrikʃtima: existing copies and their research history
Martynas Mažvydas is known and celebrated as the founder of Lithuanian literature and the compiler of the first Lithuanian book. Naturally, this perspective gives special significance to the first Lithuanian book and its research, but this comes at the expense of his other books. Published in 1559, Forma Chrikʃtima is a mature author’s and experienced publisher’s individual and, in terms of genre, coherent work (the “fragmented” 1547 paleotype, which is heterogeneous in terms of genre and authorship, consists of different parts: a catechism and a hymnal), but it ended up alongside the unfortunate “third-row” books that do not receive much attention. In this respect, Forma Chrikʃtima repeats the fate of Pranciškus Skorina’s “Apostle” (1525), which even on this important anniversary remains in the shadow of the “Ruthenian Bible” (1517–1520) and the “Little Travel Book” (1522). Even the general public knows how many copies of M. Mažvydas’ catechism there are and where they are kept; with Forma Chrikʃtima, the situation is the opposite. The aim of this article is to provide a more detailed introduction to the second copy of the 1559 edition, which has been “ignored” by researchers until now, in the context of the history of research on Forma Chrikʃtima. This should encourage and facilitate the preparation of a critical edition of Forma Chrikʃtima for publication.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ilja Lemeškin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A multifactorial analysis of phonetic word stress correlates in Standard Lithuanian: verification of the prosodic element interaction model
This article aims to verify the empirical background of the phonetic interaction of prosodic elements in Standard Lithuanian – specifically word stress and phrase intonation. A multifactorial (MANOVA) analysis of F0 dynamics was performed to achieve this, revealing that the ratio of three acoustic parameters (F0 range, F0 jerk, and duration) depends on word stress. The speaker‘s intention to distinguish a syllable from its environment prosodically can be associated with a relatively wider F0 range, its more linear modulation, and a longer duration of the sound. The overall picture of F0 dynamics correlates with the position of the stress within the word. The primary phonetic cue for achieving the effect of a stressed final syllable is the static phonation of adjacent pre-stressed syllables (F0 acceleration →0 resulting in F0 jerk →0 and reduced syllable duration →0). The need to highlight intersyllabic differences in dynamic F0 profiles diminishes when the word stress is on the first syllable, leading to the assumption that the absolute beginning of the word, under phonetic ceteris paribus, acquires greater relative weight from a prosodic point of view. Bearing this in mind, one can conclude that the same F0 dynamics reflect the interaction of prosodic elements. The only distinction is that the intonational factor determines the overall change of F0, while the word stress controls its (intra)syllabic dynamics (variation of F0 over time).
Copyright (c) 2025 Evaldas Švageris https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Perception and acoustic features of Lithuanian directive phrases: a preliminary study
The aim of this study is to identify the acoustic similarities and differences of selected Lithuanian directive phrases and to assess their potential impact on phrase type perception. The research material consists of sentences read seven times by three male actors, simulating assertion, request, supplication, permission, and command. For the perception experiment, one typical phrase of each type was selected from each speaker, with three additional samples from different speakers. Twenty-two participants were asked to identify the phrase types. The results show that command was identified most accurately (94%), while permission (73%) and assertion (67%) were less reliably identified; request and supplication were poorly identified (54% each). Participants relied partly on lexical-semantic and grammatical cues. For this reason, command and permission (Dabar eikite namo [dɐ²ˈbɐrˑ ²ˈɛɪˑkʲɪtʲɛ nɐ²ˈmoː‖] – “Go home now”) were not confused with supplication and request (Dabar norime eiti namo [dɐ²ˈbɐrˑ ¹ˈnoːrʲɪmʲɛ ²ˈɛɪˑtʲɪ nɐ²ˈmoː‖] “We want to go home now”) or assertion (Dabar galime eiti namo [dɐ²ˈbɐrˑ 2ˈɡɑːlʲɪmʲɛ 2ˈɛɪˑtʲɪ nɐ2ˈmoː‖] – “We can go home now”), though the latter were often confused with each other. The analysis of acoustic parameters considered: (a) mean, maximum, range, register, and contour of F0; (b) mean, maximum, range, and curve of intensity; (c) duration of words, syllable nuclei, and consonants. The findings indicate: (1) F0 parameters were generally similar, except for permission, which was produced with higher pitch; all phrases shared comparable intonation models: flat low (without narrow focus) or falling and rising–falling (with narrow focus); (2) permission exhibited the lowest intensity, while supplication, request, and assertion were produced with higher intensity, and command demonstrated the widest intensity range; all phrases ended with slightly lower intensity than at the beginning; (3) in terms of duration, supplication stood out with the longest segments across all categories, while command was characterized by consonant shortening.
Copyright (c) 2025 Asta Kazlauskienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
On the accentuation history of Lithuanian denominal verbs in -(i)au-ti
This article examines the accentuation history of Lithuanian denominal verbs in -(i)au-ti. In modern Lithuanian, these verbs typically have suffixal stress, and the few derivatives with root stress are generally formed from nouns of accentual paradigm 1 (e.g., pókštauti ← pókštas, a. p. 1). This situation can be interpreted as a result of Saussure’s Law. An analysis of the relationship between all non-suffix-stressed verbs attested in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language (LKŽ) and the accentuation of their base words shows that the vast majority of such verbs are derived from a. p. 1 nouns (e.g., úogauti ← úoga, a. p. 1), and therefore preserve an accentual state inherited from the period before or immediately after the onset of Saussure’s Law. The accentuation of some derivatives with stative meanings and unexpected root stress together with acute metatony (e.g., mérgauti ← mer̃gą) may have been influenced by iteratives of similar semantics. The latter are characterized by root stress and acute metatony inherited from Proto-Baltic (e.g., válkioti ← vel̃ka, cf. Latvian val̃kât ← vȩ̀lk). A small set of verbs derived from color adjectives exhibits circumflex metatony (e.g., juõdauti ← júodas), which appears to have developed under the influence of accent patterns found in analogous -(i)uo-ti derivatives. Other rare instances of non-acute root stress in LKŽ are typically either recent derivatives from Slavic loanwords (e.g., triū̃bauti), possible transcription uncertainties (e.g., beñdrauti), or forms in which the root tone appears to be semantically motivated (e.g., pė̃dauti) or influenced by other factors.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sandra Lušaitė-Ramonienė | Vytautas Rinkevičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Balto-Slavic *nai̯g-, a neglected isogloss with external relatives
The relationship of the Latvian verb naigât, -ãju and the adj. naîgs with the Slavic noun *ně̋ga and verb *něgati was identified already by Bezzenberger and Fick in 1881. Later attempts to add new comparanda have not been convincing. The present contribution discusses possible cognates in Tocharian and Celtic, implying the Indo-European protoform *nei̯gu̯-.
Copyright (c) 2025 Václav Blažek https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Studies in East Baltic consonant clusters 2: *rTv
In this article, which is part of a series devoted to the investigation of consonant clusters in East Baltic, I examine the cluster *-rTv-. The main motivation for examining this cluster is a new etymological proposal: I suggest that Baltic *kirvja- ‘axe’ belongs to the root *kert- ‘to chop’. This is defended in Section 1, followed in Section 2 by a comparison with alternative proposals that start from roots of the shape *ker- and *kʷer-. In Section 3, I return to the cluster *-rTv-, identifying one probable and another potential parallel, and examine counter-evidence. In the course of the discussion, I also reassess the outcome of the cluster *dv in Baltic.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anthony Jakob https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
How to inflect uninflected words in Lithuanian
In Lithuanian, there are a number of quantificational adverbs that can perform the same functions as noun forms, even though they are invariable and are not marked by case endings, e.g. daũg ‘much’, mãža / mažaĩ ‘little, few’, ganà ‘enough’, kíek ‘how much’, tíek ‘so much’. The purpose of this article is to determine what strategies the Lithuanian language uses to compensate for the lack of case marking in these forms and to prevent this from leading to ambiguity about their syntactic function. The data from the Old Lithuanian texts are particularly interesting because they show a variety of possibilities: (1) the use of derived variants with case marking (daũgelis ‘much’, daugýbė, daugùmas ‘great number’), (2) the use of inflected forms (*daugis, *kiekas, *tiekas), (3) the transfer of the inflectional markers to the noun accompanying these adverbs (e.g. daũg žmonė́ms dative plural). These different possibilities obey both the organic logic of the language itself and sometimes linguistic interference in the case of translated texts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Petit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Dr. Hannes Sköld: A consistent critic of N. Ja. Marr, Marrism, and Stalinism
Copyright (c) 2025 Rainer Eckert https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The search for lost Baltic personal names in Latvian surnames and old written texts
The aim of this article is to illustrate the method for the potential identification of Latvian pre-Christian personal names elaborated and approbated by the authors, considering that earlier research encourages a hypothesis that at least some contemporary Latvian surnames can be traced to ancient personal names of Baltic origin. The article introduces an approach that combines geographical, historical, linguistic, and statistical methods; hence, two examples have been illustrated in the analysis. Latvian surnames with suffixes -ān- and -ēn- (viewed as patronyms by researchers) and without a clear appellative or a newer forename have been selected. In the article, they are represented by such surnames as Beitāns/Beitēns and Geidāns. To the extent possible, we have identified the distribution of such anthroponyms in the territory of Latvia nowadays and in older documents. The distribution is then compared to corresponding Latvian toponyms of different ages. Lastly, possible etymologies are considered by comparing them to the research data on Lithuanian and Old Prussian personal names and by establishing other possibilities of origin from contact languages. Based on this analysis, conclusions are formed about the potential connection between selected surnames and the old personal names of ancient Balts. Among registered contemporary Latvian surnames, there are about ten surnames derived from the root Beit-. In the 1930s, the surname Beitāns was widespread in southern Latgale, Selonia, and eastern Vidzeme. There are also forms such as Beite, Beits in Selonia; Beitiņš in Zemgale, Vidzeme; Beitiks in Vidzeme. Documents from the 16th century feature a personal name with the root Beit- distributed sporadically all over Latvia. In Vidzeme, there were no personal names with the root Beit- in the 17th century; however, there are relatively many homestead names derived from the root in south-eastern and north-western parts of Vidzeme. Contemporary place names exhibit a similar distribution, and they are concentrated along the southern border of Latvia and in Vidzeme. Patronymic forms are quite dominant. When considering the distribution of the onomastic stem Beit-, its potential origin, unconvincing explanations of its origin, and toponymic evidence, it can be concluded that Beit- is, possibly, a stem of a Baltic personal name which was widespread in the 16th century and now remains in surnames and place names all over Latvia. There are also more than ten surnames registered in contemporary Latvia that are derived from the root Geid-/Ģeid-. In the 1930s in Latgale, surnames Geide, Geidāns, and Geiduks were widespread, and in Selonia – Geida, Geide, and Ģeida, also Geidāns and Ģeidāns. None of these surnames were widespread in Kurzeme and Semigallia, but in Vidzeme in 1826 the surnames Geide and Geidjan were registered in manor estate metrics; therefore, the root Geid-/Ģeid- can be mainly linked to southern and south-eastern parts of Latvia. Older proper names written with the root Geid- have been identified in Vidzeme metrics from 1638. Those are five homestead names, but there are no such personal names. A tendency geid- > gaid- has been identified in homestead names from later documents. Nowadays, homesteads named Geidāni are mostly concentrated in south-eastern Vidzeme, Latgale, and Selonia. Underived variants can also be established in northern Vidzeme, and Kurzeme. The Latgalian and Selonian surnames can be connected hypothetically with the Lithuanian and Polish languages. However, this etymology is not reliable because the sound shift ai > ei is only present in a small area of northern Latgale in Latvia. The onomastic root Geid-, according to its distribution in Latvia and its related etymologizations, is of the Baltic origin; however, it most likely entered the Latvian language through Lithuanian. Its etymology is assumed to be the Indo-European verb root *ghei̯dh- ‘wait’. When considering the results of the study, it may be concluded that the historical, geographic, and etymological methods allow the recovery of lost Baltic personal names, namely, to specify the origin of personal names, and to demonstrate the origin, distribution, and history of the productivity of the stem of the proper name.
Copyright (c) 2025 Renāte Siliņa-Piņķe | Sanda Rapa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Nomenclatural value of dialectal features from the point of view of marginal Northern Samogitians
This article presents research on the nomenclatural value of dialectal features from the point of view of Northern Samogitians. It attempts to identify the dialectal features that the residents of the marginal areas of the Northern Samogitian subdialects of Telšiai and Kretinga perceive as the distinguishing features of these subdialects, and to determine the nomenclatural value of some of the most frequently mentioned features – affricates and regressive vowel assimilation. The analysis of the dialectal material of the first two decades of the 21st century – the audio recordings of informants – is based on the methods of dynamic dialectology and perceptual dialectology. The results show that the informants identify quite a variety of phonetic features, but from their point of view, the most distinctive dialectal feature distinguishing Northern Samogitians is the correspondence of affricates č (/tʃ/) and dž (/dʒ/). The differential meaning of the main distinguishing feature of the Northern Samogitian subdialects – regressive vowel assimilation – is defined in a more complex way. In some cases, this feature is observed quite easily and is considered very distinctive, but much more often it is hardly perceived by the information providers as the main distinguishing feature of the representatives of the Northern Samogitian subdialects of Kretinga and Telšiai. The informants’ attitudes essentially reflect a greater closeness to Antanas Salys’ dialect classification; at the same time, they could be the result of the regiolectal and geolectal structure.
Copyright (c) 2025 Simona Vyniautaitė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The peripheral nature of the Western Aukštaitian subdialect of Šiauliai
This article, based on audio recordings of dialects from the early 2010s, presents Zinkevičius and Girdenis’s study on the classification of the western Aukštaitian subdialect of Šiauliai and the bordering western, eastern, and southern Aukštaitian subdialects. An analysis of the subdialectal features that distinguish and are characteristic of the dialects under consideration in the classification of Lithuanian dialects shows that small changes in the use of some distinctive features can most likely be explained by the interaction between dialects as well as between them and the Standard Lithuanian language. Other distinctive features in the audio recordings can be associated with the characteristics of a secondary dialect forming based on the traditional dialect and the local Polish language.
Western Aukštaitian subdialect of Šiauliai
Copyright (c) 2025 Laura Brazaitienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Somatonyms of the thematic subgroup of arms in the Northern Samogitian subdialect: ethnoanatomical categorization and expression
This article presents a study of the thematic subgroup of arms / hands in the Northern Samogitian subdialect based on the Two-level Semantics methodological approach, which allows us to identify the tendencies of the ethnoanatomical categorization of the arm / hand as well as cognitive features of the concept ARMA / HAND.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jūratė Lubienė | Dalia Pakalniškienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Productivity of denominal and deadjectival suffixal nouns in the Joint Corpus of Lithuanian
We explore the derivational productivity of the following salient suffixes of Lithuanian denominal and deadjectival nouns on the basis of the Joint Corpus of Lithuanian (1.3 billion tokens): -um-as, -yb-ė, -yst-ė, -izm-as, -inink-as (-ė), -uol-is (-ė), -ist-as (-ė), -el-is (-ė), -ėl-is (-ė), -(i)uk-as (-ė). We estimate realized, expanding, and potential productivity (Baayen 1992; 1993) and compare our results to the productivity rankings found in the major grammars and the studies of neologisms. Our focus is on the most productive suffixes of the following categories: quality nouns, status nouns, personal nouns, and diminutives. The analysis demonstrates that in a number of cases the productivity ranking of the investigated suffixes differs from the one presented in the major grammars. Our findings are in part supported by the recent studies of neologisms and other analyses based on corpus data.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jurgis Pakerys | Agnė Navickaitė-Klišauskienė | Virginijus Dadurkevičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A contrastive analysis of the Second Commandment’s translations in early Baltic catechisms
The Second Commandment appears in strikingly varied formulations among Old Prussian, Old Latvian, and Old Lithuanian religious texts, particularly in catechisms from the 16th–17th century. The translation models employed in the three Baltic traditions suggest varying interpretations of the verb expressing the divine prohibition, with meanings including ‘to mention’, ‘to lead’, ‘to take’, ‘to (ab)use’, and ‘to drag, put on’. I seek to explain this remarkable diversity by tracing the attestations back to their immediate and secondary sources.
Copyright (c) 2025 Adriano Cerri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Baltic abstract nouns with -i-s and Slavic with -ьje (IE *-iyo-)
Lithuanian abstract nouns of the type plõnis (gen. sg. plõnio) ‘thinness’ (← Lith. plónas ‘thin’) are a continuation of IE neuter adjectives with the suffix *-iyo-. A syntactic analysis of Lithuanian neuter adjectives allows us to assume that the change *-iyo- => -i- is the result of the following phonetic change: plónas ‘thin’ → neutr. *plān-ìja- > (loss of /a/) *plānī- > *plāni- > masc. plõnis ‘thinness’. The presented explanation sheds light on, among other things, the emergence of masculine nouns of the type dagỹs ‘thistle’ / Latv. dadzis < *dagijas (Est. takijas). The development of masculine adjectives with -ijas => -is / -īs is an analogical, not phonetic, process; its starting point was neuter adjectives. Furthermore, the formation of the Baltic declension in -ē- is based on analogy, in accordance with the model proposed by Kuryłowicz (1966; 1975).
Copyright (c) 2025 Norbert Ostrowski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Studies in East Baltic consonant clusters 1: *šr
This article focuses on the sources and outcome of the cluster *šr in East Baltic. This cluster is conspicuously absent in word-initial position. This appears to be the result of “Weise’s law”, which describes a phonotactic limitation against clusters of the type *Ḱr in Proto-Indo-European. In Balto-Slavic, there is also evidence that Weise’s law applied word-medially: where the cluster *-šr- does occur, there is usually a clear model for the restoration of *-š-. An interesting case is *ašra- ‘sharp’ — as the most basic member of the word family, and given exact parallels in other Indo-European languages, it is not likely the result of a recent restoration. This paper examines this lemma in detail. First, with the help of a parallel in strė́nos ‘small of the back’, it is shown that Lithuanian aštrùs ‘sharp’ must reflect a proto-form without *-t-. Second, it is argued that Latvian ass ‘sharp’ may also reflect Proto-East-Baltic *ašra- through a novel sound law *-šr- > -s-. Two probable and two more possible parallels can be found for this sound change. While the evidence as a whole supports the validity of Weise’s law in both word-initial and word-medial position, various evidence points towards the law having ceased to be productive in Proto-Indo-European, thus placing it in a pre-PIE timeframe.
Celebrating sixty years of the Baltic linguistics journal Baltistica
Copyright (c) 2025 Bonifacas Stundžia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Ilustratīvā materiāla atveide „Mūsdienu latviešu valodas vārdnīcā”
THE QUESTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES IN EXPLANATORY DICTIONARIES AND THE DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY LATVIAN LANGUAGE Summary There are two kinds of illustrative examples that are used in explanatory dictionaries: quotations and combination of words (phrases). Quotations are usually included in large dictionaries of many volumes, but phrases are popular in ordinary explanatory dictionar­ies. In explanatory dictionaries illustrative examples have several functions: 1) to confirm that a corresponding word really exists in language; 2) to demonstrate how the word is used in a context; 3) to supply with additional information. In the Dictionary of Contemporary Latvian Language illustrative examples are mainly given in the form of phrases, although sometimes quotations are also used, because there are several word groups that need a larger context (e.g., words with a figurative meaning, stylistically marked words or meanings, interjections).
Copyright (c) 2026 Ieva Zuicena https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0