Baltistica
type: channel
description: 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.
publisher: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla / Vilnius University Press
language: en
publication name: Baltistica
issn: 0132-6503
copyright: Please read the Copyright Notice in Journal Policy.
items: „Netiesioginė nuosaka“ kaip teksto reiškinys ir jos vartojimas lietuvių tautosakoje
items: Smulkmena LII
items: Redaktorių žodis / From the Editors / Von den Herausgebern
items: Pratarmė / Priekšvārds / Foreword / Vorwort / Préface / Предисловие
items: Mėnulio stereotipai lietuvių poezijoje
items: Jonas Kazlauskas
items: Zum Gedenken an Akademiemitglied Prof. Dr. Vytautas Mažiulis
items: Jochen Dieter Range
items: 58th annual meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea
items: The 60th International Academic Conference in Riga
items: Martynas Mažvydas’ Forma Chrikʃtima: existing copies and their research history
items: A multifactorial analysis of phonetic word stress correlates in Standard Lithuanian: verification of the prosodic element interaction model
items: Perception and acoustic features of Lithuanian directive phrases: a preliminary study
items: On the accentuation history of Lithuanian denominal verbs in -(i)au-ti
items: Balto-Slavic *nai̯g-, a neglected isogloss with external relatives
items: Studies in East Baltic consonant clusters 2: *rTv
items: How to inflect uninflected words in Lithuanian
items: Title pages and table of contents
items: Dr. Hannes Sköld: A consistent critic of N. Ja. Marr, Marrism, and Stalinism
items: The search for lost Baltic personal names in Latvian surnames and old written texts
items: Nomenclatural value of dialectal features from the point of view of marginal Northern Samogitians
items: The peripheral nature of the Western Aukštaitian subdialect of Šiauliai
items: Somatonyms of the thematic subgroup of arms in the Northern Samogitian subdialect: ethnoanatomical categorization and expression
items: Productivity of denominal and deadjectival suffixal nouns in the Joint Corpus of Lithuanian
items: A contrastive analysis of the Second Commandment’s translations in early Baltic catechisms
items: Baltic abstract nouns with -i-s and Slavic with -ьje (IE *-iyo-)
items: Studies in East Baltic consonant clusters 1: *šr
items: Celebrating sixty years of the Baltic linguistics journal Baltistica
items: Ilustratīvā materiāla atveide „Mūsdienu latviešu valodas vārdnīcā”

„Netiesioginė nuosaka“ kaip teksto reiškinys ir jos vartojimas lietuvių tautosakoje
type: item
description: „КОСВЕННОЕ НАКЛОНЕНИЕ“ КАК ЯВЛЕНИЕ ТЕКСТА И ЕГО УПОТРЕБЛЕНИЕ В ЛИТОВСКОМ ФОЛЬКЛОРЕ Употребление „косвенного наклонения" не дает информации относительно наклонения. Такая информация не нужна, поскольку она уже известна по лингвистическому или (реже) нелингвистическому контексту. „Косвенное наклонение" чаще всего употребляется в пересказанных речах, где информация наклонения не только восстанавливается по контексту, но и не совпадает с первичным значением „косвенного наклонения".
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: oblique mood
  topic: keywords
subject: Lithuanian folklore
  topic: keywords
subject: morphology
  topic: keywords
creator: Guido Michelini
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Guido Michelini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1982-12-31
publication date: 1982-12-31
starting page: 158
ending page: 162
doi: 10.15388/Baltistica.18.2.1559

Smulkmena LII
type: item
description: –
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Antanas Tatarė
  topic: keywords
subject: manuscript
  topic: keywords
creator: Zigmas Zinkevičius
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Zigmas Zinkevičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1982-12-31
publication date: 1982-12-31
starting page: 157
ending page: 157
doi: 10.15388/Baltistica.18.2.1558

Redaktorių žodis / From the Editors / Von den Herausgebern
type: item
description: –
subject: Editorial Word
  topic: section
subject: editorial board
  topic: keywords
subject: journal
  topic: keywords
subject: Kalbotyra
  topic: keywords
creator: – –
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 – – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2006-09-30
publication date: 2006-09-30
starting page: 5
ending page: 6
doi: 10.15388/Baltistica.41.1.1119

Pratarmė / Priekšvārds / Foreword / Vorwort / Préface / Предисловие
type: item
description: –
subject: Editorial Word
  topic: section
subject: foreword
  topic: keywords
subject: Palemonas
  topic: keywords
subject: bibliography
  topic: keywords
creator: – –
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 – – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2007-09-30
publication date: 2007-09-30
starting page: 5
ending page: 6
doi: 10.15388/Baltistica.42.1.955

Mėnulio stereotipai lietuvių poezijoje
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
subject: poetry
  topic: keywords
subject: stereotypes
  topic: keywords
subject: Moon
  topic: keywords
creator: Rūta Kazlauskaitė
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Rūta Kazlauskaitė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2009-12-31
publication date: 2009-12-31
starting page: 355
ending page: 377
doi: 10.15388/Baltistica.44.2.1324

Jonas Kazlauskas
type: item
description: –
subject: Editorial Word
  topic: section
subject: Jonas Kazlauskas
  topic: keywords
subject: anniversary
  topic: keywords
creator: –
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2010-09-30
publication date: 2010-09-30
starting page: 5
ending page: 7
doi: 10.15388/Baltistica.45.1.1059

Zum Gedenken an Akademiemitglied Prof. Dr. Vytautas Mažiulis
type: item
description: –
subject: Information
  topic: section
subject: Vytautas Mažiulis
  topic: keywords
subject: Erinnerungen
  topic: keywords
creator: Rainer Eckert
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Rainer Eckert https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2011-09-30
publication date: 2011-09-30
starting page: 161
ending page: 166
doi: 10.15388/Baltistica.46.1.45101

Jochen Dieter Range
type: item
description: –
subject: In Memoriam
  topic: section
subject: in memoriam
  topic: keywords
subject: Jochen Dieter Range
  topic: keywords
creator: Christiane Schiller
creator: Birutė Kabašinskaitė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Christiane Schiller; Birutė Kabašinskaitė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 379
ending page: 384
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2592

58th annual meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea
type: item
description: –
subject: Information
  topic: section
subject: conference
  topic: keywords
subject: linguistics
  topic: keywords
subject: Societas Linguistica Europaea
  topic: keywords
creator: Lina Inčiuraitė-Noreikienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Lina Inčiuraitė-Noreikienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 376
ending page: 377
doi: 10.15388/altistica.60.2.2587

The 60th International Academic Conference in Riga
type: item
description: –
subject: Information
  topic: section
subject: conference
  topic: keywords
subject: linguistics
  topic: keywords
subject: Riga
  topic: keywords
creator: Lina Inčiuraitė-Noreikienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Lina Inčiuraitė-Noreikienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 371
ending page: 375
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2586

Martynas Mažvydas’ Forma Chrikʃtima: existing copies and their research history
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: M. Mažvydas
  topic: keywords
subject: Forma Chrikʃtima
  topic: keywords
subject: copies
  topic: keywords
subject: history of Baltic writings
  topic: keywords
creator: Ilja Lemeškin
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Ilja Lemeškin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 355
ending page: 369
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2590

A multifactorial analysis of phonetic word stress correlates in Standard Lithuanian: verification of the prosodic element interaction model
type: item
description: 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).
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: prosodic element interaction
  topic: keywords
subject: F0 dynamics
  topic: keywords
subject: MANOVA
  topic: keywords
subject: word stress
  topic: keywords
subject: phrase intonation
  topic: keywords
subject: Standard Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
creator: Evaldas Švageris
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Evaldas Švageris https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 323
ending page: 354
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2576

Perception and acoustic features of Lithuanian directive phrases: a preliminary study
type: item
description: 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 …
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
subject: directive phrase
  topic: keywords
subject: statement
  topic: keywords
subject: F0
  topic: keywords
subject: intensity
  topic: keywords
subject: duration
  topic: keywords
creator: Asta Kazlauskienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Asta Kazlauskienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 289
ending page: 321
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2585

On the accentuation history of Lithuanian denominal verbs in -(i)au-ti
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
subject: historical accentology
  topic: keywords
subject: suffixed verbs
  topic: keywords
subject: acute
  topic: keywords
subject: circumflex
  topic: keywords
subject: metatony
  topic: keywords
creator: Sandra Lukšaitė-Ramonienė
creator: Vytautas Rinkevičius
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Sandra Lušaitė-Ramonienė | Vytautas Rinkevičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 265
ending page: 288
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2596

Balto-Slavic *nai̯g-, a neglected isogloss with external relatives
type: item
description: 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-.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Latvian
  topic: keywords
subject: Slavic
  topic: keywords
subject: Tocharian
  topic: keywords
subject: Celtic
  topic: keywords
subject: positive emotion
  topic: keywords
creator: Václav Blažek
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Václav Blažek https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 257
ending page: 264
doi: 10.15388/Baltistica.60.2.2579

Studies in East Baltic consonant clusters 2: *rTv
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: sound law
  topic: keywords
subject: Proto-Indo-European
  topic: keywords
subject: etymology
  topic: keywords
subject: syllabic resonants
  topic: keywords
creator: Anthony Jakob
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Anthony Jakob https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 241
ending page: 256
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2581

How to inflect uninflected words in Lithuanian
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: adverb
  topic: keywords
subject: case
  topic: keywords
subject: quantifier
  topic: keywords
subject: Old Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
creator: Daniel Petit
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Petit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 189
ending page: 239
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2594

Title pages and table of contents
type: item
description: –
subject: Front Matter
  topic: section
subject: Baltistica
  topic: keywords
subject: title pages
  topic: keywords
subject: contents
  topic: keywords
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
starting page: 185
ending page: 188
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.2.2602

Dr. Hannes Sköld: A consistent critic of N. Ja. Marr, Marrism, and Stalinism
type: item
description: –
subject: Information
  topic: section
subject: Hannes Sköld
  topic: keywords
subject: Marrism
  topic: keywords
subject: Criticism
  topic: keywords
creator: Rainer Eckert
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Rainer Eckert https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 175
ending page: 184
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2580

The search for lost Baltic personal names in Latvian surnames and old written texts
type: item
description: 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…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Latvian personal names
  topic: keywords
subject: surnames
  topic: keywords
subject: homestead names
  topic: keywords
subject: reconstruction
  topic: keywords
creator: Renāte Siliņa-Piņķe
creator: Sanda Rapa
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Renāte Siliņa-Piņķe | Sanda Rapa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 157
ending page: 174
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2557

Nomenclatural value of dialectal features from the point of view of marginal Northern Samogitians
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
subject: Northern Samogitians
  topic: keywords
subject: dialectal differentiation
  topic: keywords
subject: nomenclature of dialectal features
  topic: keywords
subject: change of dialectal features
  topic: keywords
subject: linguistic attitudes
  topic: keywords
creator: Simona Vyniautaitė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Simona Vyniautaitė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 137
ending page: 155
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2560

The peripheral nature of the Western Aukštaitian subdialect of Šiauliai
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
subject: Western Aukštaitian subdialect of Šiauliai
  topic: keywords
subject: classification of Lithuanian dialects
  topic: keywords
subject: Middle Aukštaitian
  topic: keywords
subject: dialectal features
  topic: keywords
subject: peripheral subdialects
  topic: keywords
creator: Laura Brazaitienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Laura Brazaitienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 115
ending page: 135
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2562

Somatonyms of the thematic subgroup of arms in the Northern Samogitian subdialect: ethnoanatomical categorization and expression
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
subject: Northern Samogitian subdialect
  topic: keywords
subject: somatonyms
  topic: keywords
subject: semantics
  topic: keywords
subject: ethnoanatomy
  topic: keywords
subject: categorization
  topic: keywords
subject: cognitive features
  topic: keywords
creator: Jūratė Lubienė
creator: Dalia Pakalniškienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Jūratė Lubienė | Dalia Pakalniškienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 95
ending page: 113
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.59.1.2553

Productivity of denominal and deadjectival suffixal nouns in the Joint Corpus of Lithuanian
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
subject: denominal nouns
  topic: keywords
subject: deadjectival nouns
  topic: keywords
subject: suffixal nouns
  topic: keywords
subject: derivational productivity
  topic: keywords
subject: realized productivity
  topic: keywords
subject: expanding productivity
  topic: keywords
subject: potential productivity
  topic: keywords
subject: corpus linguistics
  topic: keywords
creator: Jurgis Pakerys
creator: Agnė Navickaitė-Klišauskienė
creator: Virginijus Dadurkevičius
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Jurgis Pakerys | Agnė Navickaitė-Klišauskienė | Virginijus Dadurkevičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 75
ending page: 94
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2567

A contrastive analysis of the Second Commandment’s translations in early Baltic catechisms
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Old Lithuanian
  topic: keywords
subject: Old Latvian
  topic: keywords
subject: Old Prussian
  topic: keywords
subject: philology
  topic: keywords
subject: translation
  topic: keywords
subject: Baltic catechisms
  topic: keywords
subject: commandments
  topic: keywords
creator: Adriano Cerri
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Adriano Cerri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 37
ending page: 74
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2555

Baltic abstract nouns with -i-s and Slavic with -ьje (IE *-iyo-)
type: item
description: 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).
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Baltic languages
  topic: keywords
subject: noun abstracts
  topic: keywords
subject: syntax
  topic: keywords
subject: neuter adjectives
  topic: keywords
creator: Norbert Ostrowski
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Norbert Ostrowski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 31
ending page: 36
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2577

Studies in East Baltic consonant clusters 1: *šr
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: sound law
  topic: keywords
subject: Proto-Indo-European
  topic: keywords
subject: phonotactics
  topic: keywords
subject: Weise’s law
  topic: keywords
creator: Anthony Jakob
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Anthony Jakob https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 7
ending page: 29
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2578

Celebrating sixty years of the Baltic linguistics journal Baltistica
type: item
subject: Editorial Word
  topic: section
subject: Baltistica
  topic: keywords
subject: Baltic linguistics
  topic: keywords
subject: journal
  topic: keywords
subject: anniversary
  topic: keywords
creator: Bonifacas Stundžia
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Bonifacas Stundžia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 5
ending page: 6
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2599

Title pages and table of contents
type: item
description: –
subject: Front Matter
  topic: section
subject: Baltistica
  topic: keywords
subject: title pages
  topic: keywords
subject: contents
  topic: keywords
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-18
publication date: 2025-12-18
starting page: 1
ending page: 4
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.60.1.2601

Ilustratīvā materiāla atveide „Mūsdienu latviešu valodas vārdnīcā”
type: item
description: 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).
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Latvian
  topic: keywords
subject: lexicology
  topic: keywords
subject: lexicography
  topic: keywords
subject: Dictionary of Contemporary Latvian
  topic: keywords
creator: Ieva Zuicena
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Ieva Zuicena https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2012-09-01
publication date: 2012-09-01
starting page: 181
ending page: 188
doi: 10.15388/baltistica.0.8.2120