Bonifacas Stundia

Some Remarks on Accentual (Neo)mobility in Lithuanian

The alternation of stress between the first and the last syllables of a word with
the skipping of the intennediate syllables is a common feature of the Baltic and
Slavic mobile accent paradigm, which is characteristic both of vocalic and
consonantic nominal stems, e.g. Lith. vkaras-vakarai, Rus. veer-veera
evening, Lith. dukt-dkterj, Rus. doeri-doerjam daughter (see e.g. Stang
1957 [19651: 175ff. with further references). Putting aside various hypotheses
concerning the origin of Balto-Slavic paradigmatic mobility (for a detailed
treatment, see Olander 2009: 1-52 with further references), in this article I
address the issue of accentual mobility and neomobility in Lithuanian.
The spread and development of the mobile accent paradigm is to be
approached as a significant feature of Lithuanian accentuation. The accent
pattern in question has spread to polysyllabic declinable words, mostly (a)
suffixed or prefixed derivatives, and (b) compounds, e.g:
a) (substantives) standard Lith. traukin9s-trukinj
3
train (: trukti pull,
draw), pdtiekalas-patiekalai
34)
dish (:patikti serve); (adjectives) Old and
dial. Lith. apvalis, -I-pvalu
3b
round, nuoirds, -I-nioirdu -diq
3
sincere, Daukas atagars, -I-tagaru -iq
34b
refractory (Skardius 1935:
148), standard Lith. dtpakalias-atpakali
341)
backward; (numerals) keturl
kturios four, eierI-&.erios six, vienerI-vIenerios one; pronoun kelerI
klerios several, some;
b) bulviakasj3s, -e-blviakasb -
3 potato-digger (: bztlvd potato + kdsti
dig), jaunaved9s, -e-junavedj,
-
34a
(bride)groom, bride (: faunas, -
young + vsti marry), akmenta.jYs, -J-kmenta.j,
-
341)
stone-cutter (:
akmu-kmenj stone + tati cut), gelegal9s-glegalj
34b/
gelga1jYs-glgalj
3
piece of iron (:ge1eIs-glej iron + glas piece, bit), etc.
In the opinion of some leading specialists in the field, it was Saussures Law
that triggered changes in the accentuation system of Lithuanian (cf. Girdenis
1972; Dybo 1981, etc.). As regards the changes in the mobile accent pattern,
they most probably resulted in the so-called neomobile accent paradigm with a
stress alternation between the last and the penultimate syllables of a polysyllabic
word. Since this type of stress movement was alien to Lithuanian it was
customarily replaced by a fixed or traditional mobile accent pattern in
substantives (cf. Girdems 1972: 70, Stundia 1991: 84). Cf. e.g. the
development of the accentuation of some i-stem nouns: Daukas krik.tionIs
1 The term neomobile (accent paradigm, accent! stress pattern) is taken from Young 1983.
188
krik.inj 3 (Skardius 1935: 121ff.) . standard Lith. krilth5ionis 1 (see Kalnius
et al., LKR, DLK., etc.). Some remnants of neomobility can be found in the
southern and eastern dialects: e.g. ligonIs 3 patient, velionls 3 deceased (see
LK), PalionIs 3 (* standard Lith. lignis, velinis, Palinis 1). In the
standard language, the remnants are found only in the class of nomina propria:
cf. Anyk.f&a7-Anj5kieius 3 (town) < AnyMiai*Anyk.fius
3I2;
Baknys
BakonIms 3 (village) < *Bdkonys..BatkonI
31);
Lazduon-Lazdonq 3 (river)
<Lazduona*Lazduonq
3b
(see Vt).
Besides instances of remnants in substantives, the new accent paradigm is
also found in:
u-stem adjectives (see Young 1983), e.g.
jdarbs-IdaFbzi 4 skillful
(circumflex metatony, cf. drbas 3 job) < jdarbis- *jdrbz{
3 < *jdrlbUs..
Iidrbufl
3b;
and i-stem numerals seprynI-sepinis 3 ,seven (< *septnhIseptin
3b)
atuonI-a.tonis 3 eight
(<
*tmniltn
3b)
and devynl-devjnjs 3 nine
(<*devi 4nhldevinis
3).
In these two subsystems (especially in the first one) the class of neomobilia
has not been replaced by equivalents following other accent patterns: on the
contrary, it has grown and become entrenched mostly because of analogical
processes. E.g. *Iatutas..tuIta
3b
apvals-Jpvalz{
3b
have developed into a.tutas-atunt 4 eighth, apvals-apvlz{ 4 by analogy
with tuonI-a.tzonjs and jdarbzss-jdafbz{. According to Friedrich Kurschat,
polysyllabic adjectives in -us, -i were stressed in the same way as the disyllabic
adjective gras, - 4 beautiful; nice in
19thcentury
Lithuanian as spoken in
Eastern Prussia (Kurschat 1876: 227,

820); exceptions to this rule included

pakils, atlaids 3,nuo1aidis, privals, raskafns, and apskrits, which followed
traditional mobility (i.e. accent paradigms 3 or
3a)
Remnants of traditional
accentual mobility in polysyllabic u-stem adjectives can also be found in
20 th
2 The variant Anyk.fiai-Anykt5ius 3b really exists in the dialect of the Anyktiai area, but is
to be interpreted as restored one (see footnote 3).
3 In accordance with Sausures Law, the adjective atlaid,is, - 3b lenient (not recorded in
LK2e!) is to be interpreted as an example with restored traditional mobility: i.e *atldildas
Iatlidu> *at1iIdusatI1idun
(Sausures Law)> at1aidis*agljd,t
3 > ailaids-at1aid,
4 (circumflex metatony) , ailaids-dtlaidz 1 3b (restoration of traditional mobility): ef.
corresponding examples from the class of substantives, e.g. pagerkljs-pgerktj 3b (place)
under ones throat (: grkJ gerkil throat), paka1n-pka1n 3b foot of a mountain or
hill (: kdlnas mountain; hill), see LK.e; Anyk.fiaT-Anyk.hjus 3b (alongside the codified
form Anyk iai-AnjkAius 3), see Vanagas 2008: XXIV, LXXIII.
J
189
century dictionaries and handbooks of standard or written Lithuanian, and
namely in the works of Jonas Jablonskis (see VidiUnas 1997: 168ff.) as well as
NdW 1-5, LKR., DLK2 (see in detail Pakerys 1994: 369ff.). Ever since the
1950s, traditional mobility has gradually disappeared from the class of
polysyllabic u-stem adjectives in the standard language: cf. the
recommendations by Adele Laigonaite (1959: 57, footnote 1) arid LKG (1: 544),
according to which all polysyllabic u-stem adjectives have to follow the
4th
accent paradigm. There is no trace left of traditional accentual mobility of
polysyllabic u-stem adjectives in either the second edition of the Dictionary of
Modern Lithuanian (DLK. 2, 1972) or Laigonaite 1978, etc.
(ef. Young 1983). Some remnants of the traditional accentual mobility of
polysyllabic u-stem adjectives can be found only in dialects: cf East Lith.
nuo.irdis-nioJircht
38
sincere; cordial, nuotakis-ntotaktt inclined, sloping
(see
LKe).
In addition to the above-mentioned accentual neomobility with the alternation
of stress between the last and the penultimate syllables of declinable
polysyllabic words, there also exists another type of new mobile accent
paradigm that alternates stress between the final and the antepenultimate syllable
in tetrasyllabic compounds and suffixed derivatives: cf. traditional Lith. mobilia
jaunavedjs, -d-junavedj,
-
aicmentas, -e-kmenta.ij,
-
pdtiekalas
patiekalal
34l
and neomobilia jaunavedjYs, --jaunved
3b
akmentaJ9s, -
akmnta. 3 (dial. akmentaAjYs, --akmeta.,
-
31)),
(colloq.) patikalas
patiekalai
31)
(on this phenomenon see Stundia, Mikuleniene 1989; Pakerys
1994: 296ff.; Vitkauskas 2004). It seems that this type of neomobility is
unaffected (at least directly) by Saussures Law 4,and its rise in compounds 5
may have connection with changes in the accentuation of fixed stress
determinative compounds, namely (a) with the growing tendency to stress the
connecting vowel -a-, as well as (b) with the shift of stress from the initial to the
adjacent syllable in the first disyllabic component of a compound, cf. a)
bulvidkasis 1
(+
bidviaktisis 1) season when potatoes are dug out and
bulvikosj-bulviakas9s
31)
biilviakasj-bulviakasjs
34a)
potato-digger; b)
vandnmatis 1 water-meter (: cf. vndent-vandu water) and vandnneJj
vandenneJjYs
3a
water-carrier (i vndenneAj-vandenneJjs
34a)
4 It seems that Saussures Law triggered this type of neomobility in three suffixed numerals,
namely septynerl, sept)nerios 3a seven, aituoneri a.ftdonerios 3a eight, and devynerl,
devinerios 3a nine (of. the first type of accentual neomobility in numerals septyni.
aJtuonh. and devynI 3).
5 The spread of neomobility to the group of suffixed and prefixed tetrasyllabic derivatives is
a topic of future research.
190
1
Tetrasyllabic compounds that follow accent paradigm
3L,
which sometimes is
only a variant of traditional paradigms
34
or
34a,
are characteristic of NdW 1-5,
Kalnius et al., LKR, e.g. laikane.jYs, -
3b
postman (NdW, KALNIUS et al.),
ugniagesjYs
3l
fireman (Kalnius et al., LKR.),
34b 131)
(NdW); pilvapenjYs, -
glutton (NdW 3), vaikaud9s, - infanticide (NdW 5). It is not clear from
Kurschat 1883 which type of mobility applies to some rare tetrasyllabic
compounds such as okame1 -s milker of goats (according to LKthey are
defined in terms of traditional mobility) 6.
DLK2 1 (1954) restored traditional accentual mobility in tetrasyllabic
compounds, but left with some exceptions including vaikagaijYs urchin,
de.raga19s piece of sausage, karnagaljs piece of bast, naujakurjs, - (new)
settler (all follow accent paradigm
31)),
and DLK. 2(1972) was even more
radical in leaving naujakurjs, -
3b
as the only example of neomobility.
Vytautas Vitkauskas (see LKT, 1985) was the first in post-war Soviet
Lithuania who codified neomobility as a variant of traditional mobility in all
tetrasyllabic compounds except naujakur9s, -J
3b
Such codification that
corresponded to actual usage was followed by DLK 3-63 ,and BLKK 2(see
dictionary on CD).
It seems that the life of the neomobile accent paradigm of compounds will be
short - this is due to the fact that in colloquial and, occasionally, standard
Lithuanian it is ousted by the fixed stress accent pattern: cf. DLK 43
akmenta.j5s-/cmenta.scj
34b,
akmentajs-akmentaj 3a/a1ntis
1.
Conclusion
The development of Balto-Slavic accentual mobility in polysyllabic
declinable words has resulted in two types of neomobilty in Lithuanian. The first
type is characterized by the alternation of stress between the last and the
penultimate syllables in polysyllabic words and has spread to u-stem adjectives
and some numerals. The second type, alternating stress between the last and the
antepenultimate syllables in tetrasyllabic words, has spread to compounds, some
suffixed and prefixed substantives and numerals. It seems that the origin of the
first type of accentual neomobility directly follows from Saussures Law, while
the second type of accentual neomobility may have arisen due to analogical
processes, except in the numerals septynerI, sepijYnerios; aAtuoneri a.tonerios,
6 It seems that the suffixed derivative nuodguljs-nuodeu/j
firebrand (alongside the fixed
stress variant nuoduIis) is the only clear example of the second type of neomobility in
Friedrich Kurschats works (see KuRsCHAr 1876: 168,

579).
191
4
devyneri, devjnerios
(3a)
which follow neomobile accent paradigm because of
Saussures Law 7.
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7 My warmest thanks to Associated Professor Nijol MaskaliUnien at the Department of
Translation and Interpreting Studies, Vilnius University, for having checked my English.
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