Summary

The sub-dialect of Kriukai

Aušra Kaikarytė

The features of peripheral North-West Aukštaitian Kriukai sub-dialect occurring at the very north-eastern side of the Joniškis district are discussed in this article. The sub-dialect analyses have been performed on the grounds of the recordings taped in Kriukai area during the Versmė Expedition–2003 together with the students from Šiauliai University. The attention is paid mainly to non-traditional subjects less analysed in the philological literature. The conclusions are illustrated by examples.

The East-Aukštaitian North Panevėžys dialect features – reduction of word endings and epenthetic vowels, narrowing of circumflex diphthongs am, an, firming of compounds le, lė – are found to be the weakest features of this sub-dialect, because they are greatly varying. The non-stressed opened word endings e, a (in literature language ė, o), preserving of diphthongs ai, ei, au, progressive palatalisation and stress retraction could be considered as the strongest features of the Kriukai sub-dialect.