Kalbos archajiškumas: dviskaita rytų aukštaičių šiaurinių panevėžiškių šnektose

ENThe dual number is an ancient relic that but few languages have preserved. Even though the problems with the formation and development of the dual number in the Baltic languages have been thoroughly addressed by many scholars of Baltic and Indo-European studies, this category, its usage, and status in the standard Lithuanian language and in dialects still poses quite a few questions. The old resources for the Lithuanian language indicate that the dual number has vanished from the standard language quite recently. It was broadly used in almost all of the Lithuanian dialects. Nearly every Higher Lithuanian subdialect no longer has the dual number as a category. The specific dual-number forms of dative, ablative, or other cases are no longer there. However, dual-number nominative- accusative forms can still be found on the entire area covered by the Lithuanian language, even though they are being used in dialects to varying degree. The material that has been collected shows that the dual number is still present in the northern Panevėžiškiai subdialects of Eastern Higher Lithuanians. It is particularly frequent in the vernacular of the old generation. […].

• Etnologija / Ethnology
• Kalbotyra / Linguistics