I don't know about present-day Lithuanian, but many Polish
surnames used to have different forms for "X's (unmarried)
daughter" and "X's wife". For example:
(a) Pan (Mr) Baran, Pani (Mrs) Baranowa, Panna (Miss)
Baranówna;
(b) Pan Kaleta, Pani Kalecina, Panna Kalecianka;
but those in -ski had the same form for married and
unmarried women:
(c) Pan Kowalski, Pani Kowalska, Panna Kowalska.
Types (a) and (b) are obsolete now in formal usage; the
female forms are used only if the woman in question so
wishes. They can still be used informally. Type (c)
continues to be used, and in fact "Pani Kowalski" is
impossible in Polish.
The Czechs have an elaborate gender system in surnames, just
like the one that use to exist in Polish. Even foreign names
can be feminised, e.g. Mrs Odegardova rather than Odegard.
I've heard that Czech feminists regard this usage as sexist,
but I don't know what the prevailing attitude is now. Maybe
our Czech members (and other Slavic- and Baltic-speakers on
the list) will comment.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Odegard
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2000 9:30 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: -(o,e)vic^
Somehow, I have a perception, which is probably wrong, that
Lithuanian
grammatically distinguishes between married and unmarried
women as
well, in a way that is peculiar to Lithuanian alone.