--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Grzegorz Jagodzinski"
<grzegorj2000@...> wrote:
> Which is more, the
> [Standard ]Lithuanian form [lú:s^is] is evidence for no *n. ... But
the
> difference [between <u:> and <u,>] was not purely orthographic not
so long ago.
The orthographic evidence of Standard Lithuanian isn't as reliable as
it could seem.
The appropriate LKZ^ entry contains references to the following
lexicographical sources predating the 20th c.:
1. Sirvydas' Punktai sakymu, (1644)
2. The 5th edition of Sirvydas' dictionary (1713)
3. Milkaus' dictionary (1800)
4. Sutkevic^ius' dictionary (1835)
5. Kurs^aitis' dictionaries (1874, 1883).
In inlaut and word-finally under the stress, most Z^emaitian dialects
transformed old nasal vowels into nasal diphthongs (*uN > un etc.,
with an optional phonetic nasal resonance in the vowel) and retained
them up to this day.
Nasals had completely disappeared from the Auks^taitian dialects by
the 19th century (in most dialects -- even earlier), so [3] and [5]
are irrelevant.
[4], despite being compiled by a Z^emaitian, is based on old
Auks^taitian texts (mostly those of Sirvydas, see below), so that its
value is dubious.
Unfortunately, [1] and [2] are irrelevant as well because Sirvydas
didn't distinguish nasals in his works -- and this is despite the
fact he employed the conventional orthographical device of his time
(a small forward slash crossing the lower part of <a> and <e>) to
render Polish nasals.
Interestingly, in a phototypical re-edition of the 1st edition of
Sirvydas's dictionary (ca. 1620) I've got to hand the relevant entry
contains <l/a,s'is> -- at least, its <a> looks exactly like
the <a,> in eg. <ks'ia,dz> in the same dictionary. This is quite
puzzling, taking into account that in Sirvydas' East Auks^taitian
dialect *an, *am, *en, *em > un, um, in, im (thus merging with *un,
*um, *in, *im ) and *aN, *eN > uN, iN (> u:, i:, thus merging with
*uN, *iN), and that in other entries *aN, *uN and *u: are all
rendered by <u> orthographically. This can hardly be a typo (the same
in G. sg <l/a,s'io>). If it's a hypercorrection, it would point to
the nasal resonance in Sirvydas' dialect.
Sergei