Juozas wrote:

> Yet if the loss of

contrast leads

> to any kind of dangerous ambiguity, both syllables are

stressed in

> vyroo, thus making it possible to pronounce the last vowel

as

> a long one.

Some time ago I had a chance to discuss this matter with a Lithuanian phoneticist, who informed me that to retain this opposition Lithuanian has developed some kind of new stress on the historically long vowel. Unfortunatly, we didn't have much time and I just wasn't able to figure out what she meant exactly. A question to Juozas: would you provide us with some details about the stress you mentioned:

- is this a sorta secondary stress (much less prominent than the main one on y)?
- what type could this new stress be in the terms of LH:HL contours opposition: rasing intonation (circumflex), falling intonation (acute), something third?

Sergei