----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 12:54 AM
Subject: [phoNet] Lithuanian/Russian:
FIXED
> I mean no disrespect to the other languages
of Eastern Europe.
> It's just that Lithuanian is the most archaic of the
IE
> languages.
It's just a stereotype, Mark. Of course Lithuanian is a
conservative language on a number of counts; for example, it retains some
impressively archaic lexemes (like sẽnas 'old' or výras 'man', if you'd like to
compare it with Latin); final syllables are remarkably well preserved (-as
for PIE *-os in the nom.sg. of thematic masculines); Lithuanian may employ the
locative case without a preposition, etc. However, it has also innovated in
many important respects. To mention just a few:
Phonology. The voiced and voiced aspirated stops have merged;
so have *o and *a; the accent and quantity only indirectly reflect the prosodic
features of PIE. There have been substantial transformations of the consonant
system (satemic changes and the ruki rule, Baltic palatalisations).
Morphology. There is no trace of the neuter gender in nouns;
the declension of adjectives has been reformed; no contrast between 3 sg. and 3
pl. in vrbs; a new conditional mood; athematic presents no
longer exist (except for a few fossilised forms); IE aspectual distinctions in
verbs have been lost; there has been a radical restructuring of preterite
formations.
It's easy to find archaic features in ANY language, also in
English: no merger of obstruent series; the unique survival of PIE *w; archaic
lexemes like father (lost in Balto-Slavic!), etc.
Piotr