The Samogitian language (Žemaičių kalba) is a language spoken in the Samogitia (Žemaitija) region of Lithuania. It is now usually considered a dialect of Standard Lithuanian, but intelligibility between Standard Lithuanian and Samogitian is often difficult. Samogitian and Lithuanian are members of the East Baltic subgroup of the Baltic language group, which is part of the Indo-European_language family.

History

In old texts and documents Samogitians and Lithuanians are usually mentioned separately, alongside many other Baltic peoples. With Russian annexation of Lithuania after partitioning of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, both ethnicities usually led the struggle for freedom together (sometimes alongside the Poles).

It appears that the Samogitian and Lithuanian languages have undergone periods of divergence and convergence throughout their histories. Scholars disagree regarding the chronology of these changes.

Linguistic differences with Standard Lithuanian

Samogitian differs from Standard Lithuanian in phonetics, lexicon, morphology and orthography.

Some words and verb tenses also differs in Samogtian (e.g., in Lithuanian the Past Frequent tense, meaning that action used to be done in past repeatedly, is made by removing the ending of verb and adding "davo" (miršta - mirdavo, pūva - pūdavo), while in Samogitian word "Liuob" is added instead before the word).

Dialects

Samogitian language has three major dialects: Northern Samogitian , Western Samogitian and Southern Samogitian . Historically, the dialects were classified by their pronunciation of the Lithuanian word Duona, "bread." They are referred to as Dounininkai (from Douna), Donininkai (from Dona) and Dūnininkai (from Dūna.).

Western

The Western dialect was was spoken in the region around Klaipėda and is now extinct. After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, many people were expelled and new ones came to these regions.

Northern

Northern Samogitian has two subdialects named for cities within their respective geographic range, Telšiškiai (from Telšiai) and Kretingiškiai (from Kretinga )

Southern

Southern Samogitian has two subdialects, Varniškiai (from Varniai ) and Raseiniškiai (from Raseiniai ) .

Political situation

The Samogitian language is rapidly declining: It is not used in the local school system and there is no press, and no television or radio broadcasts in Samogitian. Local newspapers and broadcast stations use standard Lithuanian instead.

There is no new literature in Samogitian either, as authors prefer standard Lithuanian for its accessibility to a larger audience. Out of those people who speak Samogitian only a few can understand its written form well.

Migration of Samogitian speakers to other parts of the country and migration into Samogitia have reduced contact between Samogitian speakers, and therefore the level of fluency of those speakers.

There are attempts by the Samogitian cultural society to stem the loss of the language. The council of Telšiai city, considered to be the capital of Samogitia, tried to post road signs using Samogitian words. However the state government overruled this since all the road signs are required to appear in Lithuanian according to state laws.

Audio sample

"Apie ubagus ir jų giesmes" is a short excerpt of a folk tale, in the Raseiniškiai subdialect.

External link

• Samogitia
• Maps of Lithuania with Samogitian Dialects' Borders