Concerning the Influence of the Western Balts on the Accentuation System of Western Lithuanian Dialects

This article discusses the nature of the tonemes of stressed syllables typical of the western area of Lithuanian. With respect to the intonation curve these tonemes are in contrast to the corresponding tonemes of the dialects of Eastern Aukstaitian (often also of Latvian). In the author's opinion, the main reason of this discrepancy could be the development of the Baltic *ei (-*E) - ie. The hypothesis is based on the old and more recent Lithuanian dialect data. For example, such relics as 'sviekas' (well, sound), 'sviekata' St Lith 'sveikata' (health), etc. in the Zietela subdialect can be accounted for only by the substratum of the western Balts (Prussian or more probably Yotvingian); cf. 'sveikas', Latvian 'sveiks' (idem). Thus, this 'reversal' of the toneme curves in western Lithuanian dialects is to be treated as a part of the linguistic legacy of the western Balts.