Summary

Original forms of reflexive verbs in sub-dialects of Babtai area

Gintarė Judžentytė

Kazys Morkūnas was the first who noticed the peculiar usage of reflexive verbs in the speech of Babtai area dwellers in 1963. Describing the main features of the dialect in his manuscript, the linguist stressed the fact that “interesting forms of reflexive verbs, such as juõkasis, džaũgasis, skirtėsis” are used.

During the expedition on July of 2012 in Babtai town and its environs, peculiar forms of reflexive verbs have been fixed as being still alive ad widely used, e.g.: tam vaikui reikėjo pasą išsiimtis; koks guzas darosis; o čia tai perkasis tą kavą etc.

The verbs presented in the ‘Lietuvių kalbos atlasas’ (The Atlas of Lithuanian Language, Vol. 3) are referred to as those having double reflexive particle (LKA 1991, 98); and it is said that they are used in parallel with other reflexive forms (ibid.). Zigmas Zinkevičius terms these forms as having twice repeated particle (Zinkevičius 1966, 322). The above words are also noted in the ‘Lietuvių kalbos tarmių chrestomatija’ (The Reader of Lithuanian Language Dialects). The book says the South Šiauliai subdialect users like ‘double’ forms of reflexive verb, e.g.: nešasis ʽnešasiʼ, kabinasis ʽkabinasisʼ, matosis ʽmatosiʼ, darosis ʽdarosiʼ (LKTCH 2004, 64).

The present paper discusses the linguistic circumstances, which could cause the appearance of specific forms of reflexive verbs in the speech of Babtai area dwellers. It is analysed whether these forms could be referred to as given in the mentioned literary sources, i.e. could they be referred to as forms with twice repeated particle, that is to say, the ‘double’ forms of reflexive verbs.