Summary

Southern Panevėžys subdialect: general features of Ramygala topolection

Violeta Meiliūnaitė

The Panevėžys subdialect of Lithuanian is the largest one within the Eastern Aukštaičiai dialect and is distinctly divided into two parts – southern and northern. The Ramygala topolect covering the central area of the Southern Panevėžys subdialect can be considered to be the most typical one within the subdialect and is notable for few specific features drawing a distinct line between the dialect and the standard language. This may be one of key reasons that it takes over the features of other language systems, i. e. from neighbouring dialects or the standard language. The article briefly presents key features of the Ramygala topolect and their systematic character, as well as describes the reasons why the dialect characters are not used when speaking. Some examples of the topolect texts are also given.