Dzūkian dialect

Dzūkian dialect, known in academic works as Southern Aukštaitian dialect, is one of the three main sub-dialects of the Aukštaitian dialect of Lithuanian language. Dzūkian dialect is spoken in Dzūkija, southern Lithuania. Its most distinctive feature is replacing t, d before i, į, y, ie and č, dž with c and dz (cik instead of tik – just, dzidumas instead of didumas – size, pync instead of pinti – to braid, sveciai instead of svečiai – guests). Since the region borders Slavic lands, the dialect has many Slavic loanwords and barbarisms.

Map of the dialects of the Lithuanian language (Zinkevičius and Girdenis, 1965)

  Southern Aukštaitian or Dzūkian sub-dialect

References

• Janina Jašinskienė, ed. (2005). Tradicijos. Iliustruota Lietuvos enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Kaunas: Šviesa. p. 56. ISBN 5-430-04158-0.