Akmenės apylinkių tekstai

ENNaujoji Akmenė, as has been said, is without a dialect (has no dialect). When a railway was begun to be built in 1947, and a cement plant was started to be rapidly constructed in 1949, people from all over the then Soviet Union began to arrive in Karpėnai. The Russian language was gradually becoming a second ‘native’ language. Lithuanians, representatives of other subdialects, also moved to the town being founded, which offered flats and better living conditions to them. The subdialect of local Žemaitians was disappearing, merged with the language of the newcomers and was influenced by the standard language. Gradually a peculiar geolect of the town was forming. Recordings of the middle and younger generation of the residents of Naujoji Akmenė allow us to speak about the already formed geolect of the town, which had little in common with the traditional subdialect of Northern Žemaitians. As has already been stated (Murinienė 2015), the majority of the essential phonetic features of Northern Žemaitians of Telšiai have disappeared. The middle generation born in strongly urbanised town of Naujoji Akmenė in 1960s, which spent its childhood with the grandparents who lived in Karpėnai and spoke the local subdialect, today speak a slight Žemaitian subdialect in private surroundings often trying to adapt to their relatives who speak the dialect (though not a pure one).If no person who speaks Žemaitian subdialect takes part in a conversation, even a private one, communication is maintained in the so-called language of the town of Naujoji Akmenė - in geolect. The younger generation of Naujoji Akmenė speaks only the local geolect and cannot speak Žemaitian at all. When asked what language they use when communicating among themselves, the majority of them say that they use the standard language, though geolect of the residents of Naujoji Akmenė is really far from the standard language. As has already been stated, only a brief survey of geolect is presented in the publication without going deep into its analysis.