THE MERGER OF THE FEMININE DECLENSION IN THE EASTERN LITHUANIAN (UTENA) DIALECT, Moteriškojo linksniavimo daiktavardžių kamienų mišimas uteniškių tarmėje

<jats:p>The article deals with morphological features of the Eastern Lithuanian (Utena) dialect of the Lithuanian language. There is a tendency for the merger of the feminine stems: ēand i̯ā, ē and ā, ā and a, ē and (i̯)a. The analysis shows that the merger of stems is influenced by the phonetic development of the dialect, semantic fields and the neutralization of the collective plural.</jats:p>