žemaitis

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See also: Zemaitis

Lithuanian

 Žemaičiai on Lithuanian Wikipedia

Etymology

From žẽmas (nether) +‎ -aĩtis, patronymical suffix similar to also descent by locality indicating suffix -iẽtis. Partly comes as a retreatment or dialectal type of German forms such as Samaythen (as seen in for example Jurbarkas - Georgenburg), Samogitian from *sam-g- + -ite. Compare also Semigalian. Cognate to Sami, Lithuanian žmogùs (man), Polish Żmudź (Samogitian), Sambia (German Samland (Sambia). For Lithuanian suffixes -aitis and -ietis, probably considerable is an alternation of /ai/ and /ie/ as in roots of Lithuanian káimas (hamlet), Old Prussian kaims (hamlet) and Lithuanian kiẽmas (court, hamlet), Latvian ciems (hamlet). Alternatively or otherwise could be understood as a derivative of Samland and it's reconstructional form *Sam-au, what is suggested by a reference of the patronymical suffix -aitis to landname suffixes -ava, -uva or slavic family, gens or placename suffix -ov- and by corresponding areas of historical language spread. Also consider interlinguistic pairs pertaining to the region as in Litauen - Letland(ia), Nadrovia - "netherland", possibly Sambia (Samland) and Samland, possibly Karšuva (as in Karšuvos giria (Curonian woods)) and Curland (Curonia). A thus suggested reconstructional form *Sam-au would possibly be supported by Lithuanian and Latvian versus Old Prussian pair of a diphthong /au/ to /aa/ interlinguistic or/and interdialectal alternation (maybe only when under stress) as in saulė (sun) or saule and sale - Žemaitis versus *Samauith which in its turn could be supported by also pertaining to the part of country name Ziemowit or Semovit. For a suffix -it-, compare Moscowite, also for example Old Prussian Tilsit. More at Samogitian.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key):
  • Hyphenation: že‧mai‧tis

Noun

žemaĩtis m (plural žemaĩčiai, feminine žemaitė) stress pattern 2

  1. Samogitian (person from Samogitia)
    Coordinate terms: aukštaĩtis, dzū̃kas, suvalkiẽtis, lietùvininkas
    Hypernym: lietùvis

Declension

Derived terms

adjective
noun
verbs
adverb
nouns
verbs

See also

Further reading

Samogitian

Samogitian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sgs

Noun

žemaitis m (plural žemaitē)

  1. Samogitian (person from Samogitia)

Declension

Derived terms