Abstract
The Lithuanian 3rd person future forms of monosyllabic acute stems are mentioned as one of the categories where the examples of a phenomenon called “monosyllabic circumflexion” or “monosyllabic metatony” are found, e. g., dúoti - duõs ‛to give’. However, there are several exceptions, e. g., lìs (∼ lýti ‛to rain’), bùs (∼ buti ‛to be’), etc. Yet, the condition of the exceptions has not been fully analyzed in the context of the verbal system involving other tense paradigms. In this paper, a thorough examination will be conducted on the 3rd person future forms and their paradigms in Lithuanian. It is found that the verbs which have shortened 3rd person future forms always have the nasal infix present. Based on this result, a possible interpretation will be presented as to how certain 3rd person future forms have been shortened. Also, I will propose that the shortening of the 3rd person future forms is a secondary development, whereas MC could be the regular process for the 3rd person future forms.
© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
