Suvalkija due to the activities of these prominent figures and its better economic conditions. Folk culture Language The traditional classification of the Lithuanian dialects divided those of Suvalkija into two sections: Zanavykai, spoken in its north, and Kapsai, spoken in its south. These two sub-dialects are often described as the basis of the standard Lithuanian language. It has proven quite difficult, however, to identify language characteristics unique to those regions, as the characteristics are extremely diverse and unevenly distributed. A revised classification of the dialects, proposed in 1965, eliminates this distinction and groups the Zanavykai, Kapsai, and Central Aukštaitian sub-dialects as a single sub-grouping, named Kaunas sub-dialect of the Western Aukštaitian dialect. The territory of this sub-dialect encompasses a much larger area than Suvalkija and stretches beyond the Neman River. The Western Aukštaitian dialect, unlike other dialects of Lithuanian, preserves the mixed diphthongs an, am, en, em and the ogonek vowels ą and ę. The dialect is subdivided into Kaunas and Šiauliai sub-dialects. The Kaunas sub-dialect, in contrast to the Šiauliai sub-dialect, in most cases separates long and short vowels and stresses word endings in the same way as standard Lithuanian. Since they had close economic contacts with East Prussia, people from Suvalkija borrowed a number of German words. There are efforts to preserve, record, and promote the local dialects. Between 2003 and 2006 the Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute published a three-volume dictionary of Zanavykai sub-dialect. Since 1973, Šakiai district municipality organizes an annual Language Day to encourage preservation of the sub-dialect. Along a gradient from north (Zanavykai) to south (Kapsai and Dzūkija) the stressed first component of mixed diphthongs ul, um, un, ur, il, im, in, and ir, changes from short to semi-long to long (from to to – to thresh, from to to – first, from to to – to braid). Kapsai tend to modify word beginnings. If a word starts in ei or e, they often replace it with ai or a (aik instead of eik – go, ažeras instead of ežeras – lake). Zanavykai also modify vowels, but in the other direction ( replaces – stone, instead of – axis). Kapsai often add a v to words that, in standard Lithuanian, start with uo, u, or o ( instead of – berry, instead of – air) and j to words that start with i, y, or i.e. (' instead of – long, instead of –