Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania, spoken by about 4 million native speakers (Lithuanians). The Lithuanian name for the language is lietuvių kalba. Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. ... The Baltic languages are a group of genetically-related languages spoken in the Northern Europe and belonging to the Indo-European language family. ... The Commission of the Lithuanian Language (Lithuanian: Lietuvių kalbos komisija) is the official language regulating organ of the Lithuanian language. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

History

First Lithuanian book (1547) The Simple Words of Catechism by Martynas Mažvydas

Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant. Image File history File links Mazvydo_katekizmas. ... Image File history File links Mazvydo_katekizmas. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

—Antoine Meillet Antoine Meillet (Paul-Jules-Antoine Meillet, November 11, 1866 - September 21, 1936), was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. ...

Lithuanian still retains many of the original features of the nominal morphology found in the common ancestors of the Indo-European languages, and has therefore been the focus of much study in the area of Indo-European linguistics. There is evidence to suggest the existence of a Balto-Slavic language group after the splitting of the Proto-Indo-European language, with the Slavic and Baltic branches then dividing after a prolonged "period of common language and life" (Szemerényi). However, this is disputed by some linguists. While the possession of many archaic features is undeniable, the exact manner by which the Baltic languages have developed from the Proto-Indo-European language is not clear. The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... The Balto-Slavic language group is a reconstructed hypothethical language group consisting of the Baltic and Slavic language subgroups of the Indo-European family. ... The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. ...

The Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between 400 AD and 600 AD. The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after 800 AD; for a long period they could be considered dialects of a single language. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th or 15th century, and perhaps as late as the 17th century. Also, the 13th- and 14th-century occupation of the western part of the Daugava basin (closely coinciding with the territory of modern Latvia) by the German Sword Brethren had a significant influence on the languages' independent development. Centuries: 4th century - 5th century - 6th century Decades: 350s - 360s - 370s - 380s - 390s - 400s - 410s - 420s - 430s - 440s - 450s Years: 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 Events: Constantine III seizes control of the Roman garrison in Britain, declares himself emperor, and crosses into Gaul. ... Centuries: 6th century 7th century 8th century Decades: 550s - 560s - 570s - 580s - 590s - 600s - 610s - 620s - 630s - 640s - 650s Years: 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 World population grows to about 208 million. ... Centuries: 8th century - 9th century - 10th century Decades: 750s 760s 770s 780s 790s - 800s - 810s 820s 830s 840s 850s Years: 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 Significant Events and Trends Swedish town of Birka founded as a centre of trade on the island of Björk... This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... River Daugava flowing through Riga city into the Baltic Sea The Daugava or Western Dvina (Latvian: Daugava, German Düna, Belarusan: Заходняя Дзьвіна, Russian: За́падная Двина́, Finnish Väinä) is a river rising in the Valdai Hills, flowing through Russia and Belarus, and then Latvia, draining into the Gulf of Riga, an arm of... The Livonian Brothers of the Sword (Latin Fratres militiae Christi, literally the brothers of the army of Christ), also known as the Christ Knights, Sword Brethren or The Militia of Christ of Livonia, was a military order started in 1202 by Albert von Buxhövden, bishop of Riga (or Prince...

The earliest surviving written Lithuanian text is a hymnal translation dating from about 1503-1525. Printed books existed after 1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the 18th century and books were not commonly available. In 1864, following the January Uprising, Mikhail Muravyov, the Russian Governor General of Lithuania, banned the language in education and publishing, and barred use of the Latin alphabet altogether, although books printed in Lithuanian continued to be printed across the border in East Prussia and in the United States. Brought into the country by book smugglers despite the threat of stiff prison sentences, they helped fuel a growing nationalist sentiment that finally led to the lifting of the ban in 1904. Jonas Jablonskis (1860-1930) made significant contributions to the formation of the standard Lithuanian language. The conventions of written Lithuanian had been evolving during the 19th century, but Jablonskis, in the introduction to his Lietuviškos kalbos gramatika, was the first to formulate and expound the essential principles that were so indispensable to its later development. His proposal for Standard Lithuanian was based on the western High-Lithuanian dialect. Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania since 1918. During the Soviet occupation (see History of Lithuania), it was used in official discourse along with Russian which, as the official language of the USSR, took precedence over Lithuanian. 1503 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ... Year 1547 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... 1864 (MDCCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Polonia (Poland), 1863, by Jan Matejko, 1864, oil on canvas, 156 × 232 cm, National Museum, Kraków. ... See also: Mikhail Muravyov Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muraviev (Михаил Николаевич Муравьёв in Russian) (April 19, 1845 - June 21, 1900) was a Russian statesman who advocated transfer of Russian foreign... A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... KnygneÅ¡iai (singular: knygneÅ¡ys) is a Lithuanian word with no direct translation in any of the word languages (see Untranslatability), litteral translation of the parts of the word (knyga + neÅ¡ti) would mean something like book carrier. Actually, the word meant people who were smuggling printed material across the... Year 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... Jonas Jablonskis (pseudonym RygiÅ¡kių Jonas; 1860-1930), distinguished Lithuanian practical linguist, founder of Standard Lithuanian. ... Year 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... This article discusses the history of Lithuania and of the Lithuanians. ...

Classification

Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages, along with Latvian. An earlier Old Prussian Baltic language was extinct by the 19th century; the other Western Baltic languages, Curonian and Sudovian, went extinct earlier. The Baltic languages form their own distinct branch of the Indo-European languages. The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. ... Old Prussian is an extinct Baltic language spoken by the inhabitants of the area that later became East Prussia (now in north-eastern Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia) prior to German colonization of the area beginning in the 13th century. ... The term Curonian language (Latvian: kuršu valoda; Lithuanian: kuršių kalba) may refer to two different, but genetically related Baltic languages. ... Sudovian (otherwise known as Jatvingian or Yotvingian) is an extinct western Baltic language of north-eastern Europe. ... The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ...

Geographic distribution

Lithuanian is spoken mainly in Lithuania. It is also spoken by ethnic Lithuanians living in today's Belarus, Latvia, Poland, and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, as well as by emigrant communities in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Russia proper, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay. Location of the Kaliningrad Oblast Map of the Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast Flag Kaliningrad Oblast (Russian: ; German: or Nordostpreussen, Northeast Prussia), informally called Yantarny kray (, meaning Amber region) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) on the Baltic coast, with no land connection to the rest of Russia; it...

2,955,200 people in Lithuania (including 3,460 Tatars), or about 80% of the 1998 population, are native Lithuanian speakers; most Lithuanian inhabitants of other nationalities also speak Lithuanian to some extent. The total worldwide Lithuanian-speaking population is about 4,000,000 (1993 UBS). Kültigin Monument where first mention of Tatar people is inscribed Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar/Татарлар), sometimes spelled Tartar (more about the name), is a collective name applied to the Turkic speaking people of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. ...

Official status

Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania and an official language of the European Union.

Dialects

The Lithuanian language has two dialects (tarmės): Aukštaičių (Aukstaitian, Highland Lithuanian), Samogitian (Žemaičių/Žemaitiu, Lowland Lithuanian), See maps at [1]. There are significant differences between standard Lithuanian and Samogitian. The modern Samogitian dialect formed in the 13th-16th centuries under the influence of Curonian language. Lithuanian Dialects are closely connected with ethnographical regions of Lithuania Aukštaitija (or the Highlands) is the name of historical region in Latvia and Belarus. ... Aukštaitija (or the Highlands) is the name of historical region in Latvia and Belarus. ... Samogitian is a dialect of the Lithuanian language spoken mostly in Samogitia (in the west part of Lithuania). ... The term Curonian language (Latvian: kurÅ¡u valoda; Lithuanian: kurÅ¡ių kalba) may refer to two different, but genetically related Baltic languages. ... Lithuania is divided into historical and cultural regions: Aukštaitija (literally Upper Lithuania) comprises present Vilnius county, Utena County, Panevėžys County and the eastern part of Šiauliai County. ...

Dialects are divided into subdialects (patarmės). Both dialects have 3 subdialects. Samogitian is divided into West, North and South; Aukstaitian into West (Suvalkiečiai), South (Dzūkai) and East. Each subdialect is divided into smaller units - speeches (šnektos).

Standard Lithuanian is based on Western Aukstaitian (Suvalkiečių). Sudovia, or Suvalkija (pronouncing soo-vul-kee-uh), is the name of a historical region inhabited by Sudovians. ... Dainava is a region of Lithuania. ...

Sounds

Vowels

Lithuanian has 12 written vowels. In addition to the standard Roman letters, the ogonek accent (conventionally known as the caudata) is used to indicate long vowels, and is a historical relic of a time when these vowels were nasalized (as ogonek vowels are in modern Polish), and at an even earlier time were followed by an 'n' sound. Ogonek (Polish for little tail, the diminutive of ogon; the Lithuanian equivalent is nosinė which literally means nasal) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in Polish (letters ą, ę), Lithuanian (ą, ę, į, ų), Creek, Navajo and Western Apache (ą, ąą, ę, ęę, į, įį, , ), Chiricahua and Mescalero (ą, ąą, ę, ęę, į, įį, ų, ųų), Tutchone and...

For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

Consonants

Lithuanian uses 20 consonant characters, drawn from the Roman alphabet. In addition, the digraph "Ch" represents a velar fricative (IPA [x]); the pronunciation of other digraphs can be deduced from their component elements. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

Phonology

Consonants

Each consonant (except [j]) has two forms: palatalized and non-palatalized ([bʲ] - [b],[dʲ] - [d], [gʲ] - [g] and so on). Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ...

The consonants [f x ɣ] and their palatalized versions are only found in loanwords. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...

(Adapted from http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm with necessary changes according to Lithuanian Language Encyclopedia^[1])

Vowels

There are two possible ways to organize the Lithuanian vowel system. The traditional pattern has six long vowels and five short ones, with length as its distinctive feature:

(Adapted from http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm and http://www.lituanus.org/1972/72_1_05.htm .)

However, at least one researcher suggests that a tense vs. lax distinction may be the actual distinguishing feature, or may be at least equally important as vowel length.^[2] Such a hypothesis yields the chart below, where 'long' and 'short' have been preserved to parallel the terminology used above.

Grammar

Main article: Lithuanian grammar. Lithuanian grammar is the study of rules governing the use of the Lithuanian language. ...

The Lithuanian language is a highly inflected language in which the relationships between parts of speech and their roles in a sentence are expressed by numerous flexions. This article is about inflection in linguistics. ...

There are two grammatical genders in Lithuanian - feminine and masculine. There is no neuter gender per se, but there are some forms which are derived from the historical neuter gender, notably attributive adjectives. Lithuanian has a free, mobile stress, and is also characterized by pitch accent. In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, stress is the emphasis given to some syllables (often no more than one in each word, but in many languages, long words have a secondary stress a few syllables away from the primary stress, as in the words cóunterfòil or còunterintélligence. ... Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. ...

It has five noun and three adjective declensions and three verbal conjugations. All verbs have present, past, past iterative and future tenses of the indicative mood, subjunctive (or conditional) and imperative moods (both without distinction of tenses) and infinitive. These forms, except the infinitive, are conjugative, having two singular, two plural persons and the third person form common both for plural and singular. Lithuanian has the richest participle system of all Indo-European languages, having participles derived from all tenses with distinct active and passive forms, and several gerund forms. Nouns and other declinable words are declined in seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. In older Lithuanian texts three additional varieties of the locative case are found: illative, adessive and allative. The most common are the illative, which still is used, mostly in spoken language, and the allative, which survives in the standard language in some idiomatic usages. The adessive is nearly extinct. In English, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ... An adjective is a part of speech that modifies a noun or a pronoun, usually by describing it or making its meaning more specific. ... In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... The present tense is the tense (form of a verb) that is often used to express: Action at the present time A state of being A habitual action An occurrence in the near future An action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present There are two... The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ... Past iterative tense is grammatical tense in Lithuanian language, which denotes complete iterative action in the past in opposition to past tense (in Lithuanian language) with meaning of non-iterative or progressive one. ... It has been suggested that Future perfect tense be merged into this article or section. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a verb mood that exists in many languages. ... The conditional mood (or conditional tense) is the form of the verb used in conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set of circumstances. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... It has been suggested that prohibitive mood be merged into this article or section. ... In grammar, the infinitive is the form of a verb that has no inflection to indicate person, number, mood or tense. ... In linguistics, a participle is a kind of verbal adjective; it indicates that the noun it modifies is a participant in the action that the participle refers to. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... Dative has several meanings. ... The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... The vocative case (also called the fifth case) is the case used for a noun identifying the person (animal, object, etc. ... Illative case in the Finno-Ugric languages Illative (from Latin inferre to bring in) is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of into (the inside of). An example from Hungarian would be a házba (into... In the Finnish language, Estonian language and Hungarian language the adessive case (from Latin adesse to be present) is the fourth of the locative cases with the basic meaning of on. For example, Estonian laud (table) and laual (on the table), Hungarian asztal and asztalon (on the table). ... In the Finnish language, the Allative case is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of onto. Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). ... Illative case in the Finno-Ugric languages Illative (from Latin inferre to bring in) is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of into (the inside of). An example from Hungarian would be a házba (into... In the Finnish language, the Allative case is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of onto. Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). ...

In practical terms, these declensions work to make word order less important than it is in, for instance, English. A Lithuanian speaker may word the English phrase "a car is coming" as either "atvažiuoja automobilis" or "automobilis atvažiuoja".

The first prescriptive grammar book of Lithuanian was written in Latin by Daniel Klein and published in Königsberg in 1653. The first scientific Compendium of Lithuanian language was published 1856/57 by August Schleicher, a professor at Prague University. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Government Russia District Subdivision Russia Northwestern Federal District Kaliningrad Oblast Mayor Yuri Savenko (2005) Geographical characteristics Area  - City 215. ... August Schleicher August Schleicher (February 19, 1821 - December 6, 1868) was a German linguist. ... Nickname: City of a Hundred Spires Motto: Praga Caput Rei publicae Location within the Czech Republic Coordinates: Country Czech Republic Region Capital City of Prague Founded 9th century  - Mayor Pavel Bém Area    - City 496 km²  (191. ...

Today there are two definitive books on Lithuanian grammar: one in English, the "Introduction to Modern Lithuanian" (called "Beginner's Lithuanian" in its newer editions) by Leonardas Dambriūnas, Antanas Klimas and William R. Schmalstieg, and another in Russian, Vytautas Ambrazas' "Грамматика Литовского языка" ("The Grammar of the Lithuanian Language").

Vocabulary

Lexical borrowings in the language

The basic vocabulary of Lithuanian does not possess many loan words. Some words known as senieji skoliniai (old loan words) were borrowed from its close neighbors (Slavs and Germans) a very long time ago. Usually, when Slavs or Germans introduced a new concept or item, Lithuanians used the same word for that concept or item with minor changes to conform to the phonological system of the language. Words like stiklas for "glass" (from the Slavic "steklo"), muilas for "soap" (from the Slavic "mylo"), gatvė for "street" (from the Germanic "gatwo"), spinta (a generic term for storage furniture, such as cupboards, wardrobes, bookcases, and so forth; from the German "Spind"), are all examples of old loan words.

Like most other languages, Lithuanian has quite a few international words which came into the language along with 20th-century inventions. Some of them are direct, for example, ekonomija, schema, kosmosas, while others are hybrids, i. e. one stem is international and the other is Lithuanian. An example of the latter usage is šviesoforas, "traffic light" (lit. light-bearing).

The policy of borrowing new foreign words is a compromise between simply accepting new words and coining new Lithuanian words. For scientific usage, it is much easier to simply accept the word in question, making minor changes to conform to the phonological system of the language. Therefore, the percentage of foreign words in technical contexts might readily reach 70% or more. In everyday usage, creating new Lithuanian words is preferred.

Indo-European vocabulary

Lithuanian is considered one of the more conservative modern Indo-European languages, and certain Lithuanian words are very similar to their Sanskrit counterparts. The Lithuanian and Sanskrit words sūnus (son) and avis (sheep) are exactly the same, and many other word pairs differ only slightly, such as dūmas for smoke (dhumas in Sanskrit), antras for second (antaras in Sanskrit), and vilkas for wolf (vrkas in Sanskrit). However, Lithuanian verbal morphology shows many innovations. The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is an old Indo-Aryan language from the Indian Subcontinent, the classical literary language of the Hindus of India[1], a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ...

Lithuanian has some vocabulary items descended from the proto-language which are also found in Latin. Examples include the following words (the first word is Latin, the second is the Lithuanian cognate): rota — ratas (wheel), senex — senis (an old man, compare English senile), vir — vyras (a man), anguis — angis (a snake in Latin, a species of snakes in Lithuanian), linum — linas (flax, compare with English 'linen'), aro — ariu (I plow), iungo — jungiu (I join), duo — du (two), tres — trys (three), septem — septyni (seven), gentes — gentys (tribes), mensis — mėnesis (month), dentes — dantys (teeth), noctes — naktys (nights), sedemus — sėdime (we sit) and so on. Many of the words from this list share similarities with other Indo-European languages, including English. But, despite frequent similarities in vocabulary, Lithuanian has many differences from Latin, and consequently from the Romance languages as well. Notably, structural differences almost exclude the possibility of any hypothesis that one of the languages is a descendant of the other. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ...

On the other hand, the numerous lexical and grammatical similarities between Baltic and Slavic languages suggest an affinity between these two language groups. However, there exist a number of Baltic (particularly Lithuanian) words, notably those that are similar to Sanskrit or Latin, which lack counterparts in Slavic languages. This fact was puzzling to many linguists prior to the middle of the 19th century, but was later influential in the re-creation of the Proto Indo-European language. In any event, the history of the earlier relations between Baltic and Slavic languages and a more exact genesis of the affinity between the two groups remains in dispute.  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... See Pie (disambiguation) for other uses of PIE. The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. ...

Writing system

Like many of the Indo-European languages, Lithuanian employs a modified Roman script. It is composed of 32 letters. The collation order presents one surprise: "Y" is moved to occur between "Į" (I ogonek) and "J" because "Y" actually represents a prolonged /iˑ/. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Vintage German letter balance for home use Look up letter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Alphabetical redirects here. ...

Acute, grave, tilde and macron accents can be used to mark stress and vowel length. However, these are generally not written, except in dictionaries, grammars, and where needed for clarity. In addition, the following digraphs are used, but are treated as sequences of two letters for collation purposes. It should be noted that the "Ch" digraph represents a velar fricative, while the others are straightforward combinations of their component letters. The acute accent (  ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin and Greek scripts. ... Look up Grave in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A tilde. ... A macron, from Greek (makros) meaning large, is a diacritic ¯ placed over a vowel originally to indicate that the vowel is long. ... In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ...

Ch is a digraph in the Roman alphabet. ... DZ or dz can mean: Algeria (ISO country code) Dzongkha language (ISO 639 alpha-2) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Ç… (lowercase dž) is the seventh letter of the Croatian and Serbian (Latin form) alphabets, after D and before Đ. It is pronounced as . ...

Examples

• Lithuanian: Lietuviškai ("lietuvishkai", simplified Lithuanian transcription [lĭetuviʃkaĭ])

(language) lietuvių

(nationality) lietuvis (masculine), lietuvė (feminine) ("lĭetuvis", lĭetuvē)

• Hello (informally): labas ("lahbas", [lābas])
• Goodbye (informally): iki! ("iki'", [iki])
• Please: prašau ("prashau", [praʃaŭ])
• Thank you: ačiū ("ahchjooh", [ātʃⁱū])
• That one: tas (masculine), ta (feminine) ("tas, ta")
• How much (does it cost)?: kiek kainuoja? ("kjek kainuoja", [kĭek kainǔoja])
• Yes: taip ([taĭp])
• No: ne ("ne")
• Sorry: atsiprašau ("Atsiprashau", [atsipraʃaŭ])
• I don't understand: nesuprantu ([nesuprantu])
• Do you speak English?: (ar) kalbate angliškai? ([/ar/ kalbate āngliʃkaĭ ?])
• Where is ...?: Kur yra? ([kur īra?])
• tea: arbata (arbata)

This page is used to describe the simplified system of Lithuanian phonetic transcription (in wikipedia). ...

See also

• Martynas Mažvydas
• Lithuanian dictionaries
• Samogitian language

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The first Lithuanian language dictionary was compiled by Konstantinas Sirvydas and was printed in 1620. ... Samogitian is a dialect of the Lithuanian language spoken mostly in Samogitia (in the west part of Lithuania). ...

References

• Leonardas Dambriūnas, Antanas Klimas, William R. Schmalstieg, Beginner's Lithuanian, Hippocrene Books, 1999, ISBN 0-7818-0678-X. Older editions (copyright 1966) called "Introduction to modern Lithuanian".

External links

Lithuanian language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Lithuanian linguistics
• Learning Lithuanian in an online Lithuanian school
• Ethnologue report for Lithuanian
• Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History
• Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents
• Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian
• The Historical Grammar of Lithuanian language
• Lithuanian English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition
• Online Searchable Dictionary - searchable
• Lithuanan and Slovenian language with Japanese translation
• 2005 analysis of Indo-European lingustic relationships

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