Among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian is conservative in its grammar and phonology, retaining archaic features otherwise found only in ancient languages such asSanskrit[7] (particularly its early form,Vedic Sanskrit) orAncient Greek. Thus, it is an important source for the reconstruction of theProto-Indo-European language despite its late attestation (with the earliest texts dating only toc. 1500AD, whereasAncient Greek was first written down about three thousand years earlier in c.1450 BC).[4]
Map of the prevalence of hydronyms of Baltic origin[8]
According tohydronyms ofBaltic origin, theBaltic languages were spoken in a large area east of theBaltic Sea, and in c.1000 BC it had two linguistic units: western and eastern.[8] According toglottochronological research, the Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between c.400 BC and c.600 BC.[9][10] The Greek geographerPtolemy had already written of two Baltic tribe/nations by name, theGalindai (Γαλίνδαι) andSudinoi (Σουδινοί), in the 2nd century AD.[11][12] Lithuanian originated from the Eastern Baltic subgroup and remained nearly unchanged until c.1 AD, however in c.500 AD the language of the northern part of Eastern Balts was influenced by theFinnic languages, which fueled the development of changes from the language of the Southern Balts (see:Latgalian, which developed intoLatvian, and extinctCuronian,Semigallian, andSelonian).[8] The language of Southern Balts was less influenced by this process and retained many of its older features, which form Lithuanian.[8]
Area where Lithuanian was spoken in the 16th century
The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after c.800 AD; for a long period, they could be considered dialects of a single language.[13] At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th or 15th century and perhaps as late as the 17th century.[13][14] The GermanLivonian Brothers of the Sword occupied the western part of theDaugava basin, which resulted incolonization of the territory of modernLatvia (at the time it was calledTerra Mariana) by Germans and had a significant influence on the language's independent development due toGermanisation (see also:Baltic Germans andBaltic German nobility).[13][15]
There was fascination with the Lithuanian people and their language among the late 19th-century researchers, and the philologistIsaac Taylor wrote the following in hisThe Origin of the Aryans (1892):
"Thus it would seem that the Lithuanians have the best claim to represent the primitiveAryan race, as their language exhibits fewer of those phonetic changes, and of those grammatical losses which are consequent on the acquirement of a foreign speech."[16]
Proto-Balto-Slavic branched off directly from Proto-Indo-European, then sub-branched intoProto-Baltic andProto-Slavic. Proto-Baltic branched off into Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic.[21] The Baltic languages passed through a Proto-Balto-Slavic stage, from which the Baltic languages retain exclusive and non-exclusive lexical, morphological, phonological and accentual isoglosses in common with theSlavic languages, which represent their closest living Indo-European relatives. Moreover, with Lithuanian being so archaic in phonology, Slavic words can often be deduced from Lithuanian by regularsound laws; for example, Lith.vilkas andPolishwilk ←PBSl.*wilkás (cf.PSl.*vьlkъ) ←PIE*wĺ̥kʷos, all meaning "wolf".
Because of the three archaeological cultures in Lithuania, some scholars divide the Lithuanian ethnos into three cultural groups – Samogitians (Western), Aukštaitians[a] (Central) and Lithuanians (Eastern). Traditionally, theSamogitian tribe is included within the broader Lithuanian ethnos as suggested by historical accounts, dividing Lithuania into two parts –Austechia (Aukštaitija) andSamogitia (Žemaitija)[22][23] – but their origins are a subject of ongoing debates. Linguist Jūratė Sofija Laučiūtė argues that prior to theirassimilation, ancient Samogitians were a different tribe from theLithuanians, which is evinced by certain linguistic features not explainable byphonetics alone, such as the ending-ou <*-ou of masculinenouns ingenitive form (e.g.Samogitianvelkou, Lithuanianvilkui, meaning (DAT) 'wolf'). Valdemaras Šimėnas suggests that both culturally and linguistically ancient Samogitians were closer toCuronians,Semigallians andSelonians than Lithuanians.[24] In the late 12th century, Samogitians and Lithuanians formed atribal union, which was the basis for the future Lithuanian state.[25]
Initially, Lithuanian was aspoken language in theGrand Duchy of Lithuania andDuchy of Prussia, while the beginning of Lithuanian writing is possibly associated with the introduction ofChristianity in Lithuania whenMindaugas wasbaptized and crowned King of Lithuania in 1250–1251.[26][8] It is believed thatprayers were translated into the local dialect of Lithuanian byFranciscan monks during the baptism of Mindaugas, however none of the writings has survived.[26] The first recorded Lithuanian word, reported to have been said on 24 December 1207 from the chronicle ofHenry of Latvia, wasBa, aninterjection of a Lithuanian raider after he found no loot to pillage in a Livonian church.[27]
Lithuanian was mentioned as one of the languages of the participants of theCouncil of Constance in 1414–1418: seeLingwa Lietowia (left) andLittowelch (right) in a 15th centuryChronik des Konstanzer Konzils compiled byUlrich of Richenthal.
Although no writings in Lithuanian have survived from the 15th century or earlier,[26] Lithuanian (Latin:Lingwa Lietowia) was mentioned as one of the European languages of the participants in theCouncil of Constance in 1414–1418.[28][29][30] From the middle of the 15th century, the legend spread about theRoman origin of theLithuanian nobility (from thePalemon lineage), and the closeness of the Lithuanian language and Latin, thus this let some intellectuals in the mid-16th century to advocate for replacement of Ruthenian with Latin, as they considered Latin as the native language of Lithuanians.[31][32]
The Grand Duke of Lithuania,Alexander Jagiellon, specified that the Roman Catholic priests in these 28 churches must know the Lithuanian language, according to his letter of 18 September 1501, which was addressed to the Bishop of Vilnius Albertas.[41][42]
The use of Lithuanian continued at the Lithuanianroyal court after the deaths of Vytautas the Great (1430) and Jogaila (1434).[37] For example, since the young Grand DukeCasimir IV Jagiellon was underage, the supreme control over the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was in the hands of theLithuanian Council of Lords, presided byJonas Goštautas, while Casimir IV Jagiellon was taught Lithuanian andcustoms of Lithuania by appointed court officials.[43][44][45][34] During the Polishszlachta's envoys visit to Casimir in 1446, they noticed that in Casimir's royal court the Lithuanian-speaking courtiers were mandatory, alongside the Polish courtiers.[31][46] Casimir IV Jagiellon's sonSaint Casimir, who was subsequently announced as patron saint of Lithuania, was apolyglot and among other languages knew Lithuanian.[47] Grand DukeAlexander Jagiellon also could understand and speak Lithuanian as multiple Lithuanian priests served in his royal chapel and he also maintained a Lithuanian court.[31][48][49] In 1501,Erazm Ciołek, a priest of the Vilnius Cathedral, explained to thePope that the Lithuanians preserve their language and ensure respect to it (Linguam propriam observant), but they also use theRuthenian language for simplicity reasons because it is spoken by almost half of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.[31] A note written bySigismund von Herberstein in the first half of the 16th century states that, in an ocean ofRuthenian in this part of Europe, there were two non-Ruthenian regions: Lithuania and Samogitia where its inhabitants spoke their own language, but many Ruthenians were also living among them.[50]
The earliest surviving written Lithuanian text is a translation dating from about 1503–1525 of theLord's Prayer, theHail Mary, and theNicene Creed written in the Southern Aukštaitian dialect.[26] Since 1530–1560Prussian Lithuanians were taught in native Lithuanian language in parishes and peasants schools ofLithuania Minor, and for 200 years the authorities of theDuchy of Prussia did not take major obstructive measures against such education, although such proposals were occasionally made beginning in the 18th century and decrees were issued without being implemented (Germanisation began in earnest in theGerman Empire period, from the 1870s onwards).[51] On 8 January 1547 the first Lithuanian book was printed – theCatechism of Martynas Mažvydas.[26]
At the royal courts in Vilnius ofSigismund II Augustus, the last Grand Duke of Lithuania prior to theUnion of Lublin, both Polish and Lithuanian were spoken equally widely.[37] In 1552 Sigismund II Augustus ordered that orders of theMagistrate of Vilnius be announced in Lithuanian, Polish, and Ruthenian.[52] The same requirement was valid for the Magistrate ofKaunas.[53][54]
In the 16th century, following the decline of Ruthenian usage in favor of Polish in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Lithuanian language strengthened its positions in Lithuania due to reforms in religious matters and judicial reforms which allowed lower levels of theLithuanian nobility to participate in the social-political life of the state.[31] In 1599,Mikalojus Daukša published hisPostil and in itsprefaces he expressed that the Lithuanian language situation had improved and thanked bishopMerkelis Giedraitis for his works.[31]
Until 1741 in the Lithuanian Province (Provinz Litauen) of theKingdom of Prussia, which encompassed the counties ofKlaipėda,Tilsit,Ragnit,Insterburg, there were 275 Lithuanian primary schools (in multinational areas separate classes were formed for Lithuanian and German speakers), in 1800 – 411 Lithuanian schools.[56]
In 1776–1790 about 1,000 copies of the first Catholicprimer in Lithuanian –Mokslas skaitymo rašto lietuviško – were issued annually, and it continued to be published until 1864. Over 15,000 copies appeared in total.[57][58][59] TheConstitution of 3 May 1791 was translated into the Lithuanian language shortly after its adoption by theGreat Sejm.[60] During theKościuszko Uprising (1794) directive documents were distributed and appeals were published in various languages, including Lithuanian, also the Lithuanian language was used forsermons dedicated to the uprising (e.g. preached atChurch of St. Johns, Vilnius and other churches, as well as in military units).[61][62][63][64][65]
Lithuanian school in Vilnius in 1902
In 1864, following theJanuary Uprising,Mikhail Muravyov, the RussianGovernor General of Lithuania,banned the publication of texts in the Lithuanian language in the Latin alphabet, although books continued to be printed in Lithuanian across the border inEast Prussia and in theUnited States. During the ensuing period of Russification policy, the teaching of Lithuanian in schools was forbidden, as was even the use of Lithuanian in personal conversations between the pupils.[66][67] Brought into the country bybook smugglers (Lithuanian:knygnešiai) despite the threat of long prison sentences, they helped fuelgrowing nationalist sentiment that finally led to the lifting of the ban in 1904.[66][67] According to theRussian Empire Census of 1897 (at the height of the Lithuanian press ban), 53.5% of Lithuanians (10 years and older) were literate, while the average of theRussian Empire was only 24–27.7% (in the European part ofRussia the average was 30%, inPoland – 40.7%).[58][68] In the Russian Empire Lithuanian children were mostly educated by their parents or in secret schools by "daractors" in native Lithuanian language, while only 6.9% attended Russian state schools due to resistance toRussification.[69][70][71] Russian governorates with significant Lithuanian populations had one of the highest populationliteracy rates:Vilna Governorate (in 1897 ~23.6–50% Lithuanian of whom 37% were literate),Kovno Governorate (in 1897 66% Lithuanian of whom 55.3% were literate),Suwałki Governorate (in 1897 in counties of the governorate where Lithuanian population was dominant 76,6% of males and 50,2% of females were literate).[72][73][74][75]
In 1872, the German ChancellorOtto von Bismarck started Germanisation policies (Allgemeine Bestimmungen) after finishing theunification of Germany and the Lithuanian language education in primary schools of Lithuania Minor was started to be replaced with German, however due to parents protests the Lithuanian language education remained alongside German until the late 19th century.[56][51]
Area (marked in greenish-yellow) where Lithuanian language was dominant in 1827, depicted in a map by Lithuania-born historian, geographerStanisław Plater (1827)
Area where Lithuanian language was dominantly spoken, including its islands and mixed territories in the late 19th century by Polish linguistJan Michał Rozwadowski (1930)
Ethnolinguistic area of Lithuanians and the Lithuanian language in 1917 byPrussian Lithuanian professorVilius Gaigalaitis (Wilhelm Gaigalat), the dashed areas represent linguistically mixed border areas where Lithuanians formed a large minority
Jonas Jablonskis (1860–1930) made significant contributions to the formation of standard Lithuanian.[76] The conventions of written Lithuanian had been evolving during the 19th century, but Jablonskis, in the introduction to hisLietuviškos kalbos gramatika, was the first to formulate and expound the essential principles that were so indispensable to its later development.[76][77] His proposal for Standard Lithuanian was based on his nativeWestern Aukštaitian dialect with some features of the easternPrussian Lithuanians' dialect spoken inLithuania Minor.[76][77] These dialects[clarification needed] had preserved archaic phonetics mostly intact due to the influence of the neighbouringOld Prussian, while other dialects had experienced differentphonetic shifts.
Title page ofVyriausybės Žinios with articles of the 1922 Constitution of Lithuania. The sixth article established Lithuanian as the sole official language of Lithuania.
Lithuanian became the official language of the country following therestoration of Lithuania's statehood in 1918. The 1922Constitution of Lithuania (the first permanent Lithuanianconstitution) recognized it as the soleofficial language of the state and mandated its use throughout the state.[78][79] The improvement of education system during theinterwar period resulted in 92% of literacy rate of the population in Lithuania in 1939 (those still illiterate were mostly elderly).[69]
Following the Żeligowski's Mutiny in 1920, Vilnius Region was detached from Lithuania and was eventually annexed by Poland in 1922. This resulted in repressions of Lithuanians and mass-closure of Lithuanian language schools in the Vilnius Region, especially when Vilnius VoivodeLudwik Bociański issued a secret memorandum of 11 February 1936 which stated the measures for suppressing the Lithuanians in the region.[80][81][82][83] Some Lithuanian historians, likeAntanas Tyla [lt] and Ereminas Gintautas, consider these Polish policies as amounting to an "ethnocide of Lithuanians".[80][81]
Between 1862 and 1944, the Lithuanian schools were completely banned in Lithuania Minor and the language was almost completely eliminated there.[77] The Baltic-origin place names retained their basis for centuries inPrussia but were Germanized (e.g.Tilžė –Tilsit,Labguva –Labiau,Vėluva –Wehliau, etc.); however, after the annexation of theKönigsberg region into theRussian SFSR, they were changed completely, regardless of previous tradition (e.g.Tilsit –Sovetsk,Labiau –Polesk,Wehliau –Znamensk, etc.).[84]
Lithuanian is one of two livingBaltic languages, along withLatvian, and they constitute the eastern branch of the Baltic languages family.[89] An earlierBaltic language,Old Prussian, was extinct by the 18th century; the other Western Baltic languages,Curonian andSudovian, became extinct earlier. Some theories, such as that ofJānis Endzelīns, considered that the Baltic languages form their own distinct branch of the family ofIndo-European languages, and Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact.[90] There is also an opinion that suggests the union of Baltic and Slavic languages into a distinct sub-family ofBalto-Slavic languages amongst the Indo-European family of languages. Such an opinion was first represented byAugust Schleicher.[91] Some supporters of the Baltic and Slavic languages unity even claim thatProto-Baltic branch did not exist, suggesting that Proto-Balto-Slavic split into three language groups:East Baltic,West Baltic andProto-Slavic.[92][93][94][95]Antoine Meillet andJan Baudouin de Courtenay, on the contrary, believed that the similarity between the Slavic and Baltic languages was caused by independent parallel development, and the Proto-Balto-Slavic language did not exist.[96]
A map of European languages (1741) with the first verse of theLord's Prayer in Lithuanian
An attempt to reconcile the opposing stances was made byJan Michał Rozwadowski.[91] He proposed that the two language groups were indeed a unity after the division of Indo-European, but also suggested that after the two had divided into separate entities (Baltic and Slavic), they had posterior contact.[91] The genetic kinship view is augmented by the fact that Proto-Balto-Slavic is easily reconstructible with important proofs in historic prosody. The alleged (or certain, as certain as historical linguistics can be) similarities due to contact are seen in such phenomena as the existence of definite adjectives formed by the addition of an inflected pronoun (descended from the same Proto-Indo-European pronoun), which exist in both Baltic and Slavic yet nowhere else in the Indo-European family (languages such as Albanian and theGermanic languages developed definite adjectives independently), and that is not reconstructible for Proto-Balto-Slavic, meaning that they most probably developed through language contact.[97]
The Baltichydronyms area stretches from theVistula River in the west to the east ofMoscow and from theBaltic Sea in the north to the south ofKyiv.[98][99] Vladimir Toporov andOleg Trubachyov (1961, 1962) studied Baltic hydronyms inRussian andUkrainian territory.[100] Hydronyms andarchaeology analysis show that the Slavs started migrating to the Baltic areas east and north-east directions in the 6–7th centuries, before then, the Baltic and Slavic boundary was south of thePripyat River.[101] In the 1960s,Vladimir Toporov andVyacheslav Ivanov made the following conclusions about the relationship between the Baltic and Slavic languages:
a) Proto-Slavic formed from the peripheral-type Baltic dialects;
b) the Slavic linguistic type formed later from the structural model of the Baltic languages;
c) the Slavic structural model is a result of a transformation of the structural model of the Baltic languages.
These scholars' theses do not contradict the Baltic and Slavic languages closeness and from a historical perspective, specify the Baltic-Slavic languages' evolution.[102][103]
So, there are at least six points of view on the relationships between the Baltic and Slavic. However, as for the hypotheses related to the "Balto-Slavic problem", it is noted that they are more focused on personal theoretical constructions and deviate to some extent from thecomparative method.[104]
2,955,200 people in Lithuania (including 3,460Tatars), or about 86% of the 2015 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 3,200,000.
Ethnographic map of Lithuanians (Littauer) and Latvians (Eigentliche Letten) in 1847 byHeinrich Berghaus
As a result of a decrease in the usage of spoken Lithuanian in the eastern part of Lithuania proper, in the 19th century, it was suggested to create a standardized Lithuanian based on the Samogitian dialect.[77] Nevertheless, it was not accomplished because everyone offered their Samogitian subdialects and the Eastern and Western Aukštaitians offered their Aukštaitian subdialects.[77]
Linguistic areal of the Lithuanian language in Russia and German Prussia by Ethnographer Franz Oskar Tetzner in 1902
In the second half of the 19th century, when theLithuanian National Revival intensified, and the preparations to publish a Lithuanian periodical press were taking place, the mostly south-western Aukštaitian revival writers did not use the 19th-century Lithuanian of Lithuania Minor as it was largelyGermanized.[77] Instead, they used a more pure Lithuanian language which has been described byAugust Schleicher andFriedrich Kurschat and this way the written language of Lithuania Minor was transferred to resurgent Lithuania.[77] The most famous standardizer of the Lithuanian,Jonas Jablonskis, established the south-western Aukštaitian dialect, including the Eastern dialect of Lithuania Minor, as the basis of standardized Lithuanian in the 20th century, which led to him beingnicknamed the father of standardized Lithuanian.[77][76]
According to Polish professorJan Otrębski's article published in 1931, the Polish dialect in theVilnius Region and in the northeastern areas in general are very interesting variant of the Polish language as this dialect developed in a foreign territory which was mostly inhabited by the Lithuanians who wereBelarusized (mostly) or Polonized, and to prove this Otrębski provided examples of Lithuanianisms in theTutejszy language.[112][113] In 2015, Polish linguistMirosław Jankowiak [pl] attested that many of the Vilnius Region's inhabitants who declarePolish nationality speak a Belarusian dialect which they callmowa prosta ('simple speech').[114]
Currently, Lithuanian is divided into two dialects:Aukštaitian (Highland Lithuanian), andSamogitian (Lowland Lithuanian).[115][116] There are significant differences between standard Lithuanian and Samogitian and these are often described as separate languages.[115] The modern Samogitian dialect formed in the 13th–16th centuries under the influence ofCuronian.[117] Lithuanian dialects are closely connected withethnographical regions of Lithuania.[118] Even nowadays Aukštaitians and Samogitians can have considerable difficulties understanding each other if they speak with their dialects and not standard Lithuanian, which is mandatory to learn in the Lithuanian education system.[119]
Dialects are divided into subdialects. Both dialects have three subdialects. Samogitian is divided into West, North and South;Aukštaitian into West (Suvalkiečiai), South (Dzūkian) and East.[120]
Lithuanian uses theLatin script supplemented withdiacritics. It has 32letters. In thecollation order,y follows immediately afterį (calledinosinė), because bothy andį represent the same long vowel[iː]:[121]
In addition, the following digraphs are used, but are treated as sequences of two letters for collation purposes. The digraphch represents a single sound, the velar fricative[x], whiledz anddž are pronounced like straightforward combinations of their component letters (sounds):
The distinctive Lithuanian letterĖ was used for the first time in theDaniel Klein'sGrammatica Litvanica and firmly established itself in Lithuanian since then.[122][123][124][125] However, linguistAugust Schleicher usedË (with two points above it) instead ofĖ for expressing the same.[126] In theGrammatica Litvanica Klein also established the letterW for marking the sound [v], the use of which was later abolished in Lithuanian (it was replaced withV, notably by authors of theVarpas newspaper).[122][126][127] The usage ofV instead ofW especially increased since the early 20th century, likely considerably influenced by Lithuanian press and schools.[127]
Lithuanian elementary school books
The Lithuanian writing system is largely phonemic, i.e., one letter usually corresponds to a singlephoneme (sound). There are a few exceptions: for example, the letteri represents either the vowel[ɪ], as in Englishsit, or is silent and merely indicates that the preceding consonant ispalatalized. The latter is largely the case wheni occurs after a consonant and is followed by aback or acentral vowel, except in some borrowed words (e.g., the first consonant inlūpa[ˈɫûːpɐ], "lip", is avelarized dental lateral approximant; on the other hand, the first consonant inliūtas[ˈlʲuːt̪ɐs̪], "lion", is a palatalizedalveolar lateral approximant; both consonants are followed by the same vowel, the long[uː], and no[ɪ] can be pronounced inliūtas).
Title pages of two Lithuanianprimers:Moksłas skaytima raszta lietuwiszka (1783 edition) andMažas lietuviškas elementorius (1905 edition), demonstrating changes of Lithuanian orthography in the 19th–20th centuries
Due toPolish influence, the Lithuanian alphabet includedsz,cz and the PolishŁ for the first sound and regular L (without a following i) for the second:łupa,lutas.[124] During theLithuanian National Revival in the 19th century the PolishŁ was abolished, whiledigraphssz,cz (that are also common in thePolish orthography) were replaced withš andč from theCzech orthography, formally because they were shorter.[124][126][128] Nevertheless, another argument to abolishsz andcz was to distinguish Lithuanian fromPolish.[126] The new lettersš andč were cautiously used in publications intended for more educated readers (e.g.Varpas,Tėvynės sargas,Ūkininkas), howeversz andcz continued to be in use in publications intended for less educated readers as they caused tension in society and prevailed only after 1906.[129][130]
The Lithuanians also adopted the letterž from the Czechs.[124]
Amacron (onu), anogonek (ona,e,i, andu), adot (one), andy (in place ofi) are used for grammatical and historical reasons and always denotevowel length in Modern Standard Lithuanian.Acute,grave, andtilde diacritics are used to indicatepitch accents. However, these pitch accents are generally not written, except in dictionaries, grammars, and where needed for clarity, such as to differentiate homonyms and dialectal use.
Written oath in Lithuanian (1680) where Lithuanians names and surnames has endings with "-as" (e.g. Jonas Miteykienas, Kazimieras Wikszcialunas, etc.)[132]
All Lithuanian consonants except/j/ have two variants: one non-palatalized and one palatalized, for example,/b/ –/bʲ/,/d/ –/dʲ/,/ɡ/ –/ɡʲ/ (see the chart above for the full consonant set, represented byIPA symbols). The consonants/f/,/x/,/ɣ/ and their palatalized counterparts are only found inloanwords.
/t͡ɕ,d͡ʑ,ɕ,ʑ/ have been traditionally transcribed with ⟨t͡ʃʲ,d͡ʒʲ,ʃʲ,ʒʲ⟩, but they can be seen as equivalent transcriptions, with the former set being somewhat easier to write.[133]
Lithuanian has six long vowels and four short ones (not including disputed phonemes marked in brackets). Length has traditionally been considered the distinctive feature, though short vowels are also more centralized and long vowels more peripheral:
Lithuanian is traditionally described as having ninediphthongs,ai, au, ei, eu, oi, ou, ui, ie, and uo. However, some approaches (i.e., Schmalstieg 1982) treat them as vowel sequences rather than diphthongs; indeed, the longer component depends on the type of stress, whereas in diphthongs, the longer segment is fixed.
The Lithuanian prosodic system is characterized by free accent and distinctive quantity (i.e.syllable weight). The word prosody of Lithuanian is sometimes described as a restrictedtone system, also called apitch accent system.[136] In Lithuanian,lexical words contain a single syllable that is prominent or stressed. Among those,heavy syllables – that is, those containing along vowel,diphthong, or asonorant coda – bear either one of two tones: a falling (oracute tone) or a rising (orcircumflex tone). Light syllables (syllables with short vowels and optionally alsoobstruent codas) do not have the two-way contrast of heavy syllables.
Daniel Klein'sGrammatica Litvanica, the first printed grammar of Lithuanian, published in Königsberg in 1653Universitas lingvarum Litvaniae, published in Vilnius in 1737, the oldest surviving grammar of Lithuanian published in the territory of the Grand Duchy of LithuaniaLietuviškos kalbos gramatika (English:Lithuanian Grammar) byJonas Jablonskis, published inTilsit in 1901An example Lithuanian road sign
In one of the first Lithuanian grammars,Compendium Grammaticae Lithvanicae, published in 1673, most of the given examples are with Lithuanian endings (e.g. names Jonas = Jonas, Jonuttis = Jonutis, etc.), therefore it allows to highlight the tendency of spelling the endings of words in the Old Lithuanian writings.[143]
The first scientificCompendium of Lithuanian was published in German in 1856/57 byAugust Schleicher, a professor atCharles University inPrague.[146][147] In it he describes Prussian-Lithuanian, which later became the "skeleton" (Būga) of modern Lithuanian. Schleicher asserted that Lithuanian can compete with theGreek andRoman (Old Latin) languages in perfection of forms.[148]
Lithuanian is a highlyinflected language. In Lithuanian, there are twogrammatical genders for nouns (masculine and feminine) and three genders for adjectives, pronouns, numerals and participles (masculine, feminine and neuter). Every attribute must agree with the gender and number of the noun. The neuter forms of other parts of speech are used with asubject of an undefined gender (a pronoun, an infinitive etc.).
Nouns and other parts of nominal morphology are declined in sevencases:nominative,genitive,dative,accusative,instrumental,locative (inessive), andvocative. In older Lithuanian texts, three additional varieties of the locative case are found:illative,adessive andallative. The most common are theillative, which is still used, mostly in spoken language, and theallative, which survives in the standard language in some idiomatic usages. The adessive is nearly extinct. These additional cases are probably due to the influence ofUralic languages, with which Baltic languages have had a longstanding contact. (Uralic languages possess a great variety of noun cases, a number of which are specialised locative cases.)
Lithuanian verbal morphology shows a number of innovations; namely, the loss of synthetic passive (which is hypothesized based on other archaic Indo-European languages, such as Greek and Latin),synthetic perfect (formed by means of reduplication) andaorist; formingsubjunctive andimperative with the use of suffixes plus flexions as opposed to solely flections in, e.g.,Ancient Greek; loss of theoptative mood; merging and disappearing of the -t- and -nt- markers for the third-person singular and plural, respectively (this, however, occurs in Latvian and Old Prussian as well and may indicate a collective feature of all Baltic languages).
On the other hand, Lithuanian verbal morphology retains a number of archaic features absent from most modern Indo-European languages (but shared with Latvian). This includes the synthetic form of the future tense with the help of the -s- suffix and three principal verbal forms with the present tense stem employing the -n- and -st- infixes.
Theindirect mood, used only in written narrative speech, has the same tenses corresponding to the appropriate active participle in nominative case; e.g., the past of the indirect mood would benešęs, while the past iterative inchoative of the indirect mood would bebūdavęs benešąs. Since it is a nominal form, this mood cannot be conjugated but must match the subject's number and gender.
Thesubjunctive (orconditional) and theimperative moods have three tenses. Subjunctive: present (neščiau), past (būčiau nešęs), inchoative (būčiau benešąs); imperative: present (nešk), perfect (būk nešęs) and inchoative (būk benešąs).
Theinfinitive has only one form (nešti). These forms, except the infinitive and indirect mood, are conjugative, having two singular, two plural persons, and the third person form common both for plural and singular.
In thepassive voice, the form number is not as rich as in the active voice. There are two types of passive voice in Lithuanian: present participle (type I) and past participle (type II) (in the examples below types I and II are separated with a slash). They both have the same moods and tenses:
Imperative mood: present (type I only:būk nešamas), past (type II only:būk neštas).
Subjunctive / conditional mood: present (type I only:būčiau nešamas), past (type II only:būčiau neštas).
Lithuanian has the richestparticiple system of all Indo-European languages, having participles derived from all simple tenses with distinct active and passive forms, and two gerund forms.
In practical terms, the rich overall inflectional system makes the word order have a different meaning than in moreanalytic languages such as English. The English phrase "a car is coming" translates as "atvažiuoja automobilis" (thetheme first), while "the car is coming" – "automobilis atvažiuoja" (the theme first; word order inversion).
Lithuanian also has a very rich word derivation system and an array of diminutive suffixes.
Today there are two definitive books on Lithuanian grammar: one in English, theIntroduction to Modern Lithuanian (calledBeginner's Lithuanian in its newer editions) byLeonardas Dambriūnas,Antanas Klimas andWilliam R. Schmalstieg; and another in Russian,Vytautas Ambrazas'Грамматика литовского языка (Lithuanian Grammar). Another recent book on Lithuanian grammar is the second edition ofReview of Modern Lithuanian Grammar by Edmund Remys, published by Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, Chicago, 2003.
Great Lithuanian Dictionary consists of 20 volumes and contains more than half a millionheadwords.Page from the Lithuanian primerNaujas moksłas skaytima diel maźū waykū Źemaycziu yr Lietuwos illustrating the lettersD,E andG
Lithuanian retainscognates to many words found in classical languages, such asSanskrit andLatin. These words are descended fromProto-Indo-European. A few examples are the following:
Lith.sūnus and Skt.sūnu (son)
Lith.avis and Skt.avi and Lat.ovis (sheep)
Lith.dūmas and Skt.dhūma and Lat.fumus (fumes, smoke)
Lith.antras and Skt.antara (second, the other)
Lith.vilkas and Skt.vṛka (wolf)
Lith.ratas and Lat.rota (wheel) and Skt.ratha (carriage)
Lith.senis and Lat.senex (an old man) and Skt.sanas (old)
Lith.vyras and Lat.vir (a man) and Skt.vīra (man)
Lith.angis and Lat.anguis (a snake in Latin, a species of snakes in Lithuanian)
Lith.linas and Lat.linum (flax, compare with English 'linen')
Lith.ariu and Lat.aro (I plow)
Lith.jungiu and Lat.iungo, and Skt.yuñje (mid.), (I join)
Lith.gentys and Lat.gentes and Skt.jāti (tribes)
Lith.mėnesis and Lat.mensis and Skt.māsa (month)
Lith.dantis and Lat.dens and Skt.danta (tooth)
Lith.naktis and Lat.noctes (plural ofnox) and Skt.naktam (night)
Lith.ugnis and Lat.ignis and Skt.agni (fire)
Lith.sėdime and Lat.sedemus and Skt.sīdāmaḥ (we sit)
This even extends to grammar, where for example Latin noun declensions ending in-um often correspond to Lithuanian-ų, with theLatin andLithuanian fourth declensions being particularly close. Many of the words from this list are similar to other Indo-European languages, including English and Russian. The contribution of Lithuanian was influential in the reconstruction ofProto-Indo-European.
Lexical and grammatical similarities between Baltic andSlavic languages suggest an affinity between these two language groups. On the other hand, there exist a number of Baltic (particularly Lithuanian) words without counterparts in Slavic languages, but which are similar to words in Sanskrit or Latin. The history of the relationship between Baltic and Slavic languages, and our understanding of the affinity between the two groups, remain in dispute (see:Balto-Slavic languages).
In a 1934 book entitledDie Germanismen des Litauischen. Teil I: Die deutschen Lehnwörter im Litauischen, K. Alminauskis found 2,770 loanwords, of which about 130 were of uncertain origin. The majority of the loanwords were found to have been derived fromPolish,Belarusian, andGerman, with some evidence that these languages all acquired the words from contacts and trade withPrussia during the era of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania.[150] Loanwords comprised about 20% of the vocabulary used in the first book printed in Lithuanian in 1547,Martynas Mažvydas'sCatechism.[151] But as a result of language preservation and purging policies, Slavic loanwords currently constitute only 1.5% of the Standard Lithuanian lexicon, while German loanwords constitute only 0.5% of it.[152] The majority of loanwords in the 20th century arrived fromRussian.[153]
Towards the end of the 20th century, a number of words and expressions related to new technologies and telecommunications were borrowed fromEnglish. The Lithuanian government has an established language policy that encourages the development of equivalent vocabulary to replace loanwords.[154] However, despite the government's best efforts to avoid the use of loanwords in Lithuanian, many English words have become accepted and are now included in Lithuanian language dictionaries.[155][156] In particular, words having to do with new technologies have permeated the Lithuanian vernacular, including such words asmonitorius (vaizduoklis) (computer monitor),faksas (fax),kompiuteris (computer),failas (byla, rinkmena) (electronic file).
Other common foreign words have also been adopted by Lithuanian. Some of these include:Taksi (taxi),Pica (pizza),Alkoholis (alcohol),Bankas (bank),Pasas (passport, pass),Parkas (park).
These words have been modified to suit the grammatical and phonetic requirements of Lithuanian, mostly by adding -as ending, but their foreign roots are obvious.
The earliest known Lithuanian glosses (~1520–1530) written in the margins ofJohannes Herolt's bookLiber Discipuli de eruditione Christifidelium. Left: wordßch[ÿ]kſtu[m]aſ (parsimony); Right: wordsteprÿdav[ſ]ʒÿ (let it strike) andvbagÿſte (indigence).
The language of the earliest Lithuanian writings, in the 16th and 17th centuries, is known asOld Lithuanian and differs in some significant respects from the Lithuanian of today.
Besides the specific differences given below, nouns, verbs, and adjectives still had separate endings for thedual number. The dual persists today in some dialects. Example:
Compared to modern Lithuanian, there were three additional cases. The originallocative case had been replaced by four so-calledpostpositive cases, theinessive case,illative case,adessive case andallative case, which correspond to the prepositions "in", "into", "at" and "towards", respectively. They were formed by affixing apostposition to one of the previous cases:
The inessive added*-en >-e to the original locative in singular and to the accusative in plural.
The illative added*-nā >-n(a) to the accusative.
The adessive added*-pie >-p(i) to the original locative in singular and to the inessive in plural.
The allative added*-pie >-p(i) to the genitive.
The inessive has become the modern locative case, while the other three have disappeared. Note, however, that the illative case is still used occasionally in the colloquial language (mostly in the singular):Lietuvon 'to Lithuania',miestan 'to the city'. This form is relatively productive: for instance, it is not uncommon to hear "skrendame Niujorkan" (we are flying to New York). There are some words still used in adessive case:esu namie (could be equally substituted withnamuose) "I'm 'at home".
The uncontracted dative plural-mus was still common.
Theoptative mood (i.e. the third-person imperative) still had its own endings,-ai for third-conjugation verbs and-ie for other verbs, instead of using regular third-person present endings.
^In academic literature, they are referred to asAukštaitians (a neologism derived fromAukštaičiai) or upland Lithuanians. The translationhighland Lithuanians is not applicable.
^Zinkevičius, Z. (1993).Rytų Lietuva praeityje ir dabar [Eastern Lithuania in the Past and Now] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius:Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla. p. 9.ISBN5-420-01085-2....linguist generally accepted that Lithuanian is the most archaic among living Indo-European languages...
^abcdefghZinkevičius, Zigmas."Lietuvių kalbos kilmė" [The Origin of the Lithuanian Language].Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Retrieved21 January 2023.
^Baranauskas, Tomas (2006).Aukštaitija XIII–XV amžiuje [Aukštaitija in the 13th–15th centuries] (in Lithuanian). Kaunas: Žiemgalos leidykla. p. 1.
^Misiūnas, Romuald J., Bater, James H.Prehistory to the 18th Century. Baltic states.Encyclopædia Britannica.
^Kavaliauskas, Antanas (1 January 2018). "Žemaičių kilmės problematika" [The Problematic Nature of Samogitian Origin] (in Lithuanian).Kalvotoji Žemaitija. Retrieved on 5 February 2025.
^Antanavičius, Darius; Baronas, Darius; Dubonis, Artūras; Petrauskas, Rimvydas (2005).Mindaugo knyga. Istorijos šaltiniai apie Lietuvos karalių. Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla. p. 97.ISBN9986780683.
^Kiaupa, Zigmantas; Kiaupienė, Jūratė; Kuncevičius, Albinas (2000).The history of Lithuania before 1795. Vilnius: Lithuanian Institute of History. p. 194.ISBN9789986810131.
^Poliakovas, Olegas."Slavų kanceliarinė kalba".Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Retrieved16 February 2023.
^Vytautas the Great; Valkūnas, Leonas (translation fromLatin).Vytauto laiškai [ Letters of Vytautas the Great ](PDF) (in Lithuanian).Vilnius University, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. p. 6. Retrieved4 March 2023.Juk pirmiausia Jūs padarėte ir paskelbėte sprendimą dėl Žemaičių žemės, kuri yra mūsų paveldėjimas ir mūsų tėvonija iš teisėtos prosenolių bei senolių įpėdinystės. Ją ir dabar nuosavybėje turime, ji dabar yra ir visada buvo viena ir ta pati Lietuvos žemė, nes yra viena kalba bei tie patys gyventojai. (...) Taip pat Žemaitijos žmonės nuo senų laikų save vadino lietuviais ir niekada žemaičiais, ir dėl tokio tapatumo (sic) savo rašte mes nerašome apie Žemaitiją, nes viskas yra viena, vienas kraštas ir tie patys gyventojai.
^Baranauskas, Tomas (1 January 2009)."Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė ir lietuvių tauta" [The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Lithuanian nation].Lietuvių tauta (in Lithuanian). 11: Tirpstančios lietuvių žemės: 82. Retrieved8 September 2024.
^Ulčinaitė, Eugenija; Jovaišas, Albinas (2003).Lietuvių literatūros istorija: XIII-XVIII amžius. Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas. pp. 13–66.ISBN995547551X.
^"Šventojo Kazimiero gyvenimo istorija".Vilnius Cathedral (in Lithuanian). Retrieved3 March 2023.Jo gyvenimą tyrinėjo popiežiaus Leono X legatas vyskupas Z. Ferreri. 1521 m. jis išspausdino biografiją "Vita beati Casimiri, scripta Vilniae" – tai vienintelis XVI a. šaltinis, kalbantis apie asketišką Kazimiero gyvenimą. Autorius akcentuoja, kad Kazimieras mokėjęs lietuvių, lenkų, vokiečių ir lotynų kalbas, turėjęs nemažai dorybių: buvo teisingas, susivaldantis, tvirtos dvasios, išmintingas.
^Pietkiwicz, K. (1997).Dwór litewski wielkiego księcia Aleksandra Jagiellończyka (1492–1506). Vilnius.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Kiaupa, Zigmantas; Mickevičius, Arturas; Sarcevičienė, Jolita (1997).Lietuvos valstybė: XII-XVIII a. (in Lithuanian). Lietuvos istorijos institutas, Lietuvos mokslų akademija. pp. 88–89.ISBN978-9986-780-08-3.
^"Kauno rotušė".Autc.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved12 February 2023.
^Butėnas, Domas (1997).Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės valstybinių ir visuomeninių institucijų istorijos bruožai XIII–XVIII a. Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla. pp. 145–146.
^abGruodytė, Stefanija; Matulevičius, Algirdas."Maras Lietuvoje".Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Retrieved15 January 2023.
^Kuolys, Darius."Mykolas Pranciškus Karpavičius".Šaltiniai.info (in Lithuanian). Vilnius University, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. Retrieved24 January 2025.
^Dini 2000, p. 362 "Priešingai nei skelbė leninietiškos deklaracijos apie tautas ("Jokių privilegijų jokiai tautai ir jokiai kalbai"), reali TSRS politika – kartu ir kalbų politika – buvo ne kas kita kaip rusinimas77. Ir 1940–1941 metais, iš karto po priverstinio Pabaltijo valstybių įjungimo į TSRS, ir vėliau vyraujanti kalbos politikos linija Lietuvos TSRS ir Latvijos TSRS buvo tautinių kalbų raidos derinimas su socialistinių nacijų raida78. Tokia padėtis tęsėsi penkiasdešimt metų79."
^Dahl, Östen; Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria (2001). Dahl, Östen; Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria (eds.).Circum-Baltic Languages. Studies in Language Companion Series 55. Vol. II: Grammar and Typology. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 43.doi:10.1075/slcs.55.02dah.ISBN9789027230591.
^104Plg. J. Otrębski 1956–1965 I, p. 44; Schmitt-Brandt 1972. Griežtai prieš baltų (ir baltų-slavų) prokalbės hipotezę pasisakė Mayer 1981."
^Kortlandt, Frederik (2009),Baltica & Balto-Slavica, p. 5,Though Prussian is undoubtedly closer to the East Baltic languages than to Slavic, the characteristic features of the Baltic languages seem to be either retentions or results of parallel development and cultural interaction. Thus I assume that Balto-Slavic split into three identifiable branches, each of which followed its own course of development.
^Derksen, Rick (2008),Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, p. 20,I am not convinced that it is justified to reconstruct a Proto-Baltic stage. The term Proto-Baltic is used for convenience's sake.
^Jasas, Rimantas; Kairiūkštytė, Nastazija; Matulevičius, Algirdas."Kolonizacija".Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Retrieved8 April 2023.
^Nitsch, Kazimierz; Otrębski, Jan (1931).Język Polski. 1931, nr 3 (maj/czerwiec) (in Polish). Polska Akademia Umiejętności, Komisja Języka Polskiego. pp. 80–85. Retrieved3 November 2023.
^abMilinienė, Audronė; Subačius, Giedrius (30 September 2017)."Kas išrado raidę Ė?" [Who invented the letter Ė?].Ve.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved16 January 2023.
^Gedutienė, Audronė."Danieliaus Kleino knyga" [Daniel Klein's book].Maironiomuziejus.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved16 January 2023.
^Venckienė, Jurgita (2004). "Dvejopa XIX a. pabaigos lietuviškų laikraščių rašyba".Raidžių draudimo metai. Vilnius: Lithuanian Institute of History Press:207–213.
^Šilas, Vytautas; Sambora, Henrikas."Karaliaučius, Tvangystė".National Commission for Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Lithuania (in Lithuanian). Retrieved15 January 2023.
^Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika [A Grammar of Modern Lithuanian] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius. 1997.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Ambrazas, Vytautas; Geniušienė, Emma; Girdenis, Aleksas; Sližienė, Nijolė; Valeckienė, Adelė; Valiulytė, Elena; Tekorienė, Dalija; Pažūsis, Lionginas (1997), Ambrazas, Vytautas (ed.),Lithuanian Grammar, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language,ISBN9986-813-22-0
Dambriūnas, Leonardas; Antanas Klimas, William R. Schmalstieg,Beginner's Lithuanian, Hippocrene Books, 1999,ISBN0-7818-0678-X. Older editions (copyright 1966) called "Introduction to modern Lithuanian".
Dini, P. U. (2000).Baltų kalbos: Lyginamoji istorija [Baltic Languages: A Comparative History] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas.ISBN5-420-01444-0.
Remys, Edmund,Review of Modern Lithuanian Grammar, Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, Chicago, 2nd revised edition, 2003.
Remys, Edmund,General distinguishing features of various Indo-European languages and their relationship to Lithuanian, Indogermanische Forschungen, Berlin, New York, 2007.
Bakšienė, Rima; Čepaitienė, Agnė; Jaroslavienė, Jurgita; Urbanavičienė, Jolita (2023)."Standard Lithuanian". Illustrations of the IPA.Journal of the International Phonetic Association:1–31.doi:10.1017/S0025100323000105, with supplementary sound recordings.
Italics indicateextinct languages· Languages between parentheses arevarieties of the language on their left· Asterisk (*) indicatesdialects occasionally classified as languages· Question mark (?) indicates disputed classification.
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