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Lithuanian Language

Lithuanian dialects, Lithuanian alphabet, Lithuanian orthography, Lithuanian language history and sources

Lithuanian language

Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba): Official language of Lithuania.

Number of Lithuanian Speakers: Four million, including Tatars.

Lithuanian Speakers: Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, and the U.S.

Language Classification: The Lithuanian language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages together with Latvian in the Baltic group of languages.

Lithuanian Dialects: Zemaiciu (Samogitian) spoken by western Lithuanians, and Aukstaiciu (Highlander) spoken by southern, eastern and northern Lithuanians. In terms of linguistic sketch, the Lithuanian has a pitch accent system; that is, the meaning of the word depends on the pitch of the vowel.

Lithuanian Alphabet: Modified Roman alphabet. The first Lithuanian alphabet printed in Mosvidius' Catechismus. 

Lithuanian Orthography: Diacritics are used to symbolize an important aspect of Lithuanian speech, namely "accent." Lithuanian is composed of 12 (six long and five short) vowels and 20 consonants. Each noun has seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative.

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Lithuanian Language History: The Lithuanians had no standard written language of their own for a rather long period of time until the last decades of the 19th century. Printing of Lithuanian books in Lithuanian (Latin) type was banned for four decades (1864 to 1904) as a result of "Russification" policy.

Lithuanian Language Enriched by: Latvian and old Prussian.

Lithuanian Standardization Efforts: The official usage of toponyms in the Republic of Lithuania is defined by the Law on the State Language.

Unique Features of Lithuanian: The western border areas of Lithuania and Latvia show traces of toponyms of Finnish origin, giving the Lithuanian language the flavor of these two cultures.

A good source of information on Lithuanian language is Postilla 400 that explores the roots and origins. UCLA Language Materials Project has additional background information on Lithuanian language.

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