Home  ›  Lithuanian

Lithuanian

Lithuanian is a language belonging to the Baltic east of the family of Indo-European languages.


Lithuanian
Lietuvi kalba
Spoken in Flag: Lithuania Lithuania
Number of speakers 3.6 million History

Lithuanian still retains much of the phonetic and morphological features of the Indo-European Geographic distribution

Country Number of speakers
Flag: Lithuania Lithuania 2,998,825 in 2002
Flag: Russia Russia 70 000
Flag: Latvia Latvia 35 000
Flag: Poland Poland 30 000
Flag: Spain Spain 20 000
Flag of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan 10 964
Flag of Belarus Belarus 10 031
Flag: Australia Australia 10 000
Flag: Estonia Estonia 1 601
Flag of Uzbekistan Uzbekistan 1 040
Flag of Tajikistan.svg Tajikistan 472
Flag of Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan 430
Flag: Sweden Sweden 310
Flag of Turkmenistan Turkmenistan 224
Flag of Argentina Argentina Not avail.
Flag of Brazil Brazil Not avail.
Flag: Canada Canada Not avail.
Flag: United States United States Not avail.
Flag: United Kingdom United Kingdom Not avail.
Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay Not avail.

Dialects

The Lithuanian has two major dialect groups: the western, low-Lithuanian or Samogitian (Zemaitis), and that of the east, the High Lithuanian (auktaitique), who gave birth to the modern literary language. The differences between these two dialect groups are important, the solution is to use literary language to be understood. Lithuanians use the Russian , the English , the German or French as a second language to communicate with foreigners.

Distribution

It is spoken by about 4 million people, including 3 million in Lithuania where it is spoken by 80% of the Lithuanian population.

Writing

It is written from the sixteenth century , using the Latin alphabet signs of increased diacritics ( ogonek , hacek , point suscrit and macron ). It also makes use of digraphs. Interestingly, the Y is placed between the I and J ogonek.

A B C D E F G H I Y J K L M N O P R S T U V Z
has b c d e f g h i y j k l m n o p r s t u v z

The acute and grave accents and the macron are used to indicate emphasis or length of vowels. However, we do not find in dictionaries or when it is necessary to clarify. In addition, we use the following digraphs, but in the order of words, they are treated as a sequence of two separate letters.

C. Dz Dz Ie Uo
c. dz dz I uo

Phonetics

Accentuation

Main article: Enhancement of Lithuania.

Lithuanian has a pitch accent in two tones - rough and smooth - mobile. Also in the academic literature, the emphasis is not writes.

Vowels

The Lithuanian has 12 vowels written. In addition to the standard Latin letters are used to indicate the ogonek long vowels. The ogonek is a holdover from the days when these were nasalized vowels, as is the case today for the Polish.

Uppercase A E I Y O U
Tiny has e i y o u
API Consonants

Lithuanian uses 20 consonants from the Roman alphabet. In addition, the digraph Ch indicates velar fricative (IPA Grammar

Main article: Lithuanian Grammar.

Lithuanian grammar is very similar to that of Latvia , but has a more archaic. His accent is free and mobile.

There are seven cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , instrumental , rental and vocative ) and five groups of variants. Among others, the nominal bending includes many duel , in addition to singular and plural , to represent groups of two.

All verbs are together in time present , past , past iterative and future of user code , alternative conditional and imperative (irrespective of time) and the infinitive. These forms, except the code and are combined with two persons singular, two plural, being the third person of the same form for singular and plural.

Vocabulary

Word Translation Standard pronunciation etymological relation to Latin
earth zeme e me humus
home NAMAs mas n domus (alternating n / a)
sky Dangus Dangus nimbus (alternating ng / mb)
water vanduo vandu unda
fire ugnis Ugni s ignis
man vyras vi ras vir
Women moters mo teis mater
Dining valgyti v.lgi ti alger
drink Gerti g.ti vorare
great Didel di delis
small Mazas Media zas
eye akis aki s oculus
night nakts nakts s nox
day diena dien dies

Numbers

  • Here are the numbers from zero to ten in Lithuanian: nulis, Vienna,, trys, Keturah, Penk, Sesi, septyni, atuoni, Devyn, deimt ...
  • and 11 to 20: vienuolika, dvylika, trylika, keturiolika, penkiolika, eiolika, septyniolika, atuoniolika, devyniolika, dvideimt ...
  • Other numbers in Lithuanian: 30 - trisdeimt, 31 - trisdeimt Vienna, etc..
  • 40 keturiasdeimt
  • 50 penkiasdeimt
  • 60 eiasdeimt
  • 70 septyniasdeimt
  • 80 atuoniasdeimt
  • 90 devyniasdeimt
  • 100 Simta
  • 200, Simta
  • 300 trys Simta
  • 1000 tkstantis
  • 10000 deimt tkstani
  • 100000 Simta tkstani
  • 1000000 milijonas

Months

  • January Sausi (from Sauser, dry, probably related to the dry cold working at the time),
  • February Vasari (pavasaris of the spring, so the announcement this month season)
  • March Kovas (from kovai, rook, common at this time of year)
  • April Balanda (Dove)
  • May Gegu (gegut of the cuckoo)
  • June Birelis (Berzel of a small birch branches which were used to heat the sauna)
  • July Liepa (linden)
  • August Rugpjtis (from rugpjt, harvesting of the rye)
  • September Rugsjis (seed rye)
  • October Spal (from spaliai, remnants of flax or hemp after the harvest that was used for heating)
  • November Lapkritis (leaf fall)
  • Gruodis December (gruodas of the earth, jelly)

See also


Leave a Reply


Frequently Asked Questions

1 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 5 (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5, rated)
Loading ... Loading ...
Help us improve the wiki Send Your Comments