The biggest language problem that a tourist risks encountering in Lithuania is that they simply will not understand him. Well, or they will pretend. Our article is how to do it without “pretending.” The recipe is not complicated at all and is very effective. Shall we try?
In general, Lithuanians are friendly and hospitable towards guests of their country.
However, unlike Latvia, where the Russian language is extremely widespread, or Estonia, where the majority of the population (and almost all young people) speak English at some level, which facilitates communication, in Lithuania it is quite possible to encounter a situation that you simply They won’t understand in Russian, but in English.
Moreover, the most surprising thing is that the above is true not only in relation to the rural outback, but also to completely tourist places.
It’s a long way to go, we ourselves found ourselves in a similar situation in Palanga, where in a restaurant on the promenade a pretty girl, the waiter, could not express herself in either English or Russian.
On the other hand, a local resident is pleased when a guest speaks at least a few words in his native language - this is especially true for small nations. So we recommend learning fifteen phrases in Lithuanian, and you can be sure that a friendly smile on the face of your interlocutor is guaranteed!
Please note that the Lithuanian language is not characterized by drawl, so try to pronounce words at a normal pace (you should not try to keep up with Tina Kandelaki, but there is no need to drawl out in the Estonian manner).
The emphasis in words is highlighted in bold, which usually falls on the first syllable. Let us note that the above Lithuanian phrases are somewhat similar to Latvian ones, so that, in a slightly modified form, they can be used when visiting Latvia.
| Phrase | Translation into Lithuanian | Transcription |
| Hello! | Labas! | L A bass! |
| Good morning! | Labas rytas! | L A bass r And tas! |
| Good afternoon | Laba diena! | L A ba d e on the! |
| Good evening! | Labas vakaras! | L A bass in A crucian carp! |
| Good night! | Labanakt! | L A banakt! |
| Goodbye! | Viso gero! | IN And with g I ro! |
| Yes | Taip | T uh ip |
| No | Ne | N I |
| Thank you! | Ačiū! | A wow! |
| Please! | Prašau! | Etc A Shaw! |
| Sorry! | Atsiprašau! | Atsi-pr A Shaw! |
| What is your name? | Kuo jūs vardu? | TO at O Yu with ward at? |
| My name is.. | Mano vardas.. | M A but in A rdas.. |
| Where is.. | Kur yra.. | TO at R And ra.. |
| I don't speak Lithuanian | Aš nekalbu lietuviškai | A sh n I Kalbu years at vishkai |
In addition, here is a list of some symbols that you may encounter during your trip:
- gatve (g.) - street
- prospektas (pr.) - prospectus
- kelias - road
- rajonas (raj.) - district
- plentas - highway
- aleja (al.) - alley
- kaimas - village
- miestas - city
And finally, such a sweet word for any man, and even more so on vacation - beer - alus. By the way, in Latvian the noble drink sounds exactly the same.
As you can see, everything is not so complicated, but even such a small vocabulary, especially with a good “alus”, can work wonders. Try it and see for yourself.
Baltic languages that have survived to this day. This language group also included the obsolete Old Prussian and Yatvage. Lithuanian is spoken by three million citizens of the country and ethnic Lithuanians in other countries. There are diasporas in the former Soviet republics, as well as in the USA, Canada and European countries.
In the morphology and phonetics of Lithuanian, the features of the Proto-Baltic language are clearly visible. Written monuments dating back to the 16th century have been discovered. The language has two dialects: Aukštaitsky, on which the literary form is based, and Izhemaitsky.
History of the Lithuanian language
From the beginning of the first millennium, the Lithuanian and Latvian languages began to diverge, which ended in the 7th century. The currently existing dialects, the Aukštait and Samogit dialects, were formed approximately in the 13th–14th centuries. The development of literary Lithuanian began in the 16th century. and ended in the 18th century, when the differences between the folk and literary languages were already clearly visible. The transition to the Aukštait dialect was gradual and completed by the beginning of the 20th century. This language is today the official language of Lithuania.
The first handwritten inscription in the Lithuanian language (the text of the prayer) was found on the page of a book published in 1503, and the first book - a textbook of Lithuanian literacy - was printed in 1547. In 1595, another catechism was published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with emphasis on words. The dictionary of the literary language was compiled and printed in 1620; it was subsequently reprinted five times. In 1653, D. Klein prepared and published the “Textbook of Lithuanian Grammar”.
In 1795, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided, as a result of which Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire. The Russification of Lithuania was accompanied by a ban on the Latin alphabet; in 1864 the language was translated into the Cyrillic alphabet, specially developed by I. Kornilov. For 40 years, books in Lithuanian were published abroad and imported into the country illegally. Only at the beginning of the twentieth century the ban was lifted and since 1904 the literary Lithuanian language was actively formed.
In 1940, Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union and the second stage of Russification began. Bilingualism became very common in the republic; men who served in the Soviet army knew Russian more often and better. In the post-war years, the Russian-speaking population settled en masse in Lithuanian cities, the national language was almost completely forced out of the media, education, and production. Lithuanian was supplemented by numerous borrowings from the Russian language. The restoration of the status of the state language of Lithuania occurred after the collapse of the USSR; currently, the number of people fluent in Lithuanian has increased significantly.
- Lithuanian is one of the most ancient languages. Phonetics is close to the structure of the Proto-Indo-European language - the ancestor of all European languages. Modern linguists, recreating the Proto-Indo-European language, rely on Sanskrit, Lithuanian and Lithuanian.
- The similarity of the Lithuanian language with Sanskrit, which belongs to another language group, is surprising. Both languages contain Proto-Indo-European elements; there are similarities in the grammar, meaning and phonetics of words.
- The modern literary Lithuanian language was created artificially. Before him, four ethnic groups spoke their own dialects, the differences between which made understanding difficult.
- Lithuanian female surnames vary depending on the lady's marital status. The surname of an unmarried woman ends in -aitė, -iūtė, -ytė, for married women it ends in -ienė. Modern Lithuanians are increasingly limited to adding the ending -e to hide their marital status.
- There are practically no swear words in the Lithuanian language; one of the most brutal curses is translated as “toad”.
- Young Lithuanians who attended school after the collapse of the Soviet Union do not know Russian. However, even ethnic Lithuanians who speak the language are reluctant to admit this.
- There are no double consonants in Lithuanian.
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