This map shows the regions
of the world where Lithuanian is commonly spoken (red circle).
Approximately three million speakers of Lithuanian live today.
Lithuanian is in the Baltic family of languages that descend
from the Balto-Slavic branches of Indo-European. It is most
closely related to modern Latvian
and to the extinct language of Old
Prussian.
Lithuanian has been an
especially important language for scholars seeking to reconstruct
the Proto-Indo-European tongue because Lithuanian appears to
be strikingly conservative in its grammar and its acquisition
of vocabuly. The language has changed remarkably little in perhaps
7,000 years. (Some scholars point out--only half in joke--that
a Lithuanian peasant can often understand simple phrases in
Sanksrit.) For whatever mysterious reason, this language preserves
some very old features which have disappeared from practically
all the other languages of the Indo-European language family.
| Daniel M. Short originally created this
map and the other Indo-European language charts for his website at http://www.danshort.com/.
I reproduce these images here with the author's permission, but they are
copyrighted by Daniel Short as of 2002. These charts should not be reproduced
or reused without Mr. Short's approval. You may contact him at danshort@gte.net
for more information. These images are not public domain. |