Lithuanian
Lithuanian belongs to the East Baltic branch of the Indo-European language
family which also contains Latvian, its closest relative It is spoken by
3.5 million people, primarily in Lithuania.
Lithuanian is often called the most linguistically conservative Indo-European
language. It has retained many old grammatical forms that have only been
attested in other long extinct Indo-European languages. However, like all
languages, Lithuanian has undergone language change. The succession of
political events, in particular a "Russification" policy, has had direct
consequences for the language. From 1864 to 1904 printing and teaching
in Lithuanian was forbidden, which had a strong impact on the development
of the literary tradition After 1904, however, the Lithuanian language
entered a new phase of development and the nationalist spirit of nineteenth
century Europe gave rise to a new literature in Lithuanian.
Lithuanian has a number of dialects, some of which have recently been
assimilated into others. The modern standard is based on the Southern sub-dialect
of West Aukshtaitish (High Lithuanian). Lithuanian uses a modified form
of the Roman script which uses diacritics to symbolize an important aspect
of Lithuanian speech, namely "accent." Lithuanian has a pitch accent system;
that is, the meaning of the word depends on the pitch of the vowel. A stressed
vowel may have a rising pitch called circumflex, or a falling pitch called
acute.
UCLA Language Materials Project
Information on writing system:
Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:
UCSD International Center
Mingei museum of folk art
Balboa Park
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House of
Lithuania