Lithuanian

Lithuanian is the language of Lithuania, as well spoken in other countries.

Variations

The following are the variations of Lithuanian language (ones that are or were commonly used for writting):

• African Lithuanian - spoken in Lithuanian communities formerly part of the Southern Lands colony, currently Maasai and northern Chinese East Africa, as well by emmigrants from these communities to other African states, such as Mutapa and Ethiopia. Uses Smetonian alphabet, some Slavic and African loanwords; some of the loanwords in Common Lithuanian are not used in African Lithuanian however, as here more of the Reformed Lithuanian words are used; for example, some sciences are still called by reformed Lithuanian names, instead of using original latin ones as Common Lithuanian does.
• Antarctic Lithuanian - a form of Reformed Lithuanian written in the Original Baltic script (non-latin), used in Free Lithuania.
• Common Lithuanian - official language of Lithuania, written in the Lithuanian script (based on Latin script).
• Eastern Lithuanian - is spoken in Lithuanian communities Belarus and Ukraine (primarilly those communities, which were part of Russian empire prior to the First Great War), has many Slavic loanwords. Was originally written in cyrillic as the only legal script, in the interwar cyrillic script was banned by Lithuanian authorities who then controlled these regions. Now latin script is used more.
• Old Lithuanian - this name was used to describe the Lithuanian language prior to the standartisation of 19th century. The use of this name is disputed now however as there is an agreement among linguists that there were many variations of written Lithuanian before the standartisation, generally based on varios dialects.
• Lietuvinink - a form of Lithuanian language spoken in Lithuania Minor (Prusy province of Veneda). Due to German control in past, has some German loanwords; there is special script based on German one, although now people frequently preffers Lithuanian script.
• Litwan - spoken by Lithuanian communities in Veneda (excluding Prusy), more or less similar to the way the language was before all reformation attempts. Written in Venedic script, has many Venedic loanwords.
• Reformed Lithuanian - created in the interwar period and was official then; does not use loanwords and all words are lituanised. Never was used by general masses for speaking, but was used in newspapers and other official purposes. Was written in Smetonian alphabet (based on latin script); currently it is used in Free Lithuania, that form however is written in different script and is known as Antarctic Lithuanian.
• Samogitian - writting standartised relatively recently, based on the western dialects of Lithuanian language. Spoken in western Samogitia, but not official.
• Standard Lithuanian - the first official standartisation of Lithuanian dating from 19th century. Was changed by Reformed Lithuanian in the interwar period, then briefly reintroduced after the Second Great War, but later changed again by Common Lithuanian - a language that was based on the common spoken language of the time and which included some words from Reformed Lithuanian, some new loanwords and slang.
• Tejan Lithuanian - spoken by the Lithuanian communities in Tejas, uses Venedic script, has some castillian loanwords as well as some venedic ones (more than common Lithuanian).

Note - in general there is a trend that those people, who associates themselves with Lithuania, tends to use Common Lithuanian and Lithuanian script more and considers the local forms of Lithuanian language as less prestigious. This trend is stronger in some places (e.g. Veneda, Prusy province) and non-existant or almost non-existant at others (e.g. Free Lithuania). For these reasons, some of variations are endangered.

Other dialects, without their standartied writting (Common Lithuanian is used by them for written means usually), includes:

• Aukštaitian
• Dzūkian
• Transnemunian (Zanavyk)

Another unstandartised form is Latvian Lithuanian, spoken in Lithuanian communities of Latvia, which are primarilly in what was Courland.

Indo-European Languages
Balto-Slavic Languages
Slavic Languages							Baltic Languages
West Slavic			South Slavic		East Slavic	North Slavic	West Baltic	East Baltic
Sorbian (Lusatian)	Lekhitic	Old Czech	Western Subgroup	Eastern Subgroup
Upper Sorbian Lower Sorbian	Preimerian Polabian	Old Czech ↓ Czech	Slovene (aka Old Croatian) Croatian Serbian (Sanjaki)	Old Church Slavonic † ↓ Bulgarian	Russian Belarussian Ukrainian Ruthenian (Rusyn)	Nassian Skuodian Vozgian Izhorian	Prussian Curonian	Latvian Lithuanian Sudovian

This page was created by Abdul-aziz.