Very old. Very archaic. Very persistent.
Lithuanian and Latvian are the only living Baltic languages. The Baltic branch is believed to be the most archaic of the living Indo-European languages, Lithuanian staying in general more conservative than Latvian, which adopted more influences on the way. In this case archaic means having preserved the most traces of the ancestor of the Indo-European languages – the Proto-Indo-European language. If Old Prussian language had not been extinct, it is said to would have been even closer to the parent language of the descendants. The closest to Baltic languages of all other Indo-European languages are Slavic languages.
The name Balts was introduced for labelling a particular linguistic group, and derived from the name of the Baltic Sea. Earlier on, another name – Aistians – was prepared to be used, in accordance to the definition of gentes Aestiorum in Tacitas’ book Germania (98 A.D), where Baltic tribes are mentioned for the first time. Nevertheless, since not all of Baltic tribes were included in this definition, a neologism “Balts” was created eventually. The name Aistė (f) and Aistis (m) are used now as first names in Lithuanian.
Religion has a lot of influence on language evolution. The same counts for the Balts, who converted to Christianity very late. Lithuania was one of the last pagan countries in Europe to be baptised in 1387, while Latvia started to be influenced by both Catholic and Orthodox Churches starting from the 12th century. Before that, these lands had pagan traditions. The earliest mythological characters were exceptionally female: Laima, Žemyna (LT), Zemes māte (LV) – Mother Earth. Later, gods of the sky took over: Dievas (LT), Dievs (LV) – God; Perkūnas (LT), Pērkons (LV) – Thunder; Saulė (LT), Saule (LV) – the Sun. Smaller gods also inhabited the surroundings. The Balts had a pantheon of gods, similarly to ancient Scandinavian and Greek religions. Heritage from a long lasting paganism are the names of individuals and places, closely related to the nature and its events.
So similar – almost the same?
Though the two languages share common roots and have many similarities, if one asked if Latvians and Lithuanians understand each other without initial preparation the answer would be: no, normally they do not. The grammar is similar and there are many common words, but it is not enough to fill in many gaps of differences which grew rapidly after languages started to split apart further from the old Proto-Baltic language. Thus, semi-communication between Baltic languages is quite ambiguous. The older the word is, the better is its mutual understanding. The meaning sometimes can be understood or guessed from the context. Nonetheless, the majority of language components differ too much to be easily grasped, if at all.
Latvians and Lithuanians have quite a few common words with also the same meaning, for example:
širdis (LT) – sirds (LV): a heart
žolė (LT) – zāle (LV): grass
saulė (LT) -saule (LV): the sun
gintaras (LT) -dzintars (LV): amber
tėvas (LT) – tēvs (LV): a father
pilis (LT) – pils (LV): a castle
Comparing them, some patterns of disparities between particular uses of the letters can be seen. The first two instances show that in the majority of the cases Latvian has z and s whereas Lithuanians use ž and š. Since Lithuanian has more š, č, ž sounds, and also because of the free stress of words and particular intonation, this language usually reminds Slavic languages. On the other hand, Latvian is considered to sound more “Estonian” or “Scandinavian” because of the fixed accent on the first syllable. A word accent is indeed a good illustration of some distinct characteristics of the two languages: while Latvian normally stresses the first syllable, Lithuanian’s accent place is free and differs every time. This makes them sound quite different from each other.
As in the example of dzintars, a consonant g at the beginning of the word, retained in Lithuanian, in many cases was replaced with dz in Latvian. The last two examples illustrate the tendency of vowels to dissapear at the end of Latvian words. Furthermore, one will not find ė in Latvian alphabet. In general, both languages lack some parts of each other’s alphabet components. Although frequently letters written in different ways are actually pronounced the same. It is visible especially when it comes to long vowels (Lithuanian ą, ę, į, ų; Latvian ā, ē, ī) – although written differently, these long vowels have relatively similar pronunciations. Also, Latvian has soft consonants (ļ, ņ, ķ, ģ) included in the alphabet, whereas softness or hardness of Lithuanian consonants normally depends on sound that follows, while not having separate symbols to mark them.
There are, however, plenty of words that are similar but have different meanings. Here comes the deceptiveness of mutuality! In many cases these words have a similar context concerning usage, and that again proves their early inter-connection. Of course, these deceptive words can be found in any related set of languages. And these are the words that the speakers of both languages usually find quite amusing. Let us take a look:
Briedis (LT) – alnis (LV): a moose
Elnias (LT) – briedis (LV): a deer
bērns (LV) – vaikas (LT): a child, while bernas (LT) – a boy, a lad
vārds (LV) – žodis (LT): a name, while žodis (LT) – a word
sūrus (LT) – sāļš (LV): salty, while sūrs (LV) – bitter
senė (LT) – vecene (LV): the old woman, while sēne (LV) – a mushroom
One of the first impressions on languages we get is while we listen to them.
To compare how these languages sound, check the links of the national radio channels:
Latvian: Latvijas radio
Lithuanian: Lietuvos Radijas ir Televizija
Sources:
Ever wanted to travel back in time? Talk to a Lithuanian!
The Importance of Lithuanian for Indo-European Linguistics
Letonika. Latvian-Lithuanian Dictionary
Written by Gintarė Kudžmaitė
Communication Trainee at TermCoord
Student at the University of Luxembourg