Overview of Lithuanian
Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania, spoken by about 4 million native Lithuanians. The Lithuanian name for the language is Lietuviu kalba.
In older literature on Baltic languages, "Lithuanian" can sometimes refer to Baltic Languages in general.
The Lithuanian language still retains much of the original sound system and morphological peculiarities of the prototypal Indo-European language and therefore is fascinating for linguistic study. Some reconstructions have concluded that Lithuanian is the language most closely related to Proto-Indo-European. Some linguists have speculated that proto-Baltic languages split from other Indo-European languages before 1000 BCE.
Lithuanian is one of two (the other is Latvian) living Baltic languages, which is a separate branch of the Indo-European languages.
Between 400-600, the Lithuanian and Latvian languages split from the Western Baltic (Prussian) language group, which subsequently became extinct. The first known written Lithuanian text dates from a hymnal translation in 1545. Printed books in Lithuanian language are known since 1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low in the 16th – 18th centuries and books were not easily available. Literacy in Lithuania strongly increased during the 19th century, despite victimization, made by Russian authorities (which reached its peak after suppression of January Uprising, in 1864 – 1904, when Russian officials forbade any public spoken usage of Lithuanian language and usage of Latin alphabet for written language).
Lithuanian has been official language in Lithuania since 1918 year. During Soviet period ( 1944 – 1990, see History of Lithuania), it was used in official affairs along with Russian language, which was official in the USSR and had priority over Lithuanian language.
The Lithuanian language has two main dialects: Aukshtaitish (Aukštaiciu, Highland Lithuanian) and Zhemaitish (Samogitian, Žemaiciu, Lowland Lithuanian). See maps at [2] (http://samogitia.mch.mii.lt/KALBA/girdstr.en.htm#Map).
Standard Lithuanian is based on Western Aukshtaitish. Intelligibility between Aukshtaitish and Zhemaitish is considered difficult by most Lithuanians. Second languages Russian and English are used with foreigners.
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