Latvian/Lithuanian Language Similarities to Slavic Languages

[rashka]

I am opening up this thread so that anyone can post any words of similarities (or unsimilarities) beit from whichever Slavic or Baltic dialect.

Were they borrowings from the Slavic language?

Hand
Latvian: Roka, Shoulder: Plecs
Serbian: Ruka, Shoulder: Rama

Finger
Latvian: Pirksts, Lithuanian: Pirštas
Serbian: Prst

Palm
Lithuanian: Delnas, Latvian: Delna
Serbian: Dlan

Nail
Lithuanian: Nagas, Latvian: Nags
Serbian: Nokat

Head
Latvian: Galva
Serbian: Glava

Eye
Latvian: Aks
Serbian: Oko

Ears:
Latvian: Ausis
Serbian: Uši

Ear
Latvian: Auss, Lithuanian: Ausis
Serbian: Uvo

Hearing
Lithuanian: Klausymas, Latvian: Dzirde, Uzklausīšana
Serbian: Sluh, Listening: Slušanje

Hear
Lithuanian: Girdėti Latvian: Dzirdēt
Serbian: Čuti

Corn
Latvian: Kukurūza, Latvian: Kukurūzai
Serbian: Kukuruz

Listen
Latvian: Klausīties, Lithuanian: Klausyti
Serbian: Slušati

Tooth
Latvian: Zobs, Lithuanian: Dantis
Serbian: Zub

Winter
Latvian: Ziemas
Serbian: Zima, Zimus

Leader/Headman
Latvian: Vadonis, Lithuanian: Vadas
Serbian: Vođa

[lI]

No they are not borrowings - in many cases the Baltic versions happen to be more archaic (closer to proto-Indo-European). I won't go through all the list, just a few examples:

Palm
Root / lemma: del-3 (dol-), delǝ-
Lithuanian: Delnas, Latvian: Delna
Serbian: Dlan
Baltic ones have preserved the root syllable

Head
Root / lemma: gal-1
Lithuanian, Latvian: Galva
Serbian: Glava
Balts preserved the root syllable

Ear
Root / lemma: ōus2 : ǝus- : us-
Latvian: Auss, Lithuanian: Ausis
Serbian: Uvo
Balts preserved the root diphthong

Finger
Root / lemma: per-2
compounds with forms from stā-
Latvian: Pirksts, Lithuanian: Pirštas
Serbian: Prst
Balts preserved the root syllable

Hearing
Root / lemma: k̂leu-1, k̂leu̯ǝ- : k̂lū-
Lithuanian: Klausymas, Latvian: Dzirde, Uzklausīšana
Serbian: Sluh, Listening: Slušanje
Balts have preserved the original non-palatalized vowel K

Hand
*u̯ronk-ā-
Latvian: Roka
Lithunian: Ranka
Serbian: Ruka
Lithuanians preserved the vowel n, Latvians the original syllable o


You can look up etymologies here:
http://dnghu.org/indoeuropean.html
http://indo-european.info/pokorny-et...nary/index.htm



And this one is a recent loanword loanword in all languages - there was no corn in Europe prior to the discovery of the New World:

Corn
Latvian: Kukurūza, Latvian: Kukurūzai
Serbian: Kukuruz

[rashka]

No they are not borrowings - in many cases the Baltic versions happen to be more archaic (closer to proto-Indo-European). I won't go through all the list, just a few examples:

I believe they were not borrowings either and were the same language at one time; they just branched off but I do not believe that Baltic versions were more archaic.

[lI]

but I do not believe that Baltic versions were more archaic.

I gave examples from your own list demonstrating that they are. It's not like it's some news, linguists have been aware of that for a long while already.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balto-Slavic_languages

A Proto-Balto-Slavic language is reconstructable by the comparative method, descending from Proto-Indo-Europeanby means of well-defined sound laws, and out of which modern Slavic and Baltic languages descended. One particularly innovative dialect separated from the Balto-Slavic dialect continuum and became ancestral to the Proto-Slavic language, from which all Slavic languages descended.

[Skomand]

From a forthcoming Old-Lithuanian etymological dictionary:

Entry: NAGAS (nail) and cognates in lots of languages all deriving from a reconstructed proto-Indoeuropean word (in yellow). There are cognates in Latin, Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Sanscrit, Old Irish, Old Cornish etc...

I have marked in yellow one example of where Lithuanian is more archaic than Latvian: there is a semantic shift in Latvian from the meaning "nail" towards "foot". Lithuanian here is less "modern" in not making that shift.

[rashka]

From a forthcoming Old-Lithuanian etymological dictionary:

Entry: NAGAS (nail) and cognates in lots of languages all deriving from a reconstructed proto-Indoeuropean word (in yellow). There are cognates in Latin, Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Sanscrit, Old Irish, Old Cornish etc...

I have marked in yellow one example of where Lithuanian is more archaic than Latvian: there is a semantic shift in Latvian from the meaning "nail" towards "foot". Lithuanian here is less "modern" in not making that shift.

'Noga' is Foot/Leg in Serbian in addition to Nokat meaning Nail, Nokte in plural.

[Roy]

You might be right about Baltic dictionary preceding Slavic because I've heard about some striking similarities between Lithuanian, Proto-Indoeuropean and Sanskrit which remained many archaic features predating differentiation of groups inside Satem.

[rashka]

You might be right about Baltic dictionary preceding Slavic because I've heard about some striking similarities between Lithuanian, Proto-Indoeuropean and Sanskrit which remained many archaic features predating differentiation of groups inside Satem.

What did you hear?

@skomand
Pertaining to the above dictionary. What language is it in? I am tyring to figure out the part:
vgl. apr. Pirsten E 'Finger'

I can pick out the word Pirsten which sounds very much like Ring for a finger in Serbian > Prsten and as I had stated before: Prst means finger in Serbian.

[Minde]

Yeah I agree, Lithuanian is definitely a Slavic language. Stupid scientists don't put us where we belong