Baltic language relation equivalent

[member]

Honestly, I can't understand Samogitian dialect well I come from Aukštaitija region. Of course, I can get the general meaning of what Samogitians are talking about, but it's quite hard to follow a Samogitian, especially if he is speaking quickly. Reading is easier, I can get about 95% of Samogitian text meaning, but I still sometimes get confused..for example when trying to read Samogitian wikipedia

Have you read this post?

In addition to what I wrote there, I've noticed that it's not only (semi) different stressing but also we sometimes longen/shorten syllables differently and we have this falling tone whereas standart Lithuanian does not have it the same cases. These are my personal notices but I have diffuculties deducing grammatical conclussions from them.

I've noticed that words in Samogitian wikipedia sometimes are written in standart Lithuanian. Sometimes they are partially standart. For example, sveruoja. i changed into e, but uoja is not changed into oun. Altough I'm not sure if some articles aren't written in some "transitional" dialects that are closer to Aukštaičiai than Nothern samogitian.

[Harmonia]

Have you read this post?

In addition to what I wrote there, I've noticed that it's not only (semi) different stressing but also we sometimes longen/shorten syllables differently and we have this falling tone whereas standart Lithuanian does not have it the same cases. These are my personal notices but I have diffuculties deducing grammatical conclussions from them.

I've noticed that words in Samogitian wikipedia sometimes are written in standart Lithuanian. Sometimes they are partially standart. For example, sveruoja. i changed into e, but uoja is not changed into oun. Altough I'm not sure if some articles aren't written in some "transitional" dialects that are closer to Aukštaičiai than Nothern samogitian.

Yes, I've also noticed that Samogitian dialect is influenced by Curonian to some point. And the way Samogitians cuts endings of some words, makes it sound similar to Latvian. Though, it also depends on which part of Samogitia we're talking about. I noticed that some parts of Samogitia uses Samogitian dialect, which is perhaps less influenced by Curonian, or so I thought, because it's easier to understand what they're talking about without too much of efforts for Aukštaičiai, while in other parts of Samogitia you need to put some efforts to understand everything a person is saying to you. Which part of Samogitia are you from, if not a secret?

[member]

Yes, I've also noticed that Samogitian dialect is influenced by Curonian to some point.

I think it was historian A. Bumlauskas who said that Samogitian dialect (as we know it today) formed when Samogitians assimilated Curonians. In other words, no Curonians, no Samogitian dialect.
Here is an interview where it was mentioned. But his assumption may seem radical only to regular people, it's nothing new I think.

And the way Samogitians cuts endings of some words, makes it sound similar to Latvian

Probably, but it's not the only feature which makes it sound similar to Latvian.

Which part of Samogitia are you from, if not a secret?

I'm from northern Samogitia. I think my subdialect falls under the same category as the one Telšiai.

[lI]

but also we sometimes longen/shorten syllables differently

I agree very much with this part.

Do any of you know which city Donatas Montvydas is from? I remember watching an interview with him just a few days ago and couldn't pinpoint it by from the way he talks.

[member]

I agree very much with this part.

Do any of you know which city Donatas Montvydas is from? I remember watching an interview with him just a few days ago and couldn't pinpoint it by from the way he talks.

In this video he says that he is a Samogitian and went to Balio Dvariono mokykla which is Vilnius, so he obviously didn't live in Samogitia most of the time. Maybe he originally is from Vilnius and his parents are Samogitian. Altough I've noticed several deviations from standart language in this video:
1:54 riekavimų
02:21 pratymų

These obviously show influence of Samogitian dialect as ė is transformed into ie, short i into turned into y (it should be turned into long ė, though it's not ė, but syllable is extended.)

I can't really tell from these words from which part of Samogitia he comes.

[lI]

I happened to come upon the impressions of several Latvian speakers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ba...lavic_is_a_lie

I should mention, that personally once I (Latvian) manage to deal with Latgalian, Lithuanian is not much further off, many root words are similar if not identical. Where Germanisms have crept into Latvian, the original root word is still found in other related words in Latvian--or is simply a secondary choice. Personally I think there's a lot of latitude as to when the Baltic languages branched off from each other, as everything else, a topic for further scholarship and debate. :-)
19:59, 19 April 2009 (UTC) PetersV

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:La...lity_and_runic

It was over 10 years ago at this point, but I had reason to dig through Lithuanian boards in addition to Latvian ones, and it didn't take that long to follow Lithuanian. It's no less mutually (un)intelligible than Latgalian, I know, I spent a fair amount of time reading through (OK, attempting to...) the Latgalian prayer book in Aglona Church. Be that as it may,...
I don't have experience with spoken Lithuanian, however, when I had the need some time ago to wade through some Lithuanian materials, it was possible after a while to get along sufficiently well. To me, Lithuanian didn't seem much more/any more different from Latvian than Latgalian.
14:43, 18 April 2008 (UTC) PetersV


I'm a bit confused by the statement: "However, while related, the Latvian and Lithuanian vocabularies vary greatly from each other and are not mutually intelligible."
Linguistically, I find it difficult to support that statement as being accurate. Some years ago I followed Estonian and Lithuanian boards as well and found after a while that I could manage understanding Lithuanian--it didn't seem that much more "foreign" than Latgalian.
06:56, 27 January 2006 (UTC) PetersV

I agree, I think it may be too strong to say they are mutually unintelligible. Although I cannot understand spoken Lithuanian very much at all, I can at least get the gist of written Lithuanian (maybe it has to do with different accent?). I think the languages are as similar as, say, Portuguese and Spanish. I suppose it depends on what is meant by "unintelligible."--
03:06, 28 July 2006 (UTC) Zilonis

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...9082904AAsZKRF

2. What are the differences and similarities between Latvian and Lithuanian? Are they very similar?
Can a Latvian native speaker understand a Lithuanian native speaker without studying?

Latvian and Lithuanian indeed are quite similar. I (a Latvian) can listen to a Lithuanian conversation or radio and get the main idea of what they are talking about, however without studying it would be absolutely impossible to say anything meaningful in Lithuanian. Latvians sometimes freely take part in Lithuanian forum discussions using nothing, but a dictionary, because the tenses and cases are the same in structure, just different endings of words, which is something one can figure out merely by observing previous posts. The word order also is similarly free in both languages.

If I moved to Lithuania, I would probably learn to speak the language on basic conversational level in about a month.

3. What grammar is more irregular: latvian and Lithuanian grammar or Estonian grammar?

Latvian and Lithuanian grammar is almost the same, no idea about Estonian though.

mrkarlis 2 years ago

This seems to essentially confirm what I was speculating about before - how much of Lithuanian language Latvians understand depends a lot on their own willingness.
The fact that some Latvians claim to grasp the general meaning of written Lithuanian certainly implies that others, who claim that they do not, are unable to so due to their personal prejudices.