Why does everyone think that Lithuanian sounds like Russian?

[Minde]

I'm tired of hearing everyone say ''It sounds like Russian'' sometimes even Polish I be get offended all the time But I thinks this because people be have not enough experience with the language

[riverman]

.........

[Dacul]

Well of what you would want to sound most close,after Letonian,as german?

These languages are from Balto-slavic branch,closest languages to Latvian/Letonian are slavic languages,guess those Eastern Slavic languages.

[Dombra]

They do sound like eachother. Stop living in denial, they all sound like Balto-Slavovicho style

[Mans not hot]

sometimes even Polish I be get offended all the time :

Don't tell me you're one of those Lithuanian chauvinist like Humanmaster.

[Minde]

But you don't hear stuff like ''Polish sounds Russian'' while the two languages are alot, alot more similar. Accent thing maybe?

[Meow]

It sounds like gypsy, are you happy ?

[member]

I'm tired of hearing everyone say ''It sounds like Russian'' sometimes even Polish I be get offended all the time But I thinks this because people be have not enough experience with the language

That happens for several reasons:

• Lithuanian belongs to Balto-Slavic IE branch
• Baltic and Slavic are both Satem while Cetlic, Italic, Germanic are not

So, no suprise that foreigners hear similarities. Though how much similar they may sound depends on listener's level of experience/contact with these languages. If someone thinks Lithuanian sounds completely alike/identical to Russian/Polish, then you may suspect that that somebody has had little contact with these languages. Also, people expect neighbouring languages to sound similar. If they heard about such language Lithuanian for the first time in theirlife and didn't knew where it's spoken, maybe their opinion would be a bit different.

[Dacul]

Lol Minde are you some kind of Karl?

[Mans not hot]

the two languages are alot, alot more similar. Accent thing maybe?

No, for one thing Russian uses the cyrillic alphabet and Polish uses the latin alphabet. They may sound similar to untrained ears but then so would other Slavic languages like Croatian, Czech, Bulgarian.

Anyway, what's the point of this thread really?