Why Are There Similar Words Across English & Lithuanian?

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  • Опубліковано 7 лис 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 62

  • @sciurusmeridionalis
    @sciurusmeridionalis 4 дні тому +16

    Good point about Latin. When I studied Latin at university, I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. Because of the similar grammar. It was enough to learn the meaning of a new word and to know the endings of the nominative and genitive cases. And the full pronunciation was already clear. I am native lithuanian speaker.

    • @Mendogology
      @Mendogology 3 дні тому +1

      Same for me! I studied Latin in Spain, and it was very fun to see how my Spanish classmates struggled a lot with Latin, mostly with declensions.

  • @anzelmasmatutis2500
    @anzelmasmatutis2500 4 дні тому +22

    I like similarity of "bet"(lt) and "but"(en).

    • @RichieLarpa
      @RichieLarpa 4 дні тому +1

      Jo, taip iš karto sėkmingai prisiminiau tą žodį!

    • @stefigachadimova7479
      @stefigachadimova7479 4 дні тому +1

      I’ve noticed some interesting similarities between Lithuanian and my native language, Bulgarian. For example, the word for "no" in Lithuanian is "ne," which is the same in Bulgarian, though it's written in Cyrillic! 🇧🇬 It’s fascinating how the colors of our flags are somewhat similar, sharing greens and reds, though with Lithuania featuring yellow as well. There seem to be some intriguing Slavic connections. Additionally, I've observed that certain Lithuanian curse words have a resemblance to Russian ones, which adds a layer of familiarity. Some spicy words for sure! Wishing blessings to everyone! ❤

    • @sigridataparauskaite4549
      @sigridataparauskaite4549 4 дні тому +1

      That's because we looong time mostly don't curse in our own language it's too gentle - not meant to truly insult anybody to the point of breaking the bonds. Hence if we DO wana make a point accross and BE mean with our guts we curse in russian AND polish swear words that are borrowed. Young people may not even know the true meaning of those words before they start using it. Simply they sound harsh and that's enough when using in the heat of an argument. I like my language for that fact that it is not meant for insulting others but rather sound poetic when trying to do so.
      And the ,,no" part of the word you're talking about may seem similar to you in writing but we do pronounce it differently tho. I can understand some bits of bulgarian, polish or any other slavic language for example because i was taught russian in school at some point but not too much because I didn't study it well and long enough, but just enough to not have the conversations made in that language any secret to me. But my friends from the above mentioned countries could never guess what WE are talking about in return... it is a different language believe you me.

    • @Tonitrws
      @Tonitrws 3 дні тому

      “bet” and “but” are nit cognates; it’s accidental that they look the same

  • @valantinas
    @valantinas День тому +1

    The city in England I'm originally from has lots of places like, Broadgate, Pottergate, Westgate and so on. Its a very old city and was Roman at one point, then at some point was invaded by the vikings. 'Gate' derives from the Old Norse word 'gata', meaning street, which is so similar to Lithuanian for street - Gatvé

  • @Mendogology
    @Mendogology 3 дні тому +1

    I enjoyed a lot with this video, I am a big fan of linguistics!

  • @RichieLarpa
    @RichieLarpa 4 дні тому +6

    Yes, word "bet" is an example of its own in this case, which I successfully remembered thanks to its similarity to its English counterpart. But sometimes I was able to learn a word through a dark state of mind, for some reason, I have learned the word "senelis" before I got to a general meaning of a word "senas".
    For those unfamiliar, "senelis" means "grandfather" and is related to the word "senas", which means "old", so you see the connection. However my black humor worked on that occasion and "senelis" sounded like "a senile person", which in Czech looks like "senila" (please note that this is a colloquial form) and that is how I remembered that word, by pretending that "all grandfathers in Lithuania are senile".
    On the other hand, "senas" jumped into my head without any controversy, since it sounds like Czech "seno", which means "hay" and hay is technically an "old grass", so that one worked pretty well. And there are many other examples, but I am not trying to write a poem here, I have already screwed up...

    • @manometras
      @manometras 4 дні тому +2

      seno is šienas in Lithuanian, but probably you know that yourself.

    • @RichieLarpa
      @RichieLarpa 2 дні тому

      @@manometras Haha, nežinojau! Kokia staigmena! 😊

  • @manometras
    @manometras 4 дні тому +3

    daughter, daughter’s, daughters - duktė, dukters, dukterys
    to sew - siūti
    three - trys
    brother , bro - brolis, had been broteris some hundreds of years ago
    mother - motė, motina, but closer to the form with another suffix - moteris (a woman)
    son - sūnus (English dropped the ending)

  • @Tonitrws
    @Tonitrws 3 дні тому +2

    In linguistics, “oldest language” is not a scientific valid category, simply because the parameter is not established. What can be objectively measured is attestation, e.g. “Hittite is the oldest attested Indo-European language” is a factual statement, because it refers to the date of discovery of the first Hittite texts (~1800BC). Excluding the written record, the idea that one language is “older” than another does not make sense, since every language descends from an earlier one (whether attested or not) and the date in prehistory when humans first began speaking cannot be determined. That being said, what people mean when they say “Lithuanian is old” refers to certain FEATURES that are preserved in Lithuanian but that have been lost in all other Indo-European branches, such as the rich declension system, the rich verbal system, use of participles, archaic endings, mobile stress and some items of the lexicon (note that Latvian also preserves many of these features too). On the other hand, Lithuanian is innovative with respect to other IE languages in other respects, for instance, it lost the number distinction in the 3rd person of verbs, unlike Slavic and Romance languages, and also the neuter gender, unlike Slavic and Germanic languages. All in all its a matter of perspective.

  • @Kyarago
    @Kyarago 3 дні тому +1

    The issue for an English speaker is the definitely the French influence. A great example of this is one of my favourite songs in old English (Anglo - Saxon before French influence) ua-cam.com/video/-i0-Mgn-8gQ/v-deo.html . This form of English was just like Lithuanian, it used word endings instead of the little words in front, much like Baltic languages still do today. Take a note at the lines "Harold Godwines sunu, endenehsta cyning Engla" word sunu in both written and pronounced form is very close to sūnus in Lithuanian as well as the word "cyning" meaning king (pronounced cooning) is very similar to the word we still use for priest 'kunigas'. Another example of this can be the line "God milstige his sawle" (meaning "May God have mercy on his soul"), which structurally is closer to moder Lith. than English which would be "Dieve pagailėk jo sielos". Funnily enough, the word for soul - sawle is pronounced the same way as we do for sun - saulė. Or even the line "Manlice fuhton hie" ("They fought manfully") with the word "hie" for "they" sounding and looking very much like the Lith. word for "they" - "jie". And there are plenty more examples like "Earmas Engliscera" which in modern Lith. is still very much "Anglų rankos" in modern English has to be said as "The arms of the English".
    Lithuanian is not a hard language, yes, the endings can be tricky, but they make a lot of sense, since once you can use them, it makes the language simpler. Sentence structure has almost no consequence and it is much more economic then having to use 3/4 additional words, just to get the same meaning.
    English is extremely interesting and as a whole, and has been terribly deformed by a plethora of influences. Like church's influence and move away from runes (the Anglo - Saxon Futhork) that made a lot more sense with the sounds that they had (and still have, like using a single symbol for common sounds like 'th' or 'ng'), which were fully killed off once the printing press could not use some of the adapted letters (check out the reason why 'ye old' exists, the letter made sound 'th', but it looked very similar to a stylized letter 'y' and the distinction was lost along the way).

  • @RichieLarpa
    @RichieLarpa 4 дні тому +3

    Regarding that video conclusion, if I ignore current generation, which will speak English to foreigners either way without questions, since English has that influence on today's world, I see the surprise rising among older Lithuanians in my work almost everytime. Thanks to that, I almost always hear my favorite question "iš kur išmokot lietuviškai", since those people will happily conversate in their own language, due to the fact that their English is not that advanced, compared to modern generation's English.

  • @fidenemini111
    @fidenemini111 4 дні тому +2

    Very, very good!

  • @manometras
    @manometras 4 дні тому +5

    One of the most archaic living indoeuropean languages.

  • @viktorianas
    @viktorianas 8 годин тому

    Probably not hard to learn for the purpose of basic communication, but could be very difficult to master it almost to perfection because one word converts into possibly dozens of variations depending on a particular context.

  • @dankhazanavicius8412
    @dankhazanavicius8412 3 дні тому

    As a graduate of J.Jablonskis secondary school in Kaunas 1970, an unofficially top school for the Lithuanian language in the city, J.Jablonskis is considered the father of the modern Lithuanian language. I find today's Lithuanian language is contaminated by English language expressions, no surprise here. Which is not new. Back then, people used many Russian, German, and Polish meanings in Lithuanian versions. In the field of mechanics, people used German words like muterke, stangelis, etc. Polish and Russian influence was and is (I could hear Lithuanian boys swearing in Russian on the other side of Leicester Square) due to historic events.

  • @manometras
    @manometras 4 дні тому +1

    bernas, berniukas mean a boy in Lithuanian, but it is related to to bear, and born. The Swedish barn and the Latvian bērns mean a child.

  • @burbeklis1983
    @burbeklis1983 4 дні тому +2

    to grab - grabalioti, graibyti
    veding - vedu (vestuvės)
    blind - prieblanda (time when is hard to see anythig)

  • @erikasdarodalykus
    @erikasdarodalykus 4 дні тому +1

    gauti - to get
    The theory is that a word existed in old norse and it transfered to balts and anglos via the vikings.

    • @Kyarago
      @Kyarago 3 дні тому

      Anglai ir yra vikingai prieš "vikingus". Anglų, Saxų ir Jutų gentys išplaukė į Britaniją iš tų pačių žemių kaip vėliau plaukė Danai. Dėl to vietiniai ir atplaukę dažnai galėjo susikalbėt šnekėdami sava kalba, panašiai kaip Ispanai ir Italai dabar. O dėl įtakos Baltam nežinojau, įdomu.

  • @P13N5
    @P13N5 3 дні тому

    I like the similarities of Lithuanian and Irish Gaelic language, "senas, keturi, smakras, lova, dešinė, vyras" etc.

    • @Kyarago
      @Kyarago 3 дні тому

      There is also sword - claidheamh (/kLajəv/) which sounds very much like 'kalavijas' and has the same meaning.

  • @RichieLarpa
    @RichieLarpa 4 дні тому +1

    Just a friendly reminder: be careful on putting words in a correct form, since some of them were in genitive form (nosies, dantys). I would recommend you to research every word individually in Wiktionary, where there are all declensions you can check, just to be sure.

  • @draugami
    @draugami 3 дні тому

    Languages that are closer linguistically are easier to learn. ie English and French. Lithuanian, Latvian. The word case inflections (nominative , genitive, dative,...) make Lithuanian more difficult for English speakers who have very few (him, them).

  • @travelvideos
    @travelvideos 4 дні тому +6

    Many words are related to Roman origin, which makes learning European languages easier. There is no Balto-Slavic group and Baltic languages are not a branch of Slavic languages. Our linguists have to work on this.

    • @salavy
      @salavy 4 дні тому +3

      Balto-Slavic is consensus, and, if anything, I would argue the picture painted by archaeological and linguistic evidence is that the Slavs diverged from the rest of Balto-Slavic while the rest continued to speak languages closer to the modern Baltic languages, including much of modern Belarus and western Russia; they were slavicised late enough to preserve Baltic-sounding hydronyms (names of water bodies, e.g. rivers and lakes).
      Interestingly, much of the work on this was done by Soviet linguists, too.

    • @Arissef
      @Arissef 4 дні тому +4

      @@salavy It is a consensus, albeit a problematic one. Professor Villanueva has been my professor in an introductory course to Indo-European linguistics at VIlnius University and to cite him, the only non-problematic grouping within Indo-European is Indo-Iranian, which groups together Indo-Aryan (e.g., Hindi) and Iranian (e.g., Farsi, or Persian). Balto-Slavic is problematic in the sense that while there are undeniable similarities between the languages of the two branches, there are also huge differences on basic levels of phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary that are difficult to explain.
      Baltic and Slavic are not like German and Swedish, let alone like Swedish and Norwegian.

    • @pauliusthemad3498
      @pauliusthemad3498 4 дні тому

      @@Arissef A way I seen it explained neatly is, baltic is ancestral branch to slavic, with modern baltic being remains of branch that was slower to change.

    • @salavy
      @salavy 4 дні тому

      ​@@Arissef True, I can believe that. Despite the similarities with very obvious and consistent cognate words elsewhere, I've certainly noticed puzzling differences between Baltic and Slavic vocabulary, like the word for "person" being "žmogus" and "čelovek" (interestingly reconstructed in Proto-Balto-Slavic as *kelawaikas).
      I still think it makes sense for a genetic link between the two; perhaps if the languages of the Dniepr Balts or Goliad/Galindians survived longer we would have seen a Baltic language with vocabulary closer to Slavic.
      I don't see anyone arguing the Anatolian languages aren't Indo-European, and they are quite strange.

    • @vidmantasb5993
      @vidmantasb5993 4 дні тому +1

      @@Arissef that's because Baltic and Slavic are different language families (albeit descended from a common ancestor), while your example of Swedish and German are both in the Germanic language family. It's not a proper comparison. As much as we want to distance ourselves from Slavs, they are our closest linguistic relatives from a non Baltic language family, and that's a linguistic fact.

  • @belstar1128
    @belstar1128 4 дні тому

    A lot of Dutch influence in this language and Latvian and also Estonian too

  • @arnasLT.
    @arnasLT. 4 дні тому +8

    as a Lithuanian I disagree with most of my compatriots and say that Lithuanian language is NOT a hard language to learn for an average European or American. To master it yes it will take years but to fully function in Lithuanian society it does not take much to learn it. Changing word endings, moving accentuations will take longer to learn but with experience will improve. We have Japanese living in Lithuania who learn Lithuanian pretty well in 2-3 years for whom the language is definitely hard considering vast differences. I believe this "difficult language" notion for foreigners is an excuse to avoid learning it and for Lithuanians to exalt their language due to it being one of the most archaic languages in the world which in their minds also mean "a very difficult language to learn". Then it pretty much creates a vicious circle where foreigners say the Lithuanian language is hard to learn to which native Lithuanians agree and the motivations and expectations drop for one's desire or even the need to learn the language of the natives. Add to that the argument that "all young people speak English in Lithuania" and you pretty much have a result where a lot for foreigners don't bother learning the Lithuanian language whilst living in Lithuania.

    • @ProxyUwU
      @ProxyUwU 4 дні тому

      Lithuania sucks alot bruh 😝

    • @elkr79
      @elkr79 3 дні тому

      In fact, you need approx. 5000 words (not counting numerals) for being able to engage in conversations.

    • @ProxyUwU
      @ProxyUwU 3 дні тому

      Lithuania sucks alot 😝

  • @troelspeterroland6998
    @troelspeterroland6998 4 дні тому +3

    Linguistically speaking it is always a bit annoying to hear or read (like on that government website) that some Indo-European languages are "older" than others. Since they all derive from a single ancestor, spoken on the Pontic-Caspian steppe 5,000 - 6,000 years ago, they obviously have the same age.
    The question is whether they have changed much or little, and in linguistic terms this is called 'innovative' and 'archaic'. So the correct thing to say is that Lithuanian is probably the most archaic among the living Indo-European languages.
    This gives it many similarities to the Indo-European languages of antiquity like Greek, Latin and Sanskrit, the latter of which was particularly archaic in its time. But it does not mean -- which is another thing that you often hear repeated -- that Lithuanian is particularly closely *related* to Sanskrit. Because: what determines the relatedness of languages is *common innovations* and not common archaisms.
    So like Miguel Svensson said: Latvian is the closest. Then come the extinct West Baltic languages. Then the Slavic languages (I know that it is not always uncontroversial to say that Balto-Slavic is a thing, so thanks for bringing the linguist on) and then the other Indo-European languages. There are also some similarities with Germanic and maybe even Albanian that may point to the fact that Balto-Slavic spread to Central Europe in proximity to these.

  • @tombra7
    @tombra7 3 дні тому

    Lithuanian in today`s form was created in 19 century , most examples you mentioned are borrowed from slavic .

  • @Takosaga
    @Takosaga 4 дні тому +1

    Learning Latvian as a English and Spanish speaker, Latvian conjucation does start getting a feel of sounding correct after practice. The declensions is something im slowly practicing and understanding, but the logic is starting to make sense. I need more vocabulary also, but I'm practicing/studying daily and listening to Latvian music just so I can hear the sounds.

  • @antasosam8486
    @antasosam8486 4 дні тому

    Once Lithuanian is arhaic language it must be simple and easy.

  • @edvinasm7902
    @edvinasm7902 4 дні тому +1

    alus - ale

  • @blueeyedbaer
    @blueeyedbaer 4 дні тому +5

    Lithuanian can't be one of the oldest (living) languages in the world because it separated from Latvian at around 9th-10th century CE (so about just a 1000 years ago). But it's true that it's one of the most conservarive (least changed) languages in the Indoeuropean language family.

    • @Arissef
      @Arissef 4 дні тому +2

      More like 8th century CE.

    • @manometras
      @manometras 4 дні тому +1

      They split in the 7th century.

    • @elkr79
      @elkr79 3 дні тому

      In fact, contemporary Lithuanian is a mixture of ancient Baltic languages, and some innovations like local cases (inessive, allative, adessive) were removed as out of canon in standardizing contemporary Lithuanian, because they don't have parallels in Sanskrit :)

  • @jonaskazlauskas5117
    @jonaskazlauskas5117 3 дні тому

    I'll let you guys in on a secret. All Indo-European languages become intelligible to a Lithuanian when they sound in their pro-speech form. Let's say the Proto-Germanic language can be understood the way we understand the Latvian language now.
    P.S. Even Old English sometimes has more words in common with Lithuanian than modern English.

  • @ari_archer
    @ari_archer 4 дні тому +1

    i dont want to be lithuanian so i wouldnt have to use this god forsaken language

    • @Konpo-j6y
      @Konpo-j6y 4 дні тому +4

      I advise you to go to therapy or seek some kind of emotional help since it seems you are very distraught over something that hurt you or is hurting you.

    • @Xelkoz
      @Xelkoz 4 дні тому

      Ig what ur saying is right just cuz ur a woman.

    • @ari_archer
      @ari_archer 4 дні тому

      @@Konpo-j6y thanks i am seeking help so i wouldnt need to deal with this language and be a different nationality since lithuania is not real

    • @ari_archer
      @ari_archer 4 дні тому

      @@Xelkoz what is going on with the reply section of this comment 😭 are yall okay ?? xD
      im lithuanian and i just dont like this language what

    • @Xelkoz
      @Xelkoz 4 дні тому

      @@ari_archer biški ant bajerio pavariau. Nepriimk į širdį

  • @aliuskondrotas355
    @aliuskondrotas355 4 дні тому

    cz english took from Lithuania language

    • @manometras
      @manometras 4 дні тому

      No. It's the Polish way of writing what the English write as ch.