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81-692: Hercynia is a name for the ancient Hercynian Forest . Hercynia or Hercynian may also refer to: Hercynian Forest Across the Rhine to the west extended the Silva Carbonaria , the forest of the Ardennes and the forest of the Vosges . All these old-growth forests of antiquity represented the original post-glacial temperate broadleaf forest ecosystem of Europe. Relict tracts of this once-continuous forest exist with many local names:

162-493: A Lithuanian peasant. — Antoine Meillet Among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian is conservative in its grammar and phonology, retaining archaic features otherwise found only in ancient languages such as Sanskrit (particularly its early form, Vedic Sanskrit ) or Ancient Greek . Thus, it is an important source for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language despite its late attestation (with

243-652: A Proto-Balto-Slavic stage, from which the Baltic languages retain exclusive and non-exclusive lexical, morphological, phonological and accentual isoglosses in common with the Slavic languages , which represent their closest living Indo-European relatives. Moreover, with Lithuanian being so archaic in phonology, Slavic words can often be deduced from Lithuanian by regular sound laws ; for example, Lith. vilkas and Polish wilk ← PBSl. *wilkás (cf. PSl. *vьlkъ ) ← PIE *wĺ̥kʷos , all meaning " wolf ". Initially, Lithuanian

324-516: A result of a decrease in the usage of spoken Lithuanian in the eastern part of Lithuania proper, in the 19th century, it was suggested to create a standardized Lithuanian based on the Samogitian dialect. Nevertheless, it was not accomplished because everyone offered their Samogitian subdialects and the Eastern and Western Aukštaitians offered their Aukštaitian subdialects. In the second half of

405-500: A second language. Lithuanian is closely related to neighbouring Latvian , though the two languages are not mutually intelligible. It is written in a Latin script . In some respects, some linguists consider it to be the most conservative of the existing Indo-European languages , retaining features of the Proto-Indo-European language that had disappeared through development from other descendant languages . Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to

486-627: A single language. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th or 15th century and perhaps as late as the 17th century. The German Livonian Brothers of the Sword occupied the western part of the Daugava basin, which resulted in colonization of the territory of modern Latvia (at the time it was called Terra Mariana ) by Germans and had a significant influence on the language's independent development due to Germanisation (see also: Baltic Germans and Baltic German nobility ). There

567-651: A single sound, the velar fricative [ x ] , while dz and dž are pronounced like straightforward combinations of their component letters (sounds): Dz dz [ dz ] (dzė), Dž dž [ dʒ ] (džė), Ch ch [ x ] (cha). The distinctive Lithuanian letter Ė was used for the first time in the Daniel Klein 's Grammatica Litvanica and firmly established itself in Lithuanian since then. However, linguist August Schleicher used Ë (with two points above it) instead of Ė for expressing

648-878: Is a translation dating from about 1503–1525 of the Lord's Prayer , the Hail Mary , and the Nicene Creed written in the Southern Aukštaitian dialect. On 8 January 1547 the first Lithuanian book was printed – the Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas . At the royal courts in Vilnius of Sigismund II Augustus , the last Grand Duke of Lithuania prior to the Union of Lublin , both Polish and Lithuanian were spoken equally widely. In 1552 Sigismund II Augustus ordered that orders of

729-442: Is augmented by the fact that Proto-Balto-Slavic is easily reconstructible with important proofs in historic prosody. The alleged (or certain, as certain as historical linguistics can be) similarities due to contact are seen in such phenomena as the existence of definite adjectives formed by the addition of an inflected pronoun (descended from the same Proto-Indo-European pronoun), which exist in both Baltic and Slavic yet nowhere else in

810-711: Is believed that before the Boii the Hercuniates tribe inhabited the area, later migrating to Pannonia in Illyria . By the middle of the first century BC, the Hercuniates were a minor tribe that was located along a narrow band of Celtic settlement close to the Danube , on the western side of the river a little way west of modern Budapest . Their name comes from an ancient proto-Indo-European word for an oak . The tribe

891-712: Is cited dozens of times in several classical authors, but most of the references are non-definitive, e.g., the Hercynian Forest is Pomponius Mela 's silvis ac paludibus invia , "trackless forest and swamps" (Mela, De Chorographia , iii.29), as the author is assuming the reader would know where the forest is. The earliest reference is in Aristotle 's ( Meteorologica ). He refers to the Arkýnia (or Orkýnios ) mountains of Europe, but tells us only that, remarkably in his experience, rivers flow north from there. During

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972-549: Is divided into West, North and South; Aukštaitian into West (Suvalkiečiai), South ( Dzūkian ) and East. Lithuanian uses the Latin script supplemented with diacritics . It has 32 letters . In the collation order, y follows immediately after į (called i nosinė ), because both y and į represent the same long vowel [ iː ] : In addition, the following digraphs are used, but are treated as sequences of two letters for collation purposes. The digraph ch represents

1053-429: Is indefinitely more than sixty days' march. The region fascinated him, even the old tales of unicorns (which may have represented reindeer ). Caesar's references to moose and aurochs and of elk without joints which leaned against trees to sleep in the endless forests of Germania, were probably later interpolations in his Commentaries . Caesar's name for the forest is the one most used: Hercynia Silva . Pliny

1134-637: Is known that Jogaila , being ethnic Lithuanian by the male-line , himself knew and spoke Lithuanian with Vytautas the Great , his cousin from the Gediminids dynasty. During the Christianization of Samogitia none of the clergy, who arrived to Samogitia with Jogaila, were able to communicate with the natives, therefore Jogaila himself taught the Samogitians about Catholicism ; thus he

1215-498: Is largely phonemic, i.e., one letter usually corresponds to a single phoneme (sound). There are a few exceptions: for example, the letter i represents either the vowel [ ɪ ] , as in English sit , or is silent and merely indicates that the preceding consonant is palatalized . The latter is largely the case when i occurs after a consonant and is followed by a back or a central vowel , except in some borrowed words (e.g.,

1296-716: Is not directly associated to the Hercynian Forest's name. Proto-European * perkʷu- explains ɸerkuniā , later erkunia , with regular shift kʷ > ku that occurred before the assimilation *k erk u- . The name of the Hercynian Forest is also considered to be etymologically related to Lithuanian thunder god Perkūnas . He is also known as Pērkons in Latvian ; Perkūns or Perkunos in Old Prussian ; Parkuns in Yotvingian and Pārkiuņs in Latgalian . It

1377-830: Is possible that the name of the Harz Mountains in Germany is derived from Hercynian, as Harz is a Middle High German word meaning "mountain forest." Also, the Old High German name Fergunna apparently refers to the Ore Mountains and Virgundia (cf. modern Virngrund forest) to a range between Ansbach and Ellwangen . Hercyne was the classical name (modern Libadia) of a small rapid stream in Boeotia that issued from two springs near Lebadea , modern Livadeia, and emptied into Lake Copais . The name

1458-456: Is referred to by Pliny and Ptolemy as a civitas peregrina , a wandering tribe that had travelled to Pannonia from foreign parts. Little else is known of them save that they were issuing their own coins by the second century BC. By AD 40 the tribe was eventually subdued by Rome. Monks sent out from Niederaltaich Abbey (founded in the eighth century) brought under cultivation for the first time great forested areas of Lower Bavaria as far as

1539-1601: The Black Forest , the Ardennes , the Bavarian Forest , the Vosges , the Eifel , the Jura Mountains , the Swabian Jura , the Franconian Jura , the Polish Jura , the Palatinate Forest , the Teutoburg Forest , the Argonne Forest , the Morvan , the Langres plateau , the Odenwald , the Spessart , the Rhön , the Thuringian Forest , the Harz , the Rauhe Alb , the Steigerwald , the Fichtel Mountains ,

1620-654: The Compendium Grammaticae Lithvanicae singled out that the Lithuanians of the Vilnius Region ( Latin : in tractu Vilnensi ) tend to speak harshly, almost like Austrians , Bavarians and others speak German in Germany . Due to the historical circumstances of Lithuania , Lithuanian-speaking territory was divided into Lithuania proper and Lithuania Minor , therefore, in the 16th–17th centuries, three regional variants of

1701-764: The Galindai ( Γαλίνδαι ) and Sudinoi ( Σουδινοί ), in the 2nd century AD. Lithuanian originated from the Eastern Baltic subgroup and remained nearly unchanged until c.   1 AD, however in c.   500 AD the language of the northern part of Eastern Balts was influenced by the Finnic languages , which fueled the development of changes from the language of the Southern Balts (see: Latgalian , which developed into Latvian , and extinct Curonian , Semigallian , and Selonian ). The language of Southern Balts

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1782-639: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1/3 residents in Lithuania proper and up to 1/2 residents in Samogitia ) and 53% of residents in Lithuania Minor (more than 90% of the deceased were Prussian Lithuanians ). Since the 19th century to 1925 the amount of Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania Minor (excluding Klaipėda Region ) decreased from 139,000 to 8,000 due to Germanisation and colonization . As

1863-525: The Indo-European language family . It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of the official languages of the European Union . There are approximately 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 1 million speakers elsewhere. Around half a million inhabitants of Lithuania of non-Lithuanian background speak Lithuanian daily as

1944-811: The January Uprising , Mikhail Muravyov , the Russian Governor General of Lithuania , banned the language in education and publishing and barred use of the Latin alphabet altogether, although books continued to be printed in Lithuanian across the border in East Prussia and in the United States . Brought into the country by book smugglers (Lithuanian: knygnešiai ) despite the threat of long prison sentences, they helped fuel growing nationalist sentiment that finally led to

2025-587: The Lithuanian nobility to participate in the social-political life of the state. In 1599, Mikalojus Daukša published his Postil and in its prefaces he expressed that the Lithuanian language situation had improved and thanked bishop Merkelis Giedraitis for his works. In 1776–1790 about 1,000 copies of the first Catholic primer in Lithuanian – Mokslas skaitymo rašto lietuviško – were issued annually, and it continued to be published until 1864. Over 15,000 copies appeared in total. In 1864, following

2106-588: The Magistrate of Vilnius be announced in Lithuanian, Polish, and Ruthenian. The same requirement was valid for the Magistrate of Kaunas . In the 16th century, following the decline of Ruthenian usage in favor of Polish in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Lithuanian language strengthened its positions in Lithuania due to reforms in religious matters and judicial reforms which allowed lower levels of

2187-779: The Ore Mountains , the Giant Mountains , the Bohemian Forest and the Sudetes . In present-day Czech Republic and southern Poland , it joined the forested Carpathians . The Mittelgebirge seem to correspond more or less to a stretch of the Hercynian mountains. Many present-day smaller forests were also included like the Bienwald and the Haguenau Forest . The Hercynian Forest maybe extended northwest to

2268-633: The Russian and Ukrainian territory. Hydronyms and archaeology analysis show that the Slavs started migrating to the Baltic areas east and north-east directions in the 6–7th centuries, before then, the Baltic and Slavic boundary was south of the Pripyat River . In the 1960s, Vladimir Toporov and Vyacheslav Ivanov made the following conclusions about the relationship between the Baltic and Slavic languages: These scholars' theses do not contradict

2349-768: The Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR restored Lithuanian as the official language of Lithuania, under from the popular pro-independence movement Sąjūdis . On 11 March 1990, the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania was passed. Lithuanian was recognized as sole official language of Lithuania in the Provisional Basic Law (Lithuanian: Laikinasis Pagrindinis Įstatymas ) and

2430-413: The United States , Uruguay , and Spain . 2,955,200 people in Lithuania (including 3,460 Tatars ), or about 86% of the 2015 population, are native Lithuanian speakers; most Lithuanian inhabitants of other nationalities also speak Lithuanian to some extent. The total worldwide Lithuanian-speaking population is about 3,200,000. Lithuanian is the state language of Lithuania and an official language of

2511-408: The Veluwe and east to the Białowieża Forest . Hercynian has a Proto-Celtic derivation, from ɸerkuniā , later erkunia . Julius Pokorny lists Hercynian as being derived from * perkʷu- "oak" (compare quercus ). He further identifies the name as Celtic . Proto-Celtic regularly loses initial *p preceding a vowel, hence the earliest attestations in Greek as Ἀρκόνια ( Aristotle ,

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2592-410: The comparative method . Lithuanian is spoken mainly in Lithuania . It is also spoken by ethnic Lithuanians living in today's Belarus , Latvia , Poland , and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, as well as by sizable emigrant communities in Argentina , Australia , Brazil , Canada , Denmark , Estonia , France , Germany , Iceland , Ireland , Norway , Russia , Sweden , the United Kingdom ,

2673-406: The e~a interchange common in Celtic names), later Ὀρκύνιος ( Ptolemy , with the o unexplained) and Ἑρκύνιος δρυμός ( Strabo ). The latter form first appears in Latin as Hercynia in Julius Caesar , inheriting the aspiration and the letter y from a Greek source. The Germanic forms appear with an f for *p by Grimm's Law , perhaps indicating an early borrowing from Celtic before it lost

2754-444: The industrialization in the Soviet Union ). Russian consequently came into use in state institutions: the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania (there were 80% Russians among the 22,000 Communist Party members in the Lithuanian SSR in 1948), radio and television (61–74% of broadcasts were in Russian in 1970). Lithuanians passively resisted Russification and continued to use their own language. On 18 November 1988,

2835-409: The "Hercynian ravine-land") patefecit . The isolated modern remnants of the Hercynian Forest identify its flora as a mixed one; Oscar Drude identified its Baltic elements associated with North Alpine flora, and North Atlantic species with circumpolar representatives. Similarly, Edward Gibbon noted the presence of reindeer—pseudo-Caesar's bos cervi figura —and elk —pseudo-Caesar's alces —in

2916-467: The 13th–16th centuries under the influence of Curonian . Lithuanian dialects are closely connected with ethnographical regions of Lithuania . Even nowadays Aukštaitians and Samogitians can have considerable difficulties understanding each other if they speak with their dialects and not standard Lithuanian, which is mandatory to learn in the Lithuanian education system. Dialects are divided into subdialects. Both dialects have three subdialects. Samogitian

2997-453: The 18th century, was successful due to many publications and research. In contrast, the development of Lithuanian in Lithuania proper was obstructed due to the Polonization of the Lithuanian nobility , especially in the 18th century, and it was being influenced by the Samogitian dialect. The Lithuanian-speaking population was also dramatically decreased by the Great Northern War plague outbreak in 1700–1721 which killed 49% of residents in

3078-432: The 19th century, when the Lithuanian National Revival intensified, and the preparations to publish a Lithuanian periodical press were taking place, the mostly south-western Aukštaitian revival writers did not use the 19th-century Lithuanian of Lithuania Minor as it was largely Germanized . Instead, they used a more pure Lithuanian language which has been described by August Schleicher and Friedrich Kurschat and this way

3159-401: The Baltic and Slavic languages closeness and from a historical perspective, specify the Baltic-Slavic languages' evolution. So, there are at least six points of view on the relationships between the Baltic and Slavic. However, as for the hypotheses related to the "Balto-Slavic problem", it is noted that they are more focused on personal theoretical constructions and deviate to some extent from

3240-403: The Baltic languages form their own distinct branch of the family of Indo-European languages , and Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact. There is also an opinion that suggests the union of Baltic and Slavic languages into a distinct sub-family of Balto-Slavic languages amongst the Indo-European family of languages. Such an opinion

3321-462: The Constitution of 1992, written during the Lithuanian constitutional referendum . Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages , along with Latvian , and they constitute the eastern branch of Baltic languages family. An earlier Baltic language, Old Prussian , was extinct by the 18th century; the other Western Baltic languages, Curonian and Sudovian , became extinct earlier. Some theories, such as that of Jānis Endzelīns , considered that

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3402-440: The Elder , in Natural History , places the eastern regions of the Hercynium jugum , the "Hercynian mountain chain", in Pannonia (present-day Hungary and Croatia ) and Dacia (present-day Romania ). He also gives us some dramaticised description of its composition, in which the close proximity of the forest trees causes competitive struggle among them ( inter se rixantes ). He mentions its gigantic oaks . But even he—if

3483-487: The European Union . In the Compendium Grammaticae Lithvanicae , published in 1673, three dialects of Lithuanian are distinguished: Samogitian dialect ( Latin : Samogitiae ) of Samogitia , Royal Lithuania ( Latin : Lithvaniae Regalis ) and Ducal Lithuania ( Latin : Lithvaniae Ducalis ). Ducal Lithuanian is described as pure ( Latin : Pura ), half-Samogitian ( Latin : SemiSamogitizans ) and having elements of Curonian ( Latin : Curonizans ). Authors of

3564-422: The European languages of the participants in the Council of Constance in 1414–1418. From the middle of the 15th century, the legend spread about the Roman origin of the Lithuanian nobility (from the Palemon lineage ), and the closeness of the Lithuanian language and Latin, thus this let some intellectuals in the mid-16th century to advocate for replacement of Ruthenian with Latin, as they considered Latin as

3645-498: The Indo-European family (languages such as Albanian and the Germanic languages developed definite adjectives independently), and that is not reconstructible for Proto-Balto-Slavic, meaning that they most probably developed through language contact. The Baltic hydronyms area stretches from the Vistula River in the west to the east of Moscow and from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south of Kyiv . Vladimir Toporov and Oleg Trubachyov (1961, 1962) studied Baltic hydronyms in

3726-436: The Polish Ł for the first sound and regular L (without a following i) for the second: łupa , lutas . During the Lithuanian National Revival in the 19th century the Polish Ł was abolished, while digraphs sz , cz (that are also common in the Polish orthography ) were replaced with š and č from the Czech orthography because formally they were shorter. Nevertheless, another argument to abolish sz and cz

3807-406: The Polish courtiers. Casimir IV Jagiellon's son Saint Casimir , who was subsequently announced as patron saint of Lithuania, was a polyglot and among other languages knew Lithuanian. Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon also could understand and speak Lithuanian as multiple Lithuanian priests served in his royal chapel and he also maintained a Lithuanian court. In 1501, Erazm Ciołek , a priest of

3888-459: The Polish dialect in the Vilnius Region and in the northeastern areas in general are very interesting variant of the Polish language as this dialect developed in a foreign territory which was mostly inhabited by the Lithuanians who were Belarusized (mostly) or Polonized, and to prove this Otrębski provided examples of Lithuanianisms in the Tutejszy language . In 2015, Polish linguist Mirosław Jankowiak  [ pl ] attested that many of

3969-644: The Vilnius Cathedral, explained to the Pope that the Lithuanians preserve their language and ensure respect to it ( Linguam propriam observant ), but they also use the Ruthenian language for simplicity reasons because it is spoken by almost half of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A note written by Sigismund von Herberstein in the first half of the 16th century states that, in an ocean of Ruthenian in this part of Europe, there were two non-Ruthenian regions: Lithuania and Samogitia where its inhabitants spoke their own language, but many Ruthenians were also living among them. The earliest surviving written Lithuanian text

4050-447: The Vilnius Region's inhabitants who declare Polish nationality speak a Belarusian dialect which they call mowa prosta (' simple speech '). Currently, Lithuanian is divided into two dialects: Aukštaitian (Highland Lithuanian), and Samogitian (Lowland Lithuanian). There are significant differences between standard Lithuanian and Samogitian and these are often described as separate languages. The modern Samogitian dialect formed in

4131-464: The Vilnius Region, especially when Vilnius Voivode Ludwik Bociański issued a secret memorandum of 11 February 1936 which stated the measures for suppressing the Lithuanians in the region. Some Lithuanian historians, like Antanas Tyla  [ lt ] and Ereminas Gintautas, consider these Polish policies as amounting to an " ethnocide of Lithuanians". Between 1862 and 1944, the Lithuanian schools were completely banned in Lithuania Minor and

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4212-435: The acquirement of a foreign speech." Lithuanian was studied by several linguists such as Franz Bopp , August Schleicher , Adalbert Bezzenberger , Louis Hjelmslev , Ferdinand de Saussure , Winfred P. Lehmann and Vladimir Toporov , Jan Safarewicz, and others. By studying place names of Lithuanian origin, linguist Jan Safarewicz  [ pl ] concluded that the eastern boundaries of Lithuanian used to be in

4293-607: The common language emerged. Lithuanians in Lithuania Minor spoke Western Aukštaitian dialect with specifics of Įsrutis and Ragainė environs (e.g. works of Martynas Mažvydas , Jonas Bretkūnas , Jonas Rėza , and Daniel Klein 's Grammatica Litvanica ). The other two regional variants of the common language were formed in Lithuania proper: middle, which was based on the specifics of the Duchy of Samogitia (e.g. works of Mikalojus Daukša , Merkelis Petkevičius , Steponas Jaugelis‑Telega , Samuelis Boguslavas Chylinskis , and Mikołaj Rej 's Lithuanian postil ), and eastern, based on

4374-451: The earliest texts dating only to c.  1500 AD , whereas Ancient Greek was first written down about three thousand years earlier in c.   1450 BC). According to hydronyms of Baltic origin, the Baltic languages were spoken in a large area east of the Baltic Sea , and in c.   1000 BC it had two linguistic units: western and eastern. The Greek geographer Ptolemy had already written of two Baltic tribe/nations by name,

4455-480: The eastern Prussian Lithuanians ' dialect spoken in Lithuania Minor . These dialects had preserved archaic phonetics mostly intact due to the influence of the neighbouring Old Prussian , while other dialects had experienced different phonetic shifts . Lithuanian became the official language of the country following the restoration of Lithuania's statehood in 1918. The 1922 Constitution of Lithuania (the first permanent Lithuanian constitution ) recognized it as

4536-432: The first consonant in lūpa [ˈ ɫ ûːpɐ] , "lip", is a velarized dental lateral approximant ; on the other hand, the first consonant in liūtas [ˈ lʲ uːt̪ɐs̪] , "lion", is a palatalized alveolar lateral approximant ; both consonants are followed by the same vowel, the long [ uː ] , and no [ ɪ ] can be pronounced in liūtas ). Due to Polish influence , the Lithuanian alphabet included sz , cz and

4617-417: The forest. The wild bull which the Romans named the urus was present also, and the European bison and the now-extinct aurochs , Bos primigenius . In the Roman sources, the Hercynian Forest was part of ethnographic Germania. There is an indication that this circumstance was fairly recent; that is, Posidonius states that the Boii , were once there (as well as in Bohemia which is named for them). It

4698-426: The formation of standard Lithuanian. The conventions of written Lithuanian had been evolving during the 19th century, but Jablonskis, in the introduction to his Lietuviškos kalbos gramatika , was the first to formulate and expound the essential principles that were so indispensable to its later development. His proposal for Standard Lithuanian was based on his native Western Aukštaitian dialect with some features of

4779-419: The highest population literacy rates: Vilna Governorate (in 1897 ~23.6–50% Lithuanian of whom 37% were literate), Kovno Governorate (in 1897 66% Lithuanian of whom 55.3% were literate), Suwałki Governorate (in 1897 in counties of the governorate where Lithuanian population was dominant, 76,6% of males and 50,2% of females were literate). Jonas Jablonskis (1860–1930) made significant contributions to

4860-413: The independent Republic of Lithuania to the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union . Soviet authorities introduced Lithuanian– Russian bilingualism, and Russian, as the de facto official language of the USSR, took precedence and the use of Lithuanian was reduced in a process of Russification. Many Russian-speaking workers and teachers migrated to the Lithuanian SSR (fueled by

4941-453: The initial consonant: Gothic faírguni = "mountain, mountain range", Old English firgen = "mountain, mountain-woodland". Still the Celtic and Germanic words could also be old relatives, or the Celtish word could be borrowed from Germanic. The assimilated *k erk u- would be regular in Italo-Celtic , and Pokorny associates the ethnonym Querquerni , found in Hispania in Galicia , which features an Italic-Venetic name. In fact, it

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5022-622: The language was almost completely eliminated there. The Baltic-origin place names retained their basis for centuries in Prussia but were Germanized (e.g. Tilžė – Tilsit , Labguva – Labiau , Vėluva – Wehliau , etc.); however, after the annexation of the Königsberg region into the Russian SFSR , they were changed completely, regardless of previous tradition (e.g. Tilsit – Sovetsk , Labiau – Polesk , Wehliau – Znamensk , etc.). The Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940 , German occupation in 1941 , and eventually Soviet re-occupation in 1944 , reduced

5103-630: The lifting of the ban in 1904. According to the Russian Empire Census of 1897 (at the height of the Lithuanian press ban), 53.5% of Lithuanians (10 years and older) were literate, while the average of the Russian Empire was only 24–27.7% (in the European part of Russia the average was 30%, in Poland – 40.7%). In the Russian Empire Lithuanian children were mostly educated by their parents or in secret schools by "daractors" in native Lithuanian language, while only 6.9% attended Russian state schools due to resistance to Russification . Russian governorates with significant Lithuanian populations had one of

5184-442: The native language of Lithuanians. Initially, Latin and Church Slavonic were the main written ( chancellery ) languages of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but in the late 17th century – 18th century Church Slavonic was replaced with Polish. Nevertheless, Lithuanian was a spoken language of the medieval Lithuanian rulers from the Gediminids dynasty and its cadet branches: Kęstutaičiai and Jagiellonian dynasties . It

5265-483: The passage in question is not an interpolated marginal gloss—is subject to the legends of the gloomy forest. He mentions unusual birds, which have feathers that "shine like fires at night". Medieval bestiaries named these birds the Ercinee . The impenetrable nature of the Hercynia Silva hindered the last concerted Roman foray into the forest, by Drusus , during 12..9 BCE: Florus asserts that Drusus invisum atque inaccessum in id tempus Hercynium saltum (Hercynia saltus,

5346-417: The same. In the Grammatica Litvanica Klein also established the letter W for marking the sound [v], the use of which was later abolished in Lithuanian (it was replaced with V , notably by authors of the Varpas newspaper). The usage of V instead of W especially increased since the early 20th century, likely considerably influenced by Lithuanian press and schools. The Lithuanian writing system

5427-801: The shape of zigzags through Grodno , Shchuchyn , Lida , Valozhyn , Svir , and Braslaw . Such eastern boundaries partly coincide with the spread of Catholic and Orthodox faith, and should have existed at the time of the Christianization of Lithuania in 1387 and later. Safarewicz's eastern boundaries were moved even further to the south and east by other scholars (e.g. Mikalay Biryla  [ be ] , Petras Gaučas  [ lt ] , Jerzy Ochmański  [ pl ] , Aleksandras Vanagas , Zigmas Zinkevičius , and others). Proto-Balto-Slavic branched off directly from Proto-Indo-European, then sub-branched into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic . Proto-Baltic branched off into Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic. The Baltic languages passed through

5508-499: The sole official language of the state and mandated its use throughout the state. The improvement of education system during the interwar period resulted in 92% of literacy rate of the population in Lithuania in 1939 (those still illiterate were mostly elderly). Following the Żeligowski's Mutiny in 1920, Vilnius Region was detached from Lithuania and was eventually annexed by Poland in 1922. This resulted in repressions of Lithuanians and mass-closure of Lithuanian language schools in

5589-641: The specifics of Eastern Aukštaitians, living in Vilnius and its region (e.g. works of Konstantinas Sirvydas , Jonas Jaknavičius , and Robert Bellarmine 's catechism ). In Vilnius University , there are preserved texts written in the Lithuanian language of the Vilnius area, a dialect of Eastern Aukštaitian, which was spoken in a territory located south-eastwards from Vilnius: the sources are preserved in works of graduates from Stanislovas Rapolionis -based Lithuanian language schools, graduate Martynas Mažvydas and Rapalionis relative Abraomas Kulvietis . The development of Lithuanian in Lithuania Minor, especially in

5670-408: The term Hercynian Forest to the complex of mountain ranges, mountain groups, and plateaus which stretch from Westphalia across Middle Germany and along the northern borders of Austria to the Carpathians . Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( endonym : lietuvių kalba , pronounced [lʲiəˈtʊvʲuː kɐɫˈbɐ] ) is an East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of

5751-447: The territory of the present Czech Republic , and founded 120 settlements in the Bavarian Forest , as that stretch of the ancient forest came to be known. The forest is also mentioned in Hypnerotomachia Poliphili as the setting for the dream allegory of the work. The German journal Hercynia , published by the Universities and Landesbibliothek of Sachsen-Anhalt, pertains to ecology and environmental biology. Some geographers apply

5832-507: The time of Julius Caesar , this forest blocked the advance of the Roman legions into Germania . His few statements are the most definitive. In De Bello Gallico he says that the forest stretches along the Danube from the territory of the Helvetii (present-day Switzerland ) to Dacia (present-day Romania ). Its implied northern boundary is nine days' march, while its eastern boundary

5913-411: The writings has survived. The first recorded Lithuanian word, reported to have been said on 24 December 1207 from the chronicle of Henry of Latvia , was Ba , an interjection of a Lithuanian raider after he found no loot to pillage in a Livonian church. Although no writings in Lithuanian have survived from the 15th century or earlier, Lithuanian ( Latin : Lingwa Lietowia ) was mentioned as one of

5994-462: The written language of Lithuania Minor was transferred to resurgent Lithuania. The most famous standardizer of the Lithuanian, Jonas Jablonskis , established the south-western Aukštaitian dialect, including the Eastern dialect of Lithuania Minor, as the basis of standardized Lithuanian in the 20th century, which led to him being nicknamed the father of standardized Lithuanian. According to Polish professor Jan Otrębski 's article published in 1931,

6075-431: Was a spoken language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Duchy of Prussia , while the beginning of Lithuanian writing is possibly associated with the introduction of Christianity in Lithuania when Mindaugas was baptized and crowned King of Lithuania in 1250–1251. It is believed that prayers were translated into the local dialect of Lithuanian by Franciscan monks during the baptism of Mindaugas, however none of

6156-480: Was able to communicate in the Samogitian dialect of Lithuanian. Soon afterwards Vytautas the Great wrote in his 11 March 1420 letter to Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor , that Lithuanian and Samogitian are the same language. The use of Lithuanian continued at the Lithuanian royal court after the deaths of Vytautas the Great (1430) and Jogaila (1434). For example, since the young Grand Duke Casimir IV Jagiellon

6237-500: Was caused by independent parallel development, and the Proto-Balto-Slavic language did not exist. An attempt to reconcile the opposing stances was made by Jan Michał Rozwadowski . He proposed that the two language groups were indeed a unity after the division of Indo-European, but also suggested that after the two had divided into separate entities (Baltic and Slavic), they had posterior contact. The genetic kinship view

6318-472: Was fascination with the Lithuanian people and their language among the late 19th-century researchers, and the philologist Isaac Taylor wrote the following in his The Origin of the Aryans (1892): "Thus it would seem that the Lithuanians have the best claim to represent the primitive Aryan race , as their language exhibits fewer of those phonetic changes, and of those grammatical losses which are consequent on

6399-468: Was first represented by August Schleicher . Some supporters of the Baltic and Slavic languages unity even claim that Proto-Baltic branch did not exist, suggesting that Proto-Balto-Slavic split into three language groups: East Baltic , West Baltic and Proto-Slavic . Antoine Meillet and Jan Baudouin de Courtenay , on the contrary, believed that the similarity between the Slavic and Baltic languages

6480-463: Was less influenced by this process and retained many of its older features, which form Lithuanian. According to glottochronological research, the Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between c.   400 BC and c.   600 BC. The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after c.   800 AD; for a long period, they could be considered dialects of

6561-677: Was underage, the supreme control over the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was in the hands of the Lithuanian Council of Lords , presided by Jonas Goštautas , while Casimir IV Jagiellon was taught Lithuanian and customs of Lithuania by appointed court officials. During the Polish szlachta 's envoys visit to Casimir in 1446, they noticed that in Casimir's royal court the Lithuanian-speaking courtiers were mandatory, alongside

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