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Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| evan Diglot Newbie United States evanosborn.tripod.co Joined 7168 days ago 20 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 12 23 March 2006 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello!
I'm taking a trip to the Baltic states a month from now and am looking to do some study for Lithuanian and Latvian, and Estonian. I hear that Russian is also spoken but since it is identified as the language of the former oppressor the indiginous languages are preferred. I also hear that Lithuanian is perhaps the oldest of the Indo-European languages with a close resemblence to Sanscrit. Latvian is related to Lithuanian but the two languages are not mutually intelligable. Estonian is a completely different branch and closely related to Finnish. Does anyone have any tips for travel to these countries. Any other insights on the languages? Currently I have the Pimsleur Lithuanian Short series. I did a search for these languages but didn't come up with much concentrated info and would appreciate any advice from this forum. I know that each language deserves its own thread, but perhaps a single thread for all three Baltic languages would be a good start! Best Regards Edited by evan on 23 March 2006 at 6:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7104 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes  2 sounds | Message 2 of 12 23 March 2006 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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It seems you've done your research as to which languages share relations. I know a couple who returned from Latvia and they didn't need to speak much Latvian, mostly Russian, so you should be able to get by without learning Latvian. If I remember, only some towns had more people speaking Latvian, but still there were Russian speakers.
Probably Lithuanian, of all the indigenous language, would be of most use when you visit. Otherwise I'd recommended studying some Russian to get by there. As far as Estonian, due to the fact that it's not an Indo-European language, I wouldn't expect to reach much proficiency in a short time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| evan Diglot Newbie United States evanosborn.tripod.co Joined 7168 days ago 20 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 3 of 12 24 March 2006 at 3:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the tip Sir Nigel. This is exactly the information I was looking for. I will focus my efforts on Lithuanian and Russian for this trip.
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 12 25 March 2006 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Evan, why don't you PM Linas who might be able to offer the most help to you.
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| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6912 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 5 of 12 25 March 2006 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
What Evan writes about Baltic languages is correct, except about the similarity between Lithuanian and Sanskrit. In fact there is very little ressemblance. For example verbal system is very different in both language. There is more resemblance in nominal declension. Number of shared vocabulary is very insignificant. If Evan has some more concret questions about Lithuanian, but also about Latvian, Estonian or even Finnish, I would try to answer 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bhashavid Hexaglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 6826 days ago 15 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Dutch*, Hindi, Sanskrit, German, Bengali, French Studies: English, Tamil | Message 6 of 12 25 March 2006 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with Linas. Once I saw a Lituahanian text and I didn't recognize any Sanskrit word. I regognized some words which are almost the same in Polish.
The resemblace of Lituahanian and Sanskrit is often too much exeggerated. Some people believe that a Sanskrit speaker could talk to Lithuanian farmers in their language. This is of course not true. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eirne Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6803 days ago 1 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Romanian | Message 7 of 12 10 April 2006 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I spent a total of 8 weeks in Latvia during the past 3 years, and I got
along fine with English. Most people between age 18 and 30 seemed to know English quite well, and I was never stuck in a place where there was nobody who spoke enough English to help me. However, it's good to know a few Latvian phrases because that is their official language. It's used on all signage and public announcements, not to mention the fact that if you want uncarbonated water and there is no one who speaks English to help you, it is very handy if you know that the Latvian word for water is "udens" and that the absence of carbonation is shown by the word "negazets" (literally, "no gas"). As far as Russian goes, all the older people know it, and many of the younger people as well, but sometimes the ethnic Latvians don't want to use Russian because they associate it with the Communist days. I have heard people get scolded for using Russian with an older Latvian person. The younger people don't seem to be offended by Russian, but they don't necessarily speak it very well if they are not ethnic Russians. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Miegamice Bilingual Pentaglot Newbie Latvia Joined 4986 days ago 32 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Polish*, Latvian*, English, German, Danish Studies: Norwegian, Swedish | Message 8 of 12 24 April 2011 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Lithuanian wont't help at all. Edited by Miegamice on 24 April 2011 at 2:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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