In older literature on Baltic languages, "Lithuanian" can sometimes refer to Baltic Languages in general.

Lithuanian (Lietuvių)
Spoken in:	Lithuania and 18 other countries
Total speakers:	4 Million
Ranking:	-
Genetic classification:	Indo-European  Baltic   Eastern    Lithuanian
Official status
Official language of:	Lithuania
Regulated by:	-
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	lt
ISO 639-2:	lit
SIL:	LIT

History

Classification

Geographic distribution

2,955,200 in Lithuania (including 3,460 Tatar) or about 80% of the population (1998) speak Lithuanian. The population total speaking Lithuanian for all countries is 4,000,000 (1993 UBS).

Official status

Dialects

Standard Lithuanian is based on Western Aukshtaitish. Zhemaitish is somewhat difficult for others to understand. Second languages Russian and English are used with foreigners.

Derived languages

Sounds

Lithuanian has 12 written vowels. In addition to the standard Roman letters, the ogonek accent is used to indicate long vowels, and is a historical relic of a time when these vowels were nasalized (as ogonek vowels are in modern Polish). "E" with a dot over it represents SAMPA /e/, and "U" with a macron represents SAMPA /u:/.

Majuscule

A

Ą

E

Ę

Ė

I

Į

Y

O

U

Ų

Ū

Miniscule

a

ą

e

ę

ė

i

į

y

o

u

ų

ū

SAMPA

a

a:

E

E:

e

i

i:

i:

o

u

u:

U

Consonants

Majuscule

B

C

Ch

Č

D

F

G

H

J

K

L

M

N

P

R

S

Š

T

V

Z

Ž

Miniscule

b

c

ch

č

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

p

r

s

š

t

v

z

ž

SAMPA

b

c

x

tS

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

p

r~

s

S

t

v

z

Z

Phonology

Consonants

		labial	dental	alveo- palatal	velar	glottal
stops	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		g
fricatives	voiceless	f	s	S	x	h
	voiced	v	z	Z
affricates	voiced		dz	dZ
	voiceless		ts	tS
nasal		m	n
liquid	lateral		l
	glide			j
rhotic trill			r

All consonants (except /j/) have two forms: palatalized and non-palatalized.

(Adapted from http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm.)

Vowels

(Adapted from http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm.)

However, at least one researcher suggests that a tense vs. lax distiction may be the actual distinguishing feature, or at least equally important as length. Such a hypothesis yields the chart below, where 'long' and 'short' have been preserved to parallel the terminology used above.

	front		back
	long	short	long	short
high	i:	I	u:	U
mid	e		o:	O
low	&	E	a:	A

(Adapted from http://www.lituanus.org/1972/72_1_05.htm.)

Historical sound changes

Grammar

Vocabulary

Writing system

A

Ą

B

C

Ch

Č

D

E

Ę

Ė

F

G

H

I

Į

Y

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

Š

T

U

Ų

Ū

V

Z

Ž

a

ą

b

c

ch

č

d

e

ę

ė

f

g

h

i

į

y

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

r

s

š

t

u

ų

ū

v

z

ž

Acute, grave, and macron/tilde accents can be used to mark stress and vowel length. However, these are generally not written, except in dictionaries and where needed for clarity. In addition, the following digraphs are used, but are treated as sequences of two letters for collation purposes:

Dz	Dž	Ie	Uo
dz	dž	ie	uo

Examples

External links

• Lithuanian linguistics
• Ethnologue report for Lithuanian
• Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History