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Translation - art & business » Linguistics »
Baltic languages.
Thread poster: Williamson
Williamson
Williamson  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:14
Flemish to English
+ ...
Jan 29, 2006

I know that Estonian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language group.
But to what extend are Latvian and Lithuanian related? Are they Indo-Germanic languages. Are there any references to the Baltic languages to be found on the web.
 
Ines Burrell
Ines Burrell  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:14
Member (2004)
English to Latvian
+ ...
Baltic languages Jan 29, 2006

Latvian and Lithuanian are related only to each other, there are no other live languages that are related to them. They form a Baltic group of languages. Another language belonging to this group is Prussish however this language is no longer live (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balts).

HTH,
Ines
 
Vykinta Saulyte-Bukauskaite
Vykinta Saulyte-Bukauskaite  Identity Verified
Belgium
Local time: 22:14
French to Lithuanian
+ ...
baltic language Jan 29, 2006

Williamson wrote:

I know that Estonian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language group.
But to what extend are Latvian and Lithuanian related? Are they Indo-Germanic languages. Are there any references to the Baltic languages to be found on the web.


Lithuanian and Latvian depend on a branch of the Indo-European language family.
Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian are related by Baltic See and reseachers found many borrowings from Baltic languages.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Balt
 
diana bb
diana bb  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 23:14
English to Lithuanian
+ ...
Baltic is Baltic Jan 30, 2006

Burrell wrote:

Latvian and Lithuanian are related only to each other, there are no other live languages that are related to them. They form a Baltic group of languages. Another language belonging to this group is Prussish however this language is no longer live (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balts).

HTH,
Ines


Yes, Lithuanian and Latvian are very closely related, to the extent that a Lithuanian can understand a Latvian text, and, I believe, the other way round. And, as Ines says, there are no other living Baltic languages than Lithuanian and Latvian. (Which makes me wonder what 'Baltic(Other)' refers to in ProZ language lists...)

It is not an Indo-Germanic language. I am not even sure that modern linguistics still emplyes the term 'Indo-Germanic' in language classification. Yes, there are lots of hits in Google with it, but mostly they say that it has been replaced by 'Indo-European'. 'Indo-Germanic' was very much preferred by German writers.

Lithuanian and Latvian have numerous borrowings from the neighbouring Slavic languages, and they are directly related to the history of these two countries.

As for the references in the Web, they are numerous. Have a look at these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_languages
http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/Baltic%20languages
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/6623/proto.htm

Regards,

Diana



[Edited at 2006-01-30 12:38]
 
Kaspars Melkis
Kaspars Melkis  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:14
English to Latvian
+ ...
Latgalian is Baltic language Feb 19, 2006

(Which makes me wonder what 'Baltic(Other)' refers to in ProZ language lists...)


Latgalian could be an example of another Baltic language. Though classified as a dialect of Latvian and rarely used at official level, it is still used by many in Latgale and has distinct vocabulary and grammatical, orthographic and phonetic features.

See latgola.lv/
 


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