photo by axinia
Why mysterious? – Because almost nobody (except neighbours and experts) are aware of it. The language of a heart-shaped country… The place I was born and spent my childhood. Lithuania…
What is so special about it?
- Lithuanian (lietuvių kalba) is the closest among all European languages to the Sanskrit, or even Proto- Indo-European language. “Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant.” – said a famous French linguist Antoine Meillet. Why exactly that folk out of all other European nations has preserved the ancient language roots?
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When specialists in Indo-European linguistics try to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language they find that contemporary Lithuanian is as important as the ancient tongues such as Latin, Greek and Sanskrit.
- Paul Thieme, 1958, has compared the Lithuanian proverb: Dievas davė dantis; Dievas duos ir duonos and its Latin translation Deus dedit dentes; Deus dabit et panem ‘God gave teeth, God will also give bread’ with what he (Thieme) calls an old form of Sanskrit: Devas adadā t datas; Devas dā t (or dadā t) api dhā nā s. (Actually according to the rules of Old Indic phonetics, several of the words occur in a slightly different form in a connected text in Sanskrit.)
Apart from that amazing closeness to Sanskrit roots, Lithuania has much more to offer: fine taste of beauty, cosiness and delicious pastry/cakes and much more… But nobody knows about it 
Want to be the first to explore? I bet you will loose your heart in that charming heart-shaped land!..
P.S. dedicated to Tomas
LOVE, axinia
axinia
i did a small class presentatian on baltic languages, and i learnt that latvian and lithuanian are the closest to the original proto-indo-european language. i thought that was interesting, because many languages have been transformed through time but latvian and lithuanian managed to stay close to their origins.
True, it is really amazing how it was possible – that small countries had been always “under” the pressure of the powerful neighbours like Germany or Russia´, and still they managed to keep the origin…That is why I call it s mystery
I was surprized by so many great responses on this subject
You see I’m Lithuniain and while searching for information about Antoine Meillet I found this article about mysterious language. Thank you for great responses, you made my whole day :* Iki!
I’m lithuanian as well. Thanks God lithuania had lots of poor peasants who were wise people and taught their kids by them selves to read and to wright in lithuanian.
Acctually not all the time Lithuania and Latvia was under the pressure of these to big nations. There were the time when Russia was under the pressure of Lithuanians, but russians doesn’t have such facts in their history books…
In the 14th century Lithuania was the biggest empire in continental Europe;)
HI, Donatas,
I am very much aware of that historical fact about the supremacy of Lithuania in the 14th century, and I also like to tell people about when I have a chance…It is good ot know, indeed!
But finally, great nations come, great nations go – nothing is stable in this world, apart from the true universal values…
Hi Axinia,
Happy New Year! I came across your blog and this article qute by accident,and I stopped, as Im a linguist, and this naturally held my attention:) It would have been nice, if you could have added any sentence as a sound byte, so we could hear the language in action..
Rgds..
I am astounded to read the lithunanian proverb and to notice that it is almost Sanskrit. While I am neither a linguist nor a specialist in Sanskrit, I wish to state here that all Indian languages are almost as good as sanskrit as most of the words are taken from that ancient language. Therefore, I can easily perceive the similarity in the proverb mentioned.
Recently I was reading something about ‘Atlantis’, the lost continent and that, the same is locarted in the sea of Azov. The articles also mentioned that the cradle of civilisation at that point of time was around the Black sea, Ukraine, Russia etc. Is there a relation between all these complex matters and the common words in various Indo European languages. I am almost certain that Europe and Asia, upto and including India are peopled by the same men, who perhaps migrated from the Black sea region. Black sea region in a larger sense includes the Baltics as well. I feel that the Lithuanian language remained in its prestine form due to a certain degree of isolation as compared to other parts of Europe.
Thanks a lot and I would be glad to hear from you.
I personally find similarities of Lithuanian language with Japanese and other Pacific languages…. Examples:
JAPANESE / LITHUANIAN
Mushi = Muse (bug, fly)
Kajitte = kasti, kandzhioti (to bite)
Ikimasho = eikime (go, to go)
Aishiteru – ash tave myliu (I love you)
Watashi = ash (I, myself)
Anata = tu (you)
Anohito = jis, anas kitas, ano (he, that person, the other person)
Anokata = ji, anoji
Te = ranka (hand)
There are many more, but I forgot them. When I remember all I’ll post them on here.
Pay attention to the Pacific languages how many similar sounding words are to Lithuanan even if they mean something else. For example: “tauta” (song, competition, fighting) in Hawaiian or Tongan? (but “nation” in Lithuanian) and “uta” (song) in Japanese while “daina” or “dainute” “dainuota” “dainuta” in Lithuanian. “Tolitoli” to pick carefully = in Lithuanian “far far away”. It’s all about tracing the slight change in words.
Cheers
European, thanks a lot for this intresting input!
I see Lithuanian language is even more mysterious than I thought…Truly amazing!
Namaste (The Aryan Greeting) (It Means, I respect to worthy and kind)
I don’t know very good English though would try to tell you some things that I got from Famous Swami Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati’s (famous reformer of enslaved India ) book SATYARTH PRAKASH
(Light on the Meaning of Truth). Every one should have a read of his books & literature, which shows the presence of all sciences including mechanical, Chemical & Biological sciences in Indian Subcontinent Region
Know him more on: http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/
Satyarth prakash: http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/satyarth_prakash_eng.htm
All books are free of cost no charge at all.
I was linked to your article by my Lithuanian Friend.
What are my findings from various of our Indigenous Historians (pity, who are always sidelined in India & we are taught what Historians from Outside have written to prove us the outsiders) summarized as the following:
This Points back to thousands of years back as much I know around 150000 years when Europe was
merely a dwell of hunters, as shown in Discovery channel (Kudos to them they at least show
something true in the whole program, just because those things couldn’t be denied).
Aryans originated from Tibet & descended to Himalaya & then spread over the rest of Indian
Subcontinent, from there to Arabia , Europe (its old name was HARIVARSH), S. America (PATAAL
LOK) etc. They were developed & had the powerful VED’s & three orders to administration according to VED
1 The Dharma Sabha (The committee of Order, Law & rules)
2 The Vidya Sabha (The committee of Knowledgeful teachers & researchers)
3 The Raya Sabha (The committee which was directly involved to handle administration, headed by a King & many powerful thinkers)
This all kept running until for last 6000-5000 years, but after the Great Battle of Kurukhetra, which fought by all rulers around the world ( including Americans, Chinese, Southeast Asia rulers, etc all the contemporary king ) in the presence of Great Aryan King The Krishna, the man of truth (He later became popular as GOD and later people manipulated many short stories on his life & his speech to Arjuna on the battle ground, known as Gita), he didn’t fought in the whole war, but was charioteer of Arjuna (the Archer Pandava). If this war wouldn’t had happened at that time sooner the world would had wiped out by evils. This war was the between Pandvas (Truth leaders) & Kauravas (the selfish ). Krishna army was against himself from the side of Kauravas. All people around 125,million were killed and only seven, including five Pavdavas were left alive in this war.
From then onwards the knowledge bearers the BRAHMANAs who were meant to teach the society
somehow gradually descended from their true path, during the last 4000 the Aryan society started
adopting rigidity. Finally by the last 3000 years they become haunted of power, lack of their own knowledge & lack in practice of learning Veds. This started misrepresentation of Aryan books (the “AARSH” literature) and many new books with sacred names started coming to existence which
include “Puranas & tantra” etc., even the early AARSH literature was manipulated by them to bake the cake of selfish people, who were not eligible to their positions but to hold their post they did wrong manipulations in pure AARSH literature like in “Manusmriti”, “Ved”, “Upnishads”, this manipulation being off the true stream/track of books, could be identified by any better learned scholar of Sanskrit. Even the manipulated Vayakaran came into existence which resulted in wrong translations of Ved, Upnishads & other sacred Books, giving birth to rites & ritual oriented religion containing meaningless practices.
No true scholar could publicise his / her knowledge which resulted in birth of Buddhism, which bought into existence the idol worship, later new religion of Jains born with somewhat same concepts as that were of Buddhists. They were the perfect idol worshipers. This all menace continued till the evolving of Acharya Shanker who in order to establish order, conceptualized the Shivlingan concept of worshiping GOD, but before he could finalize his work of explaining worship of the Universal, omnipresent, unexplainable, dimensionless virtues of GOD over the idol worship, he was slained by Jain munies. His half learned scholars started a new sect of worshiping idols as it gave them good earning. After this a flood of sects, practices etc. started with its best strength and everybody was free to do what ever they want, the society become out of order. Only the power of Rajya Sabha with their appeasers was left to rule selfishly. Then came the Great Learned King Vikram Aditya (2060 years back) who ruled with some what order, but still the totality lacked & after him agian every thing returned back. After 600years to Vikram Greate Brahmana The CHANAKYA evolved with his students and placed his student Chandra Gupta Maurya on the thrown of the king of Indian Subcontinent, & most powerful King of the world after defeating Greek invasion in Aryak (Iraq) & Aryan (Iran). The rule created by Chanakya to protect the boundries remained till 100 years after his death with the Great King Bindusaar & his friend kings.
Then came the curse king to Nation known as Ashoka the crule, illiterate, fool king. He showed no mercy to people & his neighboring states, Kept on his merciless feights, one of such war made his mind to take U turn & he became buddhist and shut down all the weapon factories resulting in making Indian boundries insecure, after which the Nation broke into very small states, which insecured them individually & 1100 years seen heavy loot, human loss & bloodshed by the evils of jungles like Muhamad Ghori, Ahmad Shah, Nadir shah, Babar, Mahmood Gajni, etc. They burnt Universities, Looted Treasures & Women, Destroyed states just because we had no protection of good weapons, unity and knowledge.
Later the Babar descendents resided in India (Hindustan) Akber, Aurangjeb, etc. were the next cruel rulers (CRULERS). Though their was Dara Shikoh who wanted to collaborate with Hindus, but was deceitfully killed in war with his kin Aurangjeb.
After some time India invaded by Pirates from England, who made their rule in India. What happened afterwards is known to everybody.
This is all I could summerise this time. If you are really interested please log on to given links & find the source of my findings.
I want to request you that do read the preface of this book.
Thank you
Arya Ganesh
Arya Ganesh,
many thanks for that extended comment, it is really very itnresting. You may be surprised, but I am aware of almost everthing you write here, it is an exellent piece of history.
What it remains still a mystery to me, is why exactly Lithianian language has absorbed so much of Sanskrit? More than any other Europen language? Do you know the answer? thanks!
Namaste
I really impressed to know that you liked my history findings.
I much I have explored back I got to know that, each time when a new group of explorers used to get out of the Aryavart (The Aryan land) to explorations, they spreaded their grammar, science & way of living also.
There’s recent incident(1920-80)of encountering of finding good/ very advanced Sanskrit manuscript (having more than 30 types of recitation sound for one character ) on stones in Serbian region by an Indian Scholar on visiting that region for some other work. This was shown to him by an old Serbian, as an inquiry from him to know the pronunciation of some of those sounds. This means that he was practicing Sanskrit. I will soon tell you the exact time & place of this incident, as soon I read that book again.
Then there were many Aryan groups & people who were either expelled from Aryavart or gone just for other purposes. They traveled & resided almost all of the parts of Europe & Arabia so with them they spreaded Sanskrit & science, their knowledge got mixed with locals & social culture of those places with deep Sanskrit impact, Lithuanian is surely one of the places which was made by deeply fond of Sanskrit. This is why all European languages are known as proto-indo-european languages.
Why Lithuanian remained intact & closest to its roots surely needs a deep research.
Yes indeed the Pluto wrote it right about Aryan Nation that the whole Europe is just the footnote of Aryavart.
Later the rulers started Christianizing the European Nations due to the fall of Aryan reign & as this method gave them complete control on the people in the name of GOD. Christ who was a common man was made Hero in this regard & it was declared among the feared public that those who seek good life in haven & exemption from sins, should follow him. Stills the reading of Bible & Quran gives a feeling that these books are written by people who had a lot of unsteadiness in their minds, unlike the pure Ved.
Aryans got their mathematics knowledge spreaded through the undeveloped world, starting from Arabs. Arabian’s old scripture (pre-islamic) are filled with appraisal for Aryans. Even Muhamad got married to an Aryan woman of twice of his age, who according to my belief wrote half of the Qoran to establish a good order in that region, after death her uncompleted work was taken over by Muhamad who was not that intelligent and this is easily showed in Qoran, that the latter part of hat book is rather useless to its prior part.
Theres of course a lot to tell but still I know very less and my dating to events is not that good as it should be.In my previous writings I dated the Chandragupt period nuch after actual and also the invasion of moslems to Aryan had started before 700AD (Md. Bin Kasin & King Dahar battle at Iran border of current Pakistan)
I thank the great ever-existing for getting me in touch of you people.
I will try to write more pointed text from onwards.
May we be able to make our-self the least sinners & of-course the truth warriors, & sacrifice our lives for same.
AUM
Axinia, I guess I have become a genuine reader for your blog…I mean,you know what?? I have seen a documentary in BBC today, and I saw a documentary which tells about Lithuania language….and I was so surprised to its similarity to sanskrit….actually to my own language TELUGU…(almost all indian languages still have very strong relation to sanskrit)…for example, I found that Horse in Lithuania’s language is ASVA and in telugu its ASVAM and in sanskrit ASWA…exactly the same…..
I was soo much excited, I defintely wanted to tell you but I had a doubt if you already have posted one…and here I am…finding one!!
Cheers Axinia, U rule!!!
Ramya
Ramya, it is almost like a mystic…! funny how it works
I am glad you always find something what you are looking for here on my blog.
But I wish you will find here also what you are genuinely seeking for. IT IS ACTUALLY HERE.
So Ms. Axinia,
How would you recommend a person to visit Lithuania for one week. What are the places to see, where to stay, how to get around…
Thank you in advance,
Salil (one of the many words for water in Sanskrit)
I believe that above all outwardly identities like nationhood, religion,etc. language is the truest identity, hence we call it mother tongue…its that close to us.
Lithuanian is a shining example…I think, being at the crossraods (or cross-swords) language was its armour against cultural extinction.
Nice to know….it is very important for India.
Ramya,
what kind of documentary was that?
it’s weird cuz in lithuanian horse is ARKLYS, not ASVA.
it’s really hard to believe that lithuanian is similar to sanskrit, I just heard it today for the first time. well, it can be. it’s so mystic, I mean, Lithuania has nothing to do with such lands like India, it’s miles away.
and history isn’t associated at all.
I agree, that is a total mystery but it is so
May be later i will find out the details and post more on it.
Hello! I’m a lithuanian too, and your discussion’s really amusing
About horses, in lithuanian AŠVA (pronounced like ashva) is indeed a horse (a mare), though majority of people do not use this word so much. There is also a river with the same name.
But some (may be most) Indians will never accept it.
Because :-
1) ‘horse’ is supposedly NOT native to India, BUT it is mentioned in our epics and vedas,
2) foreign languages have words like ASVA that sound similar to sanskrit word ‘ashva’
So it does suggest Sanskrit was ‘exported’ into India, BUT can we say Vedias (indeed, Vedic civilization) itself is alien to us. Difficult to swallow.
What is ‘ocean’ called in Lithunian?
‘Sagar’ and ‘ashva’ are two words in the eye of a storm in Indology.
Ocean (in lt): ‘didjuris’ (folk lang.) or ‘vandenynas’ (everyday lang.)
Thanks Izzi.
never heard about ašva
I only use arklys 
Hi,
It is astounding and pleasantly surprising to see the similarities beween Lithuanian & Sanskrit which are divided by thousands of miles in distance as far as their usage is concerned. I wonder if more research has been done to find the commonality or the roots of both the languages. If one is older than the other or which of the two languages can be deemed as the parent language. More input will be great to see.
p.s. I was first made aware of this similarity by a Lithuanian colleague of mine !
thank you, Jagdish!
I am sure there is some profoudn research already done, but I am not sure it will be so intresting outside of linguistics. If it will get some material, I will post it here.
For me the question is clear that Lithuanian takes its origin in Sansrit, and not vice versa…
I only know the following words which either are similar to Sanskrit or have similar words with Indian languages:
/Lithuanian/ /Approximate pronounciation/ /English/
TEVAS (tae’vas) (father)
MOTINA (mo=tina) (mother)
SUNUS (suunu’s) (son)
DUKTE (douktae) (daughter)
DUOTI (dwoti) (to give)
ARTI (aarti) (to plough soil)
LAUKAS (lowkas) (field)
LAKSHTINGALA ( … ) (nightingale)
RAUDA (rowda’) (a cry)
AKMUO (akmwo) (a stone)
DANGUS (dangu’s) (sky)
SAULE (sow’lae) (Sun)
ORAS (o=ras) (air, weather)
MEDUS (maedhou’s) (bee honey)
DIDIS (…) (grand, great, big)
GYVENIMAS (geevae’nimas) (life)
MIRTI (…) (to die)
KRAUJAS (crow’yas) (blood)
SHUO (shwa) (a dog)
ZHEME (zhaemea) (Earth, soil, ground)
Perhaps not all words are traceable, but some of these should be similar to Sanskrit and other languages of Iran, India and other ancient countries.
J
John, thanks a lot!
More than to Sanskrit or any other..
TO me alsmost all seem to be very similar to…Russian.
Axinia, please don’t bring Russian into this beautiful post. Everybody in Lithuania know that from Russia we only borrowed bad words to use in daily life, as Lithuanian language does not have any strong bad words of its own.
Ingrida, you’ve just called everybody in Lithuania dumb, which of course isn’t true. The fact is, the Baltic and the Slavic language branches are the two most closely related ones among the Indo-European languages, to the extent they are often united into one Balto-Slavic branch. While you can find tons of words of the same origin between Slavic or Lithuanian and Sanskrit, Latin or Greek(when I first learned the word “veda” in school, I actually didn’t know if it was of Slavic or Indian origin, lol), the amount you find between Slavic and Lithuanian is ten times more at least. The discussions on the topic of ancient languages, Sanskrit, Lithuanian, Aryans and the like are innumerable, but in every one of them there’s plenty of uneducated guesses and just pure, refined lunacy and ravings, like that pseudo-historical nonsense by Arya Ganesh.
If you wish to learn more on the topic, Wikipedia is your best friend. Read the articles on Proto-Indo-European, Lithuanian, Sanskrit, the origins of Indo-Europeans and you hopefully won’t suggest that Lithuanian is derived from Sanskrit anymore. To sum it up for you, they are parts of different language branches, both stemming from the Proto-Indo-European language. Their similarities, as unbelievable as it might seem, are exactly due to that fact. The question here is why did Lithuanian and the Slavic languages with the exception of Bulgarian/Macedonian change so much less then the other perverted I-E branches like Germanic(the only healthy language there is Icelandic, with full inflection and stuff), Romance(Romanian there, with heavy Slavic influence), Indo-Aryan, Celtic, Greek etc? Unfortunately, I havent’ come across anything on that topic so far.
Please expand on your words:
“… you hopefully won’t suggest that Lithuanian is derived from Sanskrit anymore.”
I get the feeling that you find the idea of Lithuanian being the “child” of Sanskrit bitter to your mind; i.e. hard to accept.
During the British occupation/control of India, even educated Britons found it hard to swallow the facts from their own Anthropologists. The British in India itself would have especially found it hard to believe that these “swarthy peasants” of [North Western] India had anything to do with “us Europeans”, linguistically, genetically or culturally. They made the common perceptual mistake of seeing the wealth and power of a people as the true picture of who they are, and since peasants have neither wealth nor power, they falsely believed that the natives of north-western India could not possibly be linguistically (and therefore genetically) close to the natives of “Great Britain”.
Your words remind me of the Greek fellow who proudly said that everything the Indians know was taught to them by Alexander the Great when he came to India. Even if that were true, the rapidity at which the Indians learned “all that they know” from old Alex, it would have been an immensely impressive feat of “speed learning”!!!! Rather than arguing with the proud Greek, I said, “That’s right, mate. But Indians learn at incredible speed. Go find out how long Alex the Great spent in India, and it’ll prove that the Indians of that time were the fastest learners history has ever seen!” But even if he did go and find out, he’d probably come away with the belief that it was the tutorial skill of the Greeks that did it. Such is the situation of people in whom false ideas have taken too deep a root. Even when shown the truth, the truth is rationalized to a shape that justifies their original belief, in this case, the belief of the superiority of one’s own people. To embrace a truth diametrically opposed to his long cherished “understanding”, perhaps his old self would have to experience something very akin to death, (death of the “self” occupying a living body, not of the physical body itself), after which a new and very different self would have to take over. But just as a person will struggle against death, so the “self” within a living body will struggle against expulsion, even after being struck by repeated “blows” of facts opposing the world-view of this “self”. What we “know” is who we are.
If what I’ve said in the previous paragraph sounds far-fetched, consider what militaries do with recruits to change them from ordinary people, into soldiers who can kill without thinking too much about it during or after the murder.
Anyway, you interest in this path of study is praiseworthy. Why? Because so many ideas and facts thrown up while following the hidden trails in how the languages of Europe—or rather, of “Indo-Arya”—developed and changed through time and geography flies in the face of history books. At any rate, I began to lose my trust in official history in high school.
Rrriiight…. Let’s see what we’ve got here… A guy reads a comment stating a basic scientific fact: Lithuanian does not stem from Sanskrit. He then proceeds to write a lengthy comment in which he first tells me how the stuck-up British couldn’t believe they had common roots with some lowly northern-Indian peasants, and then about some Greek dude with nationalistic attitude, both of which are meant to show me that I have a certain point of view and I try to adapt the facts to that point of view even if the facts contradict it.
That can mean two things:
1) You have no idea about historical linguistics, as such you do not have any idea what Sanskrit is, what a language branch is, what a daughter language is and what the hell am I talking about at all. Either you:
a)think Sanskrit is the mother language of all the Indo-European languages and that all of them as such stem from Sanskrit. Well, I’ll give you a little hint: Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of I-E languages, Lithuanian belongs to the Balto-Slavic one. Sanskrit is contemporary to Proto-Balto-Slavic language, from which all the Baltic and Slavic languages evolved. Both Sanskrit and P-B-S stem from Proto-Indo-European. If you have severe logical problems, try drawing two parallel lines with Sanskrit above one and Proto-Balto-Slavic above the other; or
b)think that Lithuanians actually are an Indian tribe who had been lost in a forest and after wandering it for a few millenia found themselves in Eastern Europe.
In both these cases follow my advice in my original post and read up on this stuff, it’s not that boring at all. You can just borrow a first-year college schoolbook on historical linguistics.
2) You think that linguistics is a shit science, that everything it states is false, that the people who studied languages before you were dumb and ignorant, that you’ve spoken to the God and know the real truth, and we’re all idiots. I advise you to consult a psychiatrist in that case, although it probably is incurable.
In any case, you have that idea of yours about adjusting stuff to your own false ideas, and here we see a great example of psychological projection: you yourself clearly interprete my comment through your false understanding of the matter and then state I’m wrong, instead of adjusting your own point of view to the scientific one.
Sorry if I’m being too harsh, but I’m easily annoyed by pseudo-historian madmen and I see them too often in the Internet. I sincerely hope I’m wrong and you’re not one of them.
Sorry for the late reply. How can I be alerted to replies and posts here?
Harshness or not, if you prove me wrong, I will thank you for it, because I will have learned something. You certainly seem to know what you’re talking about, and it ties in with the IE language map I see at:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/IndoEuropeanTree.svg
That map certainly shows that Lithuanian did not proceed from Sanskrit; indeed NO language was parented by Sanskrit. But they came from the same basic root (according to the above-mentioned language map). Also, the ancientness that Sanskrit-like languages and Lithuanian have in common puts them in very close proximity (in my interested mind). By “close proximity”, I mean similarity of words, grammar and all else that goes into the construct of a language. They’re close cousins, as it were. But you’re welcome to show me I’m wrong again.
And if I were to base crucial decisions on not thoroughly researched facts, well, I would indeed be a madman. If official and popular history is correct, Hitler was a madman because he based his decisions regarding who deserves to live and who doesn’t on deeply flawed “knowledge”. But then, maybe it can be seen as “intelligent” (albeit scientifically and otherwise dishonest”) to build up a myth that justifies being the dominant race, who is justified in putting others to work for your race. Or the race who deserves to live, while others deserve not to live.
Your post highlighted something I’ve known to be true, though I welcome you to prove me wrong again: Western civilization expects a person to know everything about everything to be regarded as a learned man or woman; i.e. a “non-idiot”. This idea had a strong presence in 19th Century England, when it was believed that all knowledge could indeed be memorized by one person. With the passing of decades, with which came the flourishing of scientific knowledge especially, it should have become clear that such was impossible, but the idea persisted. For much of the 20th Century, a Euro-centric and Euro-dominated world has looked at life and the world through 19th Century eyes, and this persists to this day.
You wrote: “In any case, you have that idea of yours about adjusting stuff to your own false ideas, and here we see a great example of psychological projection: you yourself clearly interprete my comment through your false understanding of the matter and then state I’m wrong, instead of adjusting your own point of view to the scientific one.”
Well, you have alerted and reminded me of something I see all the time: I’ve observed even scientists fit facts they encounter according to their training, rather than as they are. I’ve even known of other “learned gentleman”, including a doctor, who expressed irritation and anger when forced to face evidence that clashed with what they “knew”.
Many ordinary Europeans are so convinced that people of a country like India could never have built up any “knowledge” worthy of being called “knowledge” without the help/influence/tutoring/genetic contribution of some invading Europeans. And that any accomplishments comparable to those of Europeans (like a thriving Information Technology industry) are because of European bloodlines in Indian people. Actually, the North-West of India has the most “European genes”, but it is SOUTH India (with the least “European genes”) that established India’s thriving Information Technology sector. And I am not South Indian by the way, as one might expect me to be, having said all these glorious things about South India. I am—as you have advised—seeing facts as they are, rather than as I would like to see them. That’s pivotal to the scientific method, as you’ve said yourself.
You would be right in that I don’t have a formally trained grasp of historical linguistics–I did not go to university to study linguistics. I just have an interest in linguistics, and am often curious about which language a person is speaking. I can often tell which part of the world a person is from by their accent, or even from their first name. Turkish is usually the most difficult to pinpoint from a first name, so if I have trouble, I usually guess ‘Turkish’, which is usually right, but only because of a calculation of the odds, not from any knowledge of the Turkish language.
Yes, according to my interests, Linguistics is not boring at all, but I need to concentrate on readings, study and training that must take priority; studying Linguistics would be an indulgence, and I already indulge too much in this area–for example, in typing this post. Luckily, this natural interest has made me so sharp with the English language, that I can hammer out miles and miles of thoughts in English (some of them wrong I’m sure) with great ease, and with much more clarity than most people can.
Feel free to tell me I’m wrong in anything I have said, or will say. Tesla, I understand, was part Roma Gypsy, something that’s remained hidden from our historical records, not necessarily deliberately, but partly because Tesla himself would not have cared if he had Roma Gypsy ancestry or not. [END]
hi HarryTheWriter
you can just subscribe to the comments on this post 8see button below the post) and welcome to keep up this interesting discussion!
OK, I clicked on the little “Follow” icon (at bottom right of screen). Is that enough? (In other words, do I have to subscribe in some other way?)
[BEGIN]Sobakus, I’m waiting patiently for your reply but in the meantime here is something I think you might be interested in:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2009/09/the-politics-of-genetic-history-in-india/
Noteworthy to the many Europeans, plain folk, learned folk, or “white supremacist” folk (whether quietly and politely so, or chest-beatingly so) is the sentence:
“.. However, researchers said there was no scientific proof of whether Indians went to Europe first or the other way round.”
The epic tale “Mahabharata”, I believe, supports the idea that Indian people radiated out of India, including into Europe and would be the ancestors of present-day Europeans.
A lot of things spoken of in the stories of ancient India, discounted as “myths” by British (and even Indian) scholars, are proving to be not at all mythical. I believe it was in 1995 when satellites picked up signs on the terrain of a river that once was–the ancient Sarasvati. By the time the British arrived, that there was no such river in existence in times remembered by the native Indians was held up as proof that the Hindu texts, and anything “Hindoo”, was unworthy of any kind of attention.
I wonder how much else regarded as mythical will turn out not to be so in years to come.
The names of ancient rivers strike melodies deep in my heart; so do the syllables and sounds of ancient languages, like Sanskrit and Lithuanian. They enliven memories, they bring back forgotten dreams of places that had give me utter joy, ancient worlds where I once lived, now lost forever. [END]
Hey SALIL,
I was wondering whether your name SALIL (which means “water” in Sanskrit as you say) has something to do with Lithuanian SALYKLAS, which is kind of water or mix for making a beer.
Petras
I had a lithuanian friend a while ago. I was learning 1,2 ,3s and i was surprised to hear worrd that are very similar to my language shina spoken in Gilgit N orth Pakistan. Not even that we have a few customs and rituals are alike. My lithuanian friend was astonished when i pronounced lithuanian words exactly the way they speak! Wow! after i retired i must work on validating our relations to Lithuanians.
what a small world!
Lithuanian Shina
Shuw shu ( dog)
Miriti Miri (Miridi> she died>
SAULE Surie (sun )
Zabien earth
Astuane ash 8
and there is much more!
I think this discussion is not about one nation’s superiority over another, so let’s not say “don’t bring Russian”, because Russian language in it’s archaic form has a lot in common with Sanskrit as well. Sometimes Russian words are closer to Sanskrit, than Lithuanian-Latvian, for instance: MAT’ – MOTINA or DATI – DUOTI. No language or culture is superior over any other.
Not only in its primordial form but also in its current form, Russian is similar to Sanskrit (by extension, to many Indian languages). Here are some interesting ones:
бояться – to fear (‘bhaya’)
гордиться – feel proud (‘garjisu’ – to roar)
кричать – to scream (‘kiruchu’)
There are many more …мясо(meat), корова(cow), дверь(door)…and numerals. But importantly, the grammar is similar too.
Somehow, Russians are fascinated by the West and English words are ‘Russified’. Their free borrowing of English words does worry me.
The reason why Russian has words more similar to Sanskrit is that both of them are more refined than Lithuanian. By refined I mean that they have changed. Both have lost the Indo-european nominative ending. To a Lithuanian a noun ending in a consonant in the nominative case is repulsive. Some type of bastardised incomplete word.
GOOD ARTICLE.
Yes, you are so right.
I would be curious to see what percent of the population has R1a1 haplogroup. That should help tell us how close they are to the Proto-Indo-European ancestors.
Are you concerned more than the unsightly appearance of the teeth? If your teeth are stained or discolored, you will assuredly wish to complete some thing to restore them to their original pristine condition. This really is wherever a teeth whitening package can be used for great benefit. Whenever you have access to a decent and reliable at home the teeth bleaching kit, you can consider solace in the notion that you teeth can be effectively cleaned and whitened.
This discussion is about things which have long been elaborated and generally agreed upon.
First of all, Lithuanian DOES NOT have its origins in the Sanskrit language, nor does Sanskrit have origins in Lithuanian. The two languages emerged from a language that was spoken in a distant past. This language gave birth to English, German, Russian, Lithuanian, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and many other languages and then disappeared. Lithuanian ans Sanskrit developed independently for thousands of years. Therefore, they have differences but they also have similarities due to their common ancestry.
The one thing to note here is that Sanskrit came out of existence thousands of years ago and left only works of litterature behind. There, words and grammatical structures are still seen today the way they were some thousands of years before. And LIthuanian has all the time been used and is still used as a living language. We are comparing two languages separated by two thousands years and we are able todetect similarities! This is what makes Lithuanian unique – it survived for such a long time and is still somewhat of a match to Sanskrit.
The fact that some people dont know the word ASVA does not surprise me. When I hear modern Lithuanian kids say ZVENGIU instead of JUOKIUOSI, BABKES instead of PINIGAI, BAJERIS instead of JUOKAS, POKSTAS and VAROM instead of EINAM I imagine that these words will also be forgotten.
Russian is also an archaic language, Id say its approximately equal to LIthuanian in its high number of archaisms although Serbian or other South Slavic languages may be more archaic.
Dear XW, thanks a lot fro this wonderful contribution and the clearance on the mysterious “Lithuanian” question.
Rashymui lietuvishkai neturint lietuvishkos klaviatwros siwlome alternatyvuu rashymo bwdaa (abeeceelae) naudojant tik 25 standartines lotynuu abeeceelees raides.
A = A
A nasal (nosinee) = AA
B = B
C = C
C (tsh) = CH
CH (german ch; or spanish j) = HH
D = D
E = E
E (with one dot) = EE
E nasal (nosinee) = AE
F = F
G = G
H = H
I = I
I nasal (nosinee) = IJ
Y = Y
J = J
K = K
L = L
M = M
N = N
O = O
P = P
Q (foreign words and (sur)names and sometimes for letter C (tsh))
R = R
S = S
Š = SH
T = T
U = U
U nasal (nosinee) = UU
U long (ilgoji) = W
V = V
W (used as “u-long” (u-ilgoji) mainly)
X (for foreign words and (sur)names and sometimes for letter Š (sh))
Z = Z
Ž (zh) = ZH
====================================================
Internete rashymo pavyzdzhiai:
Teksto originalas dabartine lietuviuu kalba, turint
lietuvishkas raides savo kompiuteryje:
Nosines raides a ir e dar pirmuju lietuviu rašytoju Renesanso metu perimtos iš lenku rašybos, o ju pavyzdžiu paciu lietuviu pasidarytos „trukstamos“ i ir u. Grafemos e autoriaus šloves nusipelno pirmosios spausdintos 1653 metu lietuviu kalbos gramatikos autorius Danielius Kleinas. Raides c, š, ž su paukšciukais dar XIX amžiuje buvo pasiskolintos iš ceku rašybos, o jauniausia lietuviu abeceles raide u, neseniai tyliai atšventusi savo šimtmeti, buvo idiegta kalbininko Jono Jablonskio.
Bendrines kalbos naujumas teikia ir privalumu – lietuviu tartis beveik atitinka rašta, t. y. tariama taip, kaip rašoma. Viena raide paprastai reiškia viena garsa, tad skaitant jas iš karto žinomi ir garsai. Šia prasme lietuviu kalba modernesne už prancuzu ar anglu kalbas, kur raides nebutinai reiškia ta pati garsa.
Neturint lietuvishkos klaviatwros rashoma:
Nosinees raidees “a” ir “e” dar pirmuujuu lietuviuu rashytojuu Renesanso metu perimtos ish lenkuu rashybos, o juu pavyzdzhiu pachiuu lietuviuu pasidarytos “trwkstamos” “i” ir “u” (nosinees raidees). Grafemos “e” (su tashku) autoriaus shlovees nusipelno pirmosios spausdintos 1653 metuu lietuviuu kalbos gramatikos autorius Danielius Kleinas. Raidees c, š, ž su paukshchiukais dar XIX amzhiuje buvo pasiskolintos ish chekuu rashybos, o jauniausia lietuviuu abeeceelees raidee u (ilgoji), neseniai tyliai atshventusi savo shimtmetij, buvo ijdiegta kalbininko Jono Jablonskio.
Bendrinees kalbos naujumas teikia ir privalumuu – lietuviuu tartis beveik atitinka rashtaa, t. y. tariama taip, kaip rashoma. Viena raidee paprastai reishkia vienaa garsaa, tad skaitant jas ish karto zhinomi ir garsai. Shia prasme lietuviuu kalba modernesnee uzh prancwzuu ar angluu kalbas, kur raidees nebwtinai reishkia taa patij garsaa.
Teksto shaltinis: LKI.LT
Alternatyvws zhodzhiu raxymo pavyzdzhiai (neturint LT ABC):
Paukxchiukai (paukshchiukai, paukshchjukai, pauksciukai)
Zhvaigzhdzhiuu (zvaigzdziu)
Praxau ijeikite ij kambarij (prashau iieikite ii kambarii)
Qiulbantys paukxqiai (chiulbantys paukshchiai)
Hhameleonas su hhalatu (chameleonas su chalatu)
Aazhuoluu Bwda (Aazhuoluu Buuda)
Shunys eeda pasigardzhiuodami
Kaqiukuu xiame kambaryje buvo xexi (kachiukuu shiame kambaryje buvo sheshi)
Zhuveedros skraidee virx jwros (zhuvejdros skraidej virsh juuros)
Dear Admission Officer
I would like to bring in your kind notice that I am very much interested to get admission in Lithuanian Language and Cultural program. Please guide me what documents required and program fee how much in Euro…?
I would be thankful for your kind and favorable reply soon.
Thanks & regards
Amir Masud
sorry, i think i can’t help you with that…may be you can google something out!
Very interesting paper about Lithuanian language :
The Lithuanian Language — Past and Present
by WILLIAM R. SCHMALSTIEG, The Pennsylvania State University
http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_01.htm