Lithuanian

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A language of Lithuania

ISO 639-3
lit
Alternate Names
Lietuviu, Litauische, Litewski, Litovskiy
Autonym
Lietuviškai, Lietuvių kalba
User Population

2,540,000 in Lithuania (European Commission 2012). Total users in all countries: 2,909,390.

Location

Widespread.

Language Maps
Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (1992, Constitution, Article 14).

Classification
Indo-European, Balto-Slavic, Baltic, Eastern
Dialects

Aukshtaičių (Aukshtaičiai, Aukstaitiškai, Highland Lithuanian), Dzukų (Dzukiškai), Suvalkiečių (Suvalkietiškai). Aukstaičiai easily understand Suvalkiečių, Dzukų with some difficulty, and vice versa.

Typology

SVO; prepositions; noun head final, but genitives, relatives after noun heads;2 pitch/stress classes; dual number; definiteness marked on adjectives; case-marking (6 cases); verb affixes mark person, number; passives; tense and aspect; comparatives; 37 consonant and 10 vowel phonemes; tonal: phonemic tone on stressed syllables; dynamic stress morphophonemically coupled with tone.

Language Use

All domains. Used by all. Most also use Russian [rus] (European Commission 2006). Some also use English [eng] (European Commission 2006). Some also use Polish [pol] (European Commission 2006).

Language Development

Literacy rate in L1: 99%. Fully developed. Bible: 1735–1998.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Lithuanian
Writing

Latin script [Latn]. Latin script, Fraktur variant [Latf], no longer in use.

Other Comments

Christian, Muslim.

Also spoken in:

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