The official state language is Lithuanian, which is one of only two languages that form the Baltic branch of the Indo-European family of languages and are considered by philologists to be world's oldest living languages.

Lithuanian is an archaic language, most similar to Sanskrit. It has retained its ancient sound system and morphological characteristics. The 32-letter Lithuanian alphabet is Latin-based with additional diacritical marks.

Lithuanian is spoken by most of the inhabitants of Lithuania and by expatriates in such countries as the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Lithuanian appears in two main dialect groups, Low Lithuanian (along the Baltic coast) and High Lithuanian, with further dialect subdivisions.

It has a clear and mobile musical stress. Lithuanian is highly inflected. In standard Lithuanian, nouns have seven cases. Gender is masculine or feminine, although some traces of the old neuter survive. Numbers can be singular or plural; some dialects also have a dual number (for two items). The article is not used. Four simple verb tenses (present, preterite, frequentative past and future) and several compounds exist in the indicative mood; imperative, subjunctive, reflexive, infinitive, and participial forms are also clearly defined.

The language is rich in the use of diphthongs and in rising and falling intonations.

 

Languages spoken by Lithuanians

The country is 99% literate (of those over 15yo). But everyone over c.25 also speaks Russian. In 1991, when Lithuanian became free of Soviet rule, Russian became no longer compulsory (in school, work, government, etc.). All students now study English; some study German, or Polish, or other languages; few study Russian.

 

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Communication & language - Lithuania

 

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