U.S. English Foundation Research

LITHUANIA

Language Research

Lithuania is a parliamentary democracy, having regained its independence in 1990 after more than 50 years of forced annexation by the Soviet Union.

Naturalization of a person requires a 10-year residency, a permanent job or source of income, knowledge of the Constitution, renunciation of any other citizenship, and proficiency in the Lithuanian language.

Updated (August 2005)

The Lithuanian language is one of the two living Baltic languages of the Indo-European family. Baltic tribes settled down on the present Lithuanian territory in the 3^rd and 2^nd millennium B.C., when the aggressive Indo-European tribes from the south invaded the forested expanses between the Wisla, Volga and Oka riverheads and the Daugava River and the central section of the Dnieper. As time passed, the original inhabitants began to assimilate into this new Indo-European culture with a new language and religion.

Currently there are only two living Baltic languages, Lithuanian and Latvian¹. While other Indo-European languages underwent rapid transformations, the Baltic languages, and Lithuanian in particular, remained relatively unchanged. The Lithuanian language is characterized by an abundance of diverse word formations and synonyms. Out of all living Indo-European languages it has the best retained archaic sound system, many morphologies and lexical features. For this reason, it is difficult for researchers to fully comprehend Indo-European languages without knowledge of Lithuanian.

Lithuania differs from its two Baltic neighbors (Estonia and Latvia). Only Lithuania had its own state in the Middle Ages. Later it developed into a grand duchy and defended its independence. The emergence of the Lithuanian State dates back to 1253. At that time, German crusaders started to settle in the Baltic region and their main goal was to christianize the pagans. Until 1387² Lithuanians professed their own religion, which differed from all other world religions. Lithuanians were very dedicated to their pagan beliefs, which for a long time resisted strong pressure from missionaries and foreign powers but finally succumbed.

Between the 13^th and 15^th Century the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was more than twelve times larger than it is now; it included present-day Ukraine, Belarus and part of Poland. Lithuania managed to develop a highly advanced system of state administration and staved off invading Crusaders longer than any other Central European power. From 1392 to 1430, Lithuania was the largest state in Europe.

Though officially ended in 1795, the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania continues to influence modern day nationalist thinking in the region³. When the powers of the Grand Duchy began to wane, it entered into a Commonwealth (federation) with Poland (1569-1795), but was subsequently incorporated into Russia (1772, 1793, 1795)

When in 1919, Lithuania became a republic the situation was rather complicated. In 1920, the Red Army was defeated by the Poles. On January 1, 1920 Polish militia seized control of Vilnius, the Lithuania's capital, and the surrounding territory and demanded annexation to Poland (annexed only in 1922). The Lithuanian Taryba (Council), for the time being, settled down in Kaunas. The territory, which was occupied by Polish troops, had a separate, pro-Polish administration and was called Central Lithuania.

In 1939, the Soviet Union "helped" to return Vilnius and part of its surrounding territory to Lithuania while the Germans annexed Klaipeda (Memel). In the same year the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact marked the end of the independent Lithuanian State. Annexation by the Soviet Union in 1939 was followed by German occupation (from 1941 to 1944) and Soviet occupation (from 1944 to 1990).

On March 11, 1990 Lithuania declared its independence and started a period of social and economic transition. Russian troops were finally withdrawn from the Lithuanian territory on August 31, 1993. In March 2004, Lithuania joined NATO and on May 1 it became a full member of the EU.

LANGUAGE

For a number of centuries Latin and East Slavic written languages were used in official social life, the latter more often in the East part of Lithuania.

With the arrival of Jesuits a network of schools was created and the Vilnius University was founded in 1579. Over time, contacts of spoken Lithuanian with German and Polish were especially close. Polish soon became the language of official culture because Lithuanian dukes and gentry spoke Lithuanian only in the Middle Ages, switching to Polish at the beginning of the 16^th Century.

Though mainly illiterate peasants preserved the spoken Lithuanian language and old culture, still Lithuanian national self-consciousness remained rather strong, turning from excessive patriotism to a desire for national advancement and independence.

The Lithuanian language was not the state language until the first period of independence (from 1918 to 1940, precisely speaking, when Lithuania recovered its independence) and was proclaimed as such in the 1922 Constitution. Linguistic and cultural homogeneity and singularity were the main arguments when the borders of Lithuania were established in 1918.

The revival of the Lithuanian language and culture did not start at the same time as in Latvia or Estonia. It started later because in the period between 1864 and 1904, the Russian government banned printing of books in the Lithuanian alphabet, replacing it with Cyrillic. Up until this time, it seemed that the only way for a local peasant to advance in society was to be assimilated into either German culture, for Western Lithuania, or Polish culture, for Eastern Lithuania.

Despite the fact that the use of the Lithuanian language was prohibited, the struggle for its survival strengthened. In the middle of the 20^th Century, when Soviet oppression became severe, the intelligentsia proposed some incredible survival projects⁴.

These historic vagaries explain why language continues to be a strong symbol in Lithuania. Since the 19^th Century, when the similarity between Lithuanian and Sanskrit was discovered, Lithuanians have taken a particular pride in their mother tongue as the oldest living Indo-European language.

NATIONAL MINORITIES

The proportion of national minorities in Lithuania changed according to various periods. In the Middle Ages the territory of the Great Duchy of Lithuania was much bigger than now and its population consisted of many different nationalities.

POLES

The history of the Poles in Lithuania dates back to the 14^th Century, when Lithuania made an Alliance with Poland. This Alliance developed into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, which ceased to exist only in 1795, when the greater part of Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire.

In 1697, when the Seimas [Parliament] enacted the bill of rights, Polish became the language of prestige and the nobility in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (mainly in the Vilnius region) while Lithuanian was the language of the peasantry.

Before WWII Eastern Lithuania (particularly Vilnius district, called "Wilenszczyzna" in Polish) belonged to Poland. A lot of inhabitants in this area considered themselves to be Poles because they were Catholics (earlier, in the 17^th-19^th Century, some of them were Orthodox or even pagans).

The above-mentioned population called themselves "local people" (tuteyshy), without indicating any nationality, and their language "in a simple way" (poprostu, po-prostemu).

At the beginning of the 20^th Century there were two widespread languages in Vilnius district, Belarusian and Lithuanian, both of them used by the inhabitants of rural areas. Though there was almost no real Polish-speaking territory, Polish was still prestigious because it was the language of the church, nobility and education.

According to the 1989 expedition results, three Polish-speaking rural areas were established: Vilnius surroundings⁵, Trakai Region and a very small area in Northeastern Lithuania (Zarasai, the so-called Smalvos area).

After WWII real Soviet national and cultural policy was implemented in Eastern Lithuania and the process of Polish repatriation was in progress. Many people left Lithuania for Poland because the Poles were not captured by the Red Army, only Lithuanians. Instead, Belarusians were moved or they moved here themselves from other territory of the former Soviet Union.

On March 25, 1957, the agreement between the USSR and Poland “Concerning the further repatriation of the people of Polish nationality: terms and order” was reached and as a result 48,352 persons left Lithuania for Poland (97 percent of those who wanted to leave). However, the number of Poles in Lithuania did not change greatly because a lot of Poles from Belarus came, replacing those who left Lithuania for Poland.

According to the 1959 Census, there were 160,600 Poles (47,200 in Vilnius and 113,400 in the Vilnius rural area) in the country and they constituted 8.5 percent of the population. According to the 1989 and 2001 Censuses, there were 257,994 (7.0 percent) and 234,989 (6.74 percent) Poles in Lithuania, respectively.

The great loss of inhabitants, movements of the population and the policy of Russification changed Eastern Lithuania a great deal, especially its culture and national structure, in the second part of the 20^th Century. The region became the most Soviet and Russified in the whole country, changing the mentality of the population.

BELARUSIANS

In the 14^th-16^th Centuries, the gentry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were finally shaped, consisting of Lithuanians and Lithuanian-Belarusians. The Belarusian gentry were marked by a double nature: they remained ethnic Belarusian (though heavily Polonised) yet in their social and political life they absorbed much of the Lithuanian mentality.

The name "Gudai" was used for ages for those who spoke Belarusian and lived in Eastern Lithuania, as well as those from Western Belarus. Belarusians themselves actively used it in documents, at least from the 1920s, in order to continue the traditions and to contrast with the Soviet Belarusians.

Belarusian newcomers in Lithuania often used trasianka, a mixture of the Belarusian and Russian languages or even the Russian language with some Belarusian words inserted and pronounced in a Belarusian mode.

According to the 1959 Census, Belarusians made up 1.1 percent of the population in Lithuania; 1.7 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, according to the 1989 and 2001 Censuses.

RUSSIANS

The history of Russians in Lithuania began in the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania because of its numerous Eastern Slavic population.

One of the oldest residential areas in Vilnius was named the "Russian corner" (civitas ruthenica) where since the 14^th Century Russian Orthodox churches have been raised.

Old Believers comprised the second wave of Russians in Lithuania⁶. Their first community settled in Girele (Anykšciai Region) in 1709. In 1933, mostly in Eastern Lithuania, there were 53 communities of the Old Believers, about 34,000 people. These congregations have fifty prayer houses. The Supreme Council of the Old Believers based in Vilnius runs them.

After WWII, due to specialists and workers arriving from different states of the former Soviet Union, the Russian population in Lithuania increased (from 231,014 in 1959 to 344,455 in 1989). After the restoration of Lithuanian independence, a number of Russians moved back to their homeland. According to the 2001 Census, Russians make up 6.31 percent of the population in Lithuania.

UKRAINIANS

Ukraine belonged to the Lithuanian State for more than 200 years (1362–1569). The Ukrainians received the Christian faith from the Byzantines, and their church was originally linked to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. By the 14^th Century most Ukrainians were under the political control of Catholic Lithuania.

The Metropolitan of Kiev attended the Council of Florence and agreed to the 1439 Act of Union between the Catholics and the Orthodox. Although many Ukrainians in Lithuania initially had accepted this union, within a few decades they rejected it. In 1569, when Lithuania and Poland united to form a single Commonwealth, most Ukrainians passed to Poland.

Today, however, most of the Ukrainians in Lithuania are newcomers. After WWII and the incorporation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union, considerable changes in the ethnic composition of the population took place. The establishment of new industrial enterprises stimulated migration from other Soviet republics. Therefore it is not surprising that the number of Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians increased.

According to the census, Ukrainians made up 0.8 percent of the population in 1970, 1.2 percent in 1989 and 0.65 percent in 2001. Most of them settled in bigger cities and belonged to the working class. About half of them left Lithuania for their homeland after the proclamation of independence in 1990. The main reason was the fact that Ukrainians, as well as Russians and Belarusians, who came to Lithuania usually did not speak Lithuanian.

JEWS

There are records showing that Jews lived in Lithuania before the 14^th Century. In 1388, Vytautas the Great granted certain privileges to the Jews in Brest, which were later extended to the other communities. Both rights and responsibilities, in essence similar to those of other free people, testify to the high social status of Jews. Since the privilege was later accepted also by the Grand Dukes and its main points included in the First Statute of Lithuania (1529), Jews became deeply rooted in the society. They engaged themselves in all sorts of activities.

Though Jews in Lithuania spoke Yiddish, they could speak Lithuanian more or less fluently. Often Lithuanians, especially in small towns, understood and could communicate in Yiddish.

After the partitions of Lithuania and Poland (1772-1795), Lithuania became a colony of Russia. Jews were only allowed to settle in a few provinces, the so-called "Pale of Settlement". They were forbidden to live in the largest towns and villages, or possess land. The policy of Russification was fiercely implemented.

In 1939, Jews made up 27.9 percent of the city's population, which was around 60,000 people. There were over 110 synagogues and 10 yeshivas in Lithuania.

When the state of Lithuania was firstly recreated in the 20^th Century (1919), Jews were granted a broad cultural and national autonomy, much broader than in other Eastern European countries. At that time 154,000 Jews lived in the country (7.5 percent of the whole population) and the Government even established the Ministry of Jewish Affairs.

The Nazis murdered over 90 percent of Lithuanian Jews (the largest percentage of all occupied countries). After WWII, Russian-speaking Jews from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and other Soviet republics arrived in Lithuania. Many Jews repatriated to Israel at the beginning in the 1970s.

Now there are about 5,000 Jews in Lithuania.

TATARS

In 1362, Lithuanian expansion into Russian lands peaked. That's also the period when many Tatar communities in Lithuania originated.

Later their number increased to 5,000. Known as Karaites, they were considerably outnumbered by the Islamic Tatars, who settled in or near Ašmena, Vilnius, Trakai, Aukštadvaris, Semeliškes, Butrimonys, Alytus and other localities.

Living in separate, closed communities, they long preserved their language, faith and customs. Greater assimilation with the local population began only in the 18^th Century. Nevertheless, Islam has been a sufficiently strong denominator to maintain the community in existence until this very day.

The Tatars of Lithuania (as well as of Poland and Belarus) lost their native Turkic vernacular by the 18^th Century. Most of their religious and reading instruction books have been in Belarusian or Polish (but written in Arabic script).

Lithuanian Tatars separate from their brethren in Poland or Belarus. While Polish Tatars often consider themselves Poles of Tatar origin (and Islamic religion), Lithuanian Tatars, even though they are loyal citizens and speak Lithuanian, would not regard themselves as Lithuanians.

Approximately 4,000 Tatars are living in Lithuania now.

KARAIMS

The history of the Karaims in Lithuania, similarly like the history the Tatars, goes back to the end of the 14th Century when Grand Duke Vytautas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania brought about 380 Karaim families from the bank of the Black Sea to Trakai, the capital of Lithuania at the time. Contrary to the Tatars, the Karaims have preserved their language.

In 1997 (the Statistics Department of Lithuania) there were 257 Karaims living in Lithuania. Karaim is taught at Sunday schools and culturally supported by the Cultural Society of the Karaims in Lithuania (founded in 1988) and the Religious Society of the Karaims.

GERMANS

In the 13^th Century, Germans settled in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Region) and the territory of Klaipeda (Memel). These parts remained German until some of them were incorporated into the Republic of Lithuania in 1923. The Lithuanians from those territories were hardly Germanized.

The number of Germans was largely reduced after WWII by the Soviets: most of them were killed or repatriated to Germany.

Nowadays the number of Germans is about 0.1 percent of the total population. Yet German cultural life in the Klaipeda region is currently restored.

VARIETIES OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE AND LITHUANIAN DIALECTS

Although at present the Lithuanian language is quite well safeguarded by the state, it also shows numerous manifestations of vitality itself. From the dialectological point of view, the Lithuanian territory is divided into two parts, High Lithuanian and Samogitian (Low Lithuanian). The center of the Low Lithuanian dialects is in the Telšiai highlands and the center of the High Lithuanian dialects is in the Central Lithuanian lowlands.

In general vowels of these dialects differ more than consonants so their determination depends on the pronunciation of the vowels.

Two major dialects (High Lithuanian and Samogitian) can be divided up into three subdialects (Western, Eastern and Southern) and these subsequently into smaller entities according to other characteristic features (their names are derived from the names of major cities in the regions where they are spoken).

The interaction of dialects and the standard language (the basis of which is the Western dialect) is quite complicated. Standard Lithuanian is a young language in comparison with the dialects, which have existed for ages. The current development of the standard language has a stronger impact on the dialects in different areas.

It is true that self-consciousness of the Samogitians is substantially stronger than of representatives of the other Lithuanian dialects. From the sociolinguistic point of view the Samogitian dialect could be considered as the regional language⁷.

Ten to fifteen years ago the Western High Lithuanian dialect was considered to be the "best dialect". The then language policy in the country was pointed against dialects but never against Western High Lithuanian, because of its being the basis of the Lithuanian standard. After the restoration of state independence the language policy was changed and conditioned by new realities: the revival of the regions and regional dialects. However, the fact that all Lithuanians have shared a common written and common standard language for a relatively long time correlates them with each other.

Source: Mercator, Working Papers No. 19, Language Policy and the Sociolinguistic Situation in Lithuania, by Prof. Laima Grumadiene from the Institute of Lithuanian Language, 2005, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

1. There were more of them earlier, such as Curonian, Semigallian, Selonian, Yotvingian, Prussian and Galindan.

2. 1413 for people from the western part

3. Both Belarus and Ukraine point back to the days when they were part of the thriving Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a proof of their cultural and political distinction from Russia.

4. The well-known project of Kazimieras Pakštas, where he proposed to buy some uninhabited lands somewhere in Africa or Australia and to send selected young Lithuanians there in order to maintain the Lithuanian language and culture, allowing the survival of Lithuanian genes. The dream was to preserve the language and culture without any linguistic and cultural contacts. History brutally jeered at this idea when one-third of the nation was sent to Eastern Siberia or escaped to the West shortly thereafter.

5. There is a large Polish-speaking community in Vilnius, composed of residents coming from various previously discussed areas. Quite often Vilnius Poles are bilingual at home (Polish-Russian). Less often they speak Polish and Lithuanian (mostly the younger generation).

6. In 1666, the Patriarch of Moscow ordered the Russian Orthodox Church to adopt the liturgy and practices of the Greek Church. The Old Believers who resisted the Reform were condemned and persecuted until 1909 as a threat to the State and the Church. Fleeing from repression, numerous Old Believers settled in Lithuania in the 17^th-18^th Centuries.

7. Linguists use the term “dialect” if the speakers can understand each other and the term “language” if they cannot; however, this criterion is not always easy to apply.

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