Lithuanian Language

    The Lithuanian language is the state language of the Republic of Lithuania. It is one of the world's oldest surviving languages, and is distantly related to Sanskrit, a religious and literary language of India. Because it has changed less than other languages, Lithuanian is a linguistic link to the past and has a special place in the study of languages. It is one of the two languages in the Baltic branch of Indo-European languages; the other is Latvian.
    Lithuania and Lithuanians are first mentioned in written sources in 1009 in the annals of Quedlinburg.
    Lithuanian is spoken by some three million people in Lithuania and about a million people living in other countries: Russia, Brazil, Latvia, Canada, Poland, Australia, USA and etc.
    Lithuanian literature language began to form in the middle of the 16th century. Its initiator is Martynas Mazvydas who published the first Lithuanian book in 1547. The latest new information tells us how people used to be mummied. There a text was founds which is the second known text about mumming in the world and it was written in Lithuanian! Archaeologists think that it was made two thousand year ago. Today this text is considered to be the first one, written Lithuanian.


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