Lithuanian vs Latvian | Can they understand each other? | Episode 2
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2023
- In this video, we continue exploring similarities and differences between Lithuanian and Latvian, examining the factors that contribute to their mutual intelligibility. Through engaging language challenges, we aim to showcase the linguistic connections and enhance our understanding of these unique languages.
Latvian and Lithuanian are two remarkable Baltic languages with deep historical roots and unique linguistic features. Latvian is the official language of Latvia, spoken by the majority of the population, while Lithuanian holds the distinction of being one of the oldest Indo-European languages still in use today. Both languages have retained archaic elements from their ancient origins, making them fascinating subjects of linguistic study.
Mutual intelligibility refers to the ability of speakers of closely related languages to understand each other to varying degrees without prior knowledge or extensive exposure.
Although Latvian and Lithuanian share some similarities due to their shared ancestry, they are separate languages with their own distinct grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. While speakers of one language may recognize certain words in the other, the mutual intelligibility between them is limited, hindering effortless communication.
Despite their linguistic differences, Latvian and Lithuanian foster a sense of cultural solidarity in the Baltic region, showcasing the diversity and richness of language within the European continent.
🤗 Big Thanks to Justinas and Henriks for making this video possible!
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🤗 Big hug for everyone reading my video descriptions! You rock! 🤓💪🏻
#languagechallenge #latvia #lithuania
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Both of the languages are so fascinating. They have a special place in my heart since Latvia and Lithuania are our dear Baltic neighbours and friends 😊. Greetings from 🇪🇪!
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🇪🇪❤🇱🇻❤🇱🇹
❤❤❤
Elagu Baltimaad 🇪🇪!!! Lithuania 🇱🇹 ♥️ 🇪🇪
Actually mutual word 💯
Kirvis Cervez Kirves
Thank you Norbert for the great opportunity to participate in this challenge 😄
My pleasure 😊
Man ļoti patika tava dalība, jo laba latviešu valoda ❤
Regarding the last word.
I think we don't actually have a word for just "bag".
"Maišas" is a sack. Like a burlap sack of potatoes or a plastic bag for garbage.
A leather handbag that ladies would carry is "rankinė".
A backpack is "kuprinė".
A suitcase is "lagaminas".
A basket is "krepšys".
But a general bag... Google says it translates into "maišas", but no one is going to consider a maišas to be an accessory (unless you're Lady Gaga), no one would put books into a maišas (unless it's for burning), and the teachers would call social services if they saw a kid bring a maišas to school instead of a backpack.
It is unusual to see a fellow Latvian named same as me. It is a very rare name in Latvia! 😉
We could have conversation in all three languages that you can and I can speak to Norbert in his native language as well!
Great content! Keep up the good job!
@@Filantrops it is a rare name indeed, do you know Norwegian as well?
please do a video with latgalian, samogitian, latvian and lithuanian speakers
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Latgalian is more similar to lithuanian, samogitian to Latvian.
@@daiva1876Latgalian may be considered a dialect of Latvian, and Samogitian a dialect of Lithuanian, but they are closer to each other than the official languages.
💯 I AGREE pls do it.
I would find the above suggestion absolutely fascinating. I would be happier if the similar languages(as mentioned) would be considered separate languages instead of dialects. Is there any way to receive a text if the suggestion about latgalian, samogitan, Latvian and Lithuanian as a program is produced and shown.
I'm Lithuanian, but I have some more distant relatives that are Latvian. I remember meeting one of my Latvian cousins when I was a teen and we had to speak in English to understand each other. 😅
That's embarassing.
What is embarrassing? @@fidenemini111
@@fidenemini111
Not really considering languages are not mutually legible
Yesss same🥲
i'm a lithuanian and i believe that if we had more exposure to latvian language we could pick it up quite fast, but as things are right now, it's is not that easy. also, i think i did better than justinas, because i could read the subtitles :).
I'm Latvian and I agree with both of your points.
Latvian language lessons in Lithuanian schools and vice versa could be a graet help. At least as a facultative option for willing ones.
@@fidenemini111 at least more tv shows and movies.
@@KSfreaky Yes! With original soundtrack and subs.
Can this guy not find any latvian!?!?!?!?!?!?! To try to understand other languages and dialects based on a language you already know you need MASTERY of the language you already know to stand any chances.
First he finds a russijan who doesnt use latvian enough to be a master of it, then he find an outlander who speaks the language only with his parrents and thus doesnt use it enough to be a master of it!
I EASILY answered EVERY SINGLE QUESTION hes asked in this series and these 'fake' "latvians" cant, and that is expected for unlike me they are not masters of my language.
Im gona have to assume you are as unable to find proper speakers of other languages and gona have to unsubscribe because asking learners if they can understand related languages is a WASTE OF TIME.
Great video! Just to mention to all the cocky Latvians in the comments saying how could Henriks not guess the words. Guys, you won't believe, but Henriks did not have written text in front of him like you did. Isn't that crazy?
I'm myself both Latvian and Latgalian speaker, and Latgalian pronunciation is somewhat similar to Lithuanian one, and yet for me it sounds like gibberish most of the time. (If I'm not seeing the text of course.)
Additionally, languages are "false friends", so quite often you hear a word, that has a completely different meaning, even if you understand It.
It would be great to see the discussion between other language speakers from Latvia and Lithuania, for example Latgalians, Livi, Prussians and Samogitians.
Prussians? Are there people that still speak the actual Prussian (Baltic) language?
@@jammmy30 Some people are trying to revive it.
@@joelthorstensson2772oh… were? Germany? Lithuania? Interesting
@@jammmy30It's very rare I guess, but as far as I have red, there are some Revived Prussian speakers in Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Koenigsberg.
But this would really be interesting, because as far as I understand, a lot of words have same roots.
@@jammmy30 There are definitely attempts to revive the language, and I know that some children are even taught it, but how fluent these people are I don't know. In any case it would be fantastic if one could join a mutual intelligibility experiment here.
I’m Belarusian, but live in Lithuania. It was really interesting since I understand a lot even without knowing most words. Sometimes text confused me more 😅
Ngl same, I was confused how I got all 4 words, while the guys struggled a lot. Must be the magic of subtitles
Aww, thanks for this video! It is tricky for me as a Latvian to understand spoken Lithuanian in most cases, because the pronunciation is quite different, but it's easier when I see it written- then I can look at the writing and pronounce it differently in my head (and disregard different word endings). It is a strange feeling, it's hard to explain - I feel like I "understand" them, but not the actual words, if that makes any sense at all - like talking to a relative who's talking incoherently, because they're drunk or have dementia, but you love them anyway, and you understand them in some other way :D
Hahah! Lithuanian a drunk relative, sounds about right! Mes uz Lietuva! 🤣💃🏻🍻
I understand your pain my friend. Lets say when I listen to Tautumeitas - Raganu Nakts (btw beautiful folk songs) it's like I hear some understandable words, but at the end I know that Ligo is "lygiadienis" aka "midsummer"
@@justass, but midsummer is not lygiadienis. It is the longest day / shortest night event (ilgiausia diena / trumpiausia naktis). Līgo (Linguo) is linguoja or linguok. Latvians write o where they say uo. And sulyginti is salīdzināt. So you see that it is easy to learn Latvian, but not THAT easy.
😂😂😂
@manometras About the pronunciation of "o" in Latvian: there are several. In old words it will be "uo": like in "ola" (egg), "koks" (a tree), also "Līgo" (the word you sing during the midsummer night, which is "Jāņu nakts" - the night of Johns (plural)). In words that have been taken from other languages, the "o" is pronounced as "oooo" instead: "radio", "robots" (a robot), "borščs" (borshch).
Thank you! Respect from Ukraine! I was in Vilnius and Riga at The Prodigy live gigs in 2016
I'm a native Swedish and Finnish speaker. I've always found that Latvian is sort of a gateway to Lithuanian. As Latvian has a lot of Germanic and Finno-Ugrian influences. I've met a bunch of Latvian and Lithuanian exchange students when I was in the University and they said the languages were close but could not really understand eachother.
I was quite dumbstruck in a taxi in Latvia when the taxameter read 'maksa', which is fee/fare in both Finnish and Estonian. I noted in this video about the lion (and king-dom) which in finno-ugric has a straight borrowing in the form of Kuningas and Lithuanian has something like Karalis, which cognates with Hungarian Király. Then pleca or something meaning shoulder and in Polish that would be back, hench the guess back pack. Such a clusterfuck, and I love it. =D
Tere, mina olen Eestist, aga elan Soomes!
Moi, minä olen Virosta, mutta asun Suomessa!
Привет, я из Эстонии, но живу в Финляндии!
Pleca in polish mean Back while in Russian mean Shoulders pleci(плечи)
has alot of russian and east slavic influeance
Lithuanian language has some influence from fino Ugric languages but a lot less than Latvian
Fun fact, in Lithuanian "kunigas" means "priest" and "kunigaikštis" means "duke".
from these two videos we can conclude that they would be much better at this game if they knew each other's words for animal
To me it was not difficcult to understand that dzīvnieks and gyvūnas are of the same root.
Would be much easier if you could see the subtitles of the other language written.
Hello 👋🏻 I am Lithuanian and for me it is hard to understand latvian by hearing :3 but written text is easier
As Latvian gonna tell you a secret. I can understand Samagotian, its really drunk Lithaunian speaking Latvian. Love braļukas.
@@jajaja922 :3 Mylime broliuką :3
@@jajaja922 Likewise - for me as a Lithuanian it is easier to understand Latgalian rather than regular Latvian. It would be really interesting to see a conversation between Samogitian and Latgalian.
Basically the main misunderstanding in this case was that fact that word for animal aren't cognates. Both word 'dzīvnieks' and 'gyvunas' are neologisms. Although they has same root "dzīv- / gyv-" (different because of palatalization, however identifiable) each word has its unique suffix (-niek- ; -un-). And that is why thеse words seems to be dissimilar, because of different suffixes. For sure using older word for animal 'zvērs' and 'žvėris' would make conversation more understandable. Obviously these words and their synonyms for domastic animals: 'lops' and 'luopas', 'luobas' are more mutually intelligible, however, their use has become more passive due to neologisms.
Interesting, in Ukrainian "zvir" means "animal"
Latvian "zvērs' and Lithuanian 'žvėris' are very old words, which are more understandable not only for Balts, the same as their Slavic equivalents: Polish "zwierzę" and Czech "zvíře". It means that these universal words come from the times of Balto-Slavic community.
@@Robertoslaw.Iksinski I've learnt some Russian and "zhivotnoye" is quite different, but well the first two consonants are similar. The vowels and the endings should have been changed a lot. I'm not sure if it's related to the verb "to live" - "zhit'"? I'm not very familiar with Slavics and have almost zero understandings on Baltics though.
@@daniellin5373 "zhivotnoye" is animal in Russian, but there's a word "зверь" - zver' which is totally related to those above and has a meaning close to animal or beast.
@@daniellin5373 In Polish "zwierzę" (as official animal) also comes from "zwierz" (as beast). And also exists Polish "żyjątko" and Czech "živočich", which come from verb "żyć" (to live) or noun "život" (life), but in Czech and Polish these synonyms are less official than "zvíře" and "zwierzę".
Lithuanian and Latvian started diverging in the 6th-7th century, up until then we spoke one Baltic language. It has been ~1500 years since the languages separated and are not mutually intelligible. Yet, with practice both Latvians and Lithuanians can learn each others' languages very quickly as the fundaments are very much the same. My grandmother from Biržai who had a physical trauma in her youth and was admitted to a hospital in Riga learned Latvian to a fairly high level in 3 months and could easily converse with Latvians whenever she went to Latvia.
I do hope there's more interchange between the languages and people of both Balt nations. We used to co-operate much more during the interwar period and I hope that becomes a norm again.
it's still wild to me that in Lithuania one can easily watch many Polish channels, but no Latvian ones on TV. I understand that Polish channels are for Polish Lithuanians, but I would still like to see something from Latvia as well.
Really enjoy hearing Latvian and Lithuanian, would love more of this comparison!
I am native Latvian speaker and I have also learned Lithuanian. I would say that before any preparation it's quite hard for Latvian to understand spoken Lithuanian, but it's easier with written Lithuanian. The reason behind for it is that Lithuanian uses stressed accent where word can be stressed also in middle or end. In Latvian word stress is always on the beginning of word. That really makes more difficult to understand until you have become used to it.
Learning some basic vowel and consonant shift between Latvia and Lithuanian helps a lot (c->k dz->g uo->an). Also I can suggest for Latvians to read more some older texts in Latvian like folk tales, sometimes they contain more archaic words which help to understand Lithuanian more.
For those who wonder how close exactly are Latvian and Lithuanian I would say that for comparison they are more distinct than various Slavic languages are between each other, but more similar than English and German which are both from common Germanic language branch.
One of the reasons I love this channel is because it is clearly not staged like some other channels in which the players seem to miraculously understand each other. The best!
It was extremely interesting to me. Of course, I understood all Lithuanian words, and knew all Latvian. But then I know Latvian and have, very long time ago and very superficially, studied Lithuanian. The description of the last word was indeed suggestive of a backpack.
As a Latvian, I have to admit that in the last task Henriks really gave hints in such a way that any Lithuanian speaker could really think that it was a "backpack".
Justinas was thinking in the very right direction, very close.
I really wanted him to say the right word)
I would give him half a point for this task)
It can be seen that in the end the guys got used to each other's languages and began to understand each other better.
I think this is a really good method if a Lithuanian wants to communicate with a Latvian)
Not rushing and asking questions.
Then the general meaning of the sentence can be understood.
I see in the comments section that some foreigners have the impression that Latvian and Lithuanian are very different.
Not quite so, guys.
What is confusing is the different phonetics.
Therefore, it is not easy to perceive a language when you hear it.
But if, for example, a Latvian and a Lithuanian send text messages to each other, they will understand each other better.
Because in this way you can see the common roots of words.
For example, visually it may seem that the words "Ozols" and "Ąžuolas" are different, but if you take your time and read carefully, you can see a common root, and in both languages this word means "Oak tree".
Of course,there are words of non-Baltic origin in our languages, just as there are Germanisms and words of Finno-Ugric origin in Latvian.
But I would not overestimate their influence on the language.
There are many words with a common root in the Latvian and Lithuanian languages.
Which only confirms that we were one community in ancient times.
Novēlu visu to labāko mūsu kaimiņiem lietuviešiem🇱🇻👊🇱🇹
Mes lietuviai taip pat linkim viso gero savo kaimynam latviam!👍
No kidding about the writing - I specifically avoided reading the Latvian subtitles for this one, and it felt so much more difficult than the last time.
The problems start when you recognise a word, but it doesn't mean quite exactly what you know it should mean.
For example, you go to a tourist place, see written "viešu nams". It's supposed to meen "guest house", but in Lithuanian "viešnamis" (literally the same words, only glued together) means BROTHEL.
And you point, you laugh, and the locals look at you like you're crazy, but you don't care, because Latvian is hilarious.
@@povilzem
it's really funny😄
I will remember this fact))
It is also interesting with the words “moose “and “deer”)
Deer in Latvian will be "briedis", in Lithuanian
“elnias”.
in Lithuanian moose will be "briedis", but instead in Latvian "alnis".
@@pauls.s I see no problem here. Big forest thing with horns is big forest thing with horns.
totally fascinating! as a native czech speaker i can pick up an occasional cognate (eg: plece in czech is shoulder, but mostly a butcher's term -- archaically/poetically human shoulder), but on the whole LT an LV are so different... i was fortunate to visit Latvia a couple of times, and i was told of the german and finnic influence, but to actually see how mutually unintelligible LT and LV are is fascinating!
Russian is here. I picked up these words ( Russian words in the second place):
cilveki - chelovek (people)
parnesatu - perenosit’ (to bring)
izgatovots - Izgotovliat’ (to produce)
visos - vse ( everything )
bega- begat’ ( to run)
teka- tech ( to flow)
Lithuanian «zemuma» as «lowland» also cognate (?) with Russian «zemlya» as «ground»
@@leonvotstavke8888 я тоже всю жизнь думал, что балтские языки ближе к немецким. Возможно, этому способствовал культурно-пропагандистский фокус в России, который традиционно причисляет балтов к друзьям немцев. И люди в России заложники этого штампа
@@mordegardglezgorv2216 @leonvotstavke8888 вы не представляете сколько общих слов у литовцев и беларусов :) мои русские коллеги были в шоке на курсах по литовскому от этого факта. и почти все признались, что их учили, что беларуская мова(как и украинская) это просто неправильный русский :D а оказалось, что это, мягко говоря, вообще не так :D
@@KaZiK_LT я специально пробежался с карандашом и даже из небольшой по объему речи литовца вычленил примерно дюжину общих с русским корней, не считая банальных местоимений, числительных вопросов. Так что ваша национально окрашенная попытка преподнести белорусский как особо славянский язык впротивовес варварско-татарскому русскому обречена на неудачу. Хотя допускаю, что у белорусов чуть больше пересечений с литовским в силу долгого совместного проживания, но не думаю, что это какая-то особо значимая величина
@@mordegardglezgorv2216 я нигде не говорил об особо славянском беларуском или, тем более, о вашем варварско-татарском русском. всего-лишь сказал, что есть люди в русских селениях 20-30+ лет которые верят в сказку о неправильном русском на землях беларуси и украины. но как-то странно отрицать факт того, что ваши цари-царицы немецких кровей напихали в язык словей немецких, голандских, французских и прочих да так что остальные славяне перестали его понимать. ну беларусы и правда дольше жили с литовцами и поляками и языки имеют множество схожих, местами до степени смешения, слов. Но вам, видать, все это глаз колет да под короной от этого свербит. Ну бывает...
I understand both because I am Lithuanian, and I learned Latvian.
The Latvian guy is mainly struggling because of the Lithuanian pronounciation, if he were to read it, he would have understood much more. Great vid!
The same applies to Latvian pronunciation. But to my mind, main problem here was that guys expected more specific words.
@@wavyseahill yeah and I also think that too much information was provided and it's hard to understand exactly what you need to focus on
@@DonnieKreydenyes! Actually I would guess the last word as backpack and I am Latvian. I also understand Lithuanian, so it feels like watching this with cheats. 😁
@@wavyseahill o forši, savējais
@@DonnieKreydenpiekritīsi ka Henriks, lai arī runā diezgan tīrā un pareizā Latviešu valodā, tomēr tā izruna ir samērā specifiska, tāda kā "slinki neizteiksmīga"? Latvieši saprot protams, bet domāju ka pat daļa vietējo drusku iespringtu, lai visu saprast.
Thanks again, Norbert, for doing another challenge on the Baltic languages of Indoeuropean origin. This might be difficult to set up, but a challenge between Lithuanian and Sanskrit might be interesting since Lithuanian has changed the least from its Indo-European roots and has many similarities to Sanskrit.
No, Lithuanian doesn't have more similarities to Sanskrit than any other Indo-European languages. I have no idea where this myth came from but it's simply wrong. Sanskrit is a dead Indian language just like Latin in Europe. Because they are both Indo-European languages, they have some similarities with all modern Indo-European languages but nowhere near being mutually comprehensible. Lithuanian (and Latvian) objectively is much closer linguistically to all Slavic and Germanic languages than it is to the dead language of Sanskrit. The examples of words that are usually given that are similar in Lithuanian and Sanskrit (Dievas, dūmai) are not unique to Lithuanian. Both words are similar in not only Latvian but also many other Indo-European languages (Dios in Romance languages, dym in Slavic languages) etc etc
Also, it's wrong that Lithuanian has changed the least. It depends on what you consider as change. A Lithuanian speaker of today would not be able to easily communicate with a Lithuanian speaker from 800 years ago let alone a proto Indo-European or Sanskrit speaker from thousands of years ago. The Lithuanian grammar has some archaic structures and the roots of some words haven't changed greatly since the proto Indo-European times but the pronunciation has changed a lot and it keeps changing., Lithuanian is not an ancient language. It's a modern language just like all modern living languages but it has preserved arguably a little bit more ancient structures and words than others.
@@Vaidelotelis I said nothing wrong, also.
However, I should have stipulated the least change of the European side of the Indo-European family.
@@Vaidelotelis "It's a modern language just like all modern living languages but it has preserved arguably a little bit more ancient structures and words than others." - this is what "changed the least" actually means.
Great that you put subtitles! even With subtitles only on in ten is possible to deduce. (Nation names, King, Monarch, climate) But it’s amazing to hear something so familiar in sound/melody and yet next to none words are understandable!
Love seing more Baltic languages! This time I guessed both Lithuanian word correct, which makes me feel I can understand a bit more of Lithuanian. 😂
Such experiments ar really educational for both language speakers.
Oh! I’ve been waiting for this one! ❤
Very interesting. I knew nothing of either languages except their existence. Now I see that they obviously have things in common but not to the point of intelligibility. Surprising that they could diverge so much while being neighbours. It’s fascinating.
the divergence seemed to have historically accelerated during the time when Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Livonian order on current Latvian territory was founded. Basically the border between Lithuania and Latvia remain unchanged for such a long time respective language communities didn't really interact extensively.
doesnt surprise me, cause latvia was under livonian occupation since 13th century, while lithuania preserved its independence till like 18th century
@@MostIntelligentMan, but most differences in languages came not from that fact, and they came hundreds of years earlier. Latvian was first influenced more by Finno-ugric languages.
@@manometras Yes., keeping in mind that split from the common dialect began in 6-7 century which is almost 1,5 thousand years ago.
Once again, as a Latvian, I didn't really understand more than Henriks :D but I'll second what another commenter said in that it would be interesting to involve some lesser-spoken baltic languages, I wonder if you have something like that planned!
I'm Latvian too and I understood that he was talking about lions. He said they come from warmer climates and are active at nights in groups and are closely associated with karali and karalistes. That was an easy one
viņš dzīvo Norvēģijā. Emigrējis viņš ir ļoti jaunā vecumā. Ar to arī viss ir pateikts . Viņam nav dziļas izpratnes par latviešu valodu. Latviski viņš komunicē tikai ar ģimeni. Šādiem vingrinājumiem vajag nedaudz vairāk kā tikai zināt valodu.
Ekolingvistam galīgi neiet ar latviešu atrašanu . Iepriekšējais vispār bija Latvijas krievs.
I just discovered your channel and I love it!
I don't have any knowledge about Baltic languages so it was very interesting for me to learn that these two languages are quite different and to see if I could make some sense of it (unsurprisingly almost none).
I think it's fair to say that Latvian and Lithuanian are as similar as Dutch and English
I love these videos - loved to guess the words myself got all 4 words from both videos. The latvian guy was way too serious and academic for this game - didnt trust his baltic instingts but tried using head too much. Lovely episodes, would really love to have more!
As a Lithuanian who never formally studied Latvian, I simply read a bit about Latvian and learned about the specificities of the Latvian phonology and sound changes. And that, for the most part, is enough to understand much more of Latvian. Also, you have to get into the habit of identifying cognates that have come to be used a bit differently and suddenly it all makes much more sense.
The Latvian "dzivnieks" is made by taking the root "dziv-" (alive, living) and appending the suffix "-nieks" to it, producing the word "animal", literally "a living one, a living thing".
In Lithuanian, "dziv-" corresponds to "gyv-" and the suffix "-nieks" to "-ininkas". So "dzivnieks" is equivalent to "gyvininkas" but that word is not used in Lithuanian. However, we have this suffix in words like "vaistininkas" (a pharmacist) < "vaistai" (drugs, medicine); "jūrininkas" (a sailor) < "jūra" (a sea) etc.
In Lithuanian, on the other hand, the word for animal was built by taking "gyv-" and appending "-ūn-" to it, thus "gyvūnas" (an animal). We could also say "gyvis" (a creature, an animal, a being), though used more rarely.
As for "zvērs", "žvėris" these are ancient words that mean "a (dangerous) beast" and they are not used to mean just any "animal". These words have cognates in Slavic (Russian "zver") and Ancient Greek θήρ, θηρίον (ther, therion) and Latin "ferus" (think "feral").
It would be interesting to see how a latvian an lithuanian understand a latgalian. Some time ago google suggested me a video of a song "Sirmgalvis vecītis" in latgalian, and it took me an inordinate effort to translate it. (Of course, i am not a balt). Besides being an interesting video, it was a good linguistic exercise for me. (I was motivated to understad it because i am a sirmgalvis vecītis myself)
😂😂😂 How old are you? 😊
@@antrakirsone2992 only 67. And while I am not a balt, but I am baltarusas/gūdas :-) Kaimynas ir pusbrolis.
Guys do more of these challanges it will unite us even more!
Latvian was my first language. It's been many moons since I've had cause to speak or hear Latvian, I'm amazed how readily I understood the Latvian student. Very good to hear my mother tongue.
Kādēļ tā?
@@Kannaxx I moved to Great Britain as a child, then USA. Now I live in Australia 🦘
@@vascoemyer Anglicismi pārņēma tavu dvēseli!
@@Kannaxx I wouldn't say that at all. A language doesn't define my life's cultural heritage and experience at all. Everyone is an individual.
I think that the Lithuanian and Latvian languages are more different than the most different Slavic languages.
because they are not slavic languages in the first place
@@Lina-uk7ss The comment is saying that Slavic languages, even the most distinct ones, are more similar to each other than Latvian is similar to Lithuanian.
@@550077 yes, I understand what is being said. but the argument, first, is very questionable, second irrelevant: what do slavic languages have to do here at all? why there is a need to always bring slavic world when it comes to Baltic languages?
coming back to the first point, what is this 'estimation' even based on? To me the similarities between Lithuanian and Latvian, is something similar to what we can observe among some of the Romanic or Germanic languages (if the comparison must be made here). Can understand quite a bit when reading, but talking is challenging.
@@Lina-uk7ss
Majority of people are more familiar with Slavic languages and considering Slavic languages are closest to the Baltic group comparisons shouldn't be surprising.
Yes that's true. I am Latvian who has learned Lithuanian. I have also learned Russian and partially Polish. Difference between Latvian and Lithuanian is definitely bigger than between any Slavic languages. But I would say that Lithuanian and Latvian is more similar than for example Germanic languages like English and German.
If you watch the video with subtitles you can hear (and see) more words that are similar to your language. If you try to hear them without subtitles they sometimes disappear in the speech.
It's unbelievable how the guys from Latvia can't understand the meaning. I speak latvian and I understood both words in this and previous episode 😮
I'm Latvian, Lithuanian word "Maišas" reminds me of Latvian word "maiss", thats a sack, also a shopping bag is "maiss", small shopping bag/plastic bag is "maisiņš"! Cheers Justinas, you are awesome! :) You too Henriks, sveicieni no Latvijas :D
Phonetically all languages of Northern Europe are difficult to understand while in writing somehow might reveal better the meaning.
As belarussian living in lithuania and just started learning lithuanian i did understand pretty much everything Justinas said, but i had almost no clue about latvian words :) In general lithuanian and belarussian languages have, surprisingly (hello GDoL), lots of common words. Like most of the veggies(buves - bulba, morka - morkva, agurkai - agurki, etc... even cibuliai(svogunai) - cybula), sodyba - siadziba, kreida - krejda , paslaugos - pasłuhi and, even russians kryptonite, šuflada(polish szuflada) is understandable in lithuania :) But latvian... it's like something completely different :)
Agree! Im Ukrainian - as you know we understand Belorussian quite well. and thats why I also feel and get something in Lithuanian. But didn’t get anything in Latvian.
No Lithuanian says "šuflada"
@@eruno_ I never said they use this word. But they know what it is. May be not all the parts of Lithuania but still any of lithuanians I've spoken -- knew it.
very cool, i like seeing these discussions. Its quite difficult to understand Lithuanian, because the a lot of the words are not that similar even with the subtitles its hard to understand. Hoping to see more if possible!
As a Latvian, I tried listening to the Lithuanian, and it was very hard in the beginning to perceive any separate words. Latvians has the stress on the first syllable of every word and I think it makes it easier for anyone to separate the words when hearing them without knowing the language. I think that the Lithuanian free stress on other syllables makes it so hard for Latvians to understand it - we don't know where each word starts or ends :D
About the last word, from reading the Lithuanian comments it seems that the misunderstanding was actually due to intricacies of this specific word - in Latvian, "soma" is a generic term for any kind of bag, from handbag, purse, to backpack or tote bag. "Maišas" in Lithuanian is equivalent to "Maiss" in Latvian - a tote bag, a sack (for potatoes, sugar etc.), a garbage bag or simply a plastic/paper bag you carry your groceries in. My guess is, Lithuanian doesn't have such a generic word for bag as the Latvian "Soma", that's where the confusion whether it's a backpack or purse came from.
Taip, mes neturime bendro žodžio , kaip "soma" . Tai gali būti "krepšys" arba "tašė" , kaip " die Tasche" vokiškai, nors vokiškai tai reiškia "kišenė".
@@RSkrabiene gal rankine arba rankinukas ne lietuviski zodziai kad jau uzmirsai tokius esant
Latvian Soma in Lithuanian is rankine or rankinukas- handbag or a purse
Your last sentence.... lack of generic word. I once had a rather confusing (for me) conversation with a native speaker of an obscure (according to native speakers} Italian dialect. It was about whales..... It turned out the dialect has 'balena' and 'orca' but no overarching, generic word for 'whale'.
On a side note, when I visited that area I was somewhat of a curiosity. I was the first native English speaker they'd encountered who was learning their dialect without any formal study of standard Italian. This was over 30 years ago, but IIRC, the found my accent fascinating and were intrigued by how I used the auxiliary verbs corresponding to 'avere' & 'stare'. They also have nasal vowels which my brain interpreted as Polish 'ą' & 'ę'.
oh you are very correct about Lithuanian free stress :D that's a huge pain in the ass for me learning Lithuanian :D And even most of books I have about Lithuanian have no stresses marked. May be some books for preschoolers have... So... If somebody from Lithuania can give some links to resources which can help with checking the stress in Lithuanian words -- I would really appreciate this help :D
Any plans for more videos featuring Finnic languages? 😅 (Finnish again in particular.)
Два маленьких народа і такі різні мови. Але здалось литовець краще розуміє латиша. Може тому що доросліше.))
Після війни обов’язково хочу відвідати всі три балтійські країни !!!
Найкращі друзі, справжні брати!🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹🤝🇺🇦
It's interesting how so many words in Lithuanian (and Latvian to a lesser extent: "primos divus" for "first two" is transparent!) can be deduced from their proximity with ancient IE languages.
liutas - the connection with leo is clear, but it's even closer to greek leont- like in the name Leontas. Liutas, Leontas, very close.
Lion is arealetively new word. Lions never lived in Lithuania. It came from Ruthenian "zver' liuty" (a cruel animal). I'm curious where the English got the word for a lion from?
Good one, but I guess the first one was better due to the more comprehensive way the participants explained their words. I think the mutual intelligibility between LV and LT is quite low, but a bit bigger than in this video!
Curiously "soma" in italiano means load, burden; the load carried by animals, donkeys specifically (in fact somaro is also a way to say donkey).
Wow! This was VERY big difference between languages. I mean this was not Swedish and Norwegian or Swedish and Danish not even like Swedish and Icelandic. This is more like Dutch and Swedish (which is pretty much as far away as one get within Germanic languages if one would search for maximum difference). So how is it possible that two such geographically close languages from same family can be SO different? I mean both were part of Poland for a quite a while, so there must have been contacts not just between people but inside the state… which would bring not just spoken but also written language closer.. So interesting 🤔
Only South Eastern Part of Latvia was under Poland and not so Long!! while Rest of Country had big influence from Baltic Germans and Northern Latvia also From Sweden influence.
Polish influence not much affected To Latvia as it did for Lithuania !
The reason for this is that Latvian culture was butchered and mutilated over the course of 800 years due to conquests by many different powers - Germans, Swedes, Russians and then they have had also big influx of Finno-ugric speakers from the north which led to many loanwords that are used today. Unfortunately unlike many Lithuanian tribes who managed to unite themselves against the common enemy and successfully stand against and fend invaders - Latvian tribes were unable to do that which led to disaster and nearly full assimilation as has happened with many other smaller tribes that were wiped out of the maps. Because of this dark history, their language has undergone major shift with implementing multitude different changes and especially introduction of vast amount of foreign loan words. Also both languages diverged pretty early on, I think about 600AD if not mistaken, unlike with Old Norse/Scandinavian languages where split happened just in 14th century.
@@NottinghamForest24 okey, length is relative… Anyhow.. as far as I know Łatgalia still has some Poles / Polish speakers which kind of points to rests of former influence of Polish state. But, that’s not the point - Latvian and Lithuanian is. I mean having two languages that are so geographically close, have been in the same state, are from the same language family and are the closest languages that exist in reference to each other… and yet so little similarity.. Hmm 🤔 There must be something else in play that I don’t know of . . .
lithuanian up to 20th century was mostly spoken by peasants outside bigger towns, and remained relatively archaic. also many words in Lithuanian were slavic origin, which were replaced by many linguists efforts to cleanse the language, therefore many differences from latvian counterparts occur. Latvia had a lot influence from Livonian language for a long time, and due to smaller population had more changes in their language. Me as Lithuanian can understand around 20%, in written form much easier. Mainly due to different stressing of words, latvian stresses first syllable and in lithuanian stresses go everywhere even in words with same root
@@jammmy30 Latgale only one Latvian region who has been under Poland.
Thats why is difference between Catholic Latgale and other part of Latvia who Dominant religion is Lutheran protestants
Estonia and Latvia was one Country called Livonia with Big Sweden influence
Justinas's lithuanian has some very interesting features. He pronounces "ė" as "ie" and sometimes his "o" sounds like "uo". His stress is also very unusual to my ear. I can't help but wonder where his accent comes from.
Suvalkietis
He also said "kalbu anglų ir prancūzų kalbas" (instead of "kalbomis"). That registered as very wrong to me, even grammatically incorrect.
@@Laura-lt Ne suvalkietis, suvalkiečių ė ir o kitaip skamba. Man panašiau į žemaitį.
Manau, jis labai jauidnosi...
@@blueeyedbaer Na, nežinau, Kaune irgi daug kas panašiai kaip Justinas šneka
I feel like these guys were pretty bad at guessing. But maybe it's because I can also see the written form.
Anyways it would help to know sound shifts like
animal: dzīvnieks -> gyvūnas (dz->g)
knee: celis -> kelis (c->k)
Very interesting linguistic exchange... I dont know Nordic languages, but I still find it interesting.
as I am lithuanian these are best series on yt now;D well done polak
Very interesting, good job, as a Lithuanian myself, it was fun to watch. I wouldn't have said that river is an animal because I had watched first part and that is where they say how animal is in Latvian, this guy definitely did not. Overall, such a great video, keep it up, sadly subtitles were incorrect in the beginning:(
Kiel mirinde! Jutubo tradukas al mi subtekstojn de ĉi tiu filmeto de la angla en Esperanton!
Vairākas vasaras sanāca braukāt pa Lietuvas laukiem, bieži sastaptie leiši nerunāja ne angliski, ne krieviski, tad sarunājāmies tāpat, mēs latviski, vietējie lietuviski un lieliski visu vajadzīgo sapratām un noskaidrojām. Silti sveicieni no Latvijas;)🇱🇻
This is how I spoke Slovak in Poland when they didn't speak English
Tas laikam bija žemaiši. Leišus nav nemaz tik viegli saprast.
@@VithimeriusTaisnība Žemaitijā bija vienkāršāk, bet Augštaitijā arī sapratāmies gana veiksmīgi.
❤ Vieglāk saprast, ja valoda plūst sarunā, ne kā video, kad labāk vai sliktāk skaidro kādu vārdu.
Taip aš irgi susikalbėjau Latvijoj savo kalba. Šilti sveikinimai iš Lietuvos ;)
Hi Norbert! Great plot! I live in Latvia on the Latvian, Lithuanian, Belorussian and not far from Russian border. I would take a part in Baltic language challenge.
For me as Latvian the first explaining in Lithuanian about Lion was very easy i think it because i became from par of Latvia called "Latgale" and we have dialect aka Language which is more close to Lithuanian
Even second word wasn’t too hard. And Latvian basically described backpack, he understood everything he was talking about
That was an unexpected delight :)
They spoke about animals before, but when Henriks asked was it an animal for the third word, Justinas said he didn’t understand the question as if he never heard that word dzivnieks / gyvūnas before.
This only shows how foreign sounding Latvian is to Lithuanians.
Can you do a part 3 for this?
Russian speaker who doesn't know Latvian at all, but who is familiar with the sound of German, Latvian language seems to be German. If he is familiar with Swedish then Swedish language. To a Swede or German Latvian sounds like Russian. (Given they aren't familiar so well with Russian language).
To me as a Latvian speaker the most similar by hearing language to Lithuanian is Portuguese and my own Latvian language is closest to Serbian (Croatian and Bosnian, too). When I speak my pigeon Polish, Polish people think that I speak pure Ukrainian. But when I speak my pigeon Polish to Ukrainians, they think that I have learned my Ukrainian from some Russians.
Interesting how neither of these young men learned Russian as a second language. That seems like a significant shift in the culture.
Yes, because most of young people associate Russia with corruption, occupation and alcoholism.
because it's a useless language. there are no cultural or economic ties with russia.
Very similar to German’s loss of status after ‘45.
In Lithuania people born after 2000s rarely can speak Russian, I guess mostly because no one is actually interested in learning it properly and focus on English or German/French instead.
@@eruno_ That could give Russia less of an excuse to try invading the Baltic states, if there is a cultural shift toward Germany or Poland.
There is no way, how didn't lion came up in his mind when he heard about animal and kingdom. Who is the king of animal. That was pretty fast guest for me as an latvian. And the second word was also easy to guess after a while because Justinas said that it teka teka iteka jūrā or smth like that which immeadiatly made sense - jūra is the same for latvian teka also is the same because "upe tek" and "upe ietek jūrā". I was kinda pissed off about his guesses but in general I really enjoyed video and was happy about myself😂 I would like to learn Lithuanian ❤️
It was so interesting to watch and listen I noticed the second I guessed better Latvian word the ear got used to the language and it became easier. Earlier I thought Latvian is impossible to understand though my mother comes from the village by Latvian border.
As Latvian I guessed the "river".
Would be very nice to hear Samagotian versus Latvian, because as Samagotian I did understood good chunk of Latvian, it's funny to listen, unfortunately in real life you don't see subtitles written in Latvian so it's even harder :D mostly I understood because of subtitles :D
Justinas was / is the Samogitian in this video.
@@manometras Strange, he should understand more, cuz there is similar words from Latvian in our dialect, I am Samagotian myself.
@@manometras Yes, you can hear it as his accent, though a slight one, tells it 😁
Hi I'm lithuanian too:DD. Could you maybe do a challenge where lithuanian and latvian are reading clues instead? because at least for me reading subtitles everyhting was very clear and understandable:D
Thanks for that great video!
I am a native Latvian and almost didn't understand anything in Lithuanian :)
Yes, there are words with similar roots etc, but I guess, one has to have exposure or learn it, to understand it more or less alright.
Also, that guy, Henriks, is a native Latvian, he has "Riga standart" accent, spoke Latvian at home when he was a kid and he probably doesn't speak any Russian.
You had a Lithuanian - Latvian video, where a Latvian guy Mikhails was present, who spoke with a clear Russian accent, so he definitely speaks Russian as the first language, and I believe, this is a reason why he was better understanding Lithuanian.
It is not a secret, that from the early 13th century, tribes that became Latvians were heavily influenced by Germans and Livonians whereas tribes that became Lithuanians, had a very very different history and influence.
I believe, speaking a Slavic language on a native level, can help a lot to understand Lithuanian language better.
But perhaps, I am wrong :)
Anyway, once again, thanks for a great video and have a good one!
last word was actually a purse or handbag if we talk about an accessory item, rankine or rankinukas in Lithuanian, bag is too general word - maisas/krepsys. and well it is easier to understand when you can read Latvian subtitles. BTW english subtitles spoils the challenge for those watching
It is essential to use the right questioning strategies to improve this so the speaker can use additional sentences and words and create more context. Just repeating stuff will only help you a little. But that's the understandable problem here and comes with experience. Cool stuff. But I'm biased as growing up near the Lithuanian border, I could understand what's up reasonably quickly.
So similar, but also even more so different.
fascinating
"upe" reminds me of Uralic word "uwe" meaning stream, flow. May this is Baltic-finnic loanword or otherway around? In finnish it is vuo but it is little bit obsolete. But lives on a word "vuono"
According to Wiktionary "upė" is from Indo-European "h₂ep" meaning body of water.
The 3rd question lithuanian described river as big or small what confused latvian. Its should have been explained as "long/short or wide/narrow".
yet seconds before he confirmed wrong guess of LV guy "is it animal?" (dzivnieks)
I am from Latvia and I also thought that he was talking about Lynx. But River I guested right!
Its very interesting!
do a video with latgalian, samogitian, latvian and lithuanian speakers
❤❤❤
Yeah! My Lithuanian is getting better! :) I guessed lion right away. It was so strange that Henriks didn't get it. As for the river I struggled but I got it in the end.
actually river was quite an easy guess too. :) but still I have to practice more :) especially in distinguishing words without subtitles :D
Lithuanian sounds like it has remnants of Latin ...
Suffixes "-as" and "-is" are very popular also in Greek :)
as a Latvian speaker I right at the first one understood it as a lion from the first time, and second one I thought was river
Yea, the first one was very easy. Almost all keywords were similar in both languages. But without Lithuanian subtitles sometimes it’s difficult to catch this similarity due to unusual pronunciation.
@@Vithimeriusmaybe it's difficult for people that don't know about lions. He clearly said that they are active at nights and in groups but if the person does not know that that is how lions are then it would be more difficult. But a big cat and strongly associated with karali and karalistes alone should make it easy to think that it's a lion
Similarities with slavic doesnt mean influenced by them. Slavic languages are younger. Lithuanian and latvian have slavic loadnwords just for relatively new concepts like like book, town, church etc
It just means there was a common language in the past
If some single thing (also language or community) separates into two parts, these new two parts always are isolated at the same time, because there is no other way :)
@@Robertoslaw.Iksinski Yes, but the further separation can happen at different times. Proto-Balto-Slavic separated at some time into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic but further separation most likely happened at different times and rates. All Slavic languages are more mutually intelligible than Latvian and Lithuanian.
@@masia6255 Yes - Poto-Indo - European.
Lithuanian has Slavic borrowings for terms related to religion because the first time Lithuanians encountered Christianity was through Slavic missionaries.
Lithuanian is a second language for me.
It was so much fun hearing the Latvian and trying to understand! If a Latvian person were talking to me, I would not understand much of anything at all. But with the possibilities of hearing it spoken, and seeing it written, plus having the chance to stop the video and ponder, it is remarkable how many connections one can make.
It may sound a bit funny to say, but Latvian is like Lithuanian, but with some letters missing!
😁
Norbert, try may be Latgalian dialect. It's Intermediate dialect between Latvian and Lithuanian (closer to Latvian)
No, it's not an intermediary dialect. There are no intermediary dialects between Latvian and Lithuanian like you can find in some other languages. Latgalian has some (very few) words and structures that are closer to Lithuanian than Latvian but also has some that in Latgalian are even less similar to Lithuanian than they are in standard Latvian
Estus interese spekti la filmeton: "Rumana parolanto kaj Esperanto parolanto - ĉu ili povus kompreni unu la alian" ? Mi povus partopreni kiel Esperanto parolanto. )
It would be interesting to watch the video: "Romanian speaker and Esperanto speaker - could they understand each other" ? I could take part as an Esperanto speaker. )
I understood much in latvian, this is ours brothers ans sisters, regards from Lithuania.
Its easy when i can read in lithuanian, then i can understand, and i understand all two from lithuanian guy... Im latvian!
As a Ukrainian I understand only the last one, and Ukrainian word is similar to latvian - sumka (suma), but we also use word 'torba' for hand bag, which we care in hands (ruki), 'naplečnik', for school bag which we wear on shoulders (pleči).
"Tarba" is an old Latvian word for bag or sack.
@@centisgercans1731
in Lithuanian slang "terba" means any kind of bag
We also have "torbina" or "torebka" for small usually polyethylene bag, synonyms to loanwords "paket" and "kuliok". Big bag used for grain or sugar is "mišok" (mešok in my dialekt).
Also we have some archaisms such as "mich", "tlumok", "klunok", "vorok", "kalita", "mošna", "raneć"...
In lithuanian shoulder is "petys" and shoulders is "pečiai" which sounds similiar like "pleči".
@@SavivaldybiuLyga "Plecs" and "pleci" in Latvian.
I live in east of Lithuania and i more familiar with Poland culture and language. Thank you sir for opportunity to know more about Latvians.
As latvian I knew the second word from lithuanian brother when he sad "ietek jūrā".
And lithunanian brother was actually right. Soma in latvian can mean backpack. xD
It would be Awsome if you would invite Also Latgalian n Samogitian speakers
To make it more interesting, you should include Samogitian dialect speakers from Lithuania and Latgalian dialect speakers from Latvia. I assume they would be better at filling the gap between the formalised version of each language.
I'm Lithuanian, but once in Positivus fest in Latvia I was drunk so much that I started to understand Latvian for real. Me and 3 Latvians had no problems conversatng xD Although we used a lot of gestures and pointing as well lol
Yaaaaaay!!! I guessed both lithuanian words!!
I guessed lion correctly, haha. There was a hint in one of the sentences that said 'warm climate', which sounds almost identical in Latvian. A king, an animal, and a warm climate does make up one thick clue 😀 But with the river, I also though that it was an animal 😂
Justinas needed to say something about Geografija. And sad many times he said Teka but Henriks didn't got it as Tec or similar. I just remember Latvian song Kur tu teci
Plus he said that they are active in groups at nights, I'm Latvian and I too quickly thought that he is talking about lions. From warmer climates and associated with karali and karalistes
@dreamthedream8929 that was confusing, cause lions are not exclusively night animals, they hunt both at the daytime and at night, also not only in groups but alone.
@@trymai_kavun but mostly. They go in groups to search prey at nights. Lions sleep a lot. 20 hours and mostly during daylight. If a person does not know about lions that this would be harder. However even mentioning big cats from warmer climates associated with karali and karalistes should have had been enough
@@arnasudovic8383, upė teka, bet latviai supranta žodį teka / tec, kaip bėga, taigi gyvūnas gali bėgti. Kur tu teci yra daina apie apie gaidelį, “kur tu bėgi, kur tu bėgi, gaidel mans?”
Very interesting. I don't know why but i used to think Latvian and Lithuanian are closer to each other than they actually are. I don't speak any of these languages but I could see how different were the words
I would say now that Lithuanian has almost the same distance to Latvian as to the closest Slavic languages
Whenever I see a textured wall like in the LT guys video I immediately go "is this the popcorn type of textured wall that is known to have asbestos?". Hope I'm wrong but just in case... plz check when this was built.
lithuanian and latvian are more archaic thank any living slavic language. They have similarities with proto slavic, not influence by them.
Latvian is heavily influenced by Russian since 1721
Total nonsense. You lack basic knowledge. Lithuanian and Latvian languages are not Slavic languages, they are Baltic languages. Not at all similar to Slavic languages. These are Indo-European languages.
@@Rasytojas1980 bs. Proove.
@@Ilgas look at Samogitian dictionary full of Polish loanwords
Also in east Aukstaitija
@@Ilgas there is nothing to prove if you learn Polish you instantly notice same words like 5-10%
I love how these languages sound :)
I bet people have asked for it a million times already (and I imagine setting this games up is not easy), but it would be great having one for Turkic languages :D
I feel like I can understand enough when I read Latvian, but not when it's spoken. I tried to first ignore the subtitles and only listen, but when I read them it seemed easier. :D