Learning Lithuanian / Mokomės lietuviškai

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Liisi
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Learning Lithuanian / Mokomės lietuviškai

Postby Liisi » 2004-08-27, 15:14

Welcome to the Lithuanian discussion group!

Lithuanian is one of the two Baltic languages, the other one being Latvian. Lithuanian is spoken by three million people today and it's the most archaic language in the Indo-European family of languages. I would like to quote French linguist Antoine Meillet: "If one wants to know how our ancestors spoke, he has to come and hear the Lithuanian country-people speaking".

If you are studying Lithuanian or just interested in it, this is the place for you! Here you can discuss anything related to Lithuanian language and practise your writing in it. Edit: Now we have a special thread We speak Lithuanian for discussion in Lithuanian only. But in this thread, please post bilingually (Lithuanian - English) or in English. That way our discussion will be accessible to everyone. It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a native speaker, everyone is welcomed to join the discussion.

Unfortunately we don't have a native tutor for our group yet. I have studied the language for two years only so I'm not fluent in it. However, I'm able to help you with simple questions you might have. And Strigo will provide us with some learning material. The idea is that anyone can share their knowledge. Edit: Now we have native Lithuanians in our group. Feel free to ask them questions about Lithuanian language and Lithuania.

So, let's begin! :)
Last edited by Liisi on 2005-03-16, 10:33, edited 2 times in total.
I appreciate corrections to my mistakes in any language.

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Postby E}{pugnator » 2004-08-27, 15:50

Labas!

I'm also strongly interested in Lithuanian, though I haven't had the time for starting studying it. I know of two resources:

A series of English audio lessons as if read from a Lithuanian textbook...

Some lessons in Spanish

('ill post the links for both later)

A pity that this material is not accesible for every1, 'coz not every1 knows Spanish nor can learn a language by following audio lessons only in English. I think we could find a way for making those materials accessible for more people by, for instance, transcribing the audio lessons in English and making them text lessons. I know the owner of that site with audio lessons in English, if there is someone who's a native american english speaker who's willing to help they could transcribe the lessons and send him the transcriptions for them to be published. Someone else would have to transcribe the Lithuanian words in those lessons, of course.

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Postby Strigo » 2004-08-28, 3:02

Sveikas,

This is wonderful! I'll try to contribute as much as I can.

These are some useful expressions in Lithuanian :

Useful expressions

Hi : Labas! Sveikas! Sveiki!

Good morning : Laba diena!

Good afternoon! : Labas vakaras!

Good evening! : Labos nakties!

Welcome! : Sveiki atvykę!

Bye! : Atia! Viso labo! Sudie!

See you! : Iki pasimatymo!

Thank you very much! : Labai ačiū / dėkoju / dėkui!

You’re welcome : Nėra už ką

Yes : Taip

No : Ne

What’s your name : Koks tavo vardas?

My name is ...... : Mano vardas .......

How old are you? : Kiek tau metų?
Aquí es donde traduzco diariamente música israelí del hebreo al español

[flag]cl[/flag] native; [flag]en[/flag] fluent; [flag]il[/flag] lower advanced ; [flag]pt-BR[/flag] read fluently, understand well, speak not so badly (specially after some Itaipava); recently focusing on [flag]sv[/flag][flag]ar[/flag] and I promised myself to finish my [flag]ru[/flag] New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners in less than a month (12/oct/2013). Wants to wake up one day speaking [flag]ka[/flag][flag]lt[/flag] and any Turkic language.

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Postby Liisi » 2004-08-28, 7:54

Thank you Strigo for the expressions!

There's something I would like to comment on to make it clearer.

Strigo wrote:Hi : Labas! Sveikas! Sveiki!


All these words share the similar meaning. But it's important to remember one thing: sveikas is an adjective (meaning "healthy"), so you have to choose the right form according to the gender of the person you are talking to. With labas, the gender doesn't matter.

When talking to a male :arrow: sveikas
When talking to a female :arrow: sveika
When talking to a group of people :arrow: sveiki
When talking to a group of people where everyone is female :arrow: sveikos

And the Lithuanian word for "bye" that I have heard most often is iki, it seems to be missing in your list.

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Postby Strigo » 2004-08-28, 12:15

That's really interesting.

Here're the numbers :

1 vienas/viena

2 du/dvi

3 trys/trys

4 keturi/keturios

5 penki/penkios

6 šeši / šešios

7 septyni / septynios

8 aštuoni / aštuonios

9 devyni / devynios

10 dešimt / dešimt


a) Do you know goos songs in Lithuanian? All kind of music.

b) How many cases does Lithuanian have? I only know three of them

c) Here's a sample :

NOM - GEN - ACC

brolis - brolio - brolį BROTHER
daiktas - daikto - daiktą THING
diena - dienos - dieną DAY

What about the other cases? and the plurals?
Aquí es donde traduzco diariamente música israelí del hebreo al español

[flag]cl[/flag] native; [flag]en[/flag] fluent; [flag]il[/flag] lower advanced ; [flag]pt-BR[/flag] read fluently, understand well, speak not so badly (specially after some Itaipava); recently focusing on [flag]sv[/flag][flag]ar[/flag] and I promised myself to finish my [flag]ru[/flag] New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners in less than a month (12/oct/2013). Wants to wake up one day speaking [flag]ka[/flag][flag]lt[/flag] and any Turkic language.

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Postby Car » 2004-08-28, 12:35

Liisi, do you know any good resources (online or offline)?
Please correct my mistakes!

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Postby Strigo » 2004-08-28, 12:43

Car wrote:Liisi, do you know any good resources (online or offline)?


I've not been able to find.

I only have this website in Spanish : www.lituania.com.ar
Aquí es donde traduzco diariamente música israelí del hebreo al español

[flag]cl[/flag] native; [flag]en[/flag] fluent; [flag]il[/flag] lower advanced ; [flag]pt-BR[/flag] read fluently, understand well, speak not so badly (specially after some Itaipava); recently focusing on [flag]sv[/flag][flag]ar[/flag] and I promised myself to finish my [flag]ru[/flag] New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners in less than a month (12/oct/2013). Wants to wake up one day speaking [flag]ka[/flag][flag]lt[/flag] and any Turkic language.

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Postby Car » 2004-08-28, 13:25

I also know this, this and this site. At the last site, they recommend "Colloquial Lithuanian", has anyone tested it?
Please correct my mistakes!

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Postby Liisi » 2004-08-28, 16:22

Strigo wrote:a) Do you know goos songs in Lithuanian? All kind of music.


I've collected some links below. But I'm not sure if they meet your criteria of good music ;).

To listen to the most popular Lithuanian pop songs right now, go to Radiocentras Lithuanian top 20.

There is also a shop of Lithuanian music online. There are music samples of every CD they are selling.

My favourite Lithuanian singers and bands include Biplan, Andrius Mamontovas, Aleksandras Makejevas, Delfinai... They sing soft, melodic rock and pop. Even if you don't like these, I think they are worth listening to just because the lyrics are easy to follow. If you know Russian, it might be interesting for you that Biplan sings the same songs both in Lithuanian and Russian. I don't know much about other music genres... but I think rap or hard rock are not the best for learning purposes anyway.
Last edited by Liisi on 2004-12-12, 11:38, edited 2 times in total.

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Postby Strigo » 2004-08-28, 16:39

Thank you very much.

Do you know Colloquial Lithuanian?

Do you know a good English-Lithuanian dictionary?
Aquí es donde traduzco diariamente música israelí del hebreo al español

[flag]cl[/flag] native; [flag]en[/flag] fluent; [flag]il[/flag] lower advanced ; [flag]pt-BR[/flag] read fluently, understand well, speak not so badly (specially after some Itaipava); recently focusing on [flag]sv[/flag][flag]ar[/flag] and I promised myself to finish my [flag]ru[/flag] New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners in less than a month (12/oct/2013). Wants to wake up one day speaking [flag]ka[/flag][flag]lt[/flag] and any Turkic language.

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Postby Liisi » 2004-08-28, 18:01

And now about language resources.

The first two sites Car mentioned look interesting, they are new to me. But the last one I know. I really don't recommend it. They teach you things like mes esate :shock: ... well, it's just as correct as we is in English. And it's so full of spelling mistakes, it looks like a joke, not a serious site. Unfortunately I don't know any better place to study it online (except for this thread, of course ;)). I studied Lithuanian at the university, where I got all the grammar tables and information I needed.

But there is Alkonas - an English-Lithuanian-English online dictionary, I hope it will help you.

Strigo wrote:Do you know Colloquial Lithuanian?

Do you mean the book by M.Ramonienė? No, I'm not familiar with it. I have studied "Nė dienos be lietuvių kalbos" by V.Stumbrienė and A.Kaškelevičienė (she is my teacher) and "Литовский язык для всех - Lietuvių kalba visiems" by I.Čekmonienė and V.Čekmonas. The first one is in Lithuanian only (not a good thing if you are studying alone!) and the second one explains the grammar in Russian. I liked both of them.

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Postby Axystos » 2004-08-28, 19:07

Car wrote:I also know this, this and this site. At the last site, they recommend "Colloquial Lithuanian", has anyone tested it?

I have "Colloquial Lithuanian". I didn't get further than lesson 2, due to external factors, but I must say that they used a pleasant way of teaching the language. Pleasant for me, that is.

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Postby Car » 2004-08-28, 19:33

Could you tell us a bit more, Axy?
Please correct my mistakes!

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Postby Liisi » 2004-08-28, 19:51

Strigo wrote:b) How many cases does Lithuanian have? I only know three of them.


There are seven cases: nominative, genetive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, vocative.

I take the table you started.

NOM - GEN - DAT - ACC - INS - LOC - VOC

Masculine
brolis - brolio - broliui - brolį - broliu - brolyje - broli ("brother")
daiktas - daikto - daiktui - daiktą - daiktu - daikte - daikte ("thing")
sūnus - sūnaus - sūnui - sūnų - sūnumi - sūnuje - sūnau ("son")

Feminine
diena - dienos - dienai - dieną - diena - dienoje - diena ("day")
gėlė - gėlės - gėlei - gėlę - gėle - gėlėje - gėle ("flower")
pilis - pilies - piliai - pilį - pilimi - pilyje - pilie ("castle")

:!: Most of the words ending in -is are masculine, but some are feminine, like pilis and moteris ("woman").

:!: There are words ending in -uo, like sesuo ("sister") and šuo ("dog")... I'm not sure if their declension is called irregular, but at least it's very difficult to remember. And so is duktė ("daughter"). I can post their declensions later if needed.

I checked in my grammar table that everything I wrote here is correct. I'm afraid I won't be able to post all the grammar tables here for you - it would take a lifetime :). But I can give you the nominative plural for the words mentioned above:

brolis - broliai, daiktas - daiktai, sūnus - sūnūs, diena - dienos, gėlė - gėlės, pilis - pilys.

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Postby E}{pugnator » 2004-08-29, 0:01

This is the site with audio lessons I meant:

http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/thelithuanians/page10satsch.html
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Postby Liisi » 2004-08-29, 10:05

By the way, you can watch Lithuanian TV programmes at tv.lt. In real time TV you get only one chance to understand everything, but here you can watch a programme as many times as you want! :)

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Postby Car » 2004-08-29, 10:12

Colloquial Lithuanian is confusing me. On their site, they mention a set of a book, a cassette and a CD, but when I look for that set elsewhere, they say it's just a book and a cassette. Maybe it would be safer to buy the book and the CD seperately. :? I wonder why they don't offer such a package anyway. :?:

Liisi, I can only hear the sound, but I don't see any pictures.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Postby Liisi » 2004-08-29, 10:22

E}{pugnator wrote:This is the site with audio lessons I meant:

http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/thelithuanians/page10satsch.html


It looks interesting! Maybe someone will agree to transcribe the lessons. And in the end there are audio files with text, too.

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Postby Liisi » 2004-08-29, 10:34

Car wrote:Liisi, I can only hear the sound, but I don't see any pictures.


Do you mean the TV? You need a Windows Media Player. Do you have it? See the link "pagalba" ("help") at the bottom of the page. There you can find a link to download it. But, if your Internet connection is very slow, you may not be able to see anything. I don't get very good quality picture myself, but enough to see what is happening.

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Postby Car » 2004-08-29, 18:27

I've found the reason: My Windows Media Player version was too old. After updating it, it works now.
Please correct my mistakes!


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