Thanks Cronos.
Posted on 03/08/2023 10:35:50 PM PST by Cronos
While Lithuanian has changed, it changed more slowly than other Indo-European languages and so the contemporary language has features similar to those of such ancient ones as Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.
Traditional Lithuanian houses are often adorned with a horse motif. The twin horse heads are known as ‘Ašvieniai’. In Lithuanian mythology, the Ašvieniai are divine twins portrayed as pulling the carriage of the sun god (Saule) through the sky. That their name sounds uncannily familiar to Indians is on account of the fact that the term and other details pertaining to their portrayal are akin to the Ashwin twins of Indian mythology. In fact, the Lithuanian word for horse, from which Ašvieniai is derived — ‘ašva’ — is almost the same as the Sanskrit one: ‘ashva’. And that’s not all. Many Lithuanian words have more than a passing resemblance to Sanskrit ones.
Dievas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘gods’ is similar to Devas (Sanskrit). Ugnis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘fire’ is similar to Agnis (Sanskrit). Dantis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘teeth’ is similar to Dantas (Sanskrit). For ‘smoke’, the Sanskrit dhumas is similar to the Lithuanian dumas. Lithuanians wish profit and wealth to others and say ‘labhas’, similar to the Sanskrit ‘labh’. Sapnas in Lithuanian means dream, similar to swapn in Sanskrit.
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Home » Art Culture » Why Lithuanian-Sanskrit Similarities Continue To Intrigue Linguists, Two Centuries... Why Lithuanian-Sanskrit similarities continue to intrigue linguists, two centuries on News9live Karthik Venkatesh Published: 11 Mar 2022 14:26:PM
Why Lithuanian-Sanskrit similarities continue to intrigue linguists, two centuries on While Lithuanian has changed, it changed more slowly than other Indo-European languages and so the contemporary language has features similar to those of such ancient ones as Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.
Traditional Lithuanian houses are often adorned with a horse motif. The twin horse heads are known as ‘Ašvieniai’. In Lithuanian mythology, the Ašvieniai are divine twins portrayed as pulling the carriage of the sun god (Saule) through the sky. That their name sounds uncannily familiar to Indians is on account of the fact that the term and other details pertaining to their portrayal are akin to the Ashwin twins of Indian mythology. In fact, the Lithuanian word for horse, from which Ašvieniai is derived — ‘ašva’ — is almost the same as the Sanskrit one: ‘ashva’. And that’s not all. Many Lithuanian words have more than a passing resemblance to Sanskrit ones.
Dievas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘gods’ is similar to Devas (Sanskrit). Ugnis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘fire’ is similar to Agnis (Sanskrit). Dantis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘teeth’ is similar to Dantas (Sanskrit). For ‘smoke’, the Sanskrit dhumas is similar to the Lithuanian dumas. Lithuanians wish profit and wealth to others and say ‘labhas’, similar to the Sanskrit ‘labh’. Sapnas in Lithuanian means dream, similar to swapn in Sanskrit.
What explains these commonalities?
Lithuanian and Sanskrit are both part of the Indo-European language family and it is here that the story must begin.
The worldwide web of the Indo-European language family
Today, close to three billion people (more than 40 percent of the world’s population) speak an Indo-European tongue. The antecedents of Divehi in the Maldives, Bishnupriya Manipuri in North Eastern India, Welsh, Armenian, Albanian and many other seemingly unconnected languages all hark back to a common linguistic ancestry. As different as these tongues may sound today, all these languages (more than 400 living ones and many dozen extinct ones) have all descended from a language known as Proto Indo European (PIE) which is likely to have existed between 4,500 BCE and 2,500 BCE (estimates vary by 1,000 years) following which it split off into its various branches as its speakers migrated in various directions.
Today, linguists speak of the Indo-European language family as consisting of 10 distinct branches — Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Hellenic, Italic, Germanic, Armenian, Tocharian, Celtic, Balto-Slavic and Albanian. Lithuanian belongs to the Balto-Salvic family along with other languages like Latvian (its closest relative), Polish, Czech, Russian and many others.
Similar to Proto Indo European, linguists have further theorised the existence of a Proto-Baltic and Proto East Baltic (both descended from PIE) which eventually further split into Lithuanian and Latvian besides a few other (now extinct) languages. Likewise, Sanskrit likely developed from Proto Indo Iranian (also descended from PIE). At an early stage of evolution, Proto Indo Iranian would have had a fair bit of commonality with Proto East Baltic owing to their common descent. Many words and even the grammar would have likely been similar.
Typically, languages change over the course of centuries owing to their interaction with other languages, the introduction of new vocabulary, changes in pronunciation and so on. But, for various historical reasons, both Sanskrit and Lithuanian did not change all that much and retain their ancient features which has resulted in this uncanny resemblance.
The peculiar situation of Sanskrit and Lithuanian
As a language, for many centuries, Sanskrit’s use has been somewhat restricted. It has served as a liturgical language and its considerable corpus of written texts are studied extensively, but it has not served either as an administrative language or as a spoken one (only about 25,000 people state it as their mother tongue as per the 2011 Census) for centuries.
Typically, it is through active usage that languages evolve and change. Sanskrit’s non-usage on that count has ensured that it has remained virtually unchanged for centuries thereby retaining its distinct characteristics. Similarly, for historical reasons, Lithuanian too has not changed much and has retained many archaic features found only in Sanskrit and Ancient Greek.
Lithuanian’s lack of change owes much to the peculiar circumstances of its history.
For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were populated by various tribes. They likely spoke various Baltic languages and in time, distinct languages emerged. Lithuanian and Latvian likely went in independent directions around 800 CE.
The kingdom of Lithuania was founded in 1253 by Mindaugas who united the various tribes into a single entity. From 1386, owing to the marriage of the Polish queen Hedwig and Lithuania’s Grand Duke Jogaila, the fortunes of the two territories became closely linked. In 1569, the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania was established.
The close relationship that Lithuania shared with Poland meant that as the use of Polish increased due to the gradual Polonisation of the gentry, the Polish language became the de facto language of the educated classes. Lithuanian receded into the background though the common people continued speaking Lithuanian. This resulted in the language not changing a great deal, since while it was a spoken language, little literature was produced in the language and the language was also not used for administrative purposes.
As a written language, the earliest surviving written Lithuanian text is a translation dating to the early 1500s. By the middle of the same century, printed books were introduced, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the 18th century, and books were not commonly available.
While Lithuanian has changed, it changed more slowly than other Indo-European languages and so the contemporary language has features similar to those of such ancient languages as Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. Latvian, also an East Baltic language, is less conservative than Lithuanian and has changed considerably, thereby losing its commonalities with Sanskrit that Lithuanian continues to have.
Since Lithuania broke free from the Soviet Union in 1990 (March 11 is the Day of the Restitution of Independence of Lithuania), the Lithuanian language has more than come into its own and is today one of the official languages of the European Union. Its similarity to Sanskrit which was first noticed by linguists like Franz Bopp and Ferdinand de Saussure in the 19th century continues to be of interest to both linguists (since it provides clues to how PIE might have sounded) and laymen.
Interesting.
I wonder if there have been times past when things changed as fast as they do now?
“Brother” in English = “bratha” in Sanskrit
Parts of the continuum of Indo-Aryan languages.
But yes, this is very interesting, these two are remarkably close given their vast physical separation.
Those nomad Aryans invaded India 4500 years ago and started caste system to avoid mixing with dark skin indigenous people. Being nomads, some lost their way and ended up in Lithuania.
No, because the velocity of change has only accelerated with time.
People in the Indus valley lived for generations for hundreds if not close to a thousand years in the same house and little changed.
But the pace of change in the middle ages was faster than in Sumerian times and the pace of change in the Victorian era was faster than in the middle ages.
Thoroughly recommend “The Horse, the Wheel and Language”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horse,_the_Wheel,_and_Language
https://ia600907.us.archive.org/27/items/horsewheelandlanguage/horsewheelandlanguage.pdf
The Aryan “invasion” theory has been debunked.
The period when the Aryans moved to north India was well after the heyday of the Harappan civilization. It looks like climate change forced the proto-Dravidian speakers to move south to Southern India.
The caste system seems to have been developed by the Indo-Europeans while still a tribe in the Kuban - as witnessed by the separation of priestly, warrior etc. caste.
Thanks Cronos.
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