LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE AND LIT ERATURE. The language and literature of about 2.000.000 Lithuanians,. the great bulk of whom live in the Russian governments of Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, and Suwalki (the last in Poland). There are about 100,000 in the Prussian Province of East Prussia, and a number have emigrated to the United States. With the Lettie (q.v.) and Old Prussian (q.v.) the Lithuanian con stitutes the Baltic subdivision of the Balto Slavic group of the Indo-Germanic family of lan guages. The earliest Slavic literary records antedate the oldest Lithuanian records by seven centuries, yet the Lithuanian is more archaic than the Slavic in phonology, although in morpho logical structure it is less primitive. It has long, short, and half-long vowels, of which the Slavic, excepting the Servian and Czech, has no relics. The Lithuanian employs three ac cents: for short vowels—the grave; for long vowels either the acute to mark a 'falling' tone, e.g. kd-tas, 'steel,' or the circumflex to mark a eompound 'rising-falling' tone, e.g. 'wheel.' Like Sanskrit and Slavic, the Lithua nian accent is entirely free, often receding to the fifth syllable from the end, shifting front the root upon the affix and vice versa. e.g. sukn, turn,' stika, 'lie turns,' Skt. dffpni, '1 hate,' dripnas, 'we hate,' d-dre6ain, hated;' rank& 'hand,' gen. sing. ratnkos.
Among the most notable phonological charac teristics of the Lithuanian language are the retention of diphthongs—reidas, 'face, view,' Gk. Faclos, Slay. ridfi Lid]. baimis, demon, Slay. ta'sfi; the retention of the primitive endings of nouns: Lith. ri/kas. 'wolf,' Skt. rrbis, Slay. vial/ : the complete loss of 11, and the change of the aspirates to felines: the German words Christ us, Pranzose, are Kristtis, Pota:as in Lithuanian. As in Slavic and Indo-Iranian, Indo-Germanic 1: beeame a sibilant: Indo-Ger. *1cm(6-ni, hundred, Lith. Skt.
Av. sat'in, Slay. silt°, Gk. Lat. centum.
In morphology, the Lithuanian has generally preserved the terminations remarkably intact. It has seven of the eight Indo-Germanic eases, and the three numbers: the neuter gender ap pears in pronouns only. There is no trace of the article, though, as in ()1d-Church Slavic and Russian, the postpositive use of jet changes an adjective front the indefinite to the definite form. The verb makes the third singular do duty for the third persons of all three numbers ; it possesses four tenses: present, preterite, future (formed by the addition of -sin, Indo-Ger. oso, Skt. -sya, Gk. a, e.g. Lith. Stisw, Skt. thisydmi, Gk. Suicrcu, I shall give), and imperfect ; there are distinct forms for the indicative, optative, imperative, infinitive, and participle. The passive is periphrastic throughout. but the active construction is sub stituted whenever possible. A reflexive voice also is formed by the addition of -s (earlier -si, reflexive pronoun) to the active forms.
In its vocabulary the Lithuanian has drawn to a considerable extent from the German, Russian, and Polish. Its numerous dialects fall into two
groups: the high (Southern) Lithuanian, which changes the combinations tj and dj to cz, dZ, and the Northern (Low) Lithuanian. which retains tj and dj.
The earliest literary remains in Lithuanian are a translation of Luther's smaller Catechism (Konigsberg, 1547) : a baptismal formulary (dating from 1569) ; another translation of Luther's Catechism and the Gospels (1579). and the prayer-books and translation of the Bible by the Preacher Jan Bretkun (1535-1602). By 1701 fifty-nine books had been printed in Lithu anian, hut most of them were destroyed by un known hands. To the Calvinist propaganda the Lithuanian owes its development for literary purposes, and the publication of a Calvinist New Testament (1701) marks the new period, when works of other than liturgical purport began to appear. Tile most important name daring this period is that of the poet Christian Donalitius (1714-80). His pastoral epic. The Pour SCUSOUS, in hexameters, displays uneommon powers of ob servation and a facile style, though as poetry it is second rate. This poem and six extant fables were published by Schleicher (Saint Petersburg, 1865) and Nesselmann (Ki;nigsberg,. 1569). with translation, notes. and glossary. Another impor tant work Was RIIIIVS Lithuanian Dictionary (1749), later reedited by Make, with a preface by the philosopher Kant. The publications until the last quarter of the nineteenth century were mainly religious, although between 1801 and 1891 some 1200 different books were printed. In 1561 Olechnowiez published fables and stories from Lithuanian life, and later the Bishop Bara noski wrote an 1-pie, the Onikshta Grove. Fritz Ketch (1501-77) issued the first Prussian-Lithu anian newspaper, and in 1883 A usz-ra (Dawn), the first magazine, the organ of the Young Lithu anian Party, was founded by Basanott iez. Be tween 1534 :nut 151)5 no less than thirty-four periodicals appeared in the Cnited con sult: Sehleiker, Handbuch der n Sp rock e ( Prague, I8556-57) ; Ku rschat, f;ra in motif,: (Ice litauisehs Spraehe (Halle, 15761 ; Voelkel, Litaukehes mentarbuch (Heidelberg.
1579) ; Wiedemann, Handbuch der titan a Sprache (Strassburg, 1597 ; Nesselmann, 11 or terburh der titan ischen Sprache 1851); Nursehat, der litanisclon Sprache 1570-53) Bezzenherger, Litau ische taut lettisehe Drucke des sech:ehnten i u, it sicbzehnten) Jahrhunderts (Gottingen, IS7-1-'341 ; id., Britrage zur Oeschiehte der Spraehe (ib., 1577) ; id., Litauische 1SS•) : Wiedemann, !lass litauisch, (Strassburg, 1591) ; Litauisrhe Volksli,der (Berlin, 1853) ; Juszkiewiez. Lictu vig.kos dainos (Kazan, id., srotbines daisies (Saint Petersburg, 1853) ; Bartsch. Dainu Ba/sui (Heidelberg. 155G-59); Schleicher. iirehen, ten e tr. Raise! und. Linder 1S57); Leskien and Brugmann, Litauische Folksliedcr und (Strassbirrg. 18'52).