Editing Lithuanian language (section)

==Grammar==
{{Main|Lithuanian grammar|Lithuanian declension}}
[[File:GRAMMATICA Litvanica by Daniel Klein, published in Königsberg, 1653.jpg|thumb|[[Daniel Klein (grammarian)|Daniel Klein]]'s ''[[Grammatica Litvanica]]'', the first printed grammar of Lithuanian, published in Königsberg in 1653]]
[[File:Grammar of Lithuanian language; 1737.jpg|thumb|''[[Universitas lingvarum Litvaniae]]'', published in Vilnius in 1737, the oldest surviving grammar of Lithuanian published in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]
[[File:Lietuviškos kalbos gramatika (Grammar of the Lithuanian language) by Jonas Jablonskis, published in Tilžė in 1901.jpg|thumb|''Lietuviškos kalbos gramatika'' ({{langx|en|Lithuanian Grammar}}) by [[Jonas Jablonskis]], published in [[Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast|Tilsit]] in 1901]]
The first prescriptive printed [[grammar]] of Lithuanian – ''[[Grammatica Litvanica]]'' was commissioned by the [[Duke of Prussia]], [[Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg|Friedrich Wilhelm]], for use in the Lithuanian-speaking parishes of [[East Prussia]]. It was written by [[Daniel Klein (grammarian)|Daniel Klein]] in [[Latin]] and was published by Johann Reusner in 1653 in [[Königsberg]], [[Duchy of Prussia]].<ref name="KleinasMle">{{cite web |last1=Kaunas |first1=Domas |last2=Žemaitaitis |first2=Algirdas |title=Danielius Kleinas |url=https://www.mle.lt/straipsniai/danielius-kleinas |website=Mažosios Lietuvos enciklopedija |access-date=15 January 2023 |language=lt}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Novickas |first1=Elizabeth |title=The printer and the scholar: the making of Daniel Klein's Grammatica Litvanica |journal=Archivum Lithuanicum |date=2004 |volume=6 |pages=17–41 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Chicago]] |location=[[Chicago]] |url=http://www.elibrary.lt/resursai/Leidiniai/Archivum_Lithuanicum/2004/al_04_05.pdf |access-date=15 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Šilas |first1=Vytautas |last2=Sambora |first2=Henrikas |title=Karaliaučius, Tvangystė |url=https://vkpk.lt/u-zemelapis/karaliaucius-tvangyste/ |website=National Commission for Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Lithuania |access-date=15 January 2023 |language=lt}}</ref> In ~1643 Christophorus Sapphun wrote the Lithuanian grammar ''[[Compendium Grammaticae Lithvanicae]]'' slightly earlier than Klein, however the edited variant of Sapphun's grammar was published only in 1673 by Theophylus Gottlieb Schultz.<ref>{{cite web |title=Kalbotyros pradmenų konspektas |url=https://mokslai.lietuviuzodynas.lt/lietuviu-kalba/kalbotyros-pradmenu-konspektas |website=Mokslai.lietuviuzodynas.lt |date=16 June 2015 |access-date=15 January 2023 |language=lt}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Zinkevičius |first1=Zigmas |title=Kristupas Sapūnas |url=https://www.mle.lt/straipsniai/kristupas-sapunas |website=Mažosios Lietuvos enciklopedija |access-date=15 January 2023 |language=lt}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Zinkevičius |first1=Zigmas |title=Teofilis Gotlibas Šulcas |url=https://www.mle.lt/straipsniai/teofilis-gotlibas-sulcas |website=Mažosios Lietuvos enciklopedija |access-date=15 January 2023 |language=lt}}</ref>

In one of the first Lithuanian grammars – ''[[Compendium Grammaticae Lithvanicae]]'', published in 1673, most of the given examples are with Lithuanian endings (e.g. names Jonas = Jonas, Jonuttis = Jonutis, etc.), therefore it allows to highlight the tendency of spelling the endings of words in the Old Lithuanian writings.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gudelienė |first1=Birutė |title=The Endings of Proper Names in Simonas Daukantas' and Simonas Stanevičius' Translations of Epitome Historiae Sacrae |journal=Lituanistica |date=2016 |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=38–44 |url=https://www.ateitis.net/lt/temos/1638/#post-14565 |access-date=16 January 2023}}</ref>

The ''[[Universitas lingvarum Litvaniae]]'', published in [[Vilnius]] in 1737, is the oldest surviving grammar of Lithuanian published in the territory of the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sabaliauskas |first1=Algirdas |title=Universitas lingvarum Litvaniae |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/universitas-lingvarum-litvaniae/ |website=[[Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia]] |access-date=16 August 2021 |language=lt}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=UNIVERSITAS Lingvarum Litvaniæ |date=1737 |publisher=Typis Collegii Academici Soc: JESU |url=https://kolekcijos.biblioteka.vu.lt/en/objects/VUB01_000451740#00007 |access-date=16 February 2023}}</ref>

The first scientific ''Compendium of Lithuanian'' was published in German in 1856/57 by [[August Schleicher]], a professor at [[Charles University]] in [[Prague]].<ref>{{cite web |title=August Schleicher |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/august-schleicher/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=15 January 2023 |language=lt}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schleicher |first1=August |title=Handbuch der litauischen Sprache von August Schleicher: Litauisches Lesebuch und Glossar |date=1857 |publisher=J. G. Calve |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qM9fEHvO4cYC |access-date=15 January 2023 |language=de}}</ref> In it he describes Prussian-Lithuanian, which later became the "skeleton" (Būga) of modern Lithuanian. Schleicher asserted that Lithuanian can compete with the [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Old Latin|Roman (Old Latin) language]]s in perfection of forms.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Arbačiauskas |first1=Giedrius |title=Lietuva mūsų lūpose. Kodėl mokslininkas Schleicheris teigė, kad lietuvių kalba gali lenktyniauti su graikų ir romėnų kalbomis? |url=https://www.lrt.lt/mediateka/irasas/2000145101/lietuva-musu-lupose-kodel-mokslininkas-schleicheris-teige-kad-lietuviu-kalba-gali-lenktyniauti-su-graiku-ir-romenu-kalbomis |website=[[Lithuanian National Radio and Television]] |access-date=15 January 2023 |language=lt |date=28 March 2021}}</ref>

Lithuanian is a highly [[inflected language]]. In Lithuanian, there are two [[grammatical gender]]s for nouns (masculine and feminine) and three genders for adjectives, pronouns, numerals and participles (masculine, feminine and neuter). Every attribute must agree with the gender and number of the noun. The neuter forms of other parts of speech are used with a [[Subject (grammar)|subject]] of an undefined gender (a pronoun, an infinitive etc.).

There are twelve [[noun]] and five [[adjective]] [[declension]]s and one (masculine and feminine) participle declension.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika |date=1997 |location=Vilnius |language=lt |trans-title=A Grammar of Modern Lithuanian}}</ref>

Nouns and other parts of nominal morphology are declined in seven [[grammatical case|cases]]: [[nominative]], [[genitive]], [[dative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]], [[instrumental case|instrumental]], [[Locative case|locative]] ([[Inessive case|inessive]]), and [[Vocative case|vocative]]. In older Lithuanian texts, three additional varieties of the locative case are found: [[Illative case|illative]], [[Adessive case|adessive]] and [[Allative case|allative]]. The most common are the [[Illative case|illative]], which is still used, mostly in spoken language, and the [[Allative case|allative]], which survives in the standard language in some idiomatic usages. The adessive is nearly extinct. These additional cases are probably due to the influence of [[Uralic languages]], with which Baltic languages have had a longstanding contact. (Uralic languages possess a great variety of noun cases, a number of which are specialised locative cases.)

Lithuanian verbal morphology shows a number of innovations; namely, the loss of synthetic passive (which is hypothesized based on other archaic Indo-European languages, such as Greek and Latin), [[synthetic perfect]] (formed by means of reduplication) and [[aorist]]; forming [[subjunctive]] and [[imperative mood|imperative]] with the use of suffixes plus flexions as opposed to solely flections in, e.g., [[Ancient Greek]]; loss of the [[optative mood]]; merging and disappearing of the -''t''- and -''nt''- markers for the third-person singular and plural, respectively (this, however, occurs in Latvian and Old Prussian as well and may indicate a collective feature of all Baltic languages).

On the other hand, Lithuanian verbal morphology retains a number of archaic features absent from most modern Indo-European languages (but shared with Latvian). This includes the synthetic form of the future tense with the help of the -''s''- suffix and three principal verbal forms with the present tense stem employing the -''n''- and -''st''- infixes.

There are three [[verb]]al [[grammatical conjugation|conjugation]]s. The verb ''būti'' is the only [[auxiliary verb]] in the language. Together with [[participle]]s, it is used to form dozens of compound forms.

In the '''active voice''', each verb can be inflected for any of the following [[Grammatical mood|moods]]:

# Indicative
# Indirect
# Imperative
# Conditional/subjunctive

In the [[indicative mood]] and indirect moods, all verbs can have eleven [[Grammatical tense|tenses]]:

# simple: [[present tense|present]] (e.g., ''nešu'' 'I carry'), [[past tense|past]] (''nešiau''), [[past iterative tense|past iterative]] (''nešdavau'') and [[future tense|future]] (''nešiu'')
# compound:
## present perfect (''esu nešęs''), past perfect (''buvau nešęs''), past iterative perfect (''būdavau nešęs''), future perfect (''būsiu nešęs'')
## past [[Inchoative aspect|inchoative]] (''buvau benešąs''), past iterative inchoative (''būdavau benešąs''), future inchoative (''būsiu benešąs'')

The [[indirect mood]], used only in written narrative speech, has the same tenses corresponding to the appropriate active participle in nominative case; e.g., the past of the indirect mood would be ''nešęs'', while the past iterative inchoative of the indirect mood would be ''būdavęs benešąs''. Since it is a nominal form, this mood cannot be conjugated but must match the subject's number and gender.

The [[subjunctive mood|subjunctive]] (or [[conditional mood|conditional]]) <!-- see notes in the discussion page of the Lithuanian grammar--> and the [[imperative mood]]s have three tenses. Subjunctive: present (''neščiau''), past (''būčiau nešęs''), inchoative (''būčiau benešąs''); imperative: present (''nešk''), perfect (''būk nešęs'') and inchoative (''būk benešąs'').

The [[infinitive]] has only one form (''nešti''). These forms, except the infinitive and indirect mood, are conjugative, having two singular, two plural persons, and the third person form common both for plural and singular.

In the '''passive voice''', the form number is not as rich as in the active voice. There are two types of passive voice in Lithuanian: present participle (type I) and past participle (type II) (in the examples below types I and II are separated with a slash). They both have the same moods and tenses:

# Indicative mood: [[present tense|present]] (''esu nešamas/neštas''), [[past tense|past]] (''buvau nešamas/neštas''), [[past iterative tense|past iterative]] (''būdavau nešamas/neštas'') and [[future tense|future]] (''būsiu nešamas/neštas'')
# Indirect mood: [[present tense|present]] (''esąs nešamas/neštas''), [[past tense|past]] (''buvęs nešamas/neštas''), [[past iterative tense|past iterative]] (''būdavęs nešamas/neštas'') and [[future tense|future]] (''būsiąs nešamas/neštas'').
# Imperative mood: present (type I only: ''būk nešamas''), past (type II only: ''būk neštas'').
# Subjunctive / conditional mood: present (type I only: ''būčiau nešamas''), past (type II only: ''būčiau neštas'').

Lithuanian has the richest [[participle]] system of all Indo-European languages, having participles derived from all simple tenses with distinct active and passive forms, and two gerund forms.

In practical terms, the rich overall inflectional system makes the word order have a different meaning than in more [[analytic language]]s such as English. The English phrase "'''a''' car is coming" translates as "atvažiuoja automobilis" (the [[Topic and comment|theme]] first), while "'''the''' car is coming" – "automobilis atvažiuoja" (the theme first; word order inversion).

Lithuanian also has a very rich word derivation system and an array of diminutive suffixes.

Today there are two definitive books on Lithuanian grammar: one in English, the ''Introduction to Modern Lithuanian'' (called ''Beginner's Lithuanian'' in its newer editions) by [[Leonardas Dambriūnas]], [[Antanas Klimas]] and [[William R. Schmalstieg]]; and another in Russian, [[Vytautas Ambrazas]]' ''Грамматика литовского языка'' (''Lithuanian Grammar''). Another recent book on Lithuanian grammar is the second edition of ''Review of Modern Lithuanian Grammar'' by Edmund Remys, published by Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, Chicago, 2003.