Editing Lithuanian language (section)

==Classification==
[[File:Baltic Tribes c 1200.svg|thumb|left|Distribution of the Baltic tribes, {{c.|1200}} (boundaries are approximate).]]
[[File:Balto-Slavic theories 2.svg|thumb|right|450px|Various schematic sketches of possible Balto-Slavic language relationships.]]
Lithuanian is one of two living [[Baltic languages]], along with [[Latvian language|Latvian]], and they constitute the eastern branch of the Baltic languages family.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dahl |first1=Östen |title=Circum-Baltic Languages |last2=Koptjevskaja-Tamm |first2=Maria |date=2001 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |isbn=9789027230591 |editor-last=Dahl |editor-first=Östen |series=Studies in Language Companion Series 55 |volume=II: Grammar and Typology |page=43 |doi=10.1075/slcs.55.02dah |editor-last2=Koptjevskaja-Tamm |editor-first2=Maria}}</ref> An earlier [[Baltic region|Baltic]] language, [[Old Prussian language|Old Prussian]], was extinct by the 18th century; the other Western Baltic languages, [[Curonian language|Curonian]] and [[Sudovian language|Sudovian]], became extinct earlier. Some theories, such as that of [[Jānis Endzelīns]], considered that the Baltic languages form their own distinct branch of the family of [[Indo-European languages]], and Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact.{{sfn|Dini|2000|pp=139–140}} There is also an opinion that suggests the union of Baltic and Slavic languages into a distinct sub-family of [[Balto-Slavic languages]] amongst the Indo-European family of languages. Such an opinion was first represented by [[August Schleicher]].<ref name="FoundationsBook">{{cite book |last1=Dini |first1=Pietro U. |last2=Richardson |first2=Milda B. |last3=Richardson |first3=Robert E. |title=Foundations of Baltic languages |date=2014 |publisher=Eugrimas |location=Vilnius |pages=206–208 |isbn=978-609-437-263-6 |url=http://www.esparama.lt/es_parama_pletra/failai/ESFproduktai/2014_Foundations_of_Baltic_Languages.pdf |access-date=30 August 2021}}</ref> Some supporters of the Baltic and Slavic languages unity even claim that [[Proto-Baltic language|Proto-Baltic branch]] did not exist, suggesting that Proto-Balto-Slavic split into three language groups: [[East Baltic languages|East Baltic]], [[West Baltic languages|West Baltic]] and [[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]].{{sfn|Dini|2000|p=55}}<ref>'''<sup>104</sup>'''Plg. J. Otrębski 1956–1965 I, p. 44; Schmitt-Brandt 1972. Griežtai prieš baltų (ir baltų-slavų) prokalbės hipotezę pasisakė Mayer 1981."</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Kortlandt|first=Frederik|year=2009|title=Baltica & Balto-Slavica|page=5|quote=Though Prussian is undoubtedly closer to the East Baltic languages than to Slavic, the characteristic features of the Baltic languages seem to be either retentions or results of parallel development and cultural interaction. Thus I assume that Balto-Slavic split into three identifiable branches, each of which followed its own course of development.}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon|first=Rick|last=Derksen|year=2008|page=20|quote=I am not convinced that it is justified to reconstruct a Proto-Baltic stage. The term Proto-Baltic is used for convenience's sake.}}</ref> [[Antoine Meillet]] and [[Jan Baudouin de Courtenay]], on the contrary, believed that the similarity between the Slavic and Baltic languages was caused by independent parallel development, and the Proto-Balto-Slavic language did not exist.{{sfn|Dini|2000|p=138}}
[[File:Lithuanian language in European language map 1741.jpg|thumb|A map of European languages (1741) with the first verse of the [[Lord's Prayer]] in Lithuanian]]

An attempt to reconcile the opposing stances was made by [[Jan Michał Rozwadowski]].<ref name="FoundationsBook"/> He proposed that the two language groups were indeed a unity after the division of Indo-European, but also suggested that after the two had divided into separate entities (Baltic and Slavic), they had posterior contact.<ref name="FoundationsBook"/> The genetic kinship view is augmented by the fact that Proto-Balto-Slavic is easily reconstructible with important proofs in historic prosody. The alleged (or certain, as certain as historical linguistics can be) similarities due to contact are seen in such phenomena as the existence of definite adjectives formed by the addition of an inflected pronoun (descended from the same Proto-Indo-European pronoun), which exist in both Baltic and Slavic yet nowhere else in the Indo-European family (languages such as Albanian and the [[Germanic languages]] developed definite adjectives independently), and that is not reconstructible for Proto-Balto-Slavic, meaning that they most probably developed through language contact.{{sfnp|Zinkevičius|1984|pp=117–138, 209–210}}

The Baltic [[hydronym]]s area stretches from the [[Vistula]] River in the west to the east of [[Moscow]] and from the [[Baltic Sea]] in the north to the south of [[Kyiv]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaindo00mall |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture |date=1997 |publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers |isbn=9781884964985 |editor-last=Mallory |editor-first=J. P. |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaindo00mall/page/n84 49] |editor-last2=Adams |editor-first2=Douglas Q. |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Fortson |first=Benjamin W. |url=https://archive.org/details/indoeuropeanlang00ivbe |title=Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction |date=2004 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Padstow |pages=[https://archive.org/details/indoeuropeanlang00ivbe/page/n393 378]–379 |url-access=limited}}</ref> Vladimir Toporov and [[Oleg Trubachyov]] (1961, 1962) studied Baltic hydronyms in [[Russia]]n and [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] territory.{{sfn|Dini|2000|p=38}} Hydronyms and [[archaeology]] analysis show that the Slavs started migrating to the Baltic areas east and north-east directions in the 6–7th centuries, before then, the Baltic and Slavic boundary was south of the [[Pripyat River]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smoczyński |first=W. |title=Języki indoeuropejskie. Języki bałtyckie |date=1986 |publisher=PWN |location=Warszawa |language=lt |trans-title=Indo-European Languages. Baltic Languages}}</ref> In the 1960s, [[Vladimir Toporov]] and [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (philologist)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]] made the following conclusions about the relationship between the Baltic and Slavic languages:
* a) Proto-Slavic formed from the peripheral-type Baltic dialects; 
* b) the Slavic linguistic type formed later from the structural model of the Baltic languages; 
* c) the Slavic structural model is a result of a transformation of the structural model of the Baltic languages.

These scholars' theses do not contradict the Baltic and Slavic languages closeness and from a historical perspective, specify the Baltic-Slavic languages' evolution.{{sfn|Dini|2000|p=143}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Birnbaum |first=H. Х. Бирнбаум |authorlink=Henrik Birnbaum|date=1985 |title=O dvukh osnovnykh napravleniyakh v yazykovom razvitii |script-title=ru:О двух основных направлениях в языковом развитии |url=https://vja.ruslang.ru/archive/1985-2.pdf#page=32 |journal=Voprosy yazykoznaniya |language=ru |volume=1985 |issue=2 |page=36 |script-journal=ru:Вопросы языкознания}}</ref>

So, there are at least six points of view on the relationships between the Baltic and Slavic. However, as for the hypotheses related to the "Balto-Slavic problem", it is noted that they are more focused on personal theoretical constructions and deviate to some extent from the [[Comparative linguistics|comparative method]].<ref>Б. Вимер. [http://www.philology.ru/linguistics3/vimer-07.htm Судьбы балто-славянских гипотез и сегодняшняя контактная лингвистика.] Ареальное и генетическое в структуре славянских языков. Москва, Институт славяноведения РАН, 2007 (in Russian). Retrieved 2 February 2023</ref>