Lithuanian vs Latvian | Can they understand each other? | Episode 2

[@silencestation557]

Both of the languages are so fascinating. They have a special place in my heart since Latvia and Lithuania are our dear Baltic neighbours and friends 😊. Greetings from 🇪🇪!

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

❤❤❤

[@valeriademontmartre]

🇪🇪❤🇱🇻❤🇱🇹

[@Gutukas]

❤❤❤

[@ugnikalnis]

Elagu Baltimaad 🇪🇪!!! Lithuania 🇱🇹 ♥️ 🇪🇪

[@ugnikalnis]

Actually mutual word 💯 Kirvis Cervez Kirves

[@henriksmatiassnilsens]

Thank you Norbert for the great opportunity to participate in this challenge 😄

[@Ecolinguist]

My pleasure 😊

[@antrakirsone2992]

Man ļoti patika tava dalība, jo laba latviešu valoda ❤

[@povilzem]

Regarding the last word. I think we don't actually have a word for just "bag". "Maišas" is a sack. Like a burlap sack of potatoes or a plastic bag for garbage. A leather handbag that ladies would carry is "rankinė". A backpack is "kuprinė". A suitcase is "lagaminas". A basket is "krepšys". But a general bag... Google says it translates into "maišas", but no one is going to consider a maišas to be an accessory (unless you're Lady Gaga), no one would put books into a maišas (unless it's for burning), and the teachers would call social services if they saw a kid bring a maišas to school instead of a backpack.

[@Filantrops]

It is unusual to see a fellow Latvian named same as me. It is a very rare name in Latvia! 😉 We could have conversation in all three languages that you can and I can speak to Norbert in his native language as well! Great content! Keep up the good job!

[@henriksmatiassnilsens]

@@Filantrops it is a rare name indeed, do you know Norwegian as well?

[@KSfreaky]

i'm a lithuanian and i believe that if we had more exposure to latvian language we could pick it up quite fast, but as things are right now, it's is not that easy. also, i think i did better than justinas, because i could read the subtitles :).

[@johnsun3854]

I'm Latvian and I agree with both of your points.

[@fidenemini111]

Latvian language lessons in Lithuanian schools and vice versa could be a graet help. At least as a facultative option for willing ones.

[@KSfreaky]

@@fidenemini111 at least more tv shows and movies.

[@fidenemini111]

@@KSfreaky Yes! With original soundtrack and subs.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

Can this guy not find any latvian!?!?!?!?!?!?! To try to understand other languages and dialects based on a language you already know you need MASTERY of the language you already know to stand any chances. First he finds a russijan who doesnt use latvian enough to be a master of it, then he find an outlander who speaks the language only with his parrents and thus doesnt use it enough to be a master of it! I EASILY answered EVERY SINGLE QUESTION hes asked in this series and these 'fake' "latvians" cant, and that is expected for unlike me they are not masters of my language. Im gona have to assume you are as unable to find proper speakers of other languages and gona have to unsubscribe because asking learners if they can understand related languages is a WASTE OF TIME.

[@wavyseahill]

It would be great to see the discussion between other language speakers from Latvia and Lithuania, for example Latgalians, Livi, Prussians and Samogitians.

[@jammmy30]

Prussians? Are there people that still speak the actual Prussian (Baltic) language?

[@joelthorstensson2772]

@@jammmy30 Some people are trying to revive it.

[@jammmy30]

@@joelthorstensson2772oh… were? Germany? Lithuania? Interesting

[@wavyseahill]

​@@jammmy30It's very rare I guess, but as far as I have red, there are some Revived Prussian speakers in Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Koenigsberg. But this would really be interesting, because as far as I understand, a lot of words have same roots.

[@kodekadkodekad4380]

@@jammmy30 There are definitely attempts to revive the language, and I know that some children are even taught it, but how fluent these people are I don't know. In any case it would be fantastic if one could join a mutual intelligibility experiment here.

[@stuh9584]

Really enjoy hearing Latvian and Lithuanian, would love more of this comparison!

[@zuzannatruba]

Aww, thanks for this video! It is tricky for me as a Latvian to understand spoken Lithuanian in most cases, because the pronunciation is quite different, but it's easier when I see it written- then I can look at the writing and pronounce it differently in my head (and disregard different word endings). It is a strange feeling, it's hard to explain - I feel like I "understand" them, but not the actual words, if that makes any sense at all - like talking to a relative who's talking incoherently, because they're drunk or have dementia, but you love them anyway, and you understand them in some other way :D

[@mildapupsyte]

Hahah! Lithuanian a drunk relative, sounds about right! Mes uz Lietuva! 🤣💃🏻🍻

[@justass]

I understand your pain my friend. Lets say when I listen to Tautumeitas - Raganu Nakts (btw beautiful folk songs) it's like I hear some understandable words, but at the end I know that Ligo is "lygiadienis" aka "midsummer"

[@manometras]

@@justass, but midsummer is not lygiadienis. It is the longest day / shortest night event (ilgiausia diena / trumpiausia naktis). Līgo (Linguo) is linguoja or linguok. Latvians write o where they say uo. And sulyginti is salīdzināt. So you see that it is easy to learn Latvian, but not THAT easy.

[@Gutukas]

😂😂😂

[@zuzannatruba]

@manometras About the pronunciation of "o" in Latvian: there are several. In old words it will be "uo": like in "ola" (egg), "koks" (a tree), also "Līgo" (the word you sing during the midsummer night, which is "Jāņu nakts" - the night of Johns (plural)). In words that have been taken from other languages, the "o" is pronounced as "oooo" instead: "radio", "robots" (a robot), "borščs" (borshch).

[@naurisss]

Great video! Just to mention to all the cocky Latvians in the comments saying how could Henriks not guess the words. Guys, you won't believe, but Henriks did not have written text in front of him like you did. Isn't that crazy? I'm myself both Latvian and Latgalian speaker, and Latgalian pronunciation is somewhat similar to Lithuanian one, and yet for me it sounds like gibberish most of the time. (If I'm not seeing the text of course.) Additionally, languages are "false friends", so quite often you hear a word, that has a completely different meaning, even if you understand It.

[@arnasLT.]

Lithuanian and Latvian started diverging in the 6th-7th century, up until then we spoke one Baltic language. It has been ~1500 years since the languages separated and are not mutually intelligible. Yet, with practice both Latvians and Lithuanians can learn each others' languages very quickly as the fundaments are very much the same. My grandmother from Biržai who had a physical trauma in her youth and was admitted to a hospital in Riga learned Latvian to a fairly high level in 3 months and could easily converse with Latvians whenever she went to Latvia. I do hope there's more interchange between the languages and people of both Balt nations. We used to co-operate much more during the interwar period and I hope that becomes a norm again.

[@eruno_]

it's still wild to me that in Lithuania one can easily watch many Polish channels, but no Latvian ones on TV. I understand that Polish channels are for Polish Lithuanians, but I would still like to see something from Latvia as well.

[@haardkaar]

I'm a native Swedish and Finnish speaker. I've always found that Latvian is sort of a gateway to Lithuanian. As Latvian has a lot of Germanic and Finno-Ugrian influences. I've met a bunch of Latvian and Lithuanian exchange students when I was in the University and they said the languages were close but could not really understand eachother. I was quite dumbstruck in a taxi in Latvia when the taxameter read 'maksa', which is fee/fare in both Finnish and Estonian. I noted in this video about the lion (and king-dom) which in finno-ugric has a straight borrowing in the form of Kuningas and Lithuanian has something like Karalis, which cognates with Hungarian Király. Then pleca or something meaning shoulder and in Polish that would be back, hench the guess back pack. Such a clusterfuck, and I love it. =D

[@ioannakatovskaja9218]

Tere, mina olen Eestist, aga elan Soomes! Moi, minä olen Virosta, mutta asun Suomessa! Привет, я из Эстонии, но живу в Финляндии!

[@NottinghamForest24]

Pleca in polish mean Back while in Russian mean Shoulders pleci(плечи)

[@Oberschutzee]

has alot of russian and east slavic influeance

[@Oberschutzee]

Lithuanian language has some influence from fino Ugric languages but a lot less than Latvian

[@eruno_]

Fun fact, in Lithuanian "kunigas" means "priest" and "kunigaikštis" means "duke".

[@milana0710]

Hello 👋🏻 I am Lithuanian and for me it is hard to understand latvian by hearing :3 but written text is easier

[@jajaja922]

As Latvian gonna tell you a secret. I can understand Samagotian, its really drunk Lithaunian speaking Latvian. Love braļukas.

[@milana0710]

@@jajaja922 :3 Mylime broliuką :3

[@themadmannn]

​@@jajaja922 Likewise - for me as a Lithuanian it is easier to understand Latgalian rather than regular Latvian. It would be really interesting to see a conversation between Samogitian and Latgalian.

[@arnoldtuber]

Thank you! Respect from Ukraine! I was in Vilnius and Riga at The Prodigy live gigs in 2016

[@alfia6690]

One of the reasons I love this channel is because it is clearly not staged like some other channels in which the players seem to miraculously understand each other. The best!

[@tymbark91]

Basically the main misunderstanding in this case was that fact that word for animal aren't cognates. Both word 'dzīvnieks' and 'gyvunas' are neologisms. Although they has same root "dzīv- / gyv-" (different because of palatalization, however identifiable) each word has its unique suffix (-niek- ; -un-). And that is why thеse words seems to be dissimilar, because of different suffixes. For sure using older word for animal 'zvērs' and 'žvėris' would make conversation more understandable. Obviously these words and their synonyms for domastic animals: 'lops' and 'luopas', 'luobas' are more mutually intelligible, however, their use has become more passive due to neologisms.

[@masia6255]

Interesting, in Ukrainian "zvir" means "animal"

[@Robertoslaw.Iksinski]

Latvian "zvērs' and Lithuanian 'žvėris' are very old words, which are more understandable not only for Balts, the same as their Slavic equivalents: Polish "zwierzę" and Czech "zvíře". It means that these universal words come from the times of Balto-Slavic community.

[@daniellin5373]

@@Robertoslaw.Iksinski I've learnt some Russian and "zhivotnoye" is quite different, but well the first two consonants are similar. The vowels and the endings should have been changed a lot. I'm not sure if it's related to the verb "to live" - "zhit'"? I'm not very familiar with Slavics and have almost zero understandings on Baltics though.

[@johnsmith-qc8ud]

@@daniellin5373 "zhivotnoye" is animal in Russian, but there's a word "зверь" - zver' which is totally related to those above and has a meaning close to animal or beast.

[@Robertoslaw.Iksinski]

@@daniellin5373 In Polish "zwierzę" (as official animal) also comes from "zwierz" (as beast). And also exists Polish "żyjątko" and Czech "živočich", which come from verb "żyć" (to live) or noun "život" (life), but in Czech and Polish these synonyms are less official than "zvíře" and "zwierzę".

[@purple_purpur7379]

from these two videos we can conclude that they would be much better at this game if they knew each other's words for animal

[@fidenemini111]

To me it was not difficcult to understand that dzīvnieks and gyvūnas are of the same root.

[@naktisnaktiss9880]

Would be much easier if you could see the subtitles of the other language written.

[@alexgrigorievs7497]

It was extremely interesting to me. Of course, I understood all Lithuanian words, and knew all Latvian. But then I know Latvian and have, very long time ago and very superficially, studied Lithuanian. The description of the last word was indeed suggestive of a backpack.

[@jhargh12234]

I am native Latvian speaker and I have also learned Lithuanian. I would say that before any preparation it's quite hard for Latvian to understand spoken Lithuanian, but it's easier with written Lithuanian. The reason behind for it is that Lithuanian uses stressed accent where word can be stressed also in middle or end. In Latvian word stress is always on the beginning of word. That really makes more difficult to understand until you have become used to it. Learning some basic vowel and consonant shift between Latvia and Lithuanian helps a lot (c->k dz->g uo->an). Also I can suggest for Latvians to read more some older texts in Latvian like folk tales, sometimes they contain more archaic words which help to understand Lithuanian more. For those who wonder how close exactly are Latvian and Lithuanian I would say that for comparison they are more distinct than various Slavic languages are between each other, but more similar than English and German which are both from common Germanic language branch.

[@pavelrumiantsau8891]

I’m Belarusian, but live in Lithuania. It was really interesting since I understand a lot even without knowing most words. Sometimes text confused me more 😅

[@helloitsme8265]

Ngl same, I was confused how I got all 4 words, while the guys struggled a lot. Must be the magic of subtitles

[@KumoCC]

Once again, as a Latvian, I didn't really understand more than Henriks :D but I'll second what another commenter said in that it would be interesting to involve some lesser-spoken baltic languages, I wonder if you have something like that planned!

[@dreamthedream8929]

I'm Latvian too and I understood that he was talking about lions. He said they come from warmer climates and are active at nights in groups and are closely associated with karali and karalistes. That was an easy one

[@sanitamierina6612]

viņš dzīvo Norvēģijā. Emigrējis viņš ir ļoti jaunā vecumā. Ar to arī viss ir pateikts . Viņam nav dziļas izpratnes par latviešu valodu. Latviski viņš komunicē tikai ar ģimeni. Šādiem vingrinājumiem vajag nedaudz vairāk kā tikai zināt valodu. Ekolingvistam galīgi neiet ar latviešu atrašanu . Iepriekšējais vispār bija Latvijas krievs.

[@victoradam8485]

totally fascinating! as a native czech speaker i can pick up an occasional cognate (eg: plece in czech is shoulder, but mostly a butcher's term -- archaically/poetically human shoulder), but on the whole LT an LV are so different... i was fortunate to visit Latvia a couple of times, and i was told of the german and finnic influence, but to actually see how mutually unintelligible LT and LV are is fascinating!

[@mordegardglezgorv2216]

Russian is here. I picked up these words ( Russian words in the second place): cilveki - chelovek (people) parnesatu - perenosit’ (to bring) izgatovots - Izgotovliat’ (to produce) visos - vse ( everything ) bega- begat’ ( to run) teka- tech ( to flow) Lithuanian «zemuma» as «lowland» also cognate (?) with Russian «zemlya» as «ground»

[@mordegardglezgorv2216]

@@leonvotstavke8888 я тоже всю жизнь думал, что балтские языки ближе к немецким. Возможно, этому способствовал культурно-пропагандистский фокус в России, который традиционно причисляет балтов к друзьям немцев. И люди в России заложники этого штампа

[@KaZiK_LT]

@@mordegardglezgorv2216 @leonvotstavke8888 вы не представляете сколько общих слов у литовцев и беларусов :) мои русские коллеги были в шоке на курсах по литовскому от этого факта. и почти все признались, что их учили, что беларуская мова(как и украинская) это просто неправильный русский :D а оказалось, что это, мягко говоря, вообще не так :D

[@mordegardglezgorv2216]

@@KaZiK_LT я специально пробежался с карандашом и даже из небольшой по объему речи литовца вычленил примерно дюжину общих с русским корней, не считая банальных местоимений, числительных вопросов. Так что ваша национально окрашенная попытка преподнести белорусский как особо славянский язык впротивовес варварско-татарскому русскому обречена на неудачу. Хотя допускаю, что у белорусов чуть больше пересечений с литовским в силу долгого совместного проживания, но не думаю, что это какая-то особо значимая величина

[@KaZiK_LT]

@@mordegardglezgorv2216 я нигде не говорил об особо славянском беларуском или, тем более, о вашем варварско-татарском русском. всего-лишь сказал, что есть люди в русских селениях 20-30+ лет которые верят в сказку о неправильном русском на землях беларуси и украины. но как-то странно отрицать факт того, что ваши цари-царицы немецких кровей напихали в язык словей немецких, голандских, французских и прочих да так что остальные славяне перестали его понимать. ну беларусы и правда дольше жили с литовцами и поляками и языки имеют множество схожих, местами до степени смешения, слов. Но вам, видать, все это глаз колет да под короной от этого свербит. Ну бывает...

[@takforalt]

Thanks again, Norbert, for doing another challenge on the Baltic languages of Indoeuropean origin. This might be difficult to set up, but a challenge between Lithuanian and Sanskrit might be interesting since Lithuanian has changed the least from its Indo-European roots and has many similarities to Sanskrit.

[@Vaidelotelis]

No, Lithuanian doesn't have more similarities to Sanskrit than any other Indo-European languages. I have no idea where this myth came from but it's simply wrong. Sanskrit is a dead Indian language just like Latin in Europe. Because they are both Indo-European languages, they have some similarities with all modern Indo-European languages but nowhere near being mutually comprehensible. Lithuanian (and Latvian) objectively is much closer linguistically to all Slavic and Germanic languages than it is to the dead language of Sanskrit. The examples of words that are usually given that are similar in Lithuanian and Sanskrit (Dievas, dūmai) are not unique to Lithuanian. Both words are similar in not only Latvian but also many other Indo-European languages (Dios in Romance languages, dym in Slavic languages) etc etc

[@Vaidelotelis]

Also, it's wrong that Lithuanian has changed the least. It depends on what you consider as change. A Lithuanian speaker of today would not be able to easily communicate with a Lithuanian speaker from 800 years ago let alone a proto Indo-European or Sanskrit speaker from thousands of years ago. The Lithuanian grammar has some archaic structures and the roots of some words haven't changed greatly since the proto Indo-European times but the pronunciation has changed a lot and it keeps changing., Lithuanian is not an ancient language. It's a modern language just like all modern living languages but it has preserved arguably a little bit more ancient structures and words than others.

[@takforalt]

@@Vaidelotelis I said nothing wrong, also.

[@takforalt]

However, I should have stipulated the least change of the European side of the Indo-European family.

[@UTF016]

@@Vaidelotelis "It's a modern language just like all modern living languages but it has preserved arguably a little bit more ancient structures and words than others." - this is what "changed the least" actually means.

[@manometras]

I understand both because I am Lithuanian, and I learned Latvian.

[@pauls.s]

As a Latvian, I have to admit that in the last task Henriks really gave hints in such a way that any Lithuanian speaker could really think that it was a "backpack". Justinas was thinking in the very right direction, very close. I really wanted him to say the right word) I would give him half a point for this task) It can be seen that in the end the guys got used to each other's languages and began to understand each other better. I think this is a really good method if a Lithuanian wants to communicate with a Latvian) Not rushing and asking questions. Then the general meaning of the sentence can be understood. I see in the comments section that some foreigners have the impression that Latvian and Lithuanian are very different. Not quite so, guys. What is confusing is the different phonetics. Therefore, it is not easy to perceive a language when you hear it. But if, for example, a Latvian and a Lithuanian send text messages to each other, they will understand each other better. Because in this way you can see the common roots of words. For example, visually it may seem that the words "Ozols" and "Ąžuolas" are different, but if you take your time and read carefully, you can see a common root, and in both languages this word means "Oak tree". Of course,there are words of non-Baltic origin in our languages, just as there are Germanisms and words of Finno-Ugric origin in Latvian. But I would not overestimate their influence on the language. There are many words with a common root in the Latvian and Lithuanian languages. Which only confirms that we were one community in ancient times. Novēlu visu to labāko mūsu kaimiņiem lietuviešiem🇱🇻👊🇱🇹

[@ernisj.8087]

Mes lietuviai taip pat linkim viso gero savo kaimynam latviam!👍

[@audriusfrankonis6862]

No kidding about the writing - I specifically avoided reading the Latvian subtitles for this one, and it felt so much more difficult than the last time.

[@povilzem]

The problems start when you recognise a word, but it doesn't mean quite exactly what you know it should mean. For example, you go to a tourist place, see written "viešu nams". It's supposed to meen "guest house", but in Lithuanian "viešnamis" (literally the same words, only glued together) means BROTHEL. And you point, you laugh, and the locals look at you like you're crazy, but you don't care, because Latvian is hilarious.

[@pauls.s]

@@povilzem it's really funny😄 I will remember this fact)) It is also interesting with the words “moose “and “deer”) Deer in Latvian will be "briedis", in Lithuanian “elnias”. in Lithuanian moose will be "briedis", but instead in Latvian "alnis".

[@povilzem]

@@pauls.s I see no problem here. Big forest thing with horns is big forest thing with horns.

[@olgad5928]

Love seing more Baltic languages! This time I guessed both Lithuanian word correct, which makes me feel I can understand a bit more of Lithuanian. 😂

[@fidenemini111]

Such experiments ar really educational for both language speakers.

[@martinsennitis670]

I love these videos - loved to guess the words myself got all 4 words from both videos. The latvian guy was way too serious and academic for this game - didnt trust his baltic instingts but tried using head too much. Lovely episodes, would really love to have more!

[@B0K1T0]

I don't have any knowledge about Baltic languages so it was very interesting for me to learn that these two languages are quite different and to see if I could make some sense of it (unsurprisingly almost none).

[@eruno_]

I think it's fair to say that Latvian and Lithuanian are as similar as Dutch and English

[@JYHRO0]

Very interesting. I knew nothing of either languages except their existence. Now I see that they obviously have things in common but not to the point of intelligibility. Surprising that they could diverge so much while being neighbours. It’s fascinating.

[@eruno_]

the divergence seemed to have historically accelerated during the time when Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Livonian order on current Latvian territory was founded. Basically the border between Lithuania and Latvia remain unchanged for such a long time respective language communities didn't really interact extensively.

[@MostIntelligentMan]

doesnt surprise me, cause latvia was under livonian occupation since 13th century, while lithuania preserved its independence till like 18th century

[@manometras]

@@MostIntelligentMan, but most differences in languages came not from that fact, and they came hundreds of years earlier. Latvian was first influenced more by Finno-ugric languages.

[@fidenemini111]

@@manometras Yes., keeping in mind that split from the common dialect began in 6-7 century which is almost 1,5 thousand years ago.

[@jammmy30]

Great that you put subtitles! even With subtitles only on in ten is possible to deduce. (Nation names, King, Monarch, climate) But it’s amazing to hear something so familiar in sound/melody and yet next to none words are understandable!

[@mxMik]

It would be interesting to see how a latvian an lithuanian understand a latgalian. Some time ago google suggested me a video of a song "Sirmgalvis vecītis" in latgalian, and it took me an inordinate effort to translate it. (Of course, i am not a balt). Besides being an interesting video, it was a good linguistic exercise for me. (I was motivated to understad it because i am a sirmgalvis vecītis myself)

[@antrakirsone2992]

😂😂😂 How old are you? 😊

[@mxMik]

​​​​@@antrakirsone2992 only 67. And while I am not a balt, but I am baltarusas/gūdas :-) Kaimynas ir pusbrolis.

[@pile333]

Curiously "soma" in italiano means load, burden; the load carried by animals, donkeys specifically (in fact somaro is also a way to say donkey).

[@Ezullof]

It's interesting how so many words in Lithuanian (and Latvian to a lesser extent: "primos divus" for "first two" is transparent!) can be deduced from their proximity with ancient IE languages. liutas - the connection with leo is clear, but it's even closer to greek leont- like in the name Leontas. Liutas, Leontas, very close.

[@fidenemini111]

Lion is arealetively new word. Lions never lived in Lithuania. It came from Ruthenian "zver' liuty" (a cruel animal). I'm curious where the English got the word for a lion from?

[@nevco8774]

Phonetically all languages of Northern Europe are difficult to understand while in writing somehow might reveal better the meaning.

[@gs2142]

I feel like these guys were pretty bad at guessing. But maybe it's because I can also see the written form. Anyways it would help to know sound shifts like animal: dzīvnieks -> gyvūnas (dz->g) knee: celis -> kelis (c->k)

[@lukasgyl]

Good one, but I guess the first one was better due to the more comprehensive way the participants explained their words. I think the mutual intelligibility between LV and LT is quite low, but a bit bigger than in this video!

[@KaZiK_LT]

As belarussian living in lithuania and just started learning lithuanian i did understand pretty much everything Justinas said, but i had almost no clue about latvian words :) In general lithuanian and belarussian languages have, surprisingly (hello GDoL), lots of common words. Like most of the veggies(buves - bulba, morka - morkva, agurkai - agurki, etc... even cibuliai(svogunai) - cybula), sodyba - siadziba, kreida - krejda , paslaugos - pasłuhi and, even russians kryptonite, šuflada(polish szuflada) is understandable in lithuania :) But latvian... it's like something completely different :)

[@user-redin67d]

Agree! Im Ukrainian - as you know we understand Belorussian quite well. and thats why I also feel and get something in Lithuanian. But didn’t get anything in Latvian.

[@eruno_]

No Lithuanian says "šuflada"

[@KaZiK_LT]

@@eruno_ I never said they use this word. But they know what it is. May be not all the parts of Lithuania but still any of lithuanians I've spoken -- knew it.

[@Arissef]

As a Lithuanian who never formally studied Latvian, I simply read a bit about Latvian and learned about the specificities of the Latvian phonology and sound changes. And that, for the most part, is enough to understand much more of Latvian. Also, you have to get into the habit of identifying cognates that have come to be used a bit differently and suddenly it all makes much more sense. The Latvian "dzivnieks" is made by taking the root "dziv-" (alive, living) and appending the suffix "-nieks" to it, producing the word "animal", literally "a living one, a living thing". In Lithuanian, "dziv-" corresponds to "gyv-" and the suffix "-nieks" to "-ininkas". So "dzivnieks" is equivalent to "gyvininkas" but that word is not used in Lithuanian. However, we have this suffix in words like "vaistininkas" (a pharmacist) < "vaistai" (drugs, medicine); "jūrininkas" (a sailor) < "jūra" (a sea) etc. In Lithuanian, on the other hand, the word for animal was built by taking "gyv-" and appending "-ūn-" to it, thus "gyvūnas" (an animal). We could also say "gyvis" (a creature, an animal, a being), though used more rarely. As for "zvērs", "žvėris" these are ancient words that mean "a (dangerous) beast" and they are not used to mean just any "animal". These words have cognates in Slavic (Russian "zver") and Ancient Greek θήρ, θηρίον (ther, therion) and Latin "ferus" (think "feral").

[@vascoemyer]

Latvian was my first language. It's been many moons since I've had cause to speak or hear Latvian, I'm amazed how readily I understood the Latvian student. Very good to hear my mother tongue.

[@Kannakks]

Kādēļ tā?

[@vascoemyer]

@@Kannakks I moved to Great Britain as a child, then USA. Now I live in Australia 🦘

[@Kannakks]

@@vascoemyer Anglicismi pārņēma tavu dvēseli!

[@vascoemyer]

@@Kannakks I wouldn't say that at all. A language doesn't define my life's cultural heritage and experience at all. Everyone is an individual.

[@justrds]

It's unbelievable how the guys from Latvia can't understand the meaning. I speak latvian and I understood both words in this and previous episode 😮

[@Omnatten9]

The Latvian guy is mainly struggling because of the Lithuanian pronounciation, if he were to read it, he would have understood much more. Great vid!

[@wavyseahill]

The same applies to Latvian pronunciation. But to my mind, main problem here was that guys expected more specific words.

[@Omnatten9]

@@wavyseahill yeah and I also think that too much information was provided and it's hard to understand exactly what you need to focus on

[@wavyseahill]

​​@@Omnatten9yes! Actually I would guess the last word as backpack and I am Latvian. I also understand Lithuanian, so it feels like watching this with cheats. 😁

[@Omnatten9]

@@wavyseahill o forši, savējais

[@wavyseahill]

​​​@@Omnatten9piekritīsi ka Henriks, lai arī runā diezgan tīrā un pareizā Latviešu valodā, tomēr tā izruna ir samērā specifiska, tāda kā "slinki neizteiksmīga"? Latvieši saprot protams, bet domāju ka pat daļa vietējo drusku iespringtu, lai visu saprast.

[@ColdBeer]

I'm Lithuanian, but once in Positivus fest in Latvia I was drunk so much that I started to understand Latvian for real. Me and 3 Latvians had no problems conversatng xD Although we used a lot of gestures and pointing as well lol

[@agnesep331]

As a Latvian, I tried listening to the Lithuanian, and it was very hard in the beginning to perceive any separate words. Latvians has the stress on the first syllable of every word and I think it makes it easier for anyone to separate the words when hearing them without knowing the language. I think that the Lithuanian free stress on other syllables makes it so hard for Latvians to understand it - we don't know where each word starts or ends :D About the last word, from reading the Lithuanian comments it seems that the misunderstanding was actually due to intricacies of this specific word - in Latvian, "soma" is a generic term for any kind of bag, from handbag, purse, to backpack or tote bag. "Maišas" in Lithuanian is equivalent to "Maiss" in Latvian - a tote bag, a sack (for potatoes, sugar etc.), a garbage bag or simply a plastic/paper bag you carry your groceries in. My guess is, Lithuanian doesn't have such a generic word for bag as the Latvian "Soma", that's where the confusion whether it's a backpack or purse came from.

[@RSkrabiene]

Taip, mes neturime bendro žodžio , kaip "soma" . Tai gali būti "krepšys" arba "tašė" , kaip " die Tasche" vokiškai, nors vokiškai tai reiškia "kišenė".

[@litrabolas11]

@@RSkrabiene gal rankine arba rankinukas ne lietuviski zodziai kad jau uzmirsai tokius esant

[@litrabolas11]

Latvian Soma in Lithuanian is rankine or rankinukas- handbag or a purse

[@ak5659]

Your last sentence.... lack of generic word. I once had a rather confusing (for me) conversation with a native speaker of an obscure (according to native speakers} Italian dialect. It was about whales..... It turned out the dialect has 'balena' and 'orca' but no overarching, generic word for 'whale'. On a side note, when I visited that area I was somewhat of a curiosity. I was the first native English speaker they'd encountered who was learning their dialect without any formal study of standard Italian. This was over 30 years ago, but IIRC, the found my accent fascinating and were intrigued by how I used the auxiliary verbs corresponding to 'avere' & 'stare'. They also have nasal vowels which my brain interpreted as Polish 'ą' & 'ę'.

[@KaZiK_LT]

oh you are very correct about Lithuanian free stress :D that's a huge pain in the ass for me learning Lithuanian :D And even most of books I have about Lithuanian have no stresses marked. May be some books for preschoolers have... So... If somebody from Lithuania can give some links to resources which can help with checking the stress in Lithuanian words -- I would really appreciate this help :D

[@corinna007]

Any plans for more videos featuring Finnic languages? 😅 (Finnish again in particular.)

[@johnsun3854]

If you watch the video with subtitles you can hear (and see) more words that are similar to your language. If you try to hear them without subtitles they sometimes disappear in the speech.

[@manometras]

They spoke about animals before, but when Henriks asked was it an animal for the third word, Justinas said he didn’t understand the question as if he never heard that word dzivnieks / gyvūnas before.

[@UTF016]

This only shows how foreign sounding Latvian is to Lithuanians.

[@Domciskas]

Justinas's lithuanian has some very interesting features. He pronounces "ė" as "ie" and sometimes his "o" sounds like "uo". His stress is also very unusual to my ear. I can't help but wonder where his accent comes from.

[@Laura-lt]

Suvalkietis

[@Arissef]

He also said "kalbu anglų ir prancūzų kalbas" (instead of "kalbomis"). That registered as very wrong to me, even grammatically incorrect.

[@blueeyedbaer]

@@Laura-lt Ne suvalkietis, suvalkiečių ė ir o kitaip skamba. Man panašiau į žemaitį.

[@RSkrabiene]

Manau, jis labai jauidnosi...

[@lieutenantbigz938]

​@@blueeyedbaer Na, nežinau, Kaune irgi daug kas panašiai kaip Justinas šneka

[@alcapone3808]

Guys do more of these challanges it will unite us even more!

[@flecksrandomstuff4593]

I'm Latvian, Lithuanian word "Maišas" reminds me of Latvian word "maiss", thats a sack, also a shopping bag is "maiss", small shopping bag/plastic bag is "maisiņš"! Cheers Justinas, you are awesome! :) You too Henriks, sveicieni no Latvijas :D

[@naujadiena]

I think that the Lithuanian and Latvian languages are more different than the most different Slavic languages.

[@Lina-uk7ss]

because they are not slavic languages in the first place

[@UTF016]

@@Lina-uk7ss The comment is saying that Slavic languages, even the most distinct ones, are more similar to each other than Latvian is similar to Lithuanian.

[@Lina-uk7ss]

@@UTF016 yes, I understand what is being said. but the argument, first, is very questionable, second irrelevant: what do slavic languages have to do here at all? why there is a need to always bring slavic world when it comes to Baltic languages? coming back to the first point, what is this 'estimation' even based on? To me the similarities between Lithuanian and Latvian, is something similar to what we can observe among some of the Romanic or Germanic languages (if the comparison must be made here). Can understand quite a bit when reading, but talking is challenging.

[@eruno_]

​@@Lina-uk7ss Majority of people are more familiar with Slavic languages and considering Slavic languages are closest to the Baltic group comparisons shouldn't be surprising.

[@jhargh12234]

Yes that's true. I am Latvian who has learned Lithuanian. I have also learned Russian and partially Polish. Difference between Latvian and Lithuanian is definitely bigger than between any Slavic languages. But I would say that Lithuanian and Latvian is more similar than for example Germanic languages like English and German.

[@jammmy30]

Wow! This was VERY big difference between languages. I mean this was not Swedish and Norwegian or Swedish and Danish not even like Swedish and Icelandic. This is more like Dutch and Swedish (which is pretty much as far away as one get within Germanic languages if one would search for maximum difference). So how is it possible that two such geographically close languages from same family can be SO different? I mean both were part of Poland for a quite a while, so there must have been contacts not just between people but inside the state… which would bring not just spoken but also written language closer.. So interesting 🤔

[@NottinghamForest24]

Only South Eastern Part of Latvia was under Poland and not so Long!! while Rest of Country had big influence from Baltic Germans and Northern Latvia also From Sweden influence. Polish influence not much affected To Latvia as it did for Lithuania !

[@ManteIIo]

The reason for this is that Latvian culture was butchered and mutilated over the course of 800 years due to conquests by many different powers - Germans, Swedes, Russians and then they have had also big influx of Finno-ugric speakers from the north which led to many loanwords that are used today. Unfortunately unlike many Lithuanian tribes who managed to unite themselves against the common enemy and successfully stand against and fend invaders - Latvian tribes were unable to do that which led to disaster and nearly full assimilation as has happened with many other smaller tribes that were wiped out of the maps. Because of this dark history, their language has undergone major shift with implementing multitude different changes and especially introduction of vast amount of foreign loan words. Also both languages diverged pretty early on, I think about 600AD if not mistaken, unlike with Old Norse/Scandinavian languages where split happened just in 14th century.

[@jammmy30]

@@NottinghamForest24 okey, length is relative… Anyhow.. as far as I know Łatgalia still has some Poles / Polish speakers which kind of points to rests of former influence of Polish state. But, that’s not the point - Latvian and Lithuanian is. I mean having two languages that are so geographically close, have been in the same state, are from the same language family and are the closest languages that exist in reference to each other… and yet so little similarity.. Hmm 🤔 There must be something else in play that I don’t know of . . .

[@Suris69xxx]

lithuanian up to 20th century was mostly spoken by peasants outside bigger towns, and remained relatively archaic. also many words in Lithuanian were slavic origin, which were replaced by many linguists efforts to cleanse the language, therefore many differences from latvian counterparts occur. Latvia had a lot influence from Livonian language for a long time, and due to smaller population had more changes in their language. Me as Lithuanian can understand around 20%, in written form much easier. Mainly due to different stressing of words, latvian stresses first syllable and in lithuanian stresses go everywhere even in words with same root

[@NottinghamForest24]

@@jammmy30 Latgale only one Latvian region who has been under Poland. Thats why is difference between Catholic Latgale and other part of Latvia who Dominant religion is Lutheran protestants Estonia and Latvia was one Country called Livonia with Big Sweden influence

[@valfrittefternamn]

Russian speaker who doesn't know Latvian at all, but who is familiar with the sound of German, Latvian language seems to be German. If he is familiar with Swedish then Swedish language. To a Swede or German Latvian sounds like Russian. (Given they aren't familiar so well with Russian language). To me as a Latvian speaker the most similar by hearing language to Lithuanian is Portuguese and my own Latvian language is closest to Serbian (Croatian and Bosnian, too). When I speak my pigeon Polish, Polish people think that I speak pure Ukrainian. But when I speak my pigeon Polish to Ukrainians, they think that I have learned my Ukrainian from some Russians.

[@AdagioVertigo]

For me as Latvian the first explaining in Lithuanian about Lion was very easy i think it because i became from par of Latvia called "Latgale" and we have dialect aka Language which is more close to Lithuanian

[@raimondsozolinsh9665]

Even second word wasn’t too hard. And Latvian basically described backpack, he understood everything he was talking about

[@frandaz]

Oh! I’ve been waiting for this one! ❤

[@lauris5275]

As latvian I knew the second word from lithuanian brother when he sad "ietek jūrā". And lithunanian brother was actually right. Soma in latvian can mean backpack. xD

[@Oberschutzee]

do a video with latgalian, samogitian, latvian and lithuanian speakers

[@antrakirsone2992]

❤❤❤

[@RaferAlstonAkaLAZIO]

The 3rd question lithuanian described river as big or small what confused latvian. Its should have been explained as "long/short or wide/narrow".

[@naktisnaktiss9880]

yet seconds before he confirmed wrong guess of LV guy "is it animal?" (dzivnieks)

[@oleksa-18]

Два маленьких народа і такі різні мови. Але здалось литовець краще розуміє латиша. Може тому що доросліше.)) Після війни обов’язково хочу відвідати всі три балтійські країни !!! Найкращі друзі, справжні брати!🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹🤝🇺🇦

[@jeremycline9542]

Interesting how neither of these young men learned Russian as a second language. That seems like a significant shift in the culture.

[@piggyraccoon5464]

Yes, because most of young people associate Russia with corruption, occupation and alcoholism.

[@KSfreaky]

because it's a useless language. there are no cultural or economic ties with russia.

[@peterfireflylund]

Very similar to German’s loss of status after ‘45.

[@eruno_]

In Lithuania people born after 2000s rarely can speak Russian, I guess mostly because no one is actually interested in learning it properly and focus on English or German/French instead.

[@jeremycline9542]

@@eruno_ That could give Russia less of an excuse to try invading the Baltic states, if there is a cultural shift toward Germany or Poland.

[@Ilgas]

Similarities with slavic doesnt mean influenced by them. Slavic languages are younger. Lithuanian and latvian have slavic loadnwords just for relatively new concepts like like book, town, church etc

[@masia6255]

It just means there was a common language in the past

[@Robertoslaw.Iksinski]

If some single thing (also language or community) separates into two parts, these new two parts always are isolated at the same time, because there is no other way :)

[@blueeyedbaer]

@@Robertoslaw.Iksinski Yes, but the further separation can happen at different times. Proto-Balto-Slavic separated at some time into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic but further separation most likely happened at different times and rates. All Slavic languages are more mutually intelligible than Latvian and Lithuanian.

[@fidenemini111]

@@masia6255 Yes - Poto-Indo - European.

[@eruno_]

Lithuanian has Slavic borrowings for terms related to religion because the first time Lithuanians encountered Christianity was through Slavic missionaries.

[@boks81]

Norbert, try may be Latgalian dialect. It's Intermediate dialect between Latvian and Lithuanian (closer to Latvian)

[@Vaidelotelis]

No, it's not an intermediary dialect. There are no intermediary dialects between Latvian and Lithuanian like you can find in some other languages. Latgalian has some (very few) words and structures that are closer to Lithuanian than Latvian but also has some that in Latgalian are even less similar to Lithuanian than they are in standard Latvian

[@ernestasluza1787]

Would be very nice to hear Samagotian versus Latvian, because as Samagotian I did understood good chunk of Latvian, it's funny to listen, unfortunately in real life you don't see subtitles written in Latvian so it's even harder :D mostly I understood because of subtitles :D

[@manometras]

Justinas was / is the Samogitian in this video.

[@ernestasluza1787]

@@manometras Strange, he should understand more, cuz there is similar words from Latvian in our dialect, I am Samagotian myself.

[@fidenemini111]

@@manometras Yes, you can hear it as his accent, though a slight one, tells it 😁

[@Mendogology]

I just discovered your channel and I love it!

[@_Anton_Marchenko_]

I guessed lion correctly, haha. There was a hint in one of the sentences that said 'warm climate', which sounds almost identical in Latvian. A king, an animal, and a warm climate does make up one thick clue 😀 But with the river, I also though that it was an animal 😂

[@arnasudovic8383]

Justinas needed to say something about Geografija. And sad many times he said Teka but Henriks didn't got it as Tec or similar. I just remember Latvian song Kur tu teci

[@dreamthedream8929]

Plus he said that they are active in groups at nights, I'm Latvian and I too quickly thought that he is talking about lions. From warmer climates and associated with karali and karalistes

[@trymai_kavun]

​@dreamthedream8929 that was confusing, cause lions are not exclusively night animals, they hunt both at the daytime and at night, also not only in groups but alone.

[@dreamthedream8929]

@@trymai_kavun but mostly. They go in groups to search prey at nights. Lions sleep a lot. 20 hours and mostly during daylight. If a person does not know about lions that this would be harder. However even mentioning big cats from warmer climates associated with karali and karalistes should have had been enough

[@manometras]

@@arnasudovic8383, upė teka, bet latviai supranta žodį teka / tec, kaip bėga, taigi gyvūnas gali bėgti. Kur tu teci yra daina apie apie gaidelį, “kur tu bėgi, kur tu bėgi, gaidel mans?”

[@artursbondars7789]

As Latvian I guessed the "river".

[@neviensspele6179]

The Lithuanian guy looks so Lithuanian ❤

[@wladbader]

Even hard to believe these two languages are Indo-European… While listening I couldn’t connect any of the words to Romance, German or Slavic vocabularies (still some words sound like borrowed from other languages, including Slavic). It really represents they had split into different branches more than 2000 years ago :) I hope to go to both countries in a couple of years ✨ greeting from a native Russian speaker of Kazakhstan 🇰🇿

[@egijabiseniece6756]

Vairākas vasaras sanāca braukāt pa Lietuvas laukiem, bieži sastaptie leiši nerunāja ne angliski, ne krieviski, tad sarunājāmies tāpat, mēs latviski, vietējie lietuviski un lieliski visu vajadzīgo sapratām un noskaidrojām. Silti sveicieni no Latvijas;)🇱🇻

[@igorbondarev5226]

This is how I spoke Slovak in Poland when they didn't speak English

[@Vithimerius]

Tas laikam bija žemaiši. Leišus nav nemaz tik viegli saprast.

[@egijabiseniece6756]

​@@VithimeriusTaisnība Žemaitijā bija vienkāršāk, bet Augštaitijā arī sapratāmies gana veiksmīgi.

[@antrakirsone2992]

❤ Vieglāk saprast, ja valoda plūst sarunā, ne kā video, kad labāk vai sliktāk skaidro kādu vārdu.

[@RSkrabiene]

Taip aš irgi susikalbėjau Latvijoj savo kalba. Šilti sveikinimai iš Lietuvos ;)

[@EduardsPutra]

It is essential to use the right questioning strategies to improve this so the speaker can use additional sentences and words and create more context. Just repeating stuff will only help you a little. But that's the understandable problem here and comes with experience. Cool stuff. But I'm biased as growing up near the Lithuanian border, I could understand what's up reasonably quickly.

[@ryt-is]

Maišas is not the correct translation for the last word. Rankinė or Rankinukas would be more correct, because I think he was talking about a handbag (as he said commonly used by women). Maišas is more of a sack. But hey, great video, would love to participate some time.

[@naurisss]

Soma is a wide term - It can be a sack, a bag, can be a purse, and also a backpack, but for backpack we usually have a more specific word - Mugursoma. So direct translation is correct. We also have a word Maiss, but that's specifically for plastic bag.

[@eruno_]

@@naurisss in Lithuanian "maišas" means "sack" and "plastic shopping bag" exclusively, it seems Latvian term is a more versatile.

[@centisgercans1731]

@@eruno_ "Maiss" can be a big sack too, for grain or potatoes, made of fabric. For plastic bag we say "maisiņš" (little sack).

[@rozeloria]

There is no way, how didn't lion came up in his mind when he heard about animal and kingdom. Who is the king of animal. That was pretty fast guest for me as an latvian. And the second word was also easy to guess after a while because Justinas said that it teka teka iteka jūrā or smth like that which immeadiatly made sense - jūra is the same for latvian teka also is the same because "upe tek" and "upe ietek jūrā". I was kinda pissed off about his guesses but in general I really enjoyed video and was happy about myself😂 I would like to learn Lithuanian ❤️

[@dainisjanums3700]

Its easy when i can read in lithuanian, then i can understand, and i understand all two from lithuanian guy... Im latvian!

[@vaidekas]

I live in east of Lithuania and i more familiar with Poland culture and language. Thank you sir for opportunity to know more about Latvians.

[@antonsdefrancua]

I am from Latvia and I also thought that he was talking about Lynx. But River I guested right! Its very interesting!

[@sandrios]

as a Latvian speaker I right at the first one understood it as a lion from the first time, and second one I thought was river

[@Vithimerius]

Yea, the first one was very easy. Almost all keywords were similar in both languages. But without Lithuanian subtitles sometimes it’s difficult to catch this similarity due to unusual pronunciation.

[@dreamthedream8929]

​@@Vithimeriusmaybe it's difficult for people that don't know about lions. He clearly said that they are active at nights and in groups but if the person does not know that that is how lions are then it would be more difficult. But a big cat and strongly associated with karali and karalistes alone should make it easy to think that it's a lion

[@ervinvonhimmel]

Thanks for that great video! I am a native Latvian and almost didn't understand anything in Lithuanian :) Yes, there are words with similar roots etc, but I guess, one has to have exposure or learn it, to understand it more or less alright. Also, that guy, Henriks, is a native Latvian, he has "Riga standart" accent, spoke Latvian at home when he was a kid and he probably doesn't speak any Russian. You had a Lithuanian - Latvian video, where a Latvian guy Mikhails was present, who spoke with a clear Russian accent, so he definitely speaks Russian as the first language, and I believe, this is a reason why he was better understanding Lithuanian. It is not a secret, that from the early 13th century, tribes that became Latvians were heavily influenced by Germans and Livonians whereas tribes that became Lithuanians, had a very very different history and influence. I believe, speaking a Slavic language on a native level, can help a lot to understand Lithuanian language better. But perhaps, I am wrong :) Anyway, once again, thanks for a great video and have a good one!

[@SkyglowProductions]

Latvian "soma" ("a bag") seems to be connected to Russian "сума"/"suma" (same meaning).

[@avotini4400]

Нет, не так! Soma - это сумка, mugursoma - это ранец или рюкзак. Он говорил про школьников, так, что mugursoma это правильный ответ. По-литовски kuprinė.

[@Arissef]

The Wiktionary seems to confirm that: Latvian "soma" < Old East Slavic сума < Old High German soum, from Ancient Greek σάγμα. So Latvian borrowed in from Old East Slavic, which in turn borrowed it from Old High German.

[@Yasa5na]

sthali - sthole means sack bag in indic

[@avotini4400]

@@Arissef Только в современном русском языке "сума" это небольшой мешок, в котором бездомные, нищие носят свои вещи.

[@dmitryche8905]

@@Arissef я всё-таки заметил, что в литовском больше слов схожих со славянскими. Послышались живе (про животное), течи и бежи (когда про реку объяснял) и т.д

[@gruchisonato7851]

as I am lithuanian these are best series on yt now;D well done polak

[@peterfireflylund]

That was an unexpected delight :)

[@nicklausbrain]

This episode is much better than the 1st

[@jaromirmusil9017]

Wow, surprise for me. I thought the last two living Baltic languages were mutually intelligible. My idea was that it would be similar to when I (a Czech) converse with a Slovak, which is essentially almost the same language. With a Pole, it would be a bit more difficult for a Czech, given that Poles have some words that are exactly the same, but mean something completely different. But we will definitely understand each other. For a Czech, Bulgarian is, in my opinion, the hardest of the Slavic languages to understand. However Lithuania vs Latvia, surprise. Guys, you probably won't chat much, without English :)

[@jammmy30]

+++! Same take away, that you put so eloquently in the last sentence

[@liveforever141]

They are! One just has to know some simple rules, as G sound in Lithuanian converts to DZ sound in Latvian and K sound from Lithuanian converts to C sound in Latvian. Then it much much easier to understand each other.

[@anuskas9244]

I am Polish and I understand the Czech language well, Czechs understand Polish better than we understand Czech. I understand Slovak better. I get along with a Czech and a Slovak, not counting, of course, those words that mean something else, the so-called false friends. I still understand the Belarusian language well, I don't understand Russian at all

[@masia6255]

​@@eruno_Not same, because Spanish and Portuguese have 90% of common vocabulary and they can easily understand each other (of course if they are open for making an effort to understand). While here it's a completely different situation. Even though they are in the same family their common vocabulary is pretty limited

[@SocialFoam]

they do chat much, however the language they use for that case is Russian

[@choboltovski]

As a Ukrainian I understand only the last one, and Ukrainian word is similar to latvian - sumka (suma), but we also use word 'torba' for hand bag, which we care in hands (ruki), 'naplečnik', for school bag which we wear on shoulders (pleči).

[@centisgercans1731]

"Tarba" is an old Latvian word for bag or sack.

[@eruno_]

​@@centisgercans1731 in Lithuanian slang "terba" means any kind of bag

[@choboltovski]

We also have "torbina" or "torebka" for small usually polyethylene bag, synonyms to loanwords "paket" and "kuliok". Big bag used for grain or sugar is "mišok" (mešok in my dialekt). Also we have some archaisms such as "mich", "tlumok", "klunok", "vorok", "kalita", "mošna", "raneć"...

[@SavivaldybiuLyga]

In lithuanian shoulder is "petys" and shoulders is "pečiai" which sounds similiar like "pleči".

[@centisgercans1731]

@@SavivaldybiuLyga "Plecs" and "pleci" in Latvian.

[@pile333]

I've never expected them to be that different from each other. Crazy.

[@Oberschutzee]

Its not crazy if you know geopolitics

[@candyy12345]

very cool, i like seeing these discussions. Its quite difficult to understand Lithuanian, because the a lot of the words are not that similar even with the subtitles its hard to understand. Hoping to see more if possible!

[@OlexandrFedorow]

Нічого не зрозуміло, але дуже цікаво! )) Просто мені подобається, як звучить литовська мова! )

[@avotini4400]

Литовский по звучанию схож с беларуским, а латышский - с немецким. Это история.

[@dariuso6190]

​@@avotini4400litovskij nepohož na belorusskij jasyk, kak i latyškij jasyk nepohoš na nemeckij jasyk. Eto sovsem nepohožye jasyki. Litovskij pohoš tolko na latiškij, bolše net jasykov na kotorie pohoš litovskij

[@dariuso6190]

​@@avotini4400istoria i jasyki tut nesviasany. Litovskij neimeet pohožyh slov na slavianskie jasyki, v latiškom jasyke est mnogo slov pohožyh na russkie ili belorusskie slova.

[@avotini4400]

@@dariuso6190 Когда говорил похож имел ввиду звучание (фонетику) языка, а не лексику! В частности беларуское якание характерно и литовскому. Как вы произносите слова "nešt" "mest" и как латыши произносят "nest" "mest" Фонетика в латышском, особенно в курземском отчётливо немецкая, а в литовском, кроме жемайтийского наречия - беларуская.

[@dariuso6190]

@@avotini4400 litovskij jasyk (zvučanie ili fonetika) očen pohož na latinskij jasyk ili sanskrit. Eto pro fonetiku. Eto govorit lingvisty. Nam litovcam, kažetsia smišnim, kokda slaviany sravnivaet svoi jasyki s litovskim. Kokda hočeš naity, možno ošibitsia. Mne litovskij jasyk nepohož ne čem na belorusskij jasyk. Belorusskij jasyk očen pohož na polskij i ukrainskij, daže nesnaja belorusskij jasyk, esli umeeš polskij jasyk, možeš vsio poniat. Litovskij jasyk obsoliutno nepohožij na slavianskie jasyky. Daže net pohožei fonetiki ili svučanie. No gramatika litovskovo jasyka očen pohoža na polskuju, čestkuju, slovackuju, slovenskuju gramatiku

[@Polisinkrozia]

Hi Norbert! Great plot! I live in Latvia on the Latvian, Lithuanian, Belorussian and not far from Russian border. I would take a part in Baltic language challenge.

[@MarieAntoinette1938_tmc]

Lithuanian sounds like it has remnants of Latin ...

[@Robertoslaw.Iksinski]

Suffixes "-as" and "-is" are very popular also in Greek :)

[@jasquerotte9151]

Lithuanian here, to me Latvian sounds like Lithuanian, but with a very strong accent and some words changed completely haha. We do have different regions, where it does actually sound like a different language, even if it's from the same country, so i strongly believe that people from the region Žemaitija could much better communicate with a Latvian. I would love to hear if this is actually true

[@realmahadeo]

In my opinion, after watching first 3 challenges, here these 2 guys didn't cooperate enough. This video shows that LT and LV are not mutually intelligible when spoken at a natural speed. However with slower speaking and providing more repetitions, analogs, comparisons etc, I guess the chances would be much higher to understand the core ideas. As many other commented here, LT and LV are not so different, and I believe with better cooperation mutual intelligibility could be achieved.

[@realmahadeo]

I don't mean this as a criticism. By the way I am studying Lithuanian so understood most of what the LT speaker was saying, but understood very little of Latvian.

[@fidenemini111]

Showing everything also written would help a lot.

[@editacassim6925]

I understood much in latvian, this is ours brothers ans sisters, regards from Lithuania.

[@claudioristagno6460]

There is some mutually intellegibility between these two languages and it's definetly lower than the one between Finnish and Estonian. Probably 30% ? What would native speakers say?

[@wavyseahill]

I am Latvian and I learned Lithuanian language in childhood just by watching TV. And lot of people actually do. You just have to spend some time in training to listen and it becomes quite easy to understand it. A lot of words are the same, but sometimes are used in different context or different form of word is being used more often everyday, but you can build understanding by knowing old, more classic words, that were used by grandparents or in some older/classic literature or poems.

[@claudioristagno6460]

Interesting, thanks for your reply. Would you try to give a percentage?

[@Oberschutzee]

​@@claudioristagno6460 it's hard to say it depends on factors

[@wavyseahill]

​@@claudioristagno6460well it is hard to tell percentage. I can compare it to something that I can find. I have read that it is considered as 30-40%. Also - Ukrainian and Belarusian are considered as 60-70% and for sure they are much more similar than Latvian and Lithuanian. To my feel Latvian and Lithuanian might be something like as similar as Ukrainian/Belarusian with Russian. Maybe be even more intelligible if you additionally know Latgalian or Samogitian a little bit. That's my opinion. I would say region plays huge role as pronunciation can differ very much. Latvians in the east and west sometimes do not talk 100% intelligible to each other. 😅

[@liveforever141]

Countries split from north to south. Samogitians (West Lithuania) have almost no problem understanding Latvians, while Aukstatians (East Lithuania) - Latgalians. Sometimes Samogitians have more problems understanding Aukstaitians, as Latvians understanding Latgalians and vice versa.

[@kir250305]

Very complicated texts. Should do something easier! Than they would guess faster. But so much fun!!!😂

[@Weissenschenkel]

I don't have much to say about the languages themselves¹ but this thumbnail is a work of art! 1. I noticed some words I heard in Ukrainian and Russian like the Lithuanian "miestas" sounding close to місто/место, respectively "city" in Ukrainian and "place" in Russian.

[@manometras]

Miestas means a city in Lithuanian (as well as miasto in Polish).

[@rds7516]

Yes. "Miestas" is a slavic borrowing.

[@gordonpi8674]

So similar, but also even more so different.

[@kodekadkodekad4380]

Great episode! The more I get exposed to Baltic, the more the connection to Slavic becomes obvious to me. It's not a very straightforward one, but especially when reading the subtitles, you realize that many words in Lithuanian or Latvian have cognates in Slavic, even if the pronunciation and grammar are evidently very different.

[@wavyseahill]

I was quite surprised to find similarities between Latvian/Lithuanian and Ukrainian/Belarusian, but see that in Russian this word has quite different root.

[@RichieLarpa]

Where are you from, if I can ask? I am Czech and I would love to discuss, how other Slavic nations wiew those languages, since I study Lithuanian and I also see interesting connections in Lithuanian and Latvian, as well as various words, that seem to be of Slavic origin.

[@efectovogel8295]

@@RichieLarpathe Baltic and Slavic languages belong to their own branch in the Indo-European language family, that’s why there are so many similarities (mainly in grammar, I’d say). Although there are words of Slavic origin in the Baltic languages (Lith. “Knyga”, from Russian «Книга»; or Latv. “Domāt”, from Old East Slavic “думати”), most of the common vocabulary comes from the common ancestor of Proto-Slavic and all Baltic languages: Proto-Balto-Slavic (Lith. “Ugnis”, cognate with Czech “oheň”; or Latvian “būt”, cognate with Ukrainian “бути”). However, the amount of cognates between the Baltic languages and the Slavic languages is surprisingly small, compared to what you would expect in languages with such a degree of separation. Thus, mutual intelligibility is basically nonexistent. Mind you, I’m neither a Baltic nor a Slavic speaker, I’m just a Spaniard who happens to love these amazing languages! Edit: Sveikas iš kito žmogaus, kad taip pat nori mokausi lietuvių kalbos!

[@kodekadkodekad4380]

@@RichieLarpa I'm French actually, so not a native Slavic speaker, but I know Polish and Slovak well enough so that I can identify these cognates (mostly when I read the captions, when spoken it just goes a bit too fast for me).

[@kodekadkodekad4380]

@@wavyseahill Do you have examples in mind?

[@ginchiks]

Yeah! My Lithuanian is getting better! :) I guessed lion right away. It was so strange that Henriks didn't get it. As for the river I struggled but I got it in the end.

[@KaZiK_LT]

actually river was quite an easy guess too. :) but still I have to practice more :) especially in distinguishing words without subtitles :D

[@janiseiduks8384]

As a Latvian I easily guessed both Lithuanian words, but yes, maybe I was more exposed to Lithuanian.

[@nevco8774]

Do people from Lithuania and Latvia travel from one country to another these days in 2023? If they do how do they communicate? Do they use English especially youtng people? Do old folks use Russian among themselves? I understand that for instance Estonian is entirely in a different language family - Uralian with Finnish so there is no another way to get by except by using English.

[@sigawof]

​@@nevco8774, Lithuanians often go to Latvia on holidays. Most use Russian to communicate, but younger people (in their 20s rather than older generations) probably use English, as Russian is not as popular language to learn anymore.

[@nevco8774]

@@sigawof So it is a clear generational divide with young folks using English and old ones Russian, even traveling to Estonia. However if somebody jumps on the ferry to go to Finland or Sweden then only English is the way to go. I believe even going to Poland Russian is of little use. Russian might be useful with older folks in Eastern Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, yet the English is to go. The problem will be in Hungary where nobody speaks foreign languages even they might be able to speak it.

[@RSkrabiene]

@@nevco8774 Vyresni žmonės susikalba rusiškai, jaunesni angliškai. O man pavyko susikalbėti lietuviškai , tik kai kuriuos žodžius teko išsiversti į rusų ar anglų kalbą. :) Svarbu komunikuoti ir rasti bendrai suprantamų žodžių ar gestų.

[@naktisnaktiss9880]

@@nevco8774 I had sad experience in Nica, Latvia, last summer. Did break myself trying to speak Latvian with young waitress at the restaurant (learned Latvian a bit long ago when servicing my military service in Riga), then English, and we finished with kinda Pigeon Latvian-English. I guess now she was probably krievu meitene.

[@lukasfire7fly789]

Very interesting, good job, as a Lithuanian myself, it was fun to watch. I wouldn't have said that river is an animal because I had watched first part and that is where they say how animal is in Latvian, this guy definitely did not. Overall, such a great video, keep it up, sadly subtitles were incorrect in the beginning:(

[@UtamagUta]

Bag, or maišas in Lithuanian has only one meaning - grocery bag (or any other bought good) and is plastic or paper nowadays. Could be a sag of potatoes but it depends on context heavily, initial thought is a grocery bag. I'd guessed backpack or a handbag/purse,- rankinukas or tašė (tasche in German). Totebags are called material-bags in Lithuanian (medžiaginis maišelis) but they are so rare that nobody would've guessed that one.

[@Vithimerius]

yes, Lithuanian maišas = Latvian maiss, not soma.

[@litrabolas11]

last word was actually a purse or handbag if we talk about an accessory item, rankine or rankinukas in Lithuanian, bag is too general word - maisas/krepsys. and well it is easier to understand when you can read Latvian subtitles. BTW english subtitles spoils the challenge for those watching

[@mildapupsyte]

Im a lithuanian native and find latvian so hard to understand! Very interesting to listen, because i often wondered if us and latvians could have a convo lol! 😅

[@cddcdd7927]

Very interesting. I don't know why but i used to think Latvian and Lithuanian are closer to each other than they actually are. I don't speak any of these languages but I could see how different were the words I would say now that Lithuanian has almost the same distance to Latvian as to the closest Slavic languages

[@piggyraccoon5464]

Henriks saprata, ka iet runa par kaķiem, bet min "monarhiju"? Kur loģika??

[@ernisj.8087]

Aš irgi suprarau šitą sakinį: -Henrikas suprato, kad eina kalba apie katinus, bet mini monarchiją.Kur logika?

[@Arissef]

@@ernisj.8087 Tik kad lietuviškai reikėtų sakyti "kalbama apie", o ne "kalba eina apie". Čia gi rusicizmas - "речь идет о".

[@ernisj.8087]

@@Arissef aš išverčiau latvišką sakinį pažodžiui.

[@manometras]

Nu, ja karal,im ir g,erbonis Lauva, tad tomeer runa var būt par karal,iisti, nevis par lauvu.

[@centisgercans1731]

@@ernisj.8087 Latviski pareizi jāsaka "runa ir", nevis "runa iet".