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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Roots of Lithuanian language ?
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References: <1995May20.141001@uctvms.uct.ac.za>
Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 16:32:27 GMT
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In article <1995May20.141001@uctvms.uct.ac.za>,
 <snggab01@uctvms.uct.ac.za> wrote:
>I was reading through (scanning!) a booklet in Lithuanian the other 
>day and it looked somewhat like a Romance language in structure and style.

That's because, like the Romance languages, it's also Indo-European.
The grammar is quite different and the resemblances between Lithuanian
and any Slavic language are more striking than those between Lithuanian and 
any Romance one.  Some people even classify them together in the "Balto-
Slavic" family. 

>To the best of
>my knowledge it is the oldest living relative of Sanskrit though.

I suppose by this you mean "oldest living language related to Sanskrit
and spoken in largely the same form today as it was in the time when
Sanskrit was a spoken language" (whew!).  Lituanian is generally con-
sidered the most conservative Indo-European language of Europe (i.e.
the one that has changed the least over time), but it makes no sense
to call it Sanskrit's "oldest living relative."  Any living Indo-European
language is, by definition, a living relative of Sanskrit and they are,
on some level, all the same age.

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
