Useful words :: How Lithuanians course

Lithuanian Language, language spoken by most of the inhabitants of Lithuania and by expatriates in such countries as the United States, Canada, and Australia. Lithuanian, Old Prussian, and the Latvian Language principally constitute the Baltic languages, a principal subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Lithuanian appears in two main dialect groups, Low Lithuanian (along the Baltic coast) and High Lithuanian, with further dialect subdivisions. It is considered notably pure in its retention of archaic Indo-European forms. Although a literary language had existed since the 16th century, three literary dialects competed for acceptance in the 19th century; modern Standard Lithuanian (based on the West High Lithuanian dialect) did not develop fully until just before the first period of Lithuanian political independence (1918-40), when it became the country's official language. Especially since World War II, Russian has been a major influence on Lithuanian.
Lithuanian is highly inflected. In standard Lithuanian, nouns have seven cases (some dialects have eight or more). Gender is masculine and feminine, although some traces of the old neuter survive. Number is singular and plural; some dialects also have a dual number (for two items). The article is not used. Four simple verb tenses (present, preterite, frequentive past, and future) and several compounds exist in the indicative mood; imperative, subjunctive, reflexive, infinitive, and participial forms are also clearly defined.
The language is rich in the use of diphthongs and, like Latvian, in rising and falling intonations. Lithuanian is written in the Latin alphabet, with additional diacritical marks.