In Lithuanian, the word order isn't necessarily subject-verb-object. It's the most common default construction, but the words can be arranged in any order you want for emphasis or poetic flourish. The meaning is preserved because all words change to fit their function.
The "Balto-Slavic" branch never existed. The Slavs emerged only 500 BC (or later)-500 AD in very small territory between the upper Dniester and Pripet from the mixture of southern part of Western Balts with the North-Westerns Scythians. The Balts emerged about 3000 BC when Indo-Europeans came here and mixed with the local WHG (Western Hunter Gatherers) indigenous Europidic people. It is the same that we would call the Celtic branch "Celto-French"!!! Because the part of Celts - the Gauls - were romanised and later germanised and from this emerged the French. So the "Proto Balto-Slavic" never existed. There are only the Proto Baltic and Proto Slavic. And there are the Baltic branch of Indo-European languages and Slavic branch of Indo-European languages.
Even modern Russian Slavsits have doubts about Balto-Slavic being legitimate. They tend to explain common features of these two language groups with mutual influence being neighbors for extended period of time.
Dude just learn Baltic and any Slavic language at fluent level and you will realise Balto-Slavic thing is real. They both have huge things in common at their core.
@@BenLlywelyn just thought of another similarity - the plural is constructed in the same way - the Lithuanian masculine plural -ai (goblinas, goblinai), corresponds with the common Welsh pluralisation '-au' (coblyn, coblynau). 😄
@@ColtraneTaylor Yes, they share a common ancestor, the Proto Indo European language from which most modern European and some Asian language evolved. The similarities are hard to notice, but if you know how the different branches evolved, it is easy to find them.
@@ColtraneTaylor Yes because Romance languages all share Latin as their common ancestor, but Latin on the other hand evolved from PIE. As I said the similarities are hard to see nowadays. Some Latin - German cognates I remember now without having to research: haben (to have) - capio Herz (heart) - cor Bruder (brother) - frater Vater (father) - pater Mutter (mother) - mater Schwester - soror gemein (common) - communis
@@duesen00 Yes, that's the issue, I would never connect haben with capio and hertz with cor. Most of the others, yes.
2 года назад
Amazing video and eye opening comparison. That explains why I really enjoyed my studies in Caerleon, Casnewydd 😊 Yes, I loved to listen to Welsh speaking. Thank you very much for such a great insight! Linkėjimai 😊🤝
Actually order of words in sentence is almost absolutely free. "Tinginys valgo duoną", "duoną valgo tinginys", "tinginys duoną valgo", "Valgo duoną tinginys", "valgo tinginys duoną", "duoną tinginys valgo" - all of this is correct. Kinda, probably, bad example there...
@@BenLlywelyn Personally, seeing the historical links and comparative features of languages fascinating. In many ways, seeing how languages relate helps to map out the story of mankind's societal evolution and interactions and even how different historical peoples have collectively shaped the way we live, communicate, and ultimately think and perceive the world around us today. Also I'm admittedly excited by analytical subjects, so exploring grammatical features and phonetics in more depth is always interesting. But what I think sets your channel apart is the unique focus on what may be considered the "larger minority languages", with a focus of course on celtic languages as a niche, but even diving into the shared Indo-European connection they have with a historically rich language like Lithuanian is awesome! Keep up the great work! 👏😃 I'm glad to have discovered your channel and am sure as interest in these areas grow, so will your audience.
Huh! Very interesting stuff! There are some links between Lithuanian and Germanic languages as well. Especially when you compare with Gothic and reconstructed Proto Germanic - everywhere all these S-es at the end of masculine nouns pop out.
@@BenLlywelyn No, that isn't influence, the common -s endings are a result of Balto-Slavic and Germanic simply being related. And "meat" (from *meh₂d-) and "mėsa" (from *mems-) are not related.
thank you for your video, i would learn in university how 19-20 century linguistics would come to lithuania because of its language, but i never understood what they would get from studying it. but thanks to your video i understood how Lithuanian language can be used as some kind of plate to research other language archaic parts
great video, thanks Ben. the Devanagari spelling for the number 5 (pancan) in the opening is incorrect - the virama is under the 'ca' when it should be under the 'n'. Lithuanian and modern High German are closest to Sanskrit. There are striking similarities in Celtic languages to the old Italic languages : Oscan, Umbrian, Latin. I believe Italo-Celtic was once, a single language group, like old Balto Slavic.
Another point of interest about Lithuanian case endings (declensions of nouns), the modern day version of the language uses seven. But archaic Lithuanian had as many as ten cases for each noun.
A few mistakes: 1. i had no clue what lithuanian word would be similar "VLAID" without a build up that is a word for wolf 2. Verti means to pierce (like beads or a shishkebob) while boil is "virti" 3. more mind blown moment - "a plow" in lithuanian is plūgas. Even closer resemblance! Ačiū for the video!
S.M. Stirling's novel, Island in the Sea of Time, imagines Nantucket being sent back from the 1990s to 1250 BCE. One of the characters learned Lithuanian from her mother and is able to engage in rudimentary communication with Celtic tribes that have invaded the island of what today we call Britain.
Nice video but I am amazed how many channels seemingly forget to test how their voices sound in the video.Here on this video the voice is blured due to the acustic in the room,if he used a microphone everything will be much better.I guss it is no use complaining about bacground music,it is a plague coming to stay.
very similar sentences in lithuanian and sanskrit : Dievas davė dantis duos ir duonos DEVAS ADADAT DATAS, DEVAS DASYATI DHANAS ~ God gave teeth and will give bread
DEVA means GOD in both Lithuanian and Sanskrit. DATAS is related to Latin DENS 'tooth'. The verb forms ADADAT and DASYATI are similar to Sanskrit conjugations.
In the ''Lord of the rings'' they oppened the entry of Moria, the secret doors, only when was sayd word ''Melo'' - the friend. In old lithuanian ''mano mielas'' - my boyfiend, ''mano miela'' - my girlfriend.
In Breton bar is bread and gwin is wine. These two words gave in French the verb "baragouiner" because of the French soldiers who spoke only Breton were using these words to ask for bread and wine during WWI without being understood by their French speaking comrades.
This is all becoming more and more interesting to me. At the university I majored in German and minored in Russian. One of my professors nudged me into also taking Lithuanian to balance out my linguistic background. The connection you see between all the Indo-European languages is incredible. You've talked about the H and S shift that occurred in Welsh, like in the word helygen and how it's related to le saule in French. Both mean 'willow'. You see this shift elsewhere, as in the Greek word hypnos and the Lithuanian word sapnas. They are cognates and they both mean 'dream'. And there it is again, as in the Welsh word hen and the Latin word senex. Both mean old!
A lot of these words between the languages that you have connected either aren't actually related or don't connect in the way you presented it. The word "tad" has always had a D at the end in Welsh, it was a Cornish innovation that turned the D into an S. The Proto-Brythonic word was also *tad, and the Proto-Celtic word was *tatos. The D comes from the second T. The -os ending, cognate to Lithuanian's -as, was dropped entirely in the Brythonic languages. "Buwch" and "vache" are NOT cognate. "Buwch" comes from PIE *gʷṓws and "vache" comes from PIE *woḱéh₂. Cognates are not determined by their first sound and meaning alone. In order for them to be cognates, they would have to descend from a common ancestor word in their common ancestor language, which "blaidd" and "vilkas" do not. The etymology of "blaidd" (Pr. Celtic *bledyos) is unknown, but it certainly isn't from PIE *wĺ̥kʷos, which gives English "wolf", Lith. "vilkas", Skr. "vrka". If it were, it would start with gw- in Welsh, since that is the expected outcome of PIE *w. Again, the expected outcome of PIE *w (where Lithuanian "v" is from) is "gw" in Welsh, not "b". "Berwi" comes from *bʰerw-, and "virti" (which you called "verti") is from *wer-. The pronunciation of PIE *w was likely /w/, not /v/. It is more accurate to say that "gw" is the Welsh outcome of *w, /w/ written "v" is the classical Latin outcome of it, and early Latin borrowings with "v" into Brythonic became "gw" due to an ongoing sound change, rather than "v" became "gw". Welsh "hi" is from PIE *sih₂, and while I can't find an etymology for Lith. "ji", I'm very skeptical of your claim that these are cognates. The etymology of Welsh "bachgen" is unknown, but possibly from PIE *bʰeg-. Lithuanian "berniukai" is from PIE *bʰer- (whence English "bear" (the action, not the animal) and "born"). Here are some actual cognates you have mentioned W. hen < PIE *sénos > L. senas "h" is indeed the expected Welsh outcome of PIE *s. W. gŵr < PIE *wiHrós > L. vyras, (also Eng. were-wolf, world = were-eld "age of man") W. dannedd < *h₃dónt- > L. dantys, (also Eng. teeth) W. afal < PIE *h₂ébōl > L. obuolys, (also Eng. apple) W. elain < PIE *h₁el- > L. elnias, (also Eng. elk) W. afon < PIE *h₂ep- > L. upė, (also possibly Eng. ape) W. gallu < PIE *gelH- > L. galėti W. merch < PIE *mer- > L. mergaitas W. aradr < PIE *h₂erh₃- > L. ariu And all the numbers are indeed cognate as well :)
@@BenLlywelyn You are welcome. Sound change is systematic, and happens between related languages in predictable patterns. Welsh-Lithuanian does not have any native words that predictably correspond b-v or v-b, at least word initially. You should always expect Lithuanian /v/ to correspond with Welsh /ɡw/ ⟨gw⟩, which both come from PIE *w. Though it doesn't always work the other way around as Welsh /gw/ can also come from PIE *gʷʰ, which gives /ɡ/ ⟨g⟩ in Lithuanian. Welsh (word-initial unmutated) /b/ comes from several different sources, which are *b, *bʰ, *gʷ, *gw, and *ǵw, which give /b/, /b/, /ɡ/ ⟨g⟩, ?, and /ʒv/ ⟨žv⟩ respectively in Lithuanian. The ? is because I can't find any words with *gw with Lithuanian descendants. See the Wikipedia articles "Indo-European sound laws", "Proto-Celtic language", "Brittonic languages", and "Proto-Balto-Slavic language" for more.
@@BenLlywelyn True. I'm usually careful with theorys like this but I see unusual plot holes in some of the official history of Europe. Either way great video 👍
Slavic pigin formed between the Baltic and Iranian language regions 1500 bf, and it has Baltic - Iranian (Scytian) kreole fragmented grammar construction. Geograficaly it was located aproximately Hungaria area before madiar migration of 8 c. Slavic, probably, spread as nomadic iranian campus (nomad huns, avars) in East Europe 5c. Some grammatical features of Baltic in the Slavic languages simply do not exist, but we can found it in Celtic or Germanic, eg. Suffix -ing-. In Lithuanian ususaly we use suffix 'ing' creating an adjective from a noun. Eg.: (lth) kūnas (en. Body) + -ing+as (muscl.)= kuningas (en. strong boded, powered man means in modern Lth). Possibly due to Christianization in modern (lth) we have 'kunigas” for (en. Priest). In other neighboring languages (prus) kunnegs, (ger) koenig, (old ger) kuningaz, and it vent even to (fin) kuningas.... English “king” only K+ing was left. Is the suffix -ing- used in Welsh?
@@BenLlywelyn 8:24 Thanks to word endings, we can make the task more difficult: „Tinginys Skaniai (deliciously) Valgo Juodą (black) Duoną“ Order can be any of DSVTJ, JTSVD, STJDV......x25 all positioning are possible without loss of meaning, perhaps only a little emphasizing one word or another more; and if you'll use suffixes, you can change meanings, gender, put a little negativeness o positiveness, courtesy or affection x hundreds of variation more. It gives complete freedom to the poetic narrative. Probably, then mankind has no writing all images, stories, and history were conveyed orally, picturesquely.
Wow, i was thinking the same about the slavic languages. I mean like, the fact that the Thracians spoke a language that is understandable through Lithuanian and Latvian means that there were baltics North from Greece ever since Plato and even longer. And they didn't disappear. They simply got mixed with these iranians coming from east. When you compare some words that sound the same between slavic and baltic languages you see that very often they get even more palatalised in slavic (example: Lath. Keturi, Srbn Četeri).
What about latvian, a close language? Vilkas is wilk in Polish, plow plugas is pług, boil verti - wrzeć (vrhet') Polish. Baltic and slavic languages have very much in common. All leads to sanscrit
Historian Barry Cunliffe ascertains that Celtic languages, having early Indo European foundations, became distinctly Celtic right here maybe as far back as five thousand years ago. He reckons the accepted narrative that the Celts came to Britain and Ireland in 700BC is outmoded and irrelevant in the wake of more modern research. In his work Celts From the West he reckons evidence suggests that Celtic cultures had Atlantic origins and were not imported. There are several lectures and talks available on this subject on RU-vid. Fascinating stuff!
You'll have to expand on that. The basic theory is Celtic cultures started with the La Tène and the Hallstatt cultures. Those are in Germany and Switzerland. How recently did Cunliffe say this? And what evidence was presented? It would be very interesting to hear more about this theory.
@@jwadaow Cunliffe’s book Celtic from the West was published in 2010. His claim is that all evidence gathered up to the modern age, including linguistic and genetic, disproves the narrative formulated 300 years ago that the Celts originated in Switzerland. He claims that the nascent beginnings of Brythonic, the parent language of Welsh, may be as early as 3000BC.
Nope, the Welsh came to Britain in 1200bc and 650bc. There is undeniable levels of evidence following the linguistic evidence throughout the middle east and Mediterranean.
That's not true all European languages are close to each other similarly all indic and persian languages are close to each other. Only language close to sanskrit out of India is avestan of persia which however was spoken in Afghanistan which shared historical border with India.
There's a word I hear in a Gwyneth Glynn song Tanau" that I think I might be hearing in the welsh folk song "bonheddwr mawr O'R bala" sung by Plethyn. It's sounds like "hahahaha" Are they saying the same thing? And if they are, what does it me in context to each song? Are there any mutations? Is any connection the Lithuanian?
@@BenLlywelyn yes but are they the same words? Or are they even words at all? I know I probably think I ask dumb questions. I play it in the car while I do uber and lyft and the riders enjoy it. Is that a haha laugh on the Plethyn? If so what is the haha on the other? She doesn't sound like she's laughing.
@@BenLlywelyn some of my best rides are with Welsh music playing. Thanks for clearing that up. I can only imagine what it would be like with u as a rider! I would totally rate u 5 stars.
In Cornish "dd" is usually "dh", it's the "d" and "t" endings that change to "s" -> "nant/nans" and "byd/bys" but "gorsedd/gorsedh". "dd/dh" becomrs "z" in Breton, hence "goursez"
Friend your video was very good and deep, take these Baltic and Celtic languages, all of course, that is Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Hungarian and Finnish and compare with the Celtic family all Breton, Cornish, Manx, Welsh , Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, and of course to finish off this comparison compares them all with Basque, from the Basque family of languages. Hugs 🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
In Sanskrit, the word for man has schwa at the end, it makes it somewhat like Virasa. That's just one out of 70 or so synonyms of man in Sanskrit. Sanskrit always has schwa-ending after every letter, if it is not present with any other vowel, which is only preserved now well in Odia, a conservative daughter language( in terms of, Phonology).
Some romanian words related to Ariu and Aradr: a ara = to plow, to plough eu ar = i plow tu ari = you are plowing el ară = he plows voi arati = you are plowing (plural) câmp arat, arătură = plowed field plug = plough, plow
These seem to be stone / bronze age Indo-European words. Os - Bone, Esgwrn (in Welsh), Oaspete - guest (Osb - guest in Middle Welsh , kept in Ysbyty (hospital = guest house)
"If you know where to look" and with your help Sir we shall do so. Mutatons at the beginning would throw me off but not you. For decades I'd see the Welsh word Croeso. I learned German as an adult and used Gruesse a lot in Bavaria. Only now I can see the link. Maybe an Old English word adopted by Celts. 'Dantis' is of Latin origin.
To boil is "Virti" not "Verti". For example - The water needs to boil "Vanduo turi virti", Water needs to be boiled - "Vanduo turi būti virtas" Vyras can also mean husbant and it does mean husbant most of the time when talking about someones husband, for example in English a woman would say "my husband" instead of "my man" in Lithuanian, that would be "Mano vyras". Other than that we dont have separate word for a husband, only "sutuoktinis" - for a man and "sutuoktinė" - for a woman, but these words usually used in "law language" mostly for written agreements etc. on the other hand "Moteris" means female, and a wife would be "Žmona", so "Vyras ir žmona" is the common used term for husband and wife. We also have couple of different language dialects, some of them sound like completely different languages, for example Žemaičių dialect, I wouldn not understand much of that, it sounds really different compared to commonly used Lithuanian, would probably understand more Latvian, than Žemaičių dialect. Our language is pretty hard to learn perfectly, majority of Lithuanians would probably score between ~50-70% in written Lithuanian language exam :D Since I have learned Lithuanian, Russian and English in the school I had like 2 or 3 Russian lessons each week and compared to what I learned in those vs like 8 lessons a week in Lithuanian, I would say Russian was a lot easier to learn and use. I havent learned a lot but the basics are way easier its very intuitive. English is kind of a mess at some points but its not bad.. Even though I dont know it very well...
Tinginys valgo duoną/Valgo duoną tinginys/Duoną tinginys valgo/Duoną valgo tinginys/Valgo tinginys duoną. - Meaning is the same and all orders are correct. :)
Despite the similarities in languages as well as music and ancient religion, the Welsh, Celt and Europeans claim to be racially distinct to the majority of Indians of the sub-continent, north and south. And language aside, the South Indians are also largely Iranian genetically, not to mention through the ancient culture, all of which makes them part of the same family.
6,000 years, and far divergent original populations in pre-Indo-European Europe and India, with different cultural beliefs, has created a vast divergence. What is remarkable is how much we have kept in common between us.
@@BenLlywelyn Even someone like Varadkar who is Indian-Irish is sometimes described as foreign. More so with Sunak who is a posh Englishman. Nothing can make them native for a lot of people.
Cymru/Cymry is from the Latin Combrogi though. The word comrade comes from it and carries that exact meaning. The concept of this comradeship came during the dark ages, which we now know was caused by a super volcanic event at Mount Krakatoa. The Romano-British tribes were trying to instil a sense of British comradeship in the view of waves of Germanic peoples attempting to offload onto Britain from the continent in a series of invasions. Scotland was becoming more Gaelic then, too, with similar offloads by Irish tribes. The title of Y Cymry was adopted first while the distinct variation of Cymru was introduced later. It may not have been so easy to sell that idea to all of post Roman Britain, as the British had a very uneasy relationship with the empire when it was here and perhaps even more so when the Romans and their empire contracted and gave up on this it’s furthest province. Some historians claim that parts of Wales had resisted Rome up until the time it left and thus were never fully conquered.
Small notes: "To boil" is "virti". The shown "verti" means "you are turning/translating" (2nd singular "versti"). 3:48 It's "keturi"/"keturios". 12:10 I would suggest to consider "arklas" (a plow) for comparison. Would seem to be more apples-to-apples. 14:37
I'm sorry if this is comment is not going to be very constructive criticism because you put in a genuine effort and seem very eager and enthusiastic about linguistics. But as a Lithuanian speaker and a multilingual person (I'm saying this to emphasise I am not a linguist in any way shape or form, but know a few languages and think that gives me a bit of a bigger grasp on linguistics than the average person) I find this video to be reaching at best to find similarities. I do not speak or know Welsh but honestly even your chosen examples + your explanations do not seem similar to me at all. But I find it beautiful that you are putting in such an effort.
Speaking a few languages gives you plenty of knowledge on this. Especially since you can use a case system. This video was not in depth and more of a fun introduction, so similarities, yes.
@@BenLlywelyn the is a lot of people who are going on about wales...and if Scotland go for independence what's it got to do with wales nothing to do with are Language.
@@catharperfect7036 speakers of avestan were ancient Hindus but later it because language of zoasturians But sanskrit was spoken by upper caste for 5 thousands of years ,they called themselves as ARYAN . India name in Sanskrit is ARYAVART means land of Aryans and decents of Bharat tribe whereas Persians are decendents of parsu clan . Disclaimer: Aryan means Nobel vedic person 🕉️ unlike fake one like Germans or Neo nazi 😂😂😂😂😂
i am convinced that “p-celtic” came from scandinavia & the baltic in the late bronze age & this is why we are seeing these links between Lithuanian & Welsh. Northern Denmark was even once called “Celtica Litarmis”. And its from “Litarmis” that we get “Lithuania”. & that it is from the “Cimbri” tribe of Northern Denmark, which i believe gave its name to “Cumbria / Cumberland / Cambria / Cymru”. Before this happened, all “Celtic” languages were forms of “Q-Celtic”. Including “Proto-Celtic”. This lost missing link with scandinavia also explains who the “Picts” of North Eastern Scotland were.
This is true. But I would put the “Q-Celtic” branch as closer to Latin & “Italic” before then & other older Mediterranean languages. & that the original “Proto-Celtic” was a form of primitive “Q-Celtic”. I reckon however the newer “P-Celtic” variant was created via migration & contact from scandinavia & the baltic, happening first in eastern britain, from the humber estuary & moving from there to Wales. And all via the amber trade of the baltic & scandinavia.
@3:20 "I'm not going to go into that, don't worry". FFS, stop treating us like idiots! We didn't click on a video about languages by accident! If I wanted to stray away from super interesting topics like grammar, I would fucking play a pop song video.
Without Balts there could not be any German family language, there are many European languages that are close to Lithuania, German, Swedish, Norwegian, English, Spanish and the list gose on.
@@BenLlywelyn I noticed two mistypes: 3:47 Virti (not verti. "Verti" means "worth"); 13:35 Mergaitės (not mergaitas as feminine form never ends with "-as")
