Sanskrit and Lithuanian

One of the most important stimuli for the emergence of historical-comparative linguistics was the acquaintance of Europeans with Sanskrit, the old language of India. Europeans believed that a Sanskrit scholar could understand and be understood by a Lithuanian farmer.

In 1786, William Jones (1746-1794), an English Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Calcutta, read a paper before the Asiatic Society, founded by himself, in which he proclaimed that Sanskrit, this "wonderfully structured old language of India" is derived from the same source as Greek, Latin, and perhaps even Gothic and Celtic. This was a very bold idea, which produced a veritable revolution in linguistics.

European scholars turned their attention to Sanskrit, and started with old European languages. They created precise methodology which enabled them to understand phonetic changes and distinguish original words from loans. They taught themselves through the comparison of related words in different languages to reconstruct the extinct forms, which were very often similar or even identical with Sanskrit forms.

Linguists believed that comparative linguistics without Sanskrit is like astronomy without mathematics.

It is not difficult therefore to imagine the surprise of the scholarly world when they learned that even in their time somewhere on the Nemunas River lived a people who spoke a language as archaic in many of its forms as Sanskrit itself. Although it was not exactly true that a professor of Sanskrit could talk to Lithuanian farmers in their language, coincidences between these two languages were truly amazing, for example:

Sanskrit sunus son - Lith. sunus;
Sanskrit viras man - Lith. vyras;
Sanskrit avis sheep - Lith. avis;
Sanskrit dhumas smoke - Lith. dumas;
Sanskrit padas sole - Lith. padas.

We can be safe in asserting that these Lithuanian words have not changed their forms for the last five thousand years.

The most prominent European linguists visited Lithuania in order to learn this archaic language from the lips of Lithuanians themselves, which helped them investigate the history of other Indo-European languages.

Today, there is no doubt that Lithuanian has retained many ancient Indo-European forms. It is hard to say whether it was due to the character of the Lithuanians or of geographic position that their language has changed so little in the course of several thousand years. Scholars often make references to the Lithuanian language when conducting research on the history of other languages.


From "Lithuania in the World", 1996 No1.

Lithuanian words similar or exact to Sanskrit

• Lithuanian du/dvi, Sanskrit dvi/dve, Greek duo/dwo/tyu, Latin duo ("two")
• Lithuanian trys, Sanskrit tri/traya, Greek trios/tria/treis, Latin tres ("three")
• Lithuanian penki(os), Sanskrit páñcan, Greek pente/pende(cis) ("five")
• Lithuanian šeši(os), Sanskrit sas, Greek heks/hecs/hex, Latin secs/sex ("six")
• Lithuanian septyni(os), Sanskrit saptahn/sapta, Greek hepta(cis)/septa, Latin septem ("seven")
• Lithuanian aštuoni(os), Sanskrit ashtan/ashta, Greek akto/okto/oktu(cis), Latin octo ("eight")
• Lithuanian dešimt(is), Sanskrit dasham, Greek deka/deca(cis), Latin deci/decem ("ten")
• Lithuanian žiema, Sanskrit hima ("winter")
• Lithuanian derva/darva, Sanskrit druma/taru ("tree")
• Lithuanian vilkas, Sanskrit vrika ("wolf")

• Lith. and Skt. sūnus (son)
• Lith. and Skt. avis and Lat. ovis (sheep)
• Lith. dūmas and Skt. dhumas and Lat. fumus (smoke)
• Lith. antras and Skt. antaras (second, the other)
• Lith. vilkas and Skt. vrkas and Lat. lupus (wolf)
• Lith. ratas and Lat. rota (wheel) and Skt. rathah (carriage).
• Lith. senis and Lat. senex (an old man) and Skt. sanah (old).
• Lith. vyras and Lat. vir (a man) and Skt. vira (man, hero).
• Lith. angis and Lat. anguis (a snake in Latin, a species of snakes in Lithuanian)
• Lith. linas and Lat. linum (flax, compare with English 'linen')
• Lith. ariu and Lat. aro (I plow)
• Lith. jungiu and Lat. iungeo (I join)
• Lith. gentys and Lat. gentes (tribes) and Skt. jánas (genus, race).
• Lith. mėnesis and Lat. mensis and Skt masa (month)
• Lith. dantys and Lat. dentes and Skt dantas (teeth)
• Lith. naktys and Lat. noctes and Skt. nakt (night)
• Lith. sėdime and Lat. sedemus (we sit) and Skt. siedati (sits).