Tue, 27 November 2007 Hello everybody, this is Jack and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where you learn Lithuanian along with me, the beginner, and where my wife Raminta keeps us all in line. Now, if you’ve been following the last few episodes you know that Raminta’s on the road right now and, honestly, when we started the Lithuanian Out Loud project we didn’t expect her to be traveling nearly as much as she is. Of course, with her being on the road so much, recording lessons is a serious challenge. Now, we’re working on some fixes like recording lessons over the phone or with Skype and some other ideas but until we perfect our yet to be discovered solution, we ask that you please bear with our technical difficulties. One listener wrote in asking if it was possible to locate a book which conjugates a few hundred Lithuanian verbs. You know, there are plenty of books available like that for Spanish, French, German, etc., but not so much for Lithuanian. However, there is a book called 365 Lithuanian Verbs, but it’s out of print. It’s unlikely, but you may be able to find one at an online used book store in the U.S. or Europe, but I doubt it. Now, I don’t know about other nations but in the United States you can borrow a copy through an inter-library loan at your local library. Once it arrives, I’m not saying you should make copies, but if you made your own personal photocopy and had that bound at your local Kinko’s store, for your own personal use, well, I doubt if Interpol will come looking to put you in handcuffs. Also, we’d like to get more plugs from people for the show. If you’d like to drop us a plug or just give us some comments on the show, call our Skype address, Lithuanianoutloud, it’s one word, and leave us a message on our voicemail. Alright, today Raminta and I worked on this episode. Again, the audio quality may not be perfect but for now it’s all we’ve got. This lesson was inspired by a listener request and it’s the first of a five or six lesson series we’ll be doing on “love talk." Aaaand away we go! Let’s start off with the obvious. How do we say, “I love you?" Aš tave myliu I love you Let’s take it a step farther. Let’s say, I really love you! Aš tave labai myliu I really love you Great, now, let’s greet the one we love by saying, “Hello love." labas meile! hi love! Now let’s greet a male… labas meile! hi love! Another term of endearment is the word for “dear." brangioji! dear! We’d address a male as, “brangusis." brangusis! dear! The word for “sweetheart" would be mylimoji or mylimasis mylimoji! sweetheart! We’d address a male as “mylimasis" mylimasis! sweetheart! Comments[3] |
Mon, 26 November 2007 Beginning at the age of 40, Grand Duke, or High King, Gediminas was ruler of Lithuania from 1316 to 1341. He became the monarch of the Lithuanians 80 years after the Battle of the Sun. Gediminas ruled for 25 years and he inherited lands that included what is now Lithuania as well as parts of Belarus. Gediminas was very loyal to his subjects, giving them the freedom to worship the traditional Lithuanian gods, Christianity or Judaism. He’s the true founder of the modern idea of a Lithuanian nation. He created a large, powerful Lithuanian army; defended Lithuania with a series of strong forts and built castles in towns including Vilnius. He originally placed the capital at Trakai, near Vilnius, but later decided on Vilnius itself. His reputation is that of a man who worshipped the old Lithuanian gods and who resisted every attempt to christianize his country, but the reality is a little different from the legend. Wanting to create a strong nation and needing help to defend Lithuania from the German Teutonic Knights, Gediminas asked for help from Pope John XXII. He promised to become Christian himself and invited members of different Christian orders to build churches in Lithuania. However, his subjects were uneasy with his plans to convert to the new religion. He eventually reneged on his promise to convert, strengthened his relationship with his people and withdrew from the process of christianization. It’s not clear whether Gediminas actually intended to become Christian. The conversion was probably just a political move to help fight his Teutonic enemies. According to historian Stephen Christopher Rowell, in about 1339-40 Gediminas executed two Franciscan friars from Bohemia, Ulrich and Martin, they had gone beyond what Gediminas had allowed and had publicly preached against the Lithuanian religion. Gediminas ordered them to renounce Christianity, and had them killed when they refused. Gediminas died in 1341 from wounds he received in either a fight or a battle. His funeral included a traditional Lithuanian cremation, including the human sacrifice of his favorite servant and many German slaves burned in the fire along with his corpse. Gediminas is a central figure in one of the most popular Lithuanian legends. Once upon a time the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Gediminas, was hunting in the holy woods near where Vilnius would later be built. Tired after a successful day’s hunt the Grand Duke settled in for the night. He fell soundly asleep and had a dream. A huge iron wolf was standing on top of a hill and the sound of hundreds of wolves inside the hill filled the surrounding fields and woods. When he woke up, the Duke asked a Lithuanian priest to reveal the secrets of the dream. The priest said, "What is destined for the ruler and the state of Lithuania, is this: the iron wolf represents a castle and a town which will be built by the ruler on this site. The town will be the capital of the Lithuanian lands and the dwelling of rulers and the glory of their deeds shall echo throughout the world." -- Today let’s work a little bit on some unusual Lithuanian words. Most masculine nouns end in –as, -is, -ys, and –us. Most feminine nouns end in either –a or –ė. vieta a location Now, let’s go over some words that have non-standard declensions in the genitive or kilmininkas. First, the masculine nouns in vardininkas… šuo dog Now, some unusual feminine nouns in vardininkas… moteris woman note that most nouns which end in an “s" are masculine, however, moteris is feminine. moteris a woman Okay, now let’s “decline" these words in the genitive. You can see the spellings of these words on the Lithuanian Out Loud blogpage. dog, or šuo changes to šuns stone, or akmuo changes to akmens the stone’s color akmens spalva person, or asmuo changes to asmens the person’s name asmens vardas water, or vanduo changes to vandens the water’s color vandens spalva uncle, or dėdė changes to dėdės the uncle’s dog dėdės šuo woman, or moteris changes to moters the woman’s house moters namas station, or stotis changes to stoties the station’s toilet stoties tualetas sister, or sesuo changes to sesers the sister’s name sesers vardas daughter, or duktė changes to dukters the daughter’s flat dukters butas and finally, the daughter-in-law, or marti changes to marios the daughter-in-law’s name marčios vardas Okay, good job, I know that that was an awful lot of information Comments[2] |
Sat, 24 November 2007 Approximately every fifth lesson will be a quick response lesson. We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian - Out Loud! This time we have so much to review, we’re breaking it up into two episodes. Sorry, no more questions, the exam starts now! Raminta’s book Ramintos knyga Comments[6] |
Sat, 24 November 2007 Approximately every fifth lesson will be a quick response lesson. We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian - Out Loud! This time we have so much to review, we’re breaking it up into two episodes. Sorry, no more questions, the exam starts now! Egypt Egiptas Comments[2] |
Sun, 18 November 2007 Who are the Samogitians? According to the Wikipedia page entitled, Samogitia, Samogitia or Žemaitija in Lithuanian, is one of five ethnographic regions in Lithuania. It’s primarily the western third of Lithuania. The Samogitians were a key factor during the Battle of the Sun. Oops, that was a mistake. Early the next morning the Samogitian Lithuanians, who were probably led by Duke Vykintas, attacked the German camp. The lightly armored Germans in the camp bravely ran away but the heavily armored crusader knights stayed and fought. The knights were completely wiped out, including the leader of the Livonian Brothers, Master Volquin. And now, just a quick note before we move on to today's lesson. We have a new email address, it's lithuanianoutloud@earthlink.net you can find it on the blogpage. And now, here's a plug from one of our listeners in Lithuania... Hello everybody! This is Evaldas from Klaipėda, Lithuania, and you are listening to Lithuanian Out Loud with Raminta and Jack, enjoy! Thanks a lot for doing that for us, Evaldas, we really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch! Today we’re going out for some drinks with our buddies and we just might speak some Lithuanian – Out Loud! Į sveikatą! To health! You can say this one to a male, a female or to a group of people, it doesn’t matter. In Lithuanian culture it’s important that as you tap your glasses and say, Į sveikatą! that you look the other person straight in the eye. If you don’t, I don’t know, it’s bad luck or something… Į jūsų sveikatą! To your health! (you formal or you-all) Another great phrase to use is būk sveikas! or būk sveika! This literally means “be healthy!" Of course as you might have guessed būk sveikas! is said to a man and būk sveika! is said to a woman. būk sveikas! Be healthy! (to a male) Here’s another one for you. Iki dugno! Iki dugno! Bottoms up! And that’s it for our introduction to drinking with Lithuanians. You can expect more lessons on this subject. Maybe a lot more. :) Comments[1] |
Wed, 14 November 2007 In August of 2007, Denmark and Lithuania removed their combat troops from Iraq. The Lithuanians were withdrawn from the southern city of Basra where they’d been under Danish command. We already learned how to use the genitive case or kilmininkas with feminine nouns. Ignas Ignas, a man’s name, short for Ignacas In the genitive case or kilmininkas, masculine nouns change like this… So, let’s do some examples, please repeat, prašom pakartoti… Ignas’ book Excellent! Now, I’d recommend you go over the genitive case lessons a few times until you’re familiar with each word’s ending. You’ll be seeing much more of the genitive in the future. As a matter of fact, the genitive is the most used declension in Lithuanian after the nominative declension. Comments[2] |
Sun, 11 November 2007 According to the Wikipedia page entitled, Forest Brothers, the Forest Brothers or Miško Broliai were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Occupation. The Red Army occupied Lithuania in 1940–1941 and, after the Nazi occupation, again in 1944 until Lithuanian independence in the 1990’s. As Stalinist repression intensified over the years, tens of thousands of Lithuanians hid in the country’s forests. Lithuanian resistance units varied in size from individual guerrillas, armed primarily for self-defence, to large and well-organised groups able to battle large Soviet forces. The ranks of the resistance swelled when the Red Army attemptėd to conscript young men after World War II, with fewer than half of the youths reporting in some districts. The families of the missing conscripts were harassed by the Soviets and this pushed even more Lithuanians into the countryside. Many enlisted men deserted, taking their weapons with them. By the late 1940s and early 1950s the Forest Brothers were provided with supplies, military intelligence and support by the British, American, and Swedish secret intelligence services. This support played a key role in directing the Baltic resistance movement. Among the three Baltic countries, the resistance was best organized in Lithuania, where guerrilla units were able to control whole regions of the countryside until 1949. When not in direct battles with the Soviet Army or special NKVD units, the Forest Brothers delayed Soviet control of Lithuania through ambush, sabotage, assassination of local Communist activists and officials, freeing imprisoned guerillas, and printing underground newspapers. Captured Lithuanian Forest Brothers themselves often faced torture and execution while their relatives faced deportation to Gulags. Reprisals against collaborator’s farms and villages were harsh. The NKVD units used shock tactics to discourage further resistance such as displaying executed partisan’s corpses in village squares. Today in Latvia and Lithuania, Forest Brothers veterans receive a small pension. In Lithuania, the third Sunday in May is commemorated as the Day of The Partisan. As of 2005, there are about 350 surviving Forest Brothers in Lithuania. My hat’s off to the brave Lithuanians who fought against the Red Army and the Soviet Occupation. --- I hope you all enjoy today’s episode. It’s an intermediate level lesson and a bit unusual. I listen to many language podcasts just to keep tabs on what everyone else is doing and I’ve never come across anything like what we’ll go over today, but first… Hey, Jonathan! Thanks for the plug, that’s fantastic of you to do it for us! We really appreciate it. Now a little background on today’s subject. My very first Lithuanian coach is a wonderful guy named Romas Zableckas. Romas is one of those rare individuals who is genuinely friendly, always has his door open to friends and strangers alike, gregarious, hard working, and no matter the difficulty, always has a positive outlook on life. He enjoys playing in his band at numerous local establishments, loves the Lithuanian language, Lithuanian culture and is president of the Lithuanian-American Community of Colorado in the United States. If you’ve never met Romas you’re missing out on one of the world’s great personalities. Anyway, when I started to learn Lithuanian I spent days in Romas’ kitchen learning how to say, “aš esu, tu esi, jis yra…" When Raminta decided to be so gracious as to marry a man as unworthy as myself, I thought it would be a great gesture to put together a speech for the wedding – in Lithuanian, of course. Coincidently, while I was working on the speech, I saw an episode of the comedy television series “Frasier" and the star of the show, Kelsey Grammer, gave a speech that I thought was beautiful. So, I quickly grabbed a pen and scribbled down some notes. I made some changes, went over it with Romas, he made some changes and then he translated it into Lithuanian. He typed it up into both languages and then made two recordings of the speech – one that was slow and one that was fast, put it on a CD and gave it all to me. Now, how awesome is that? For months before our wedding I really studied that speech. It’s not short and it wasn’t easy. Day after day, month after month, I walked for miles playing a sentence, repeating it, playing a sentence, repeating it. I didn’t care who saw me walking down a path or taking a break at work assidiuosly repeating the Lithuanian – Out Loud. I’m sure everyone thought I was crazy, but who cares? Of course, I never mentioned the speech to Raminta. Once I finally had the speech memorized I flew to Lithuania for one of my many visits to see her and we had a small party to celebrate our upcoming wedding. Now, the speech was the only real Lithuanian I knew so at the party I asked Raminta to tell our guests I would like to make a toast. As they all looked at me I’m sure they were expecting me to say something in English. Well, I started speaking Lithuanian and Raminta said later she thought, “Oh, how nice," and she thought that after just a few words I would stop, but I just kept going and going. I nailed the speech without making a mistake, other than my obvious English accent, and we raised our glasses and drank to the toast. It was awesome and Raminta was very touched. A few months later at our wedding in front of a much larger crowd of Lithuanians and Americans I tried to say the speech again but flubbed it. Oh well, what are you gonna do? Romas was there again. We had a bilingual wedding ceremony. My brother would say two sentences in English, Romas would say two sentences in Lithuanian, then my brother would say two more sentences in English, Romas would say two more sentences in Lithuanian, and on and on. It was a wonderful day. Thanks again Romas for all your essential help. Without you, none of it would have been possible. Today we’ll dust off this old speech. First, we’ll play the slow version done by Romas with an English translation. We’ll go over some vocabulary and then we’ll play the “fast" version of the speech at the end. For our listener in France who’s going to be giving a speech in Vilnius next month, you can use the beginning of this speech but stop before the words “švęsti mūsų vestuvių." The last word in your sentence will be “čia," the word for “here." So, you’ll be saying, “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to thank all of you for coming here." Just say this at the beginning of your presentation and the crowd should love you. Please get back to us and let us know how it goes. Bon chance! Now, on with the wedding speech, you know, even today, this speech still makes me emotional when I read it. Please follow along on the blogpage and keep in mind that no translation is ever going to be perfect. And yes, in English we say, “ladies and gentlemen," but it’s different in Lithuanian. Romas, could you start us off?
aš norėčiau visiems padekoti kad susirinkote čia švęsti mūsų vestuvių. Meilė yra neapsakoma jėga, kuri priverčia mus padaryti dalykus kurių mes niekada negalvojome, jog esame pajėgūs padaryti. Mes nepasirenkame meilės, meilė pasirenka mus, tada mes esame bejėgūs pasipriešinti. Aš niekada negalvojau, kad galėsiu įsimylėti, kol mano išsvajota moteris atėjo į mano gyvenimą. Prašome visus pakelti savo taures, už pačią gražiausią, pačią inteligentiškiausią, pačią žavingiausią moterį pasaulyje. Štai – moteris, su kuria aš pasiryžęs praleisti savo likusį gyvenimą. Mano mylimoji, mano Ramintute. į sveikatą! -------- Now, let’s go over some vocabulary. Most of these words have been reverted to their forms in vardininkas or the infinitive in the case of verbs. Since Raminta is on the road again she had to pronounce these words over the phone. Sorry if the sound quality isn’t perfect. to thank padekoti Ačiū mylimoji. Ačiū tau. Okay, now let’s listen to the fast version of the speech without a translation. Take it away Romas! (for a video of the speech text click here:) Comments[8] |
Sun, 4 November 2007 In Lithuanian, veidas, means “face." Are you familiar with the popular Lithuanian magazine called Veidas? It’s amazingly similar to the U.S. magazines Time and Newsweek, bursting with full color photos, national and international news, charts, graphs, entertainment news, history, etc. Okey dokey! On the last lesson we went over feminine nouns in the genitive case or kilmininkas. Let’s do some more on the same theme so that we’ve really got it. As we learned in episode 0025, But, amerikietė can also mean the American woman or girl, So, let’s take the Lithuanian word for wife – žmona.. Prašom pakartoti…please repeat… The wife’s name žmonos vardas Alright! Now I think we have a very good understanding of how to change feminine nouns into the genitive case or kilmininkas. The American girl’s book amerikietės knyga Woo hoo! Did you remember the word for amber? Okay, that was bit unfair. Please play this section over and over again till you’ve got it down pat. email Raminta and Jack at: lithuanianoutloud@earthlink.net Lithuanian language lessons at the University of Vilnius: Animation of Gediminas Castle or Gedimino Pilis: Comments[0] |
Thu, 1 November 2007 Click here to download the show notes for episodes 21-30: Direct download: Lithuanian_Out_Loud_21-30_Notes.pdf Category: Language Course -- posted at: 3:28 PM Comments[0] |
Wed, 31 October 2007 Just how similar are the Baltic States to one another? Not as much as one might think. Raminta’s book Ramintos knyga Great, now let’s do some nouns that end in –ė. Eglė changes to Eglės So, please repeat… Eglė’s book Eglės knyga Alright, study hard because on the next lesson we’ll dig even deeper into kilmininkas and it’ll be a more challenging lesson. To see Raminta's article in the newspaper Amerikos Lietuvis, go here: http://www.alietuvis.com/391/vakaru_lt.html Comments[0] |
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LITHUANIAN OUT LOUD Lithuanian Out Loud is a podcast series designed for students of the Lithuanian language.
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