Language

Lithuanian is a very odd language indeed. One of the oldest still spoken today, the tongue that time forgot is supposedly similar in grammatical form as well as sharing many of the same words with, of all things, Sanskrit. With seven noun cases, four declension patterns, absolutely no similarity to anything you’ve ever heard before and an obligation to pronounce the stress on every word in the right place to stand any chance whatsoever of being understood, getting to grips with the local lingo is at best tough although there is the advantage when learning it that it’s bound by rules that simply need to be learnt by rote. Thankfully, most places where tourists congregate in the country are now fairly English-friendly, plus Lithuania’s rich cultural past has left an accumulation of polyglots nationwide, with Russian spoken almost everywhere, Polish in and around the capital and German the closer you get to the coast.