The Baltic states—Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia—tend to be overlooked by the wider world. Each one speaks its own, distinct language, with Lithuanian and Latvian related to one another and Estonian hailing from an entirely different language family. But in fact, these three languages alone don’t define the linguistic landscape of the Baltics. Given the Soviet past of the three Baltic countries, a large community of Russian speakers remains in all three nations, and in Lithuania, Polish speakers also account for a sizable minority. But Lithuania is also home to its own, unique indigenous language separate from Lithuanian, and that’s Samogitian.
Samogitian was previously classified as a dialect of Lithuanian, but it’s since gained recognition both inside and outside of Lithuania as a fully fledged language, which goes a long way in preserving the endangered tongue. With around 500,000 native speakers, however, Samogitian still claims a considerable chunk of Lithuania’s population 2.8 million. A quarterly magazine and some radio programs are available in Samogitian, but with little representation otherwise and no usage in the local school system, Samogitian is threatened by the ubiquity and prestige of Lithuanian. At TranslationServices.com, we believe Samogitian is a beautiful and important language, which is why we’re eager to introduce our new Samogitian translation team.
Anyone interested in Samogitian translation services should contact us today to request a free quote.
What makes Samogitian different from Lithuanian?
While Samogitian is highly similar to Lithuanian, it’s definitely distinct in many ways, having earned recognition as a separate language. It’s spoken in Samogitia, a large region that occupies much of western Lithuania, where the ancient ancestors of modern-day Samogitians migrated from what is now central Lithuania. Mixing with the indigenous Curonian and Semigallian peoples gave rise to a new form of Lithuanian, which eventually evolved into Samogitian.
Samogitian is Lithuanian’s closet relative, with the only other two languages in the Baltic subfamily being Latvian and Latgalian. Samogitian is grammatically complex, with two genders, eight cases, and three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), and both verbs and nouns undergo significant inflection to reflect these grammatical properties. Lithuanian also features genders and many cases, but it’s lost the dual form that Samogitian has perfectly preserved. Several verb forms and conjugation strategies differ between Samogitian and Lithuanian, constituting perhaps the most notable feature differentiating the two languages. A number of loanwords from neighboring Latvian also contribute to distinguishing Samogitian even more from Lithuanian.
Whether to or from Samogitian, our team is ready to help with your translation needs.
Though Samogitian is a proud language that’s related to but clearly distinct from Lithuanian, it faces challenges in maintaining its healthy speaker base due to pressures from Lithuania’s larger and more prestigious official language. Most translation companies only offer Lithuanian translation services, but we wanted to dig deeper and give Samogitian the high-quality translation services it deserves. That’s how our Samogitian translation team was born, filled with passionate native-speaking Samogitian translators from all over Lithuania.
While the number of Samogitian speakers is relatively small, that hasn’t stopped us from building a diverse team of translators with varying skills and translation experience. On our team, you’ll find translators experienced at translating from English to Samogitian as well as those better suited for Samogitian-to-English translation. You’ll also find team members with experience translating business documents, those who specialize in academic translation, and those who are well acquainted with the art of literary translation. This means we can translate both to and from Samogitian for a wide array of clients from all walks of life, whether you’re looking for Samogitian translation services for professional, academic, literary, or personal reasons. With many of our translators also acting as subject-matter experts in different fields, we can even accommodate technical material!
Would you like to discover how Samogitian translation services can advance your project? When you’re ready, just send a message to our team!