Smetona's last speech

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yee0890
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Smetona's last speech

Post by yee0890 »

While reading this short novel (The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios by Yann Martel), I came across an interesting fact. Read this quote:

" 1939- President Antanas Smetona of Lithuania broadcasts a last speech over the radio, protesting his country's annexation by the Soviet Union... Smetona does not want to make his speech in Lithuanian, which no one outisde his small country will understand. But he also refuses to speak the tongues of the oppressors, Russian or German. Smetona makes his last speech in Latin."

After reading this, I searched in google to find that speech but w/o success.
If you know where to find the speech, please let me know!

Estoniacus Inoriginale
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Post by Estoniacus Inoriginale »

I can't help, but I'm from Estonia, a country near Lithuania, which as you know, suffered the same fate as Lithuania and Latvia. I do wonder how he would have sounded with these tse sounds and kv sounds, as it's unlikely he used the Italianate pronunciation of the restaured classical one.

adrianus
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Post by adrianus »

Salve yee0890 atque Estoniace Inoriginale,
I was in Lithuania recently and loved the language, especially for how important it is in it, like in Classical Latin, to preserve distinctions between long and short vowels. Lithuanian shares many characteristics with Latin and, because of its closeness to the proto Indo-European language, at least one writer has said it's like an aunt of Latin. Note, Lithuanian is said to be not a niece of Latin but it's aunt.
In Lituaniâ nuper fui et linguam amavi, praesertim quià, ut in Latino Classico, vocales longas accuratè enuntiari requirit. Lituanicum et Latinum inter se maximam similitudinem habent, et scripsit certè unus auctor linguam Lituanicam esse ut amitam Latinae, tam est Lituanicam ad ipsam linguam vetustiorem indo-europaeam. Notate benè, dictum est Lituanicam linguam esse non filiam fratris vel sororis Latinae, sed Latinae amitam.

Estoniacus Inoriginale
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Latin and Lithuanian

Post by Estoniacus Inoriginale »

The word for god in Lithuanian is dievas, similar to Proto-Indoeuropean deiwos, which spawned the two Latin words for god, namely diuus and deus. Lithuanian is similar to Sankskrit as well. A friend of mine learns Latvian which is in some ways less conservative and he'll be learning Lithuanian too, and Latin, all part of his mandatory high-school curriculum, in addition to the mandatory Estonian (our mothertongue) and Russian. Such a curriculum is very rare. Mostly we never learn Latin and Greek in school, only in higher education. The good thing is that we have adopted the classical pronunciation with the w sound. I haven't heards much people pronounce classical Latin, only the medieval one from lawschools and it has its charm. From time to time I like to use the Late Latin or Medieval Latin pronunciations. It is just as beautiful as the classical one.

adrianus
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Post by adrianus »

Estoniacus Inoriginal wrote:From time to time I like to use the Late Latin or Medieval Latin pronunciations. It is just as beautiful as the classical one.
I think so, too, Estoniacus Inoriginale. I also like the accents and enunciation of the Nuntii Latini Finnish broadcasters, which make me think about some of Erasmus's recommendations about pronunciation.
Ego ipse, Estoniace Inoriginale, ità puto. Et juvat quomodò emissionis finnicae "Nuntii Latini" nomine nuntiatores finnici loquuntur enuntiantque, quod me nonnullos Erasmi de enuntiatione commendationes noscere facit.

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