The suffixes of the last names of girls and single Lithuanian women variate depending on the endings of their fathers‘ last names:
Butkus (father) – Butkutė (daughter), Kubilius – Kubiliūtė, Kazlauskas – Kazlauskaitė, Jonaitis – Jonaitytė.
When getting married, generally Lithuanian women still follow our quite unique tradition and choose to take their husbands‘ last name with a suffix -ienė, taking of the ending of their husband‘s surname to become, e. g. Jonauskienė, Budrienė, Petraitienė. Nowadays it‘s also possible to just change the masculine endings into feminine for both girls and married women to be, e. g. Kazlauskė, Budrė, Petraitė instead and to “hide“ the marital status this way. A woman can also retain her maiden name when getting married, but this is also not very common.
It was Martynas Mažvydas’ Catechism, which appeared as late as 1547.
There was a period during the tsarist Russian times in Lithuania (1863–1904), when having Lithuanian books written in the Latin alphabet was a crime and booksmuggling prevailed. Booksmuglers risked their freedom and even their lives when transporting Lithuanian books from Eastern Prussia to Lithuania. Today, Lithuania is the only country in the world that has erected a monument for book smugglers!
When a Lithuanian is slightly annoyed with a person or situation, she or he can say:
Rupūžė! (toad),
Rupūs miltai! (coarse flour),
Žaltys! (grass snake),
Velnias! (devil),
Kad tave sutrauktų! (wish you were contracted).
But if Lithuanians are REALLY angry, it‘s often English or Russian swearwords that escape their lips. Lithuanian is just too nice and tender to really swear in it, you know.
nebeprisikiškiakopūsteliaujančiuosiuose
No, it is not a word we use every day. Actually, it is a made-up word, meaning:
In those, of masculine gender, who aren't gathering enough wood sorrel's leaves by themselves anymore.
Eglė (fir tree),
Saulė (sun),
Aušra (dawn),
Rasa (dew),
Liepa (linden tree),
Gintaras (amber),
Audrius (storm),
Ąžuolas (oak-tree),
Vėjas (wind), and many, many more!
is considered to be one of the largest lexicographical works in the world!
It took about 100 years to finish it, and it was only in 2005 that the linguists were completely done with it. The dictionary consists of 20 volumes, which make 22000 pages.
Want to learn more Lithuanian? Visit www.flf.vu.lt/lsk!