Consertina Verses Accordians

[Theodore Kloba]

There are three kinds of people in the world:

Those who can read Lithuanian,

Those who can't,

And we who think we can, because we've already been told what it says.

Actually, with the exception of "SKAIČIUOTI" (to count), all the Lithuanian words have cognates with English words of nearly the same meaning; most are obvious:

 

YRA - "are" (The verb BUTI, "to be" is also irregular in a similar way; its conjugation includes "ESI" which is cognate to "is", although it goes with the first person).

 

TRIJŲ - "three"

 

TIPŲ - "types"

 

ŽMONĖS - "humans" (Ž is pronounced as "zh").

 

TIE - "they"

 

KURIE - "which" (Many English words starting in "Wh" that have a Latin equivalent in "Qu" will have the corresponding Lithuanian word in "K")

 

MOKA - "may"