Latvia & Lithuania: Why Are They So Close With Each Other?

In today's video, we examine why Lithuania and Latvia are so close with each other- because even though Estonia is also one of the Baltic countries, most would agree that it’s socially closer to Finland than it is to Latvia.

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[LithuaniaExplained]

02:23 - here I meant to say Latvians and Lithuanians 🙈 but thanks to everyone who has tried to answer the question as it was narrated! 😆

[jaanisliepa]

I’m a Latvian who identifies as Baltic if I have to look at the broader region, but even in Baltic context Lithuanians are definitely our closest friends!

[aismameijere-cirsa]

Lithuania is a like family member to Latvia. It's kind of hard to explain.
Lithuania and Estonia for Latvia is this friendly existence. It's like you feel safe being next to them. We do make jokes about each other but overall it's like family.
There is respect for each others borders.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia mostly keep to themselves.
So for languages - yes, lithuanian and latvian may sound similar and there are words that we can understand but for the most part we can't speak each others language.

[rampampamrampampam]

I am Lithuanian living in Denmark, I met a lot of Latvian people working or learning here, and really one thing I can say is the bond we have. Each time I noticed there are Latvians around we instantly made some sort of connection, if its not by words its by respect and acceptance. Can't feel any of this meeting any other people.

[WNordic]

Latvia And Lithuania Brothers forever!!!

[torikrasovska]

I feel very close to Lithuanians and I am proud of it. Language and history are definately the reasons I feel we are brother nations and I always feel at home when I visit Lietuva. 💛💚❤️

[liga]

I’m a Latvian and just came home from Lithuania. I was surprised how many Lithuanians words I was able to guess because of their similarity to Latvian. It made my stay in Vilnius very comfortable.

[archaxxx]

Thank you braliukai! Thank you for just being our neighbours. I can't imagine any better neighbours than you guys. Seeing the atrocities happening in the world today one could not ask for more. I wish we sometimes would be little less competitive towards each other but hey.. I kind of understand you as we have lately went ahead of you in terms of basketball:)))
Kudos, love and peace to all three of our Baltic nations 🙏

[ingunabinane]

Our brothers! Felt more like home when visiting Lithuania! 🇱🇹🥰🇱🇻

[alp]

Latvia is my dream country. Long time ago elderly Latvian Brazilian lady told me, When you see Latvia you'll never forget. She was %100 right.

[rutos]

I was born in Lithuania, but I can feel connections with both countries Latvia and Estonia. They both like real family to us. We are very close with both countries

[Laurynas_LTU]

It's a great short video on the topic. I'd just like to simplify it even more for foreigners:

Geopolitically, all 3 countries - EST, LVA, LTU - are grouped together because of the relatively recent shared history of the most recent XX c. Soviet (Russian) occupation. In addition, they joined the EU and NATO the same year 2004 and entered Eurozone the same decade (2010-2020).

Culturally, as mentioned in the video regarding the languages, EST is closer to FIN than LTU+LVA.

Similarities. If we look at the last millennium, LTU+LVA come from the Baltic tribes and share a similar language (not mutually inteligible, i.e. we can't understand each other when speaking, but some written words are intelligible). It's similar to the situation with Spanish, Portuguese and Italian languages and cultures.

Differences. Religion: EST+LVA - Protestants (Lutherans), LTU - Catholics. In this regard, LTU has more in common with Catholic POL than Protestant LVA. During certain time periods LVA was occupied by Sweden, while LTU was in a Commonwealth with POL.

Language similarities between LTU & LVA:
Good morning - Lábas rytas (LTU) + Labrīt (Labs rīts) (LVA);
Good day - Labà dienà (Lába diéna) (LTU) + Labdién (Lába diéna) (LVA)
Good evening - Lábas vákaras (LTU) + Labvàkar (Lábs vàkars) (LVA)
Good - Géras (Lábas) (LTU) + Lábi (LVA)
1-vienas-viens
2-du-divi
3-trys-trīs
4-keturi-četri
5-penki-pieci
6-šeši-seši
7-septyni-septini
8-aštuoni-astoni
9-devyni-devini
10-dešimt-desmit

P. S. Full disclosure: I'm a Lithuanian, so there might be some inaccuracies regarding the Latvian things.

[ImEpicc]

Latvia & Lithuania one love fo life, bralukas <3

[lv_dance_r]

I'm from Latvia and I have to say that Lithuanians are more easier to understand, make friendship and communicate. After so many team-buildings between Baltic states I have realized that Estonians tend to act more arrogant, in some way express their superiority, can't feel them emotionally, different traditions, different way how they look on things and totally different language. I have never understand this stupid joke about slow Estonians, they are fast in decision making, have clear vision and in some way little bit crazy. But these are only details, in general we support every one between Baltic states, we understand that we are small and our only power is in unity.

[fidenemini]

Sometimes Latvians like to say
"Viena tauta divas valstis" - one nation two states. But it is more like wishful thinking. However some medieval travellers used to mention that Lets (Latvians) and Letonians (Lithuanians) speak dialects of the same language. Could be true because the languages began to split in 7th century and up to 15th century still existed transitional dialects. The best way to find out how similar our languages are is to check so called Swadesh list - the list of 100 (or 200) basic and oldest words for Baltic languages (Old Prussian, Latgalian and Samogitian also included).

[simonasurbonas]

I wish much happiness and prosperity to our lovely neighbours in the north. Greetings from Lietuva, brothers and sisters! We love you! ❤

[Felixxxxxxxxx]

My Grandmother was Lithuanian, and she lived in a Lithuanian-speaking village just south of what is today the Russia/ Lithuania border and used to be the German/Lithuanian border. The Lithuanians in Germany felt closer to Germany than Lithuania though, even though they spoke the same language as the Lithuanians. Their rules for spelling were different and Lithuanians in Germany and Lithuania, therefore, did not read each other's newspapers. She was probably the last generation of Lithuanian Germans, considering the siege of Köningsberg and the rest is history.

Last time I visited the Baltic I was talking to my tour guide who was Estonian. He thought that Estonia and Latvia were the closest. Of course not linguistically but in many ways historically they have had a more similar history. Lithuania is to my knowledge the only baltic country that ever was a big empire.

As a Swede, the countryside in Estonia and Lativa looks like a slightly more flat version of how it would look in Sweden, while Lithuania looks a bit more exotic. Lithuania also has Klaipeda which still to this day looks quite Prussian.

[ivosarak]

Main difference between Latvia and Lithuania is the differing history and not the shared parts. Lithuania has shared a lot of power with Poland and has been even an independent kingdom for a long time and dominating force in the region. Latvia has none of it and thus is closer to Estonia in that regards. Basically in the "dark ages" Germans, Danes, Russians, Poles ended up to area of Estonia and Latvia to take all and more and put everyone under slavery. That was the case even quite recently thus sparing Lithuania from majority of it. That gave Lithuania a national pride what is much different beast than to Latvians or Estonians.

[ivarkich]

As a Latvian I can't understand Lithuanians when they are talking, but I understand pretty well written texts in Lithuanian. When travelling to Lithuania, I used to use Lithuanian tourism sites in internet in Lithuanian (not in English or Russian) although I've never learned Lithuanian. Also all necessary public information in Lithuanian on the streets of, say, Vilnius is pretty readable and understandable for me without a dictionary.

[VanGuard]

Your perspective is unique in a sense. Canada and Latvia share a Hockey connection, since Latvia is the best Hockey team from Baltics. That is one reason why Canadians would have Latvia more on their minds.