From:
J.P. Mallory, In Search of
the Indo-Europeans: Language Archeology and Myth (Thames and Hudson,
1989, paperback, 1996), pp. 81-82.
The earliest Baltic texts appear quite late when compared with most
other Indo-European languages. In the sixteenth century, we first
encounter
written examples of both the Old Prussian and Lithuanian languages
generally
emerging in the form of religious literature such as Lutheran
chatechisms.
The texts, as indeed the modern Lithuanian language today, has always
attracted
the attention of linguists since, despite their recent date, they appear
remarkably archaic in terms of Indo-European linguistics. To take a
familiar
example, the Lithuanian proverb 'God gave teeth; God will give bread'
displays an almost incredible similiarity to is translation into the
much
older Latin and Sanskrit:
Â
| Lithuanian |
Dievas |
dave |
dantis; |
Dievas |
duos |
duonos |
| Sanskrit |
Devas |
adadat |
datas; |
Devas |
dat |
dhanas |
| Latin |
Deus |
Dedit |
dentes; |
Dues |
dabit |
panem |