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Article: Lithuanian Literature and Language
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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LITHUANIAN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE
LITHUANIAN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE.
In the early modern period large portions of the societies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania underwent Polonization. Polish began to function as a language of culture, politics, commerce, and some daily conversation (even if with a regional accent) for magnates, gentry, and burghers, and there was likely a growing bilingualism among all but rural speakers of the other represented languages. These included above all Lithuanian and Ruthenian
(ruskii),
an East Slavic language that would eventually be claimed as the progenitor of modern Belarusian and Ukrainian. Both Lithuanian and Ruthenian were used for certain ...