How could it happen that the Baltic languages spread and become major world languages? Could a strong Lithuanian empire do it?
Baltic language wank
- Thread starter Hobelhouse
- Start date
No, No, No because Lithuania has many major powers in Europe that surround it, Germany and Russia and Germany and Russia is the hindrance of Lithuanian empire.
Depends on what time frame are you currently talking about
Lithuania was once the strongest and largest country in Europe. I think this is fairly doable. Depends on what time frame are you currently talking about
The time frame that I referring is 18th to 21st century Lithuania.
That wasn't specified in the post. To compare:
"Are vegetables nice?"
"No, garlic is horrible."
That's something that's probably going to happen in my second AAR... if the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had become a kingdom independent from Poland, the aristocracy probably wouldn't have become as Polonized as they did in OTL. Maybe if more Lithuanians settle in the major cities of the Grand Duchy / Kingdom, the language would spread further in the various territories.
In if it wasn't Polonized, it would have become Russified (from Rus/Rusyn, not Russia).
Superdude
Banned
That is true as well. The Lithuanian Grand Duke, whose name escapes me for the moment, was tempted by union with Muscovy until it was raised by the Golden Horde.
edit: Wait....it would have been Russified by Russians.
That would be Ruthenized, as I think the Rusyns then called themselves Ruthenians.
Is there any way the Lithuanians could establish a large empire without being assimilated?
There is some indication that the ethnic territories of the Baltic peoples had once stretched from the Oder to where Moscow currently is, and from around the modern-day border of Latvia and Estonia to somewhere close to Kiev. Later these peoples were mostly assimilated by other neighbouring cultures, because those other cultures created countries, while the Balts never did.
Perhaps if the Balts created their own country much earlier than in OTL, it could have become dominated by a Baltic culture. Then such a base would be enough to assimilate some other language groups (parts of Slavic and/or Germanic) and create a huge language spread over the world. A possible way for an early (first centuries AD) Baltic state to form would be if some high-ranking refugees from Rome came to the area via Amber Road (the trade route between Baltics and Rome) and established a country there, or if the local peoples decided to install some of the Roman cultural achievements in their own soil. A PoD at around 100AD can do this, IMO.
(By the way, I recently read that a dominant theory of the name of Lithuania in the Middle Ages was that it was gyven by the Romans, who came to that area from Italy (Italia) and started teaching the locals; the locals adopted the name, but added an "L" in front (Litalia), which later mutated into Lituania. The above might make this theory become true)
Perhaps if the Balts created their own country much earlier than in OTL, it could have become dominated by a Baltic culture. Then such a base would be enough to assimilate some other language groups (parts of Slavic and/or Germanic) and create a huge language spread over the world. A possible way for an early (first centuries AD) Baltic state to form would be if some high-ranking refugees from Rome came to the area via Amber Road (the trade route between Baltics and Rome) and established a country there, or if the local peoples decided to install some of the Roman cultural achievements in their own soil. A PoD at around 100AD can do this, IMO.
(By the way, I recently read that a dominant theory of the name of Lithuania in the Middle Ages was that it was gyven by the Romans, who came to that area from Italy (Italia) and started teaching the locals; the locals adopted the name, but added an "L" in front (Litalia), which later mutated into Lituania. The above might make this theory become true
)If you avoid Kazimir from becoming Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland in the same time than you could also avoid polonization and there were no danger of russification ( btw Russians was word used for themselves by all east slavik population, not only by Moscovites)
Without the demographic changes started by the Northern war the Lithuanian population would be much bigger.
bard32
Banned
Maybe a strong Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lasted until the First Partition of Poland in 1792.