The year 2001 was announced as the European Year of Languages​​ under the initiative of the European Union, the Council of Europe, and UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. A range of events attended by millions of people of all ages was organised worldwide. The focus was on all languages: those in use as well as the artificial and dead ones. The events were intended to draw people’s attention to linguistic diversity, uniqueness of languages and the importance of language learning. Towards the end of 2001, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to declare the 26^th of September as the European Day of Languages with a view to promoting diversity of language learning as well as fostering respect for all European, regional and minority languages.

The Seimas is holding an exhibition of thematic posters titled Understanding the Lithuanian Language. An Old Language for Modern Communication co-organised by the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Focused on the history, the past and the present of the Lithuanian language, the exhibition offers an excellent opportunity to get a deeper insight into the roots of the Lithuanian identity and its key values through the uniqueness of the Lithuanian language. The story of evolution of the written and printed form of the language uncovers the pivotal moments in Lithuania’s history: the opposition to the prohibition of the Lithuanian press, the book smuggling, the partisan warfare, the birth of the Lithuanian reform movement Sąjūdis, and the re-establishment of independence. The author of the idea and texts of the exhibition is Dr Jolanta Zabarskaitė. Design was made by Ekspobalta. The exhibition was first launched in Hofburg Palace in Vienna in 2011, during the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The exhibition also holds some unique items created at the Language Museum of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, the core intitution for research into the language. The exhibits offer a hands-on approach to language and facilitate awareness of the fact that the language is not a mere functional tool of communication. The exhibition item titled The Language Tree demonstrates the diversity of and links between Lithuanian and other languages, with languages portrayed as birds painted in a range of colours. The Language Tree exposes the affinities between languages and the physical proximity of the locations where speakers of modern languages lived before the formation of tribes and modern languages themselves. Lithuanian belongs to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The exhibition item The Word Origin House tells the viewers where some Lithuanan words originate from. After opening a window in the Word Origin House, one can see the origin of a word. For old inherited words, similar words in other languages are indicated to attest to their history; for loan words, information on the language from which they were borrowed is displayed; for coined words, authors are indicated. The exhibition item entitled Fossil Words has an archaelogical vibe to it. You can dig out the oldest Lithuanian words from sand and find their synonyms in old and modern Indo-European languages, thus learning the words our forefathers Indo-Europeans used at a time when modern nations and languages did not yet exist.

The exhibition also includes the Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian, the related historical documents and other documents and books on the history of Lithuanian. Interactive items include the Multimedia Dictionary of Lithuanian Sign Language and the Karoke of Dialects.

We invite the visitors of the Parliament Gallery to see the exhibition during the open doors on Fridays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Lina Žilytė, Public Relations Unit, tel. +370 5 239 6875, e-mail: [email protected]