Lithuanian Out Loud 0050 - Galininkas Accusative Case

Feb 5, 2008

Hi there, I’m Jack and I’m Romas and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud.  Here we are in a new month!  In English this month is called February.  In English we capitalize the first letter of the month, in Lithuanian you generally don’t.  The word February comes from the ancient Roman culture and the fact that in this month they held a purification ceremony or a februa.  The Lithuanian word for this month is vasaris, it comes from the word for summer or vasara.  In the month of vasaris the weather is starting to improve.  The days are longer, the nights are shorter, and people are starting to think forward to summer.

The next time the sun warms your face imagine you’re being blessed by the Lithuanian sun goddess Saulė.  Saulė is the Lithuanian word for the Sun.  According to Britannica Online and Wikipedia, Saulė is also one of the most powerful and well known gods in the old Lithuanian religion.  She’s the goddess of life, nature and fertility.  Saulė is the protector of all who have had misfortune, especially orphans since she is the only substitute for a mother’s warmth.  As a matter of fact, pasaulis is the Lithuanian word for the world, or the place under the sun.  Souls of the dead travel with Saulė to a place which was believed to be located behind the horizon.  It was considered an offense to point at the sun or moon and when Saulė is shining in the sky, the bad spirits sleep.

The sun and the moon were husband and wife but in the end they divorced because the moon couldn’t be faithful to his wife.  The unfaithful moon fell in love with the daughter of Saulė and Perkūnas – Aušrinė.  Saulė is associated with a stag that has nine horns and you can see this in folk art clothing and ornaments.

But, how does Saulė move through the sky?  Every day she rides on a chariot with copper wheels pulled by horses who never get tired and never sweat.  In the evening Saulė washes the horses in the sea while she sits on a hill holding the reigns in her hands.  Because the sun is clearly responsible for the growth of plants, Lithuanian farmers prayed to Saulė at sunrise and sunset.  A harmless green snake, or žaltys, was a special favorite of Saulė.  It’s good luck to have a žaltys in your house and extremely bad luck to kill one.

So Romas, Raminta told me that žaltys is a way of cussing in a very soft way?  Yeah, kind of like this – O! Žaltys!  Yeah, that’s a very soft swear word.

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On the last lesson we learned į kairę, to the left and į dešinę, to the right.  These are examples of the accusative case or galininkas.  Today we’ll begin a series of episodes focused on the accusative declension.  As a matter of fact, episodes 40 and 43 were examples of the accusative case.

When we use the preposition, į or, to, we’re indicating motion or movement to something or someplace.  We’re not talking about where something is located.  We’re only talking about going to someplace.  To do this we have to use galininkas.  Galininkas is extremely common in Lithuanian and we’ll use it in other ways on future episodes.  This is only one way to use it.

The accusative case or galininkas breaks down very easily like this; a word that ends in…

-a changes to –ą nosinė 
-ė changes to –ę nosinė
-as changes to –ą nosinė
-is changes to –į nosinė
-ys changes to –į nosinė
-us changes to -ų nosinė

Here are some examples of galininkas using words we’ve already used in previous episodes.

Kaip pasakyti lietuviškai? 
How do you say it in Lithuanian?

Lithuania or Lietuva changes to Lietuvą
      to Lithuania, translates as, į Lietuvą

the right or dešinė changes to dešinę
      to the right → į dešinę

the left or kairė changes to kairę
      to the left → į kairę

the city or miestas changes to miestą
      to the city → į miestą

Akropolis, the mall north of Vilnius, changes to Akropolį
      to Akropolis → į Akropolį

the room or kambarys changes to kambarį
      to the room → į kambarį

Vilnius changes to Vilnių
      to Vilnius → į Vilnių

So, there we have the basics of galininkas.  Let’s go over some more examples.

please repeat
prašom pakartoti

the university                  
universitetas 

a university                     
universitetas

to the university              
į universitetą

to the university, please   
į universitetą, prašom

the airport                      
oro uostas

an airport                       
oro uostas

to the airport                  
į oro uostą

to the airport, please       
į oro uostą, prašom

the cathedral                  
katedra

a cathedral                     
katedra

to the cathedral              
į katedrą

to the cathedral, please   
į katedrą, prašom

the street                       
gatvė

a street                          
gatvė

to the street                   
į gatvę

to the street, please         
į gatvę, prašom

the museum                  
muziejus

a museum                     
muziejus

to the museum              
į muziejų

to the museum, please   
į muziejų, prašom

the church                    
bažnyčia

a church                       
bažnyčia

to the church                 
į bažnyčią

to the church, please      
į bažnyčią, prašom

the store or the shop       
parduotuvė

a store or a shop            
parduotuvė

to the store                    
į parduotuvę

to the shop, please         
į parduotuvę, prašom

the bookstore                
knygynas

a bookstore                   
knygynas

to the bookstore              
į knygyną

to the bookstore, please  
į knygyną, prašom

an ale house                  
alinė (or) aludė

the pub                         
alinė (or) aludė

to the pub                     
į alinę (or) į aludę

to the pub, please          
į alinę, prašom (or) į aludę, prašom

Sidney, (Australia)         
Sidnėjus 

Sidney                          
Sidnėjus  

to Sidney                      
į Sidnėjų

to Sidney                      
į Sidnėjų

coffee shop                   
kavinė

coffee shop                   
kavinė

to the coffee shop          
į kavinę

to the coffee shop          
į kavinę, prašom

a lounge                       
svetainė

a lounge                       
svetainė

to the lounge                
į svetainę

to the lounge                
į svetainę, prašom

the basement                 
rūsys

the basement                 
rūsys

to the basement             
į rūsį

to the basement              
į rūsį

now we’ll say a word in vardininkas and you say į and add galininkas or the accusative declension.  For example we’ll say, restoranas, and you reply, į restoraną.  Here we go!

restoranas                     
į restoraną

kavinė                          
į kavinę

miestas                         
į miestą

Kaunas                         
į Kauną

Palanga                         
į Palangą

parkas                           
į parką

Akropolis                      
į Akropolį

viešbutis                        
į viešbutį

automobilis                    
į automobilį

kambarys                      
į kambarį

traukinys                       
į traukinį

rūsys                             
į rūsį

knygynas                       
į knygyną

muziejus                        
į muziejų

Vilnius                          
į Vilnių

Sidnėjus                        
į Sidnėjų

mokykla (school)            
į mokyklą

biblioteka (library)           
į biblioteką

Lietuva                          
į Lietuvą

gatvė                            
į gatvę

kavinė                           
į kavinę

svetainė                        
į svetainę

Klaipėda                       
į Klaipėdą

Great!  That should be enough for a small introduction.  On the next lesson we’ll continue working on galininkas and add some more vocabulary for our taxi trip.

Šaunu!  Great!  You made it to the end of another lesson!  Šaunu!

I want to thank Romas for helping us by co-hosting this episode.  It was an honor and a priviledge to have him on the show.  Romai, maybe we can have you back soon and you can tell us a little about yourself.  Romas is an interesting person.

Raminta and I hope you enjoyed this episode, we’re working hard on improving our audio and we hope to have many other co-hosts on Lithuanian Out Loud in order to give you a wide range of voices and regional accents.  As a matter of fact, if you are a native Lithaunian speaker or if you know a native Lithuanian speaker who might like to be on an episode please get in touch with us.  The welcome mat is always on the front porch.

Alright, that’s it for today, we’d like to thank you very much for listening, we appreciate it.

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Thanks for tuning in, tell your friends about us, we’ll see you on the next episode of Lithuanian Out Loud.

I’m Jack and I’ve never met a Lithuanian I didn’t like.  Viso gero!  Sudie!

http://www.Lithuanian.Libsyn.com
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Thanks to:  CCMixter.org, ditto ditto, and Vieux Farka Touré for allowing us to use the music for this podcast.
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