Today’s Lithuanian alphabet is supplemented by Latin’s alphabet Book smuggling – the 19th century phenomenon
In today’s Lithuanian alphabet we have 32 letters. Diacritical marks in Lithuanian – ,,nosinės”, ticks, dots,
ogoneks and macrons (ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū, ž) – appeared quite recently, barely a couple of hundred years
ago.
While writing down Lithuanian sounds there was a lack of Latin alphabets letters, solutions were looked
for in the neighbour languages. We borrowed the letters č, š and ž from the Czech language in the 19th
century. ,,Nosines” letters ą and ę we took over from the polish language, and according to them we made
į and ų. The letter ė was first used by a Lithuanian Lutheran priest Danielius Kleinas in the first Lithuanian
grammar in the 17th century. The letter ū a good hundred years ago was made up by Jonas Jablonskis,
the “father” of Lithuanian language. In 1901, in ,,Lithuanian grammar” he declared the Lithuanian alphabet
the one we use today. From XIX century Lithuanian territory was controlled by Tsarist Russian Empire, which forbidden Lithu-
anian press from 1864-1904. Lithuanians are the only nation in the world, which have secretly cross-
bordered Lithuanian books. It prevented Lithuanian language from extinction. Book smuggling activities
involved the printing of books, mostly in the then Prussia, Lithuania Minor and America, carrying them
illegally through the border and their distribution. Though the participants of book smuggling were mostly
ordinary peasants, this cultural movement, which is considered to be a part of Lithuanian national move-
ment, paved the way for the restoration of Lithuania‘s independence in 1918 and, as a means of preserving
national identity, has retained importance until this day. Thus, book smuggling is often regarded to be
Lithuania’s historical phenomenon of the 19th century. In 2004, the UNESCO characterized book smug-
gling as a unique and unprecedented.