Talk:Lithuania

The link to Wikipedia is w:Catalonia? Is this OK? Petruk 18:36 Jun 17, 2003 (UTC)

Why is this spelled with an 'h' in English?

If anyone has information as to why "Lithuania" got an 'h' in English which seems to appear in no other world language, least of all in Lithuanian, nor even in Lithuanian pronunciation (which I understand is [lɪəˈtuːvə]), it would be interesting to write this here. --Gro-Tsen 13:04, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Yes, it is interesting. By the way, I saw a spelling "Esthonia" for Estonia in an old English book I was reading recently. --Vahag 13:26, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Well, English has a "th" sound which seems to appear in no other world language... if your definition of "world" includes major European languages only -- Liliana • 13:32, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Do you mean /θ/ and /ð/? What about standard Arabic, Greek, standard Spanish, many others? Spanish and Greek (and some others) are European too. See voiceless dental fricative, voiced dental fricative. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить)} 21:40, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

English probably reflects the Greek spellings Λιθουανία and Εσθονία. --Vahag 13:35, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Hmm, good catch -- perhaps that should be mentioned by way of etymology? -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 23:19, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Those were just my guesses. I am not confident enough to add them to etymology without sources. --Vahag 23:53, 29 November 2011 (UTC)