> **Next week, the Lithuanian parliament will vote on whether to cite surnames of foreign origin in Lithuanian in the original spelling.**
> In the January 10 vote, 83 of the 140 deputies voted in favor of the new draft. The last reading and the final vote should take place next week, writes Rzeczpospolita.
> At the moment, according to the newspaper, the name of the famous Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz – Sienkiewicz – is written in Lithuanian as Senkevič. The Polish minority in Lithuania has long been asking for changes to have their own names and surnames in documents in the original Polish script.
> However, the draft changes allows only use of several letters that are not in the Lithuanian alphabet – “w”, “q” and “x”. Therefore, a number of Polish and other surnames will still not be written in full accordance with the Polish original spelling, the newspaper notes. For example, the name of the owner of a Polish-language radio station and signatory of the Lithuanian Independence Act of 1990, which is written in Polish as Czesław Okińczyc and in his Lithuanian passport as Ceslav Okinčic, according to the new draft will be spelled as “Czeslaw Okinczyc”. It does not fully corresponds to the original spelling in the language of the people from whom he originates. All because the letters “ł” and “ń” are not in Lithuanian.
> The issue of writing one’s own names in Lithuanian concerns not only the Polish minority. Lithuanian citizens who are married to foreigners may not always be able to write their new surnames in the original.
> In April 2021, Lithuanian linguists decided not to change the name of Belarus to Belarus, which in modern Lithuanian sounds like Baltarusija. Most of the political subcommittee of the State Commission on the Lithuanian Language was in favor of replacing the existing name with the former name *Gudija*, if necessary.
> But in the case of Georgia, the decision of linguists was unequivocal, and now the country is recorded as Sakartvelas, according to the Georgian name of the country საქართველო (Sakartvela).
It’s not like Poles in Lithuania are foreigners. Ideally just write it both ways.
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Translation:
> **Next week, the Lithuanian parliament will vote on whether to cite surnames of foreign origin in Lithuanian in the original spelling.**
> In the January 10 vote, 83 of the 140 deputies voted in favor of the new draft. The last reading and the final vote should take place next week, writes Rzeczpospolita.
> At the moment, according to the newspaper, the name of the famous Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz – Sienkiewicz – is written in Lithuanian as Senkevič. The Polish minority in Lithuania has long been asking for changes to have their own names and surnames in documents in the original Polish script.
> However, the draft changes allows only use of several letters that are not in the Lithuanian alphabet – “w”, “q” and “x”. Therefore, a number of Polish and other surnames will still not be written in full accordance with the Polish original spelling, the newspaper notes. For example, the name of the owner of a Polish-language radio station and signatory of the Lithuanian Independence Act of 1990, which is written in Polish as Czesław Okińczyc and in his Lithuanian passport as Ceslav Okinčic, according to the new draft will be spelled as “Czeslaw Okinczyc”. It does not fully corresponds to the original spelling in the language of the people from whom he originates. All because the letters “ł” and “ń” are not in Lithuanian.
> The issue of writing one’s own names in Lithuanian concerns not only the Polish minority. Lithuanian citizens who are married to foreigners may not always be able to write their new surnames in the original.
> In April 2021, Lithuanian linguists decided not to change the name of Belarus to Belarus, which in modern Lithuanian sounds like Baltarusija. Most of the political subcommittee of the State Commission on the Lithuanian Language was in favor of replacing the existing name with the former name *Gudija*, if necessary.
> But in the case of Georgia, the decision of linguists was unequivocal, and now the country is recorded as Sakartvelas, according to the Georgian name of the country საქართველო (Sakartvela).
It’s not like Poles in Lithuania are foreigners. Ideally just write it both ways.