Aukštaitija
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| ██ Lithuania Minor ██ Samogitia ██ Aukštaitija | ██ Sudovia ██ Dzūkija |
Aukštaitija (Highlands) is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The name comes from the fact that the region is relatively elevated, particularly in its eastern parts.
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[edit] Geography
Aukštaitija is in the northeast part of Lithuania and also encompasses a small part of Latvia and Belarus. Largest city and, despite of lack of its political meaning, considered capital of the region is Panevėžys, which has over 100,000 inhabittants. Largest cities (by population; those over 20,000 inhabittants) are:
- Panevėžys - 119,749 (considered to be capital)
- Jonava - 34,954
- Utena - 33,860
- Kėdainiai - 32,048
- Visaginas - 29,554 (note - this city was built by Soviets and is mainly inhabitant by Russians and other Soviet nationalities, therefore it is part of this ethnographic region only geographically)
- Ukmergė - 28,759
- Radviliškis - 20,339
The region is full of lakes, mainly in the eastern side.
[edit] Demographics
The people mostly speak the Aukštaitian dialect of Lithuanian. Under the new classification of dialects Lithuanian is divided into just two dialects, Aukštaitian and Samogitian with all previous dialects being classified as subdialects. The Sudovian and Dzukian dialects are also considered subdialects of Aukštaitian now, therefore the specific subdialect spoken in Aukštaitija is known as East Aukštaitian.
The region has Russian and Belorussian minorities in the east, dialects there therefore use more loan words from those language. However the usage of dialects as in Lithuania in general, is decreasing.
[edit] Politics
Not politically or administratively defined at any time.
