Samogitians

<p>Samogitians  are the inhabitants of <a href="/facts/Samogitia/69rTdGXh">Samogitia</a>, an <a href="/facts/Ethnographic_regions_of_Lithuania/b2T8BgBR">ethnographic region of Lithuania</a>. Many speak the <a href="/facts/Samogitian_language/VpcFRI0b">Samogitian language</a>, which in <a href="/facts/Lithuania/dApVjLWW">Lithuania</a> is mostly considered a <a href="/facts/Lithuanian_language/p0bS9M0R">dialect of the Lithuanian language</a> together with the <a href="/facts/Auk%C5%A1taitian_dialect/Ca6gvA7A">Aukštaitian dialect</a>. The Samogitian language differs the most from the standard Lithuanian language.
</p><p>Whether Samogitians are considered to be a distinct ethnic group or merely a subset of <a href="/facts/Lithuanians/XRBBRqXI">Lithuanians</a> varies. However, 2,169 people declared their ethnicity as Samogitian during the Lithuanian census of 2011, of whom 53.9% live in <a href="/facts/Tel%C5%A1iai_County/tF6LbMHz">Telšiai County</a>. The political recognition and cultural understanding of the Samogitian ethnicity has, however, changed drastically throughout the last few centuries as 448,022 people declared themselves Samogitians, not Lithuanians, in the <a href="/facts/Russian_Empire_Census/JqHhxJbD">1897 Russian Empire census</a>.
</p>

Samogitians open-in-new

Samogitians