"We didn’t set strict rules for this selection process – in the first stage, it was possible to suggest a word that is close to the heart or simply sounds fun to a foreign ear," says MiCenter project manager E. Urbanovič. "We know that migrants living in the country are learning Lithuanian because information in foreign languages is not always easily accessible – that’s why we are launching www.micenter.lt – a website where it will be easy to find everything one needs to know about life and integration in Lithuania."
Foreigners participating in the Lithuanian word competition are full of creativity and humor – among the suggested words were "žinutkė", "alus", "bučkis", "žlibas", "blaivininkas", "bardakas" and others, not necessarily favored by linguists but widely used.
"If a man with the surname Vakaras (Evening) gets married, his wife will be Vakarienė (Dinner) – how beautiful!" pondered one of the voters.
A well-known influencer, Curly&Lithuania, who joined the voting, chose the word "Šviesa" (Light): "For me, this word symbolizes knowledge, hope, purity, and has been associated with life and safety since the days of Lithuanian paganism."
The most active voters in the anonymous poll so far are Ukrainians, Turks, Americans, Belarusians, Italians, and Spaniards.
After tallying the votes, ten words have made it to the final:
Ačiū
Laisvė
Meilė
Saulė
Myliu
Labas
Šlapdriba
Rankšluostis
Šviesa
Močiutė
Organizers invite people to vote for the winning word until October 8th.