Aukstaitija
Aukštaitija (litterally Highlands) is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania.
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Name
The name came from the fact that especially the east of this land is relatively high.
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 it's 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:
- Panevežys - 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.
Demographics
People speak mostly Aukštaitian dialect. Due to the fact that under new classification of dialects whole Lithuanian language is divided in just two dialects, Aukštaitian and [{Samogitian]] and more subdialects, Sudovian and Dzukian dialects are also considered part of Aukštaitian one now, therefore dialect of Aukštaitija is known as East Aukštaitian.
The region has Russian and Byelorussian minority in the east, dialects there therefore uses more loan words. However the usage of dialects as in Lithuanian in general, is decreasing.
Traditions
History
Politics
Not politcally or administratively defined at any time.
Symbolics
Has no symbolics