The Institute of the Lithuanian Language is a research establishment with longstanding traditions.

The origins of the institute can be traced to the editorial commission Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian, founded by Professor Juozas Balčikonis in 1930.

As an outgrowth of this commission, the Antanas Smetona Institute for Lithuanian Studies was founded in 1939.

The Institute experienced difficulties during this period; a number of prominent linguists had emigrated, there was ideological pressure to employ Marxist language theory, and contacts with the international scholarly community were curtailed.

Currently, the Institute of the Lithuanian Language consists of six research centres and two non-research departments.