Could someone please explain to me the difference between "ne" and the hypothetical word "nie"? I recently read on Wikipedia that consonants preceding front vowels (i, į, y, e, ę, ė) are always palatalised in Lithuanian. Before reading that, I was under the impression that only the letter "i" is a palatalisation marker. If this is not the case, why is there a distiction between "e" and "ie" at all?