The only properly attested West Baltic language of which texts are known is
Old Prussian, although there are a few short remnants of Old Curonian and Sudovian in the form of isolated words and short phrases.[3]: 290 Many West Baltic languages went extinct in the
16th century while Old Prussian ceased to be spoken in the early
18th century.[4]
Classification
The only languages securely classified as West Baltic are
Old Prussian and
West Galindian, which could also be a dialect of Old Prussian.[5]
Most scholars consider
Skalvian to be a West Baltic language or dialect.[2] Another possible classification is a transitional language between West and East Baltic.[6]: 16
Sudovian is either classified as an Old Prussian dialect,[7][8] a West Baltic language[9][10] or a transitional language between West and East Baltic.[11] The former two options would leave Sudovian in the West Baltic phylum.
Old Curonian is the least securely classified language. It is argued to be either West Baltic with significant East Baltic influence,[3]: 295 [12] or East Baltic.[13]
History
West Baltic was presumably native to the north of
Central Europe, especially modern
Poland, and the western
Baltic region, which includes parts of modern
Latvia and
Lithuania. The West Baltic branch probably fully separated from East Baltic around the 4th–3rd century BCE, although their differences go as far as the middle of the last millennium BC.[6]: 13–14
Linguistic features
The West Baltic languages were more
archaic. Unlike their Eastern counterparts, West Balts retained the diphthong *ei (e. g., deiws 'god',
acc.deinan 'day'),
palatalized consonants/kʲ/, /gʲ/ (they are preserved also in the Lithuanian language), and compounds /tl/, and /dl/. They also preserved three genders:
masculine,
feminine and
neuter.[14] Sudovian and Old Curonian shared the suffix -ng-, which can be observed in various
hydronyms and
oeconyms (e. g., Apsingė, Nedzingė, Pilvingis, Suvingis, Palanga, Alsunga) found in southern Lithuania, western Lithuania and Latvia. West Balts possessed double-stemmed personal names with distinct compounds (e. g., Net(i)-, Sebei-), which are unusual to the
anthroponymy of the East Balts.[15]
References
^Gimbutas, Marija (1963). The Balts. Ancient peoples and places. Vol. 33. London: Thames and Hudson.
^
abZinkevičius, Zigmas (1996). The History of the Lithuanian Language. Translated by Plioplys, Ramutė. Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla. p. 51.
ISBN9785420013632.
^
abDini, Pietro U. (2014). Foundations of Baltic languages. Translated by Richardson, Milda B.; Richardson, Robert E. Vilnius: Vilniaus universitetas.
ISBN978-609-437-263-6.
^Young, Steven (2008). "Baltic". In Kapović, Mate (ed.). The Indo-European Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 486–518.
ISBN978-03-6786-902-1.
^
abRinkevičius, Vytautas (2015). Prūsistikos pagrindai [Fundamentals of Prussian linguistics] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Vilniaus universitetas.
ISBN978-609-417-101-7.
^Būga, Kazimieras (1922). Kalba ir senovė [Language and the Antiquity] (in Lithuanian). Vol. 1. Vilnius: Švietimo Ministerijos leidinys. pp. 78–83.
^Gerullis, Georg (1921). "Zur Sprache der Sudauer-Jatwinger" [About the Language of the Sudovians-Yatwingians]. Festschrift Bezzenberger (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht. pp. 44–51.
^Mažiulis, Vytautas (1966). "Jotvingiai" [The Jatvingians]. Mokslas ir gyvenimas (in Lithuanian). 11. Vilnius: 32–33.
^Zinkevičius, Zigmas (1984). Lietuvių kalbos kilmė [The origin of the Lithuanian language]. Lietuvių kalbos istorija. Vol. 1. Vilnius: Mokslas. p. 267.
ISBN978-54-2000-102-8.
^Otrębski, Jan Szczepan (1963). "Namen von zwei Jatwingerstämmen" [The names of two Yatwingian tribes]. Slawische Namenforschung, Vorträge auf der II. Arbeitskonferenz. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. pp. 204–209.
^Mažiulis, Vytautas (1981). "Apie senovės vakarų baltus bei jų santykius su slavais, ilirais ir germanais". Iš lietuvių etnogenezės (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Mokslas.
^Dahl, Östen; Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria, eds. (2001). The Circum-Baltic Languages: Typology and Contact. Vol. 1: Past and Present. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
ISBN9789027230577.
^Rytų ir vakarų baltai. Du baltų tarimų junginiai [East and West Balts. Two Compounds of Baltic Spelling] (in Lithuanian), Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas
^Zinkevičius, Zigmas.
"Lietuviai ir krikščionybė" [Lithuanians and Christianity] (in Lithuanian). XXI amžius. Archived from the original on 16 November 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
Italics indicate
extinct languages· Languages between parentheses are
varieties of the language on their left · Asterisk (*) indicates
dialects occasionally classified as languages · Question mark (?) indicates disputed classification.